Tuesday 25 June 2024

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 25 June 2024 - T for Dalmatians and trains

Hello lovely girls,

 I'm on my way home! I should be traveling through southern France now and I hope to be in Spain on Wednesday. 

Again I have to show you a postcard that I have on my computer as I haven't got any at hand while traveling.

This is a card that I have sent somebody. I once bought a box of 100 postcards of The New Yorker front pages through the years. This is one of them:

It's by Peter Arno. 

Wikipedia writes:
Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr., known professionally as Peter Arno, was an American cartoonist. He contributed cartoons and 101 covers to The New Yorker from 1925, the magazine's first year, until 1968, the year of his death. In 2015, New Yorker contributor Roger Angell described him as "the magazine's first genius". Wikipedia

 Born into privilege in 1904, educated at Hotchkiss and Yale, Curtis Arnoux Peters Jr. found fame as cartoonist Peter Arno, satirizing the New York elite he knew so well while remaining one of society’s most dashing figures.


Arno died on February 22, 1968 at the age of 64. Reporters called Pat Arno, asking for an anecdote or two about her famous father. She simply replied, “None are repeatable.” 



Vanity Fair has published an article about him. Here is the link if you are interested.

As far as I'm concerned, what can I show you. I'm in central Italy:

 
I managed to catch up with my friend, who I have known for at least 45 years (if not more). We met when she was a patient in the hospital where I worked. She is English so  we quickly became friends and have been ever since.
She picked me up in the car and took me to the market in a village called Fara Filiorum Petri (an impressive name):


A lot of the stalls had already packed up as we were late. I think this is the old city wall. Here's another photo (from the Internet):
Then we went to have a coffee in this place:

I don't know if those flags are always there or whether they were there because of the soccer championships.
And my coffee, a beautifully executed cappucino, will be my ticket to the T-Party:

Then we went to the village where my friend lives. 

It's a very characteristic village with lots of stairs rather than streets as it is built on the side of a mountain. 

We parked the car and then walked. 

To get to her house we had to negotiate quite a few stairs.
She cooked me a delicious lunch and we had a wonderful day.

I’ve been staying at my son’s house. They have a lovely terrace. Here a photo with my son and grandson:
 
You can see I’m wearing my cardigan. It was cold that evening and we had some rain. Look at the threatening clouds:

They had organised a little ‘do’ on Saturday night and we needed some extra plates. My son and I walked over to the other house they have, to get some more plates. They call it the little house as it’s built in the city walls. Because it’s small, it’s easy to heat and they use it in winter.
Here is my son opening the door.
Now, Monday evening, I’m travelling again. I had to get the 5 a.m. train this morning! My son was on an early shift so he drove me to Pescara station:

My journey today was to the Ligurian coast, not far from the French border. There were four train changes in all and this was one of them:

It was in Piacenza. I had enough time to go to the bar opposite the station and have a well deserved glass of wine.

I am now in a hotel in Finale Ligure Marina. My room/balcony looks out over a castle/fortress and the other way is a sea view. Not bad…
Tomorrow I’m going to try to get through the south of France. For some reason my internet roaming doesn’t work in France. (My provider says it should, but it doesn’t) It means that I won’t be able to do 
any comments. But I’ll do my best on Wednesday.


That’s all from me. 
Happy T-Day all!
Lisca









Friday 21 June 2024

A Postcard A Day - Friday 21 June 2024 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps. 

I'm still on my travels and have run out of postcards to show you. Luckily I had this postcard image on my computer. It's a card I have sent to somebody so I'm not showing you a stamp

The card shows the eight provinces of Andalucia, which is an independent region with its own government. Every province is named for its capital city. I live in Granada province, but not in Granada city. Apart from Huelva and Cádiz, I have visited every province and every capital.

I'm still in Italy having a lovely time catching up with old friends. I plan to leave aerly on Sunday morning on the night train to Milan but I haven't been able to book my couchette online. It doesn't seem to work. Very frustrating. Most trains are reservation only. We'll see (But I'm not a 'happy bunny' at the mo).


