A Blogpost from 2014 - Second on the second

Hello folks!

I meant to post this on the 2nd of this month but forgot (sorry Elizabeth).

Here is my first contribution for Second on the Second. I have only been blogging since 2014 and the following post was my 8th blogpost. It was posted the first week of April 2014.

My first craft workshop in the village

Hello again! It’s Monday, and although I’m retired it was a super busy day for me. Doctor’s appointment, go to the bank,  church prayer meeting, grocery shopping and a workshop late afternoon.  In between all that, cooking meals had to fit in somewhere..... (and eating them of course).

So today I have started a weekly craft workshop in the village. The idea is to get the ladies here interested in scrapbooking, for which there is no Spanish word as far as I know (Elaine might put me right here). They are all part of a group of mothers who have children with epilepsy. This way I’m doing my bit for the charity too.

It all went very well. I showed them my scrapbook albums and explained about scrapbooking. They definitely want to do that. Great! But today they were going to make paper flowers as arranged. They have a fundraiser in May and want the venue to look pretty so we are concentrating on that for the moment.

Here I am explaining in my best Spanish how to fold the paper to make the petals. 

      

And this was the result: 12 happy ladies with the flowers they have made. I think they had fun. I certainly did!

Bye for now! God bless and..... keep scrapping!

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 16 Feb 2016 T for little disaster, a bit of snow and some money

Hi all of you at the Tuesday gang,
I'm just a little late! I will explain: We have a weekend cavehouse about 30 miles from here where we escape to every week for a couple of days as I don't want my DH to work himself to death. We went there last night and found there was no power. DH tried everything to no avail. Then by the light of the torch we found a little note shoved under the door, written in Spanish officialdom speak, saying there had been an electrical 'incident' and I should phone the number given. It was dated 5 days before and we have two freezers in the house which I had recently topped up with all sorts of goodies. Arghh!
So we spent last night cleaning the freezers, and dumped all the contents in large containers and went home. This morning, we disposed of most of the contents. The meat that wasn't smelly I cooked this morning and it will go to my neighbours three dogs. They will have a feast. Then a trip to the rubbish bin (we live on a cliff face, in the cave house neighbourhood and the big lorry of the refuse collectors can't come down our small streets, so we have to walk to the village and dispose of it in public containers. Not a problem. I take a small bag every time I go shopping.)
I have no photos of this whole affair and I am still waiting for the electrician to call me back.  I'll keep you posted.

But i do have a photo of my daily postcard: here it is

I received it recently from Turkey. It shows Safranbolu in the snow. My Turkish fellow Postcrosser writes:"These buildings built and painted with traditional ways, and because of that, they're inUNESCO World Heritage list". Safranbolu is two and a half hours drive north of Ankara, and has an altitude similar to ours. Like us, they also get cold winters. The houses traditionally are made of wood. I have seen them myself as I traveled all over Turkey in 1971. It is a most beautiful country with the kindest people I have met in all my travels. 

Yes we have had a bit of snow too. It has melted now but the hills and mountains are still covered. This is the view from my studio where i am sitting now:

I love my craft room. It has huge windows and at the moment the sun is shining in. I still have the stove lit of course as outside temperatures are around freezing point. 

To be able to link in with Elizabeth and her T for Tuesday  I have taken a picture of my teapot on the stove. It has Magic Moments in it (a apple, cinnamon and rooibos infusion). Vely nice...

What's with the money you say? Well, when we flew to the Netherlands in December our flight was delayed. I applied for compensation through Flightright (or the Spanish site) and got compensation. They take commission, but after commission I had 560 Eur in my hands! Here it is, I've just been to the bank to get it! For those who live or travel in Europe, I can highly recommend this company. It was as easy as filling in a few details online, the whole process took a few weeks. They are very efficient.

That is it for this week. 

