A Postcard A Day - Friday 4 September 2020 - Friday Smiles

 

Good morning lovely ladies! It's Friday again (already. Doesn't the week fly by).

This Friday blog post is all about sharing smiles and about postcards of course.

First off is my postcard for today. It comes from Russia, from Moscow to be precise. It features three Russian beauties. They must be princesses as they look bored and spoilt . They are drinking a hot drink from a samovar, and eating snacks and fruit.

The postage stamp is a pretty classic, and the doggie stamp is not a postage stamp, but I think it's very cute

So what have the smiles been in my week?

Definitely my walks with my friend Antonia. We go walking every Friday and Monday morning. The last couple of weeks we have been going to the sierra, the hills that we see from our window.

This was the UK Bank Holiday weekend, and we should have been in the UK, camping with the family. Above you can see a photo with five of our grandchildren.

Saturday was a big day. We were invited to a small wedding. I had the honour of being 'stand-in' mum to Andres, who's parents couldn't be there.

It was a great wedding, and the food was lovely.

On Sunday hubby had to sort out the coffee grinder part of the coffee maker, which had become a bit clogged up. It's all working fine now.

Another walk on Monday:

The trees are magnificent. The Atlas Cedars (cedrus atlantica) are impressive. They have started to grow little cones.

The encinas (quercus ilex), below, are indigenous here. 

Quercus ilex, the evergreen oak, holly oak or holm oak, is a large evergreen oak native to the Mediterranean region. It takes its name from holm, an ancient name for holly. It is a member of the Cerris section of the genus, with acorns that mature in a single summer.

They are protected now as so many were felled during both world wars. Again, they are quite majestic:

I love them. They dot the landscape, often just one or two. They are evergreen and grow quite old and large. I wish they could speak.

Locals from the village of Zarza de Montánchez in Caceres have always known and loved La Terrona , perhaps the oldest and biggest holm oak in Spain. It took a bolt of lightning to bring it to the attention of the outside world. The lightning split the tree in two and almost killed it. Biologists came to the rescue and discovered that the tree is perhaps the oldest and biggest holm oak in the country: it's 16.5m tall, with a girth of 7.8m and is 800 years old. The village's ex-mayor claims they used to be an even bigger one: La Governadora, but it was burnt after also being hit by lightning 27 years ago. Although the biologists may have saved the venerable old tree from a natural death, its newly-found fame has brought new dangers, as unscrupulous tourists are causing serious damage. The Spanish postal service paid tribute to the Terrona in February 2004.

Then on Tuesday hubby and I went to the sierra again, in the car, to collect pine cones to light the fire with. Also little pieces of wood that we use for kindling. We collected six large bags from different locations.

I found an old tin (that must have come out of the campervan as it is an English tin) and I decided I'd better open it and use it. But there was no ring pull! I haven't used a tin opener for years, so it was a bit fiddly. 

Our combi microwave decided to go on strike after we'd accidentally slammed its door a bit too hard. I found an electrician willing to have a look at it and he came on Wednesday.  He took the appliance away with him and I haven't heard anything yet. I must say, it is very awkward cooking without the back-up of my microwave/oven/grill. I use the combi settings quite a lot, especially for jacket potatoes. 

I have since ordered a new oven, and it has arrived yesterday. It has a steam option. Hmm, interesting.

That is it from me this week.Time to visit Annie at A Stitch In Time and Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

Of course I will finish with some funnies. (There is a doggie one for Angela)

Take care everyone,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 1 April 2016

Good Morning folks. It's the first of April, but I'm not going to play a joke on you. 

Instead let's share some smiles!

Lots of nice things happened this week. On Monday we took our campervan to a repair place on the coast where we were staying. Easter Monday is a normal working day here in Spain, so it was open. Our water pump was not doing its job and we had another one fitted. (No photos as water pumps and repair shops are boring).

We were back home on Tuesday and went to eat lunch at our usual restaurant.

The photo is an older one taken before I had my hair cut. But it's just to show you the inside of the restaurant. We chose to eat in the bar rather than the dining area.

Wednesday DH connected the water in my new kitchen and we prepared to move on Thursday. I unplugged the fridge, and on Thursday morning I moved the contents in two coolboxes and one of our younger neighbours came to help move yesterday. The fridge and sofa have been moved and yesterday I cooked my first meal in the new kitchen: roast chicken and roast potatoes with veg.

The new kitchen is operational. I am still in the process of allocating cupboard space to different things. DH hung up those Ikea bars and hooks. So handy. Here is another photo. I apologise for the bad quality.

Anyway, I am a very happy bunny!
Now for the postcard:

Pussycats! It's a watercolor by artist Alena Dergileva, a Moscow artist, who generally paints the streets of Moscow. The painting is called: "Old Zaraysk. Meeting". Zaraysk is a town 150 km from Moscow. It has some old buildings. 

This could well be the house on the painting....

