A Postcard a Day - Friday 12 Feb 2016 - Friday Smiles

Good morning friends, It's Friday again. Nearly weekend (for those who work 9-5). 

I must say I am really enjoying my retirement and this week I have started another jigsaw puzzle.

 It is called 'Kings and Queens of England', a present from our S-i-L. I have started with the outline and then I will put together all the coats of arms and take it from there. 

When finished I will hang it on the wall in the stairway, which is very long and will become a sort of gallery where I can hang my puzzles.

I'll tell you more of what i have been doing this week further on. I will be linking up with Virginia for Rocking your World Friday.

But first my postcard:

 Another Inge Look creation. Those two 'naughty' old ladies always make me smile. 

There were some interesting stamps on it:

The top one is about  Sir Constantijn Huygens, was a Dutch Golden Age (17th century) poet and composer. He was secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens.

The bottom stamp is about the Salvation Army (in Dutch: Leger des Heils)

We always go for coffee somewhere after church on Sundays. This time we went to this place that we liked the look of. I really like those stairs.

It specializes in ham, as in Serrano type ham. We only came in for a coffee, but it's nice to see all the hams hanging up.

Sorry for the bad quality of the photo. I think I had the camera on a wrong setting.

Here are the hams hanging in the dining area. Here they are all covered (new law).

Friday Smiles is all about being positive and counting your blessings. Do have a look at Annie's blog at a Stitch in Time.

My biggest  smile this week was when we got the news that we were succesful in claiming compensation after our flights were delayed for several hours in December. 568Eur is making its way to our bank account as I speak! We went through a company called Flightright I can thoroughly recommend www.flightright.com or http://www.flightright.es/. They are fast and efficient. Fill in flight details online... job done. Of course they take a hefty commission somewhere along the line, but the amount above is what I get. As far as I'm concerned they deserve their commission. 

Finally a couple of funnies. They made me smile and i hope you will too.

I do love a good glass of wine.

Here is another one:

That's it from me this Friday. Have a restful weekend and a good week,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 5 January 2016 - T for traveling

Hello everyone! Happy New Year! Especially a big Hi to the T for Tuesday gang! Why don't you joing us at Elizabeth's Altered Booklover. As long as there is a drink involved, you are very welcome.

I'm still away from home and traveling. We're staying with my mum in Rotterdam, Holland, where we raised our glasses of bubbly at midnight to toast on the New Year. Then we spent a long time enjoying the fireworks that just happened to be in front of mum's house.

Sunday we went to see our friends in the traditional village of Spakenburg.

The above photo is the front door of our friends house.
They have an old farmhouse in the centre (there are no more farms in the centre but the farmhouses are still there).

Our friends took us for a walk through the village, which is lovely. There is a small harbour for the old fishing boats.

They are no longer used for fishing though because the sea (Zuiderzee) is no longer there. The Dutch have reclaimed the land where before there was sea.

Spakenburg is in the middle of the map. As you can see, the parts of land with the names Almere, Lelystad and Flevoland has been reclaimed from the sea. Almere is a large commuter town for Amsterdam.

There was one boat in the harbour that wasn't covered with canvas:

This part of the harbour is for the old boats and on the other side (out of view) there is a marina for motorboats.

We stayed for a meal and I helped lay the table. Here I am with a glass in my hands qualifying my for T for Tuesday:

This village of Spakenburg is known for its tradidional costume. My friends'parents still wear it, but I haven't been able to photograph any of them (they don't like it) so here is a postcard:

Here are two more images of this beautiful village.

That's it from me in the Netherlands. Wednesday we wil be flying to Copenhagen in Denmark. So next week (If I can) I will blog from there.

Happy T-Day and have a good week,

Blessings

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Monday 30 Nov 2015 - Map Monday (Netherlands)

Good Morning! Happy Monday!

It's Map Monday and today I have a postcard from the Netherlands, which, as many of you know is my home country.

I was born in Rotterdam, which is middle left on the map. The three main cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague) have grown so much towards each other and Utrecht, that it has become a huge urban area they call Randstad, which means 'Edge city'.