Wishing you all a great T-day,

Blessings,

Lisca
   

A Postcard a Day - Friday 5 Feb 2016 Friday Smiles

Good Morning! It's Friday again. 

For those of you who have read my Wednesday blog, I want to tell you that I am feeling much better. (I knew it wouldn't last long).

Today I will show a postcard, as usual. Then I'd like to tell you how my week has been, concentrating on the positive things, and then I hope i can make you smile with a little 'funny'.

But first my postcard:

 As you might have guessed it comes from India. Kamran, who sent it to me, says it is a village girl in the Kutch District. Isn't she colorful! The Kutch district is a district of Gujarat state in western India. Covering an area of 45,652 km², it is the largest district of India.

The stamp is very interesting. It features JRD Tata, whom I'd never heard of. Apparently he founded Air India and Tata Motors. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was a French-born Indian aviator and business tycoon. He was the Chairman of Tata Sons. He became India's first licensed pilot in 1929. 

My week has been good. The weather is still warm and sunny. The almond trees are in blossom (see Wednesday's blog)

The weekend was full of socializing as usual and during the week my DH is working hard at our new living quarters, which are nearing completion. I've ordered my kitchen yesterday. I'm having it made by a local carpenter. And my cooker has arrived:

 It has 5 burners and is meant to look a bit rustic. There is not much choice in cookers for bottled gas.

I have always dreamt of a large oven as I use the oven a lot and like baking too This one even has a spit to grill a chicken. How cool is that!

Wednesday my DH drove me to the nearest town so I could meet a fellow lace maker. I had found (and I have now met) two ladies in our nearby town that do lace making. I'm really thrilled. 

We then also walked through the market as it was market day.

I bought nuts and seeds and dried fruit.

Now for something funny:

I'm linking this with Annie's Friday Smile and later on with Virginia at Celtic House to 'rock our Friday'.

That's it for today,

Have a good week and... keep smiling!

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 1 Dec 2015 - T for Champagne

Good Morning Bloggers!

It's Tuesday again and I will link up with Elizabeth at T for Tuesday. Please join us. All you have to do is have something drink related in your post (I bet you have a mug on your desk and that will do).

My drink related things are postcards of champagne making. The following postcards are from my grandmother's collection. She traveled a lot in Europe after WW2 and her cards are all from the late nineteen forties to the early sixties. 
This card shows the pressing room at Moet & Chandon.

Moet & Chandon is one of the world's largest champagne producers and a prominent champagne house in Epernay, France.

After primary fermentation and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle. This second fermentation is induced by adding yeast and sugar. During this time the champagne bottle is sealed with a bottle top like the ones used for beer bottles.
The bottles are then placed in racks called 'pulpitres' .

After ageing, the lees (dead yeast and residual particles) must be consolidated for removal. The bottles undergo a process known as 'riddling' (French: remuage). Every two days the bottles are given a slight shake and turn, alternatively on right then left, and dropped back into the pulpitres, with the angle slightly increased. The drop back into the rack causes a slight tap, pushing sediments towards the neck of the bottle. In 8 to 10 weeks the position of bottle is straight down, with the sediment settled in the neck.

Le Remueur (1889), engraving of a man engaged in the laborious daily task of turning each bottle a fraction.

The lees removal process is called 'disgorging'. Modern automated disgorgement is done by freezing a small amount of the liquid in the neck and removing this plug of ice containing the sediment.

I have seen photos on Trip Adviser of the cellars and they don't look any different to these.

On a personal note: our house is coming on fine. We now have a back door:

Since we took the photo we have made a threshold and covered the gap at the top.

This space, now occupied by building materials, will be the car port. The door opens up to a long staircase  down that connects all four floors.
This is what it looks like on the other side:

The back door is not visible on this photo as it's on the other side. We have a magnificent view from our house.

I finally have my Tangle it! Journal. It nearly took a month to arrive but i have it now!

I have started tangling on the first page. This book is going in my handbag when we travel (we're going to Holland on the 21st) as it is ideal to while away waiting time.