I went to visit my old friend Carmelina the other day. She cooked lunch for me:
Pasta with home-made sauce. In Italy, the pasta dish is the first course. After that comes the meat (or cheese) and a side dish. In this case I didn't photograph the meat but I do want to show you the vegetable dish of aubergines (egg plant) with tomatoes and cheese in the oven:
In the afternoon we met up with another friend and we drove to the coast, to a place called San Vito.
That piece of coast is famous for its 'trabocchi', those fishing huts on stilts.

Wikipedia says: The Trabocchi Coast, which corresponds to the coastal stretch Adriatic of province of Chieti (Abruzzo), is a 70-kilometer coast from Ortona to San Salvo, in Italy. It comprises a number of coves and reefs below the hills that end at the Adriatic Sea marked by the spread of Trabucco – fishing machines on piles. Many of the towns on the Coast maintain their own characteristics and traditions.
In this area they are found all along the coastline.

This one is also in San Vito (photo from the Internet):

My son goes to work at 2 and comes home at 11 pm this week, so yesterday my DIL and I went for a walk and a drink in the main plaza of the town (Guardiagrele):
We had a drink, and surprisingly, we got tapas with our drinks!
I took another photo of the building opposite:
Not a very good photo. There is a large church on the left so I had to take the picture from an angle.

Here is a photo from the Internet. We were sat where the orange sunshades are, left of the church:

I hope you have all had a lot to smile about. I certainly had. As per usual, I will put some funnies at the end.

UPDATE:
I have just removed a Fools and Horses funny about the word 'woke'. As I had no idea what it meant, it seemed funny to me. I have since learnt what it meant and have removed it. (Not funny).
Instead, let me add this sunset from my son's terrace:
Te Gran Sasso mountains in the distance and the foothillks of the Maiella in the forground.
 
Have a great weekend and...
Keep smiling!

Lisca





















Tuesday 18 June 2024

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 18 June 2024 - T for Pyramids, Beach and three Kings

 Hello lovely peeps,

Another Tuesday, another T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

Let me show you my postcard for today:



It comes from Mexico and it was bought for me by my friend Maggie, who was there. She also bought the stamp but couldn't find a postbox to send it, so it ended up in her suitcase and I received it in an envelope with an English stamp on it.

Monte Albán is one of the most important archaeological zones in Mesoamerica. 


An ancient Zapotec metropolis, the site was founded in the sixth century BCE overlooking the city of Oaxaca and functioned as their capital between 500 BCE and 800 CE. Its impressive architectural remains—including terraces, pyramids, and canals—extend over some four square miles (6.5 square kilometers), including structures built around the Great Plaza, the north and south ends of which are anchored by massive platform mounds. As the Zapotec culture declined in the fourteenth century, areas of Monte Albán were occupied by Mixtec peoples.
Panoramic showing a section of the North Platform in the foreground.

It all looks very interesting and enormous, I think. I'm thinking that we in Europe were running around like Fred Flintstone when they were building these amazing cities.

The stamp is a Christmas stamp showing a work of art with the three kings visiting the Christchild:


So what have I been up to? I'm still in Italy. I'm staying at my son's house. My room is top left, with the blinds shut.

(See also last Friday's blog). We went to the beach on Saturday. The first beach day of the summer. Schools have broken up and the season begins.

Below we are walking from the car park to the beach:
We had gotten up early to avoid most of the heat. The beach was recently 'raked' and we saw the shape of a heart. So sweet:

Our parasol was in the first row after the large palm frond ones.

My grandson had a new 'inner tube' to play with and I had a new swimsuit. I like it very much, it has little black shorts underneath and the top bit has a little skirt. Perfect to hide my protruding tummy.



They had made a sort of laguna with the stones. Very safe for small children:


There is a life guard. And below is his rescue catamaran:


At some point we went to the bar to have a coffee:

In Italy the espresso is very strong and very small. (Blink and you miss it!) It's one small gulp really, followed by a small glass of water.
This will be my ticket to the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. 

I'm going to leave it at that for today.
Happy T-Day all!

Lisca