A Postcard A Day - Friday 5 December 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls,

This evening, most Dutch families will be celebrating Sinterklaas. Traditionally children get their presents on this evening. How exciting. I will be celebrating with a Dutch friend (and his family) who live nearby. So I have been wrapping the presents and writing funny (often teasing) poems. I'm looking forward to it.

Let me show you my postcard for today:

It's another Maxicard. That is a card with a stamp with the same image. They are being sold (and stamped) as first editions and as such quite collectable. It features a pretty flower called Castilleja arctica. Below a photo from the Internet:

The Maxi-card was issued by the Society for Nature Protection in Russia.

The All-Russian Society for Nature Protection (VOOP) is one of the oldest working nature conservation organizations in the world. It was founded in 1924 on the initiative of A. Lunacharsky, N. Krupskaya and M. Pokrovsky as the All-Russian Order of the Red Banner of Labor Society for Nature Protection.

Here is a close-up:

One of the priority tasks of the organization is the protection of plants registered in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

Plants protected in Russia include such species as Castilleja arctica, Caucasian lily, thin-leaved peony, incised violet, yellow lady's slipper, Iris pseudacorus, golden root, and dolomite bellflower.

The postage stamps above provide images of a Castilleja arctica, a Caucasian lily, a thin-leaved peony, and an incised violet.

On he back of he card were he normal postage stamps:

The left hand stamp features a flower again. I've seen his rose a lot in our village, especially in the gipsy district.

The stamp on the right is a painting by M.A.Vrubel.

Wikipedia writes:

The Swan Princess  is a 1900 oil painting (oil on canvas) by the Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel. It is based on the opera The Tale of Tsar Sultan by Rimsky-Korsakov (which was based on the fairytale of the same name by Pushkin). Vrubel designed the decor and costumes for this opera. The part of the Swan Princess was performed by his wife, Ukrainian opera singer Nadiya Zabela-Vrubel.

On Tuesday I promised I'd show some photos of our outing to Orce. The tourist office blurb goes like ths:

A series of discoveries revealed that Europe's first inhabitants settled in a remote and rugged corner of Granada, Orce,  some 1.4 million years ago.

Thanks to its prehistoric significance and remarkable geological richness, the area of Orce was recognised in 2020 as a Unesco World Geopark. Additionally, the region boasts several museums dedicated to prehistory, including the Primeros Pobladores de Europa (First Settlers of Europe) museum in Orce. Here, visitors can marvel at the innovative stone tools used by our ancestors and the awe-inspiring bones of mammoths.

I've always wanted to visit Orce for that reason and sure enough, we visited the First Settlers Museum:

Here is an interesting article by the BBC explaining more.

 

Afterwards we walked through the village and saw these impressive trees:

They are Platanus, or Plane trees. This is what they look like with leaves on:

The guide told us they are more that a century old.

At the end of that street we visited the Palace of the Segura family.

I love that Spanish houses are built around a patio and this one is spectacular.,It was the family's summer residence.

Then we walked to the church of Santa Maria:

This church, built in the baroque style, has one main aisle, opening on to side chapels. The stone façade is in a fairly plain classic style.

It has a beautiful pebbled floor outside:

The main alter is quite a feature in the church and although some of it was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, much of the structure and decoration is original:

There is a new clock in the tower but the old one is on display in the church:

And there is also a bell:

The we walked to the citadel, which is right next door:

Here is a photo from the internet as we were standing too close to take a picture:

From one of the towers we could see the church we had just visited:

Inside the 'Keep' of the castle there was an exhibition of objects collected by I can't remember who, but it was very interesting. One of the things:

Here is my friend Kim having a laugh:

That's all from me. Yes, it's long enough, but now I'm going to make it even longer by posting some funnies at the end.

Enjoy your weekend peeps,

Lisca

 

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 2 December 2025 - T-Party post as well as Second on the 2nd.

 

Hello lovely peeps,

Here we are on Tuesday again. As it's T for Tuesday hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard, I need to show you a drink:

On Saturday we, my friends Kim and Andy and I, joined a couch trip organized by our Town Hall. We went to a place called Orce, only 40 minutes from where we live, but I had never been there so it seemed a good idea. It was absolutely wonderful! I will post photos on my Friday blog, but as I need a drink for the T-Party, here is a photo of Kim and me clutching our wine glasses in Orce.

Below is a blog post I wrote on the 5th of December 2015: (I don't know if the link with Virginia works as it's old)

December 5th 2025,

I've had a good week. The weather here is still sunny every day although the temperatures are down at night, I can still sit outside in the sun and that makes me happy.

The highlight for me this week was yesterday when I joined a friend from church to make bread. Most people here have land although they live in the town or village. The land usually has a house on it that people use to relax or for holidays and of course when they work the land. My friend's name is Juanita, and in her place in the country she has an old fashioned oven (which is on my wishlist of things I would like) and with two more girls we made 20 loaves of bread.