That's it from me for today. Have a great T-Day and see you tomorrow for WOYWW.

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postacard a day - Friday 27 Nov 2015 - Friday Smiles

Good Morning! It's Friday! 

Caption translates: " You don't say....is it Friday already?"

And that means I can link up with Friday Smiles and 'Rocking Your World Friday'.

As my blog is primarily about postcards, here is my first postcard that i hope will make you smile:

 I recently bought '100 Postcards from our Past' in a box from English Heritage. This is one by John Gay from the late 1950s.
Although English Heritage is  best known for preserving England's historic sites and artifacts, English heritage is also custodian of an archive of more than twelve million documents and images that includes photographs of architecture and social history. 100 Postcards from our past from English heritage gathers together some of the archive's best black and white historic photographs from the late nineteenth century to the late 1960s.
Here is another one I like:

Again it is by John Gay and it is entitled: "A tractor being driven through the doorway at St Etheldreda's church in Hatfield', 1960.

So... what have I been doing this week? Last Sunday was our 23rd wedding anniversary (See previous blog for all the photos). My husband continues to build our apartment and has finished the bedroom which is going to be tiled tomorrow.

We are enjoying the company of our little (8 month old) kitten Precious and are teaching him to use the cat flap. Not much success so far. 

Wednesday the 25th of November was 'Stop violence against women' Day here in Spain (and perhaps internationally). In our village there was the annual demonstration through the village (with police escort).

We all carried a night light with the name written on it of a woman in Spain that had died through violence. In the park we all read out the name and placed our candle in the centre, after which we observed a minute's silence.That was very moving. 

We then gathered into one of the rooms of the town hall, where one lady read out two poems she had written as a victim of violence, and a painting by a local artist (my art teacher as it so happens) was revealed depicting a woman dying through violence. Not everybody's taste but it brought home the message.

The young lady that posed for the painting is here explaining why she accepted this posing job. Note all the night lights along the edge of the stage.

The talk (by a man) was about male domination and domestic violence through (recent) history reflected in popular songs (coplas). He had a very good voice and sung (a capella) all the examples he had collected. Brilliant!

Here in southern Spain this day is more about 'macho' violence than violence in general. Domestic violence is rife here and women are up in arms against it. I know domestic violence happens in other countries too, but here in Spain, finally the women have found their voice!

Finally a few funnies I have found on the internet:

 I'm sure there are quite a few knitters amongst you..

This one is quite cute don't you think?

Quickly, I'll tell you what I am reading: The Bees by Laline Paull. Has anyone read it? I am enjoying it immensely.

Gosh, I've gone on a bit. Lets call it a day.
have a great week

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 24 Nov 2014 - T for anniversary

Hello lovely people! How are you all?

I'm linking up with Elizabeth at T for Tuesday where anything drink related is being posted.

My drink related postcard is here:

It came from Russia, sent to me by Larissa Polyanskaya. The artist is Anna Silivonchik and the picture is called: "The clock-work birdie". I like Anna's work. As I buy a lot of my postcards in Russia (on the internet from Russian sites) I have quite a few by this artist. 
Of course the 'drink-link' is the bottle of Absinthe. Absinthe is a highly alcoholic spirit, usually green. It tastes of aniseed. Originally it comes from Switzerland. It is often sweetened with a sugar cube and diluted with a bit of water after which it goes cloudy. That's all I know about it. I don't really drink it.

It was our anniversary yesterday. My DH and I have been married for 23 wonderful years! It was love at first sight and we love each other just as much as in those first giddy days.
We went to a local eatery, just a few minutes walk from where we live. As usual we had a drink of wine with a (free) tapa, which is a little snack. In this case the tapa was a small portion of paella, a rice dish.

Then we treated ourselves to steak and chips, (a very expensive dish in these parts).

We had a different steak each. This was mine:

And of course we got a nice little salad with that too.