Most towns on the map have a little picture depicting what they are famous for. Alkmaar is famous for its cheeses, and Volendam is a touris attraction with national costumes. In the North, under Leeuwarden you can see sail boats as this area (Friesland) has a lot of lakes and people sail a lot. East of Rotterdam you can see some windmills. That is called Kinderdijk (look it upon Google and marvel at the lovely windmills). West of Rotterdam are some fantastic beaches. Yes, the Netherlands is small, but a lovely country, well worth a visit (plug, plug, lol).

The stamps on this card are lovely. I had never seen them. The one on the right is the St Janskathedraal (Cathedral of St John) in 's-Hertogenbosch. A stamp from 2011. 

The cathedral church of St John is the height of gothic architecture in the Netherlands. It has an extensive and richly decorated interior, and serves as the cathedral for the bishopric of 's-Hertogenbosch. The cathedral has a total length of 115m (377ft), and a width of 62m (203ft).Its tower reaches 73m (240ft) high, the largest catholic church in the Netherlands.

St John Cathedral is a so-called 'kanjermonument' (whopper-monument, loosely translated) and as such receives financial support from the Dutch government.

The stamp on the left is depicting the city of Almere, which is a newly built city on newly claimed land. 

The Dutch put dykes around a stretch of water, then pump out the water and over the years let the ground dry and eventually build on it. 

Almere is the newest city in the Netherlands: the land on which Almere sits, the southern Flevopolder, was reclaimed from the IJselmeer 1959-1968. The first house was finished in 1976. Almere became a municipality in 1984. In 2014 it had 196,290 inhabitants.

That's it from me today. Enjoy your day,

See you tomorrow when I link up with T for Tuesday.

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Saturday 10 Oct 2015 Holland Denmark

Good Morning! Are you having a good weekend? We are both retired so every day is a weekend really....

I'm showing you two cards today. The first one is of Amsterdam, Netherlands because i have just booked some flights to Holland to spend Christmas with my mother.

It is a typical view of a Dutch canal. (In this case it is the Brouwersgracht).
The stamp is interesting.

It celebrates 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo, in which the king of the Netherlands, King Willem II, played a major role.

The second card is from Denmark because from Amsterdam we fly to Copenhagen in the New Year to visit our friends. This is the only card I have from Denmark:

It is the Danish royal family. The older couple are Queen Margarethe and Prince consort Henrik. The younger couple are crown prince Frederik and crown princess Mary. The two youngest children are twins. They are 4 years old. I don't know their names.

The stamps are very interesting too:

The large stamp on the right celebrates 200 years Danish schools. And the middle one, a character from the stories by Hans Christian Andersen: Numskull Jack.

I'm very excited to be going to Copenhagen as I have never been to Denmark. Our friends live in Zealand, an hour away from the capital.

That's all from me today. Have a great weekend and see you tomorrow,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Thursday 24 Sept 2015, indoor market, Rotterdam

Hello and Good Morning to all of you!

Here is another of my postcards. This time it is a card I received this week from my home country and from my home town: Rotterdam. It was sent to me by a'German Wanderer' called Marco. He asks me if I have seen Rotterdam's latest  architectural sight? And he sends me a card of the new indoor/covered market. 

No, I have not seen that yet. People that have, say it is very beautiful. There are apartments above and to the sides and the ceiling is very spectacular. I hope to see it this December as I hope to spend Christmas with my mother in Rotterdam.

And this is the stamp:

I really like this card, so thank you Marco!

Have a good day and see you tomorrow!

Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 22 Sept 2015, T-for-Tuesday, T for camping

Hi Folks,

Hope you all had a good week. My husband and I have been away for a few days in our campervan. We stayed local as we live in such a beautiful area. The weather here is still quite warm, but below 30 degrees C which means we can go for walks. 

 There is so much to see. We found these little crocus like flowers growing straight from the ground! No stem!. I have no idea what they are, but they're very pretty.

On this walk I'd forