A Podtcard A Day - Tuesday 10 June 2025 - T for Belarus, pastries and a handsome cat

 Hello lovely girls,

I have another postcard to share with you with some really lovely stamps:

This is a special postcard called a Maxi-card. It means that it has a stamp on the front of the card that is the same (or similar) to the postcard picture. They are issued through the philately department of the postal service of a country just like they issue First Covers and suchlike things. 

This card comes from Belarus.

 It shows a cold soup, which is nice on hot days. It is Belarusian cuisine. I can spot beetroot so it might be a type of borscht.

It was sent to me by a married couple called Natasha and Sasha. They told me the temperature (5th of April) was just 1 degree C (33F). 

They have used some really spectacular stamps:

This stamp is from a series dedicated to Brest. Brest is in the west of the country near the border with Poland.

More stamps. The top right stamp features the Resurrection church in Brest, and is from the same series as the previous stamp.

I was surprised to read it is a relatively new church.

The Resurrection Church (Svyato-Voskresenskaya Cathedral) in Brest, Belarus, is a large Orthodox cathedral built in 1995 to commemorate Victory Day in World War II. It's the largest religious building in Brest and one of the largest in Belarus, able to hold 5,000 people on two levels. The domes are decorated with gold leaf, a tradition in Orthodox architecture. 

The bird in the bottom stamp is falco columbarius:

In English this is a merlin. 

From a website called 'All about Birds' I got this information:

Merlins are small, fierce falcons that use surprise attacks to bring down small songbirds and shorebirds. They are powerful fliers, but you can tell them from larger falcons by their rapid wingbeats and overall dark tones. Medieval falconers called them “lady hawks,” and noblewomen used them to hunt Sky Larks. Merlin populations have largely recovered from twentieth-century declines, thanks to a ban on the pesticide DDT and their ability to adapt to life around towns and cities.

The left stamp is a Christmas stamp.

What have I been doing with myself? Nothing spectacular. I had my hair cut on Thursday (sorry, forgot to take a picture) and I was too early for my appointment, so I popped into a coffee shop and had coffee with a pastry:

As this is T for Tuesday, I'm going to join Elizabeth and Bluebeard with this drink.

The saying on the wall translates as:

'A good cup of coffee helps those who get up early'.

There were lots of nice cakes and pastries to choose from, and since I hadn't had breakfast (naughty girl!), I was sorely tempted.

My friend and neighbour Søren (he's Danish) took this shot this evening from his terrace. It's a lovely sunset through the clouds. My house is on the right, the white building seen from the side on. From this angle you can see it is over four floors. All the windows are at the front to take advantage of the views.

And just to finish here are some photos of Ronnie:

He's lying behind me on the sofa.

The reflection of the tv gives this pic a strange hue.

He's yawning, and so am I. It's late so I will stop here.

Happy T-Day all!

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 6 June 2025 - Friday smiles

 Hello lovely girls,

Here we are again counting our blessings and remembering the things that made us smile this week. 

First off is a postcard:

It was sent to me by Kirsten in Berlin, who writes that she is so happy that spring has come and is enjoying some sunshine through her kitchen window.

The stamp is one of the newer German stamps with the paper castle.

What have I been doing? A lot of Pilates and stretching, and yesterday I had a pedicure.

Here I am soaking my feet before the girl started fiddling with my toe nails. I have not had my toenails painted as I need to go to the podiatrist too (next week).

The weather is very warm already, temperatures in the low thirties. So I have started to drink ice coffee.

 My friend brought this over from England. It's a concentrated thing. I pour a little bit in a cup and fill with ice cubes and cold water. Very nice.

I'm sat on the settee writing this and Ronnie, my cat, is curled up in a box of papers next to me:

It's not a big box and he's a big cat. Of course he doesn't fit in there, but cats love to try don't they.

Here is another photo of Ronnie (officially named Roneo) looking rather stern:

Of course I have some funnies for you too, at the end.

So, I will go and join Annie at A Stitch In Time and 

I will wish you all a pleasant weekend with lots of good weather and many smiles,

Lisca

This is why these sort of toys are so important:

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 3 June 2025 - T for breakfast, flowers and a dictionary page

Hello lovely people, 

I've forgotten to write my blog today, so this is a quickie this morning. This strange card arrived last week:

It comes from the USA. From Durango, Colorado to be precise. There is no info about the image on the card. It looks like an Indian temple on a page from a dictionary. 

The stamps are fun:

I have seen the Bluegrass one before and also the Heart, but the fox is new to me.

Today is T for Tuesday so I need to show you a drink:

This was breakfast when I was in Italy last month. Cappuccino and a croissant.

I met with my friend Susan for breakfast. We have been friends for 47 years! Even though I moved away, we have always been friends.

The cafe is very near where my son lives so it was a quick stroll:

What have I been up to this week? I have bought some flowers to put/hang in my little patio:

Some surfinias and (below) some bog standard geraniums:

It makes everything look colourful. Although it is too hot to sit there (only in the morning and in the evening) I can see the flowers from my window.

Then to finish I'll let Roneo say hello to you'all:

He is sitting on the table in front of me next to my cup of coffee.