Here she is building up a fire in the oven to heat it up for the next batch.

And here below she has just made some almond meringue type cup cakes. Very clever as the oven must not be too hot. They turned out perfect. I like a meringue with a bit of chewyness in the middle.

Our new bedroom is nearing completion and we hope to be able to sleep in there on Saturday. The electrician hasn't quite finished and my husband  needs to grout the tiles, and place the toilet.

Also this week my Tangle it! Journal has arrived! (I already wrote this on my Tuesday blog), but here it is:

Then on Wednesday morning my copy of the Flow Book for Paperlovers arrived too! I'm in seventh (paper) heaven!

 Can you read what it says? "More than 300 pages of paper goodies. *mini cards *postman paper doll * pop-up house * glitter postcards *wrapping paper *folding houses *coloring pages *craft paper *posters *stickers *and so much more!"

Here is their website and here is the link for the Youtube flipthrough. Do have a look.

Now for my postcard:

It's from my collection of WW2 motivational posters. During the Second World War people were encouraged in the US as well as in Britain, to make do and mend. There was no manufacturing, so new clothes were not available. 

When Kansas Wheat realized that women were sewing children's clothes out of their old sacks, they started to use sacks with pretty patterns.

Isn't that great! This is a photo from 1939. I found it on the internet. 

That's enough for today. I hope I have made you smile today. 

I'm also linking in with Virginia at Rocking your world Friday.

Have a good positive week,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 28 November 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps,

We've made it through another week and there have been lots of smiles and positive moments.

A postcard always makes me smile, and particularly this one:

It comes from Russia and was sent to me by Boris. I had never heard of this book. I looked on the Internet and found this:

These three charming books were printed by Puffin Books in the 1940’s. They don’t seem to have been reprinted, not just by Puffin but by anyone, which bearing in mind that they are for very young readers, or more likely parents reading to young children, and their inherently fragile nature consisting of just eight sheets of paper, including the covers, folded and stapled in their centre makes finding them in good condition extremely difficult.

The Holiday Train Goes To The Moon is the last book in the series, not just of the Holiday Train but of Baby Puffins themselves as an imprint was published in April 1948 as the ninth Baby Puffin.

The book tells the story of The Holiday Train being surprised by Carrumpus, a magical character who introduces himself saying “I come to visit trains when they get tired or overworked and cheer them up.” He does this by granting them a wish.

As you can see above The Holiday Train wishes he could fly and soon he has wonderful golden wings so he could fly around rather than running on rails.

Soon he decides to travel to the moon where he finds a railway, but not one like at home as here the carriages pull the locomotive rather than the other way round. But nevertheless The Holiday Train sets off to explore.

A fun story. The stamps are great too:

The stamp on the right features S. V. Kovalevskaya. Wikipedia writes: Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya  born Korvin-Krukovskaya; 15 January [O.S. 3 January] 1850 – 10 February 1891) was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer of equality for women in mathematics. Kovalevskaya was the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics, in the modern sense of that term, the first woman appointed to a full professorship in mathematics (and one of the first appointed to a full professorship in any discipline), as well as one of the first women to work for a scientific journal as an editor. According to historian of science Ann Hibner Koblitz, Kovalevskaya was "the greatest known woman scientist before the twentieth century"

Clever lady!

The left hand stamp celebrates 450 years of Ufa.

The postage stamp provides an image of the monument to M. Shaimuratov, the building of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre against the background of the city panorama.

The query "450 years UFA" refers to the 450th anniversary of the city of Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, which was celebrated in 2024

The city was founded in 1574, and this milestone was marked by official celebrations, congratulations from figures like Vladimir Putin, and commemorative events, according to Russian sources and news outlets. 

Apparently there is a beautiful mosque in Ufa:

This photo is from 2015 and it looks like they are getting the mosque cleaned up before the big celebration.

What has been happening here in Spain? Well, Monday saw me driving to Murcia airport again as my daughter was leaving. On Tuesday my friends Kim and Andy came to lunch.

My cat Ronnie loves to sit on Andy's lap. When they arrive I call Ronnie and say: Your favourite lap has arrived.

On Wednesday I go to the gym. 

We do all sorts of exercises with weights on our ankles and sometimes we use dumbells or elastics. The chairs are there for balance as most of us are older ladies.

Here is my teacher Ana:

And here am I posing with Ana:

Yesterday evening I went to yoga (no photos) and on the way home I photographed the Ginko Biloba tree in our village . There are several, but this one is pretty as its leaves are changing colour:

The ginko biloba leaves are very recognisable:

The look like wings.

Also yesterday my dinner consisted of lamb's liver. I like liver and I like to eat it at least once a year. 

I cooked lots of onions and then some French green beans. Then I flash fried the liver slices. Very nice it was too. Of course I didn't eat all that. That were two portions.

That was my week. Lots of smiles.

I will leave you some funnies at the end like I always do, but for now, I will say: Have a lovely weekend and keep smiling!

Lisca