A Postcard A Day - Friday 29 July 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies'

I hope all is well with you. Here things are a lot more positive. Today we share our smile with Annie at A Stitch In Time so I will tell you more in a minute. Let me first show you one of my postcards. They always bring a smile to my face, and this one is very colorful:

The card comes from Germany and features a red tractor decorated with ears of grain.

The stamps are just as colorful. 

The large one represents the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin. A tale collected by the brothers Grimm. 

Here is a better picture:

I've noticed a 40 cents surcharge for welfare charities. that is nice.

Here is the Wikipedia version of the fairy tale: (Are you all sitting comfortably?)

In order to appear superior, a miller brags to the king, telling him that his daughter can spin straw into gold. The king calls for the girl, locks her up in a tower room filled with straw and a spinning wheel, and demands she spin the straw into gold by morning or he will have her killed. When she has given up all hope, a little imp-like man appears in the room and spins the straw into gold in return for her necklace. The next morning the king takes the girl to a larger room filled with straw to repeat the feat, the imp once again spins, in return for the girl's ring. On the third day, when the girl has been taken to an even larger room filled with straw and told by the king that he will marry her if she can fill this room with gold or execute her if she cannot, the girl has nothing left with which she can pay the strange creature. He extracts a promise from her that she will give him her firstborn child, and so he spins the straw into gold a final time.

 

The king keeps his promise to marry the miller's daughter. But when their first child is born, the imp returns to claim his payment. She offers him all the wealth she has to keep the child, but the imp has no interest in her riches. He finally relents to give up his claim to the child if she can guess his name within three days.

The queen's many guesses fail. But before the final night, she wanders into the woods^{[note 5]} searching for him and comes across his remote mountain cottage and watches, unseen, as he hops about his fire and sings. In his song's lyrics—"tonight tonight, my plans I make, tomorrow tomorrow, the baby I take. The queen will never win the game, for Rumpelstiltskin is my name"—he reveals his name.

When the imp comes to the queen on the third day, after first feigning ignorance, she reveals his name, Rumpelstiltskin, and he loses his temper at the loss of their bargain. Versions vary about whether he accuses the devil or witches of having revealed his name to the queen. In the 1812 edition of the Brothers Grimm tales, Rumpelstiltskin then "ran away angrily, and never came back." The ending was revised in an 1857 edition to a more gruesome ending wherein Rumpelstiltskin "in his rage drove his right foot so far into the ground that it sank in up to his waist; then in a passion he seized the left foot with both hands and tore himself in two." Other versions have Rumpelstiltskin driving his right foot so far into the ground that he creates a chasm and falls into it, never to be seen again. In the oral version originally collected by the Brothers Grimm, Rumpelstiltskin flies out of the window on a cooking ladle.

Here in the K household things have been busy as we had hubby's daughter visiting. 

Some of you will have seen some photos on Facebook (I post things there so that my mum can 'see' them.)

We had a picnic one early evening:

And a selfie with my stepdaughter:

One night we went for a long walk. We did 13 km! It was organized by the local council. On Tuesday I will post more photos, but here is a selfie at the very start, when it was still light. We are walking in the street that goes past our house .

There were more than 50 participants and we were handed out head torches, reflecting arm bands and those bendy straws that light up when you bend them. (don't know what they are called). 

Then on Monday hubby had an appointment with the surgeon at the local hospital to have a subcutaneous reservoir fitted. 

Here we are on our way:

We went on the scooter as it is easier to park. 

The procedure was under local anesthetic and we were there almost all morning (what with covid test and blood test and preliminary chat with the surgeon etc). I had to wait outside in the corridor. I had a good book (and a new Kindle) so the time flew by). At 2 pm he was ready to go. 

Just a plaster to cover the stitches, as the device is under the skin. He is supposed to have chemotherapy again and that can be administered through this thing.

Well, that is all my news and all my smiles. I hope you all have had something to smile about. Please share it with us at Annie's.

Of course as per usual, I will put some funnies at the end. Most of them concern the extreme hot summer we seem to be having everywhere.

So keep smiling! and Keep cool!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 26 July 2022 - T for Mistaken Point, red wine and good food

 Hello lovely ladies, Here we are again at the Tuesday T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. I'm looking forward to the reveal of the 9th anniversary ATCs and perhaps also the napkins. 

Of course for the T-Party we all post a drink. I will bring my drink in later but first, let me show you my postcard of the day:

It comes to me from Canada. Sent by Suzanne and Martin. The postcard shows the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. 

Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve is a wilderness area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located at the southeastern tip of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mistaken Point-named for the navigational hazard it poses at the often-foggy southeastern tip of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula-is one of the world’s most significant fossil sites.

Normally, when marine animals die, only bones, shells, and other hard parts are preserved as fossils. The soft-bodied creatures at Mistaken Point lived millions of years before animals developed skeletons, but the imprints of their soft tissues were preserved in place on the muddy sea floor when they were suddenly buried by repeated influxes of volcanic ash-rich sediment. The volcanic ash layers contain crystals of the mineral zircon, which enable geologists to accurately date them. Ediacaran fossils also occur in Russia, Australia, China and Namibia, but the age, abundance and variety of those found at Mistaken Point make the site unique.