That is all from me today. I really have to dash!

Happy T-Day,

Lisca

 

A Postcard A Day - Second on the 2nd from 10 years back (June 2015)

Hello lovely peeps,

I'm joining Elizabeth and Bluebeard  in Second on the 2nd where I dig up an old blog post. This one is from June 2015, exactly ten years ago. It was the week of my mum's birthday. She died a few years ago at the age of 99 and I still miss her. I wrote this blogpost in the Netherlands, when I was there to celebrate her birthday with her.

My cousin Ina had just done a course in felting. Now, ten years later, she teaches courses herself and does exhibitions. The scarf in the photo was later gifted to me. I'm wearing it in the photo with the cows. Actually I still have it now.

And the friends who have the farm have a son who lives in Spain in my village and is married to Antonia's daughter.

Hi everyone,

It’s Wednesday again and time to do some desk hopping. Via Julia (http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/) we get to see each other’s desks and say our weekly hello.

Well, I am not at home, in fact, I’m still travelling. At the moment I’m in Holland visiting my mum who will be 91 on Friday.

 The desk I’m going to show you belongs to my cousin’s wife Ina. 

She loves sewing and and crafting and has recently done a course in felting and has made this scarf. She gave it to me as a present. I love it!

 Ina and her husband live in the north of the Netherlands in an area called Friesland. Friesland has its own language and is famous for its black & white cows (Friesians). Also there are beautiful lakes so sailing is very popular in Friesland.

On the way back from Friesland we visited friends who have a farm (beef cattle, not Friesians).

This is my friend's vegetable plot

Here are some pictures of this typical Dutch landscape.

That's it for today. Thank you everyone for following my travels in spite of the non-crafty content. I will try and visit as many of you as I can politely get away with. (I have internet as I am staying at someone's house, but I believe it is quite rude of course to be on my tablet all the time when I am visiting someone....)

God bless you all! 

See you next week,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 30 May 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely smiley peeps,

Today I look back on a week full of smiles, and of course I'd like to show you a postcard.

Now I know that we don't 'do' politics or religion, but I just had to show you this postcard because of the sensational stamps. But first the card:

It's a printed Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd) and it comes from the southern shores of Lake Erie, and was sent by someone called Natalie.

She used five gorgeous stamps on this card. They really made me smile:

On the right Thirty Mile Point on Lake Ontario. 

Wikipedia writes this:

Thirty Mile Point Light is a lighthouse on the south shore of Lake Ontario in Niagara County, New York. The lighthouse is open to the public. It gets its name because it is the point 30 miles east of the Niagara River. The lighthouse was built in 1875 of hand-carved stone. The old tower is being restored.

The next stamp features a sculpture by Alexander Calder called Portrait of a Young Man, 1945. 

From Wikipedia:

Alexander Calder was an American sculptor who revolutionized the art form with his kinetic mobiles, which move in response to air currents. 

His work is known for its dynamic embrace of chance and movement, and for bringing sculpture into a fourth dimension. Calder's early sculptures were static, known as “stabiles”, but he later incorporated motors and movement into his “mobiles".

Then there is this large stamp about San Juan, Puerto Rico. (An island in the Caribbean which belongs to the USA) It looks like a 450 year anniversary of something. Let me look that up...

In 1971, a commemorative stamp
celebrated the 450th anniversary of San Juan, the oldest continuously inhabited city in America. This stamp was based on a woodcut design and commemorated the establishment of the Caparra settlement by Juan Ponce de León in 1508. 

What you see on the stamp is part of La Fortaleza. La Fortaleza, also known as the Palacio de Santa Catalina, is the official residence and workplace of the governor of Puerto Rico.

The Christmas stamp is the next one in line:

"Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome, Saint Bernardino, and Angels," 1460/1470, by Sano di Pietro, tempera on wood,
Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art

Richard D. Sheaff designed the 1995 commemorative Christmas stamp depicting a Madonna and Child, two saints, and four angels looking down from above. The stamp is representative of the painting but crops the bottom and right sides of the image, including Mary’s delicately painted hands and Saint Bernardino standing to her right.

The last stamp. is this one:

Trusty old Wikipedia had this to say:

Concord was the ship that in 1683 took the first group of German emigrants to America. On board of the galleon were 13 Mennonite families from Krefeld with a total of 33 people. The ship is also known as the "German Mayflower". Concord set sail on July 6, 1683, in Rotterdam under Captain William Jeffries with 57 passengers. The journey took 74 days to reach Philadelphia (Germantown) on October 6, 1683 (which was declared German-American Day in 1983).

Rotterdam is my home town, and I have a painting in my living room of the little harbour, which still exists, where they set sail from. (But it is late at night and I don't have enough light to photograph it.)

This post has already become quite long, but other things that have made me smile are new plants on my little patio. I bought some colourful plants and also some herbs. I had bought a three-tier planter to put herbs in and yesterday I bought some herbs ab¡nd put them in the planter:

There is mint, oregano, basil, parsley and a pink flower, as I had 8 plants and there were 9 spaces to fill.

Now I'll go and join Annie at A Stitch In Time to enjoy more smiles.

Have a lovely weekend,

Lisca