A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 16 December 2025 - T for Croatia and Christmas decorations

 Hello lovely girls! 

I have a postcard for you and some photos of my decorations and of my sister who came to stay for a few days.

Here is my postcard for today:

It comes to me from Croatia and features a typical courtyard entrance to a house in a historic town. (It doesn't say where). It reminds me of the place I used to live in Italy (which is in effect just across the water) and my son lives in a house like this.

Croatia is a beautiful country. Both my cousins go there every year with their caravan and stay for a few months. They have been doing this for more than 40 years and have many friends there.

Wikipedia tells us this:

Croatia is a republic and a parliamentary democracy. It is a member of the European Union, the Eurozone, the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the World Trade Organization, and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. An active participant in United Nations peacekeeping, Croatia contributed troops to the International Security Assistance Force and was elected to fill a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in the 2008–2009 term for the first time.

Croatia is a developed country with an advanced high-income economy.^[9] Service, industrial sectors, and agriculture dominate the economy. Tourism is a significant source of revenue for the country, with nearly 20 million tourist arrivals as of 2019.^[10][11][12] Since the 2000s, the Croatian government has heavily invested in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Croatia has also positioned itself as a regional energy leader in the early 2020s and is contributing to the diversification of Europe's energy supply via its floating liquefied natural gas import terminal off Krk island, LNG Hrvatska.^[13] Croatia provides social security, universal health care, and tuition fee-free primary and secondary education while supporting culture through public institutions and corporate investments in media and publishing.

The stamp shows one of the beautiful parts of the coastline:

It features Telascica, described as 'Rolling bay & islets designated as a nature park with vineyards, beaches & pine & oak forests.' You can read more about this here. 

Here is Spain, I'm getting ready for Christmas. Others have been showing off their decorations. Well, I haven't got that many, but I will show you what I have got:

I have a little Christmas tree with some presents underneath that my sister brought me.

These beautiful handmade Temari balls that a friend gifted me a few years ago.

I have an elf on the shelf. (actually my glass cabinet).

And I have a star with lighting in it. 

Then I have some tinsel around the house. I will get a Christmas table cloth too, but i don't want it to get dirty before it's Christmas. 

And last but not least, I had my nails done in a festive fashion:

My sister came to see me on Saturday. It would have been my late husband's birthday on Sunday, so she came to help me make that day extra special.

Here we went for breakfast (I should have photographed our coffees for the T-Party, but I forgot).

It was very cold. My sister lives in Marbella, Costa del Sol, where they have mild winters, so she was 'freezing'. 

I lent her some fluffy house clothes:

There were 'Severe Weather' warnings and it rained heavily all weekend. We did have a little window where it stopped raining and we went for a walk just to get some fresh air.

We walked along the dis-used railway called the Via Verde, until the iron bridge (that Eiffel designed).

Now, because it's the T-Party I need a drink (reference), but I forgot, so here is a photo of the aubergines and melasses we ordered on Saturday night. On the edge you see half a cup. That will have to do I'm afraid.

That is it from me. I will leave you with a photo of my cat Ronnie, who is asleep on my lap while I'm trying to type:

Happy T-Day all,

Lisca