A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 29 August 2023 - T for BBQ and travel plans

 Hello lovely peeps,

I have scheduled this post because on Tuesday I will be traveling all day from early in the morning until late at night. My mum is not feeling very well and it's getting her down. I'm going to cheer her up (and keep an eye on her after all she is 99).

My postcard this morning comes from Czechia (as it is now called):

It was sent by Jaroslav, who lives in this delightful town of Chomutov.

Chomutov is located about 78 kilometres (48 mi) northwest of Prague.

It has about 47,000 inhabitants. 

Apparently they have a fantastic indoor swimming pool with a 25 m pool for competition and exercise , a separate children's pool and a large fun part with long slides and taboggans. Kids will love it! I remember the Center Park villages (in the UK) had those. 

Info on the back of the card says this:

CHOMUTOV The first written mention of the town dates from 1252, when it was donated to the order of the Teutonic Knights. In 1411, the order was King Wenceslas IV. property expropriated, in 1421 Chomutov was captured and burned by the Hussites. Already in 1424, however, he was a pledge of Mikuláš of Lobkovice. The next owner was Jakoubek from Vřesovišť, again the Lobkovics, and until 1560 the lords from Veitmile. It was then acquired by Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, in 1571 the estate was sold again to Lobkovic, and in 1605 Chomutov was a free royal town. 

The stamp is beautiful:

It features four buntings: Emberiza Calandra (corn bunting),

 Emberiza Citrinella (yellowhammer), 

Emberiza Hortulana (Ortolan bunting), 

Emberiza Schoeniclus (Common reed bunting). 

They are gorgeous!

OK what have I been up to? On Tuesday I went to buy my new stove/heater or whatever you call it. I knew that what I wanted was a pellet burner, that can be programmed electronically and I went to a local family business because they could install it for me and can do the yearly services. The price was right so I bought it and two days later they installed it. (See Friday blog post)

I'm very pleased. Let the winter come! It's still very hot but today the temperatures a slightly lower and we had a storm the other night. That always shifts the weather a bit. We had a few drops of rain too, but literally a few drops. Not enough!

On Saturday we had a meeting of our English speaking fellowship group.

The guy who's turn it was to host, has a swimming pool so we had a BBQ there.

As you can see we were having a laugh!

It was a 'bring-and-share' occasion and people brought meat or a salad or a dessert. It always works out.

Lots of meat and salad (and a few rolls of bread too).

Lots of drinks visible so that  is my ticket to the T-Party, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

This was one of the desserts (cheesecake).

And two more. The left one is a trifle and the one on the right a sort of strawberry blemanche (don't know how to spell that, sorry).

Janet, the lady sitting next to me is the queen of the desserts. She made the last two.

Last but not least, I have been to the hairdresser and I've got little 'highlights' of colour put in. It's very subtle, so not very spectacular, but I quite like it.

That is it from me, ladies. Bear a thought for me (or a prayer if you are that way inclined) as I spend time with my mum. At her age of 99, every moment spent together is precious.

I'll try and visit on Wednesday, depending on my mum's condition. 

Happy T-Day all,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 25 August - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely girls, and hello Friday! Gosh that week went by so fast!

On Friday we share our smiles and silver linings. Please join me in linking with Annie at A Stitch In Time.  Again I have so much to smile about. Life is good at the moment. 

I have been with friends a lot and I have also spent some money on the last of my "If-I-ever-come-into-some-money" wishes. I had a modest little list of things I would like if I had the money. One was a new sofa and the other was a big TV.  The third one I will tell you about in a minute. Because after hubby died I got an unexpected pension lump sum, so slowly these wishes are becoming reality.

Let talk about my postcard:

It comes from Taiwan.  It's obviously a buddha, but I have not been able to find out which one. There is no info on the back. The position of the hands didn't give me a clue either. I thought it might be a drawing of an existing buddha statue (But I've not found it).

The stamp features a strange looking object:

I found out the object is made of jade and there are more stamps in this series:

They are stamps from 2019 showing Jade Artifacts.

Now I'll tell you what I spent my money on: a pellet burner/stove! No  more almond shells. I now have a stove that I can regulate and turn on and off and it doesn't smoke.

I bought it on Tuesday and they delivered it yesterday ( Thursday).

They came at 7:30 in the morning! (Yes, I was warned).

This is what it looks like:

They needed to make a hole in the wall for the exhaust pipe to go through. I won't call it a chimney as it doesn't create a lot of smoke.

A discreet little hole just behind the stove.

Here it is in place:

I'll be warm as toast this winter!

I have Hello Fresh every other week, and yesterday I had this delicious meal:

It was fried halloumi cheese (Which they call Cypriot cheese) on a bed of oven baked chick peas and carrots and baby leaf spinach. The dish had peanut sauce drizzled over it. It was really yummy. The meals are for two people. What you see on my plate is only one portion. And as I didn't know whether i can freeze the Halloumi, I'm having the other half tonight.

Another smile is my friend Andy. He's been having some health issues lately, but the result of the scan was such that he has nothing to worry about, which is the best news I have had in a long time.

That is all from me today. Of course I will leave you with some funnies at the end. 

But for now, I say 'Goodbye', and 

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 22 August 2023 - T for alley and lunch in Granada

 Hello lovely peeps,

A short one today as I need to go out in a little while. (You will probably read about it in one of my posts next week).

My postcard today comes from New Orleans:

It is Pirate's Alley. 

In reality, its official name was Orleans Alley, until the mid 1960's when the city changed it to Pirate Alley. This was to reflect its name of common usage, and to make it easier for tourists to find.

