A Postcard A Day - Friday 29 August 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls,

How are you all? Have you had many smiles this week? I will show you some of mine.The first of which is a postcard:

It was sent to me by a lady in the Netherlands and it is an artwork by August Macke (1887-1914) "Elizabeth Reading". It lives in the Pfalzgalerie in Kaiserslautern.

Wikipedia writes:

August Robert Ludwig Macke (3 January 1887 – 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). (Below a self portrait in 1906).

He lived during a particularly active time for German art: he saw the development of the main German Expressionist movements as well as the arrival of the successive avant-garde movements which were forming in the rest of Europe. As an artist of his time, Macke knew how to integrate into his painting the elements of the avant-garde which most interested him. 

Above the artist's wife in 1909. 

Like his friend Franz Marc and Otto Soltau, he was one of the young German artists who died in the First World War.

The stamps are gorgeous:

The stamp on the left is from a series about smaller towns in the Netherlands. This one featuring Weesp. The image is of the former city hall.

Wikipedia writes: Weesp is a city and an urban area in the municipality of Amsterdam in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It had a population of 20,445 in 2021. It lies on the river Vecht and next to the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal in an area called the Vechtstreek. 

The photo shows the former city hall - nowadays museum.

The Dutch government considered Weesp too small to continue as an independent municipality. The former municipality of Weesp merged with Amsterdam on 24 March 2022.

The second stamp is about Max Havelaar. 

Wikipdia writes:

Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company) is an 1860 novel by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), which played a key role in shaping and modifying Dutch colonial policy in the Dutch East Indies in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the novel, the protagonist, Max Havelaar, tries to battle against a corrupt government system in Java, which was then a Dutch colony. The novel's opening line is famous: "Ik ben makelaar in koffie, en woon op de Lauriergracht, Nº 37." ("I am a coffee broker, and live on the Lauriergracht, Nº 37.").

The right hand stamp is about Brabant, a province in the south of the Netherlands.

On January 1, 1996, our province commemorates the fact that 200 years ago, on January 1, 1796, the States of Brabant first convened in the Grote Kerk (Great Church) of Breda.

Throughout 1996, many activities will take place in our province to commemorate this memorable occasion. In many municipalities, a "small monument" will be restored.

What has been happening here in southern Spain?

I've been planning my holiday in September. I'm going to Canfranc in the Pyrenees.

I've spent a lot of time this week booking trains and buses, and organizing accommodation through HomeExchange. I'm booked onto the AVE high speed train to Zaragoza. (From there I can get to Canfranc). And I'll be staying at somebody's house through HomeExchange. I've also arranged a three day stay in Granada, as there is a Postcrossing meeting in Granada that I want to go to. 

At the moment I have a young man staying in my upstairs flat. He works from home and is staying all week. I get a lot of guest points that I can use again on my holidays.

What else has made me smile? Ah, yes, I went out for lunch with a Dutch friend whom I don't see very often. We had a lot to catch up and had a lovely lunch locally at a restaurant called La Pata Negra:

I had octopus:

And a very naughty dessert:

Some sort of chocolate brownie. But very decadent.

And last night I went to see my friend Antonia on her own. (I had seen her throughout the summer but always with a clutter of grandchildren, dogs and other people around her). Now it was just the two of us having a couple of beers:

Of course with a few snacks:

Olives, cheese, pickles and crackers:

That is all from me today. Lets visit Annie at A Stitch In Time for some more smiles!

I will show you some funnies at the end as per usual.

Have a lovely weekend,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 26 August 2025 - T for crazy cars, jacket potatoes and pointed cabbage

 Hello lovely peeps,

The summer is just flying past! Already we are nearly at the end of August. It's still hot but at least at night it cools down.

Let me show you my postcard:

It comes to me from the Netherlands and features a dish created in Michelin star restaurant Ron Gastrobar in Amsterdam. The dish is pointed cabbage (spitskool in Dutch, 'kool' meaning cabbage). 