And for desert.... tiramisu, my favorite!

I really enjoyed myself, although the steak was a little too rare for my DH.

That's all from me today. Have a lovely T-day all of you.
We will certainly have a lovely day as we are driving to the vet later on today (a two and a half hour journey) to have two of the street cats neutered. We caught them last night ( in big cage traps) and fed them. This morning they are 'nil-by-mouth' so to speak. They are both females and that requires a little operation. The vet appointment is at half past 5 in the afternoon, so we won't be home until very late today, so please excuse me if I don't comment immediately.

Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard a Day - 27 Oct 2015 T for Medieval Market

Good Morning! 

Happy Tuesday everyone! I'm linking up with Elizabeth at alteredbooklover for T for Tuesday. Why don't you join us? All you need is something drink related (doesn't have to be tea...)

This post is photo heavy today. (No postcard today) There was a Medieval Market in our village this weekend and of course we walked along the stalls to have a look:

There were lots of craft stalls, and food stalls with chairs out (but it was a bit cold).

There was a really nice atmosphere.

There was a story teller/clown entertaining the local children.

It was the first few cold days of the season. We all had to get our jackets and cardigans out.

We lit the fire for the first time this weekend. We have an unusual stove: the right part is a wood burner, but the left part burns almond shells.

They cost 10 cents (Euro cents) a kilo and a sack of 25 kilo will last us two evenings. Here it is in action:

It kicks out some heat I can tell ya!

Saturday I stayed indoors and made this cherry/marzipan cake from a Dutch cook book I had bought last summer. I took it to our church house group where it was devoured in no time!

On Sunday we decided we would eat something exotic at the Medieval Market and we had something Arab, chicken rolled into a flatbread, with sauce and a bit of salad. Yummy. We had sweet tea with it and we were allowed to take the glasses home:

So this is my reference to T for Tuesday, these unusual tea glasses.

Have a lovely Tuesday and a great week,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a day - Friday 16 Oct 2015 Friday Smiles

Hi folks, good morning. Hello Friday Smilers!

My DH fancied liver and onions. I love liver & onions but am reluctant to cook it as the liver works as a filter to remove toxins from the body. Supermarket bought liver might contain goodness what sort of toxins.... But our butcher round the corner sells local meat and he slaughters on Wednesday so on Thursday the meat is very fresh. I asked for pork liver and I got a whole one! 

It's enormous and will feed us for four meals at least (I'm freezing most of it) with plenty left for our friend's dogs and a treat for our little kitty (Apparently it's not so good for cats so she can only have a little titbit once a week). Now what did that 2.5 kilo liver cost me? 1 (one)Euro!
Well our meal was lovely and we had it outside (yes, we still eat outside.... winter hasn't arrived here yet) with a cold beer in the blazing sun.

Now I don't think this qualifies for Friday Smiles as some people might not like liver and are pulling a face rather than smiling.

So what about this card then that I received two days ago from Russia.

This particular Russian, Aleksei and his family, wanted a 'Greetings from Spain' card (some people collect those). It is a series of cards from countries all over the world. They are made in Poland and I have ordered the Spanish cards obviously. Here it is:

We agreed to do an exchange. I sent this one and I got the colourful card above in return.
Aleksei put some really beautiful stamps on the card too:

The stamp on the left is the standard stamp for letters in Europe. The one on the right has a Penny Black on it (the rarest stamp) and it is too recent for me to find any info on it.
Aleksei lives with his family in Nizhny Novgorod, a city on the river Volga. Aleksei tells me that the FIFA World Cup (soccer) will be held in his city and that  construction of a new stadium and airport are in full swing.

Now if you haven't smiled yet, you will do it when you see this:

It appeared on Facebook. The translation goes: "It's in difficult times that you discover who your real friends are".

Have a relaxing weekend and a really good week with lots of smiles.

Blessings,

Lisca