The stamps are really beautiful:

I always try to find out more about the pretty stamps. The bottom one is from the series arts and crafts, but I don't know what it represents. The top one is from the series Culture of Russian People - National Head dress - Middle of XIX Century, Yaroslavl Province.

I will finish with a funny:

 Read it out loud and... laugh out loud! Got it!

Have a great week everyone, wishing you lots of smiles. I'm linking up with Annie at A Stitch in Time who leads our Friday Smiles. And then later I will link up with Virginia who does Rocking Your World Friday.

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - 14 Dec 2015 - Map Monday Ireland

Good Morning folks! Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was good and restful.

Today is my husband Graham's birthday. So he started the day by opening birthday cards that have come in the post but which I have hidden until today.
He is 69 today and we give thanks to the Lord for another year in health and happiness. We will be having lunch at our favorite restaurant today at 2pm, where we will be joined by several of our friends. I'm looking forward to that.

The map postcard I want to show you today comes from Ireland.

Ireland is the third-largest island in Europe and the 20th largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. 

Politically the island is divided in the Republic of Ireland (Eire), which covers five sixth of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, which covers the remaining area and is located in the northeast of the island.

In 2011 the population of Ireland was approximately 6.4 million people, ranking it the second most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million people live in the Republic of Ireland, and just under 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.

This is the stamp that is on the postcard. It has a bird on it: a black-legged Kittiwake. The kittiwake is a sea gull and is called black-legged to distinguish it from a red-legged variety in North America.

I'll leave it at that. I have a busy day ahead of me. See you tomorrow at T for Tuesday.

Be blessed,

Lisca

A Postcard a day - Tuesday 6 Oct 2015 T for Tuesday

T stands for cat participation....

Hi folks, good morning to you all. And good morning and happy Tuesday especially to all you alteredbooklovers who join in with T for Tuesday.

If the title seems a little weird, bear/bare? with me (don't know how to spell that). All will be reveiled.

Lets have a look at my postcard for today, then we have that out of the way.

 It's a postcard from Italy. A typical scene of a cafe in a piazza. This town is called Abbiategrasso in the province of Milan (northern Italy). I had chosen it because it is drink related, but then realized it has no drinks in the picture.....

Here are the stamps:

The stamp on the right is the most interesting. It reads: World Championship sport fishing.

We've had a busy week last week as daughter and grandson no1 visited for 6 days. We picked them up from the airport in Malaga (3 hour drive) and took them back again. It's a long drive so we break it up with a restaurant stop. 
Here is DH enjoying his meal. But look who is also rather interested in his meal: yes, lovely ginger kitty.

You can imagine what happened next... Kitty got fed all sorts of titbits under the table. The waiter kept shooing her/him away (this is al fresco dining), but we kept putting nice bits under the table.

At the end of the meal the waiter asked if we would take the cat with us. We said: Sorry, we already have about 6 stray cats living on our premises.

That was it from me today. Have a lovely week all of you.

See you soon,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 15 Sept 2015 T for...Bavarian breakfast and... ice cream

Good Morning and Good Tuesday!

I'm linking up with Elizabeth's T for Tuesday blog. Anything drink related is allowed (and not just tea).
So my offering this week is a postcard (of course) with a drink in it. 

It says (in German) 'Greetings from Bayern'. Bayern is Bavaria in English. It's from Maria who lives in Muenchen (Munich), the largest city in Bavaria. 

The card depicts a Bavarian breakfast. Well, says Maria, call it brunch.  Apart from the pretzel, I don't think I would fancy any of that in the morning, would you?

Maria writes that she works at the reception of a Youth Hostel and has done for many years. She is also studying Psychology for a bachelor degree.

The stamps she used are quite nice:

 I won't say anything about the tulip but the other stamp that reads  Ruhr.2010 – Kulturhauptstadt Europas. It was the name of the campaign in Germany's Ruhr region that earned its recognition as a European Capital of Culture in 2010. This was the first time a region was considered, as Essen represented all 53 towns in the region in the application. 

Now that we've had (German) breakfast... how about some ice cream?
Our friends Eusebio and Antonia have an ice cream shop in Baza. He makes the most beautiful Italian ice cream with all natural ingredients. Yumm!
Often we go after church and have an ice cream (and a catch-up chat of course).

This is DH with a lovely ice cream. Eusebio let us look behind the scenes...

He started with a sort of cakey layer that was drenched in liquor. He sprinkled sugar on top.

Then with a hot iron caramelized it in seconds. This was set aside to cool.

Then we moved to the icecream machine and a whole bucket of cream was poured in. 

The cake with the caramelized sugar was put in the bottom of a container and then ice cream extruded from the machine on top of it. 

Several layers were made this way, very fast as the stuff has to stay cold. (Spot DH with a spoon at the ready to spoon up the 'dregs'!)

The result was this. ('Here is one that I made earlier')

Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is....

So I'll leave you all salivating and I'll be back tomorrow, when I link up with WOYWW.

Blessings,

Lisca