The fossil beds of Mistaken Point were known to local hunters and residents of nearby communities in the 20th century. Children playing on the exposed beds would comment on the ‘flowers in the rocks’. Their significance was not understood until one day in 1967, when Shiva Balak Misra, with his field assistant Paul Thompson, were mapping Precambrian rocks along the coastline, discovered the fossil beds and realized their enormous significance. This was the first record of an Ediacara-type fauna from the Western Hemisphere.

The stamp shows the same scene as the front of the card:

We've had a lovely week with Tracey, hubby's daughter staying with us (on her own, without the children). She came to give him moral support and to pray over him, which she did together with me and my two prayer partners. We are very grateful for this time with her. She is leaving this afternoon (Tuesday). Here she is in her little Fiat hire car:

Of course I cooked some nice meals. Here is 'fish en papillote' which I have shared with you before:

It is in effect white fish (cod) cooked (in the oven) with spiralized butternut squash in a parcel of cooking parchment. And of course a nice cold glass of white wine to bring into the T-Party.

We went to our little cave house out in the country. Tracey took this photo of hubby and I reading in the shade of a tree.

Our cave house is higher in altitude (well above 3000ft) and of course it was a bit cooler. Here is hubby in the morning cool in his dressing gown.

I also cooked some pork ribs. Perhaps these are baby ribs. I don't know the difference. I first cooked them in the Instant Pot, then I smothered it in BBQ sauce and, wrapped in plastic, left it overnight in the fridge. When we ready to eat it the next day, I just heated it up under the grill. It was really yummy. We like our ribs to be 'fall-off-the-bone' tender. And they really were. It was just enough for the three of us.

Of course meat calls for red wine. Here we drink Ribera del Duero. (I don't like Rioja). Ribera del Duero is a Spanish Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) located in the country's northern plateau and is one of eleven 'quality wine' regions within the autonomous community of Castile and León.It is also one of several recognised wine-producing regions to be found along the course of the Duero river.

Note: we don't live anywhere near there.  We live in the south. Let me show you the Granada province:

We live in the top bit of the red.

One more meal was my stand-by Annabel's pasta. It is a Mary Berry recipe from 30 years ago. Something she taught her daughter Annabel to cook when she went to university (it's cheap and easy).

 I shared the recipe a few Fridays ago but here it is again:

(I actually used Panko crumbs.)

What else is there to report. Ah, I have treated myself to a new Kindle e-reader. My old one was starting to show signs of 'dementia', i.e. doing crazy things. So I got myself another one.

Then of course I wanted a cover for it:

Isn't it a cute cover? 

I would have had one with a turtle on it but they didn't do those....

Any other news? Hubby has an appointment tomorrow morning (Tuesday) to have a line fitted for more chemo therapy. I will tell you about that next week.

Tonight (Monday evening) Tracey and I will be joining a group of locals on a night walk in the country to look at the stars. It will be between 8 and 9 km. The sky is fairly unpolluted with light as we live in a small village, so it should be spectacular. Again I will tall you about it next week.

That is all from me. 

Happy T-Day,

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca 

 

A Postcard A Day - Friday 22 July 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely people,

The week has flown by and it is Friday again. This blog is about the smiles and the silver linings etc. I have lots of smiles and the fist one of course is my postcard. 

I belong to an online postcard exchange community called Postcrossing. Sometimes groups organize to meet. I have never been to any of the Spanish meets as they usually take place in the larger cities which are more than a day's travel, (Too far for me).

This card is from a meeting of Postcrossers in Bengaluru in India. Bengaluru (also called Bangalore) is the capital of India's southern Karnataka state. The center of India's high-tech industry, the city is also known for its parks and nightlife. It has more than 8 million inhabitants.

The images on the card are all stamps from different countries to celebrate Postcrossing. The Netherlands have issued quite a few (top right and top middle)

 and Guernsey has two fun ones too (bang in the middle and also middle left). 

Finland has a lot of Postcrossers and have issued some stamps too (bottom middle).

Below you can see some signatures of members.

The info at the bottom of the card reads: "India has over 10,000 active Postcrossers as on 11 June 2022 who sent close to 400,000 postcards from India to all over the world. PSOI (Indian post office) and Postcrossers hope that India releases an attractive commemorative stamp on Postcrossing soon."

The stamp is cute and shows the Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. According to Wikipedia, they are found in Indonesia (Not India?) and are critically endangered. There are apparently only 2500 left. The yellow-crested cockatoo is critically endangered. 

Numbers have declined dramatically due to illegal trapping for the cage-bird trade. Between 1980 and 1992, over 100,000 of these birds were legally exported from Indonesia.

What have we been doing? We saw the oncologist yesterday morning and he suggested a new type of chemotherapy that shouldn't affect the platelets (that has been the problem in the past). So we are now waiting for hubby to be fitted with a special contraption directly into the vein.  Also his painkillers have been changed, so I hope that will keep him going for a while longer. We see this as good news so smiles all around.

After the hospital visit we met up with two of my friends and decided to have a drink so that we could catch up:

The other smile is that hubby's daughter is on her way from the airport and will be here any minute.

I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time. Please join us with your smiles. Of course there will be some funnies at the end. Not many as I haven't had time to gather them. I hope you don't mind.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs and 

Keep smiling!

Lisca