The alley is one block long, and extends from Chartres St. at Jackson Square to Royal St. Halfway down the alley, a lamppost marks its intersection by Cabildo Alley, which extends (the width of the Cabildo, the Old Spanish Governor's Mansion) to St. Peter St.

This is the part of the alley near Royal Street. To the right is St. Anthony's Garden a wonderful garden in the middle of the city. In the old day of the the city it is where duels were fought or business deals were made. To the left are some old homes including one that William Faulkner lived in while writing "Soldiers Pay" in 1925. It is the yellow one and is now a Faulkner bookstore. The lamp post has a special significance besides being really old. It marks a spot where within a 18 foot radius there is a church, state building and a bar - only in Louisiana!

 The stamp is an orange (gerbera) Forever stamp. Quite common, but I like it because it is orange (Dutch national colour):

I wondered if this street is still there as  hurricane Katrin has devastated large part of the city in 2005. I looked it up, and because the French Quarter is above sea level, it has not been damaged.

What have I been up to? Nothing much. I don't seem to have have any photos from this week.

I bought new covers for my red and tired office chair, and I am very pleased with the result.

It was a very cheap Internet buy but the result is great I think.

 The other thing I can show you is a photo of me (pulling a face for some reason) when Kim, Andy and I went to Granada for a medical appointment. Afterwards we went to have lunch, but nowhere was serving food as it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner. So we had a drink with tapas in a dubious 'joint':

We had a giggle as the lady in red at the end of the bar, who was heavily made up, seemed to us a 'lady of the night' who was having breakfast at the start of her shift. She might not have been, bless her, but we had had a nervous time at the hospital and we were now relaxing and laughing at anything.

But at least the previous photo has a drink in it (My glass of white wine) and that is what is required to join in with the T-Party hosted by Elisabeth and Bleubeard.

It continues to be very hot out here. It seems that in a lot of places it's very hot. There have been bush fires in many places. Very scary.

I'll leave you with this:

That is all from me. Short and sweet as they say.

Happy T-Day,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 18 August 2023 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies, Here we are again on Friday for a resumé of the week and all its smiles and silver linings.

I have a fun postcard to show you. It arrived this week:

It is entitled: "Die Goldenen Zwanziger: Bitte nicht überholen". (Translated The Golden Twenties: Please don't overtake)

I really love this photo. It is hard to imagine that this photo was taken 100 years ago! Look at the fashion! Don't you just love those hats?

The stamps are lovely:

The stamp on the left features Loreley. The Lorelei is a 132-metre-high, steep slate rock on the right bank of the River Rhine in the Rhine Gorge at Sankt Goarshausen in Germany, part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It has been an infamous maritime disaster site since its first records during the 10th century, with a varied mythos, ranging from dwarfs to a siren trying to explain the high number of ship wrecks and the loud echo inside the passage.

Lorelei, siren of Germanic mythology, of great beauty and delicious song, who was placed on a rock on the Rhine and with her song seduced the navigators. Sculpture that stands on the banks of the river in the Rhineland.

How was your week? Mine was good. On Friday my friend and neighbor Susanne came for a drink. I was sitting on my patio and had the 'party lights ' on. Of course she can see that from her house, so she came over when she heard I was having a G&T. (See my Tuesday blog).

On Saturday I had a lazy day and did a lot of reading. I finished The Golden Oldies Bookclub by Judy Leigh but found it a bit boring. Delightful but boring as nothing much happens. I went out for a drink with friends early evening and then I watched tv. I've started to watch Wolf. But I'm finding it quite horrific. I have just started episode three. after the Figaro scene, where the villain seems to be about to disembowel this poor woman. I'm not sure I want to continue watching it. Anyone else watched it?

On Sunday I was invited by my friend Dian to lunch. She had cooked a delicious meal (See photo on my Tuesday blog).

And in the afternoon my lodger's girlfriend came to visit me. She is also Dutch so we could have a good natter in my mother tongue.

She is learning to bake and she was very proud of the blueberry crumble she made. Very nice it was too.

At 9:30 I went to the Feria fiesta in the village. I'm not a party animal so I had never been, but my friends insisted they take me round. Again photos on my previous blog post.

I was really pleased to see some of my bulbs are actually flowering.

(Most haven't survived the heat):

On Monday I discovered one of my chickens has died. It must have been suffering from something as it had lost a lot of feathers and it was one of the chickens I was keeping separate. Then there were three....

Tuesday was a national holiday, so everything was closed and most people off work. It is a catholic religious holiday. My friends Kim and Andy came for lunch and I had cooked a Thai red curry with chicken. Very nice. (Forgot to take a picture).

In the late afternoon my lodger's girlfriend came to see me again as we had arranged to play games.

We played Rummicub. When we got tired of that I found a travel version of Sequence:

So we played that too.

On Wednesday I drove Kim and Andy to Granada for a scan. His appointment was at 3 pm but he didn't have his scan until 4, then we were told it would take an hour and 20 minutes, so Kim and I went for a drink. When Andy was done we went to find something to eat. Not easy at 5.30 in the afternoon as in Spain the kitchen in a restaurant or bar doesn't open until 8 pm. 

We did find a bar that served tapas, as we were all hungry. Andy above all as he had been nil-by-mouth from 9 that morning. It was nice I could have a drink as Andy was driving back.

Thursday I did some card making but they are for upcoming birthdays, so I won't show them until both birthday girls have received their cards.

That's it from me today. Of course there will be some funnies at the end.

Please join me at Annie's at A Stitch In Time with you smiles.

Have a lovely weekend,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

Very clever!

Poor Polly!