At the top are the ingredients: Cabbage, tofu, sesame seeds, dark miso. On the other side of the plate are the words 'You're so kool', which is a wordplay of course. Very clever.

I found a photo of the restaurant on the Internet:

And inside:

The card was sent to me by Monique who tells me they went to this restaurant for their 36th wedding anniversary.

The stamp is this:

I can't find much info on this stamp other than it's from a series called Netherlands and Colonies.

So what have I been up to in sunny Spain? 

Our village had 'coches locos' or 'crazy cars' this Saturday. People build their own vehicle and race it down a hill. The vehicle is not allowed to have an engine. The biggest one was called Dorada and it looked like a boat:

I've been told it used to be a TV series in Spain about this family and a boat called Dorada.

The other car I liked was driven by a small boy, about 7 years old I estimate. Daddy must have built the car, but he did very well:

The cars race down one by one and they get timed. There were lots of people.

I don't know who won in the end as we left before the announcement of the winner.
I was with friends and we went out for a meal:

Jacket potatoes with aioli sauce.

In this part of Spain one orders a dish (ration they call it) and it gets put on the table and everyone tucks in. We ordered cipirones (little squids) and grilled sepia. We had nearly finished when I remembered to take a picture. 

As it's T-Party time today, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard, I should show a drink. Well, there is one although it's only half a glass of water (Not mine).

Elizabeth has not been well. I hope you are feeling better Elizabeth.

Sorry it's not more interesting but I haven't been anywhere.

Happy T-Day all!

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 22 August 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps,

Again the week has come to an end and a (hopefully exciting) weekend lays ahead. I have a postcard to show you from Germany:

It as sent to me by Helen, who lives in Wilhelmshaven, somewhat to the west of this area.

It's an old card as the old East-West border is clearly indicated in red. 

I spot a village called Wittenburg (on the east side) and I remember as a child having a pen friend who lived there. Her name was Gitte. She wrote with a typical German handwriting, which is beautiful, but totally illegible to me so my dad had to help me out. I wonder what became of her.

There are some pretty stamps on the card:

The two stamps the left are paper art to do with letter writing. The stamp on the right has the pride banner on it and in small letters at the bottom I read: 'Delivered with pride 2025'. A clever play on words. The title 'Love Wins' of course is also very appropriate.

What have I been doing? I have been ill last weekend as you probably have read in my Tuesday blogpost. I still had to go out and one of those I-don't-want-to-miss-this occasions was the baptism of my friend Janet in a friend's swimming pool. She had been a Christian for 60 years but had never been 'dunked'.

Here she is raising her arms triumphantly. Martin on the left is reading the translation of her testimony for the Spanish speakers (which were most people).

I didn't stay for the party as I was feeling really ill.

That morning I had wanted to poach an egg in the microwave. (put water in a small dish with a splash of vinegar. Add egg. Cook on 700 watt for 20 seconds, check, then another 20 seconds, and again of necessary). I hear a loud 'Bang!' And this is what I saw:

Now I know we are here to remember our smiles of the week but this certainly did not make me smile! I had forgotten to set the microwave to 700 watt and it had been cooking on 1100 watt! I wouldn't normally make that mistake but I was ill and my brain was clearly not playing ball.

By Monday I was okay again. On Wednesday I was walking to my friend's house for a prayer meeting and some of my other friends came by and offered me a lift. Normally I would have preferred to walk but look at the car!

What a fun cabriolet. People don't drive convertibles here as it's so hot, it's better to have the airco on and be cool.

Talking about cars, here's one for Angela (she like classic cars and so do I):

This was parked in the center of Caniles. What a beauty!

It's a Packard and my guess is a 1947 model. I just expect any minute President Rooseveldt to climb out of it.

I never found out who it belonged to and the next day it was gone. It is definitely the most beautiful car I have ever seen. It was immaculate inside and out.

That's enough excitement for one day. I'll leave you with some funnies at the end. And now let's go over to Annie's at A Stitch In Time for some more smiles.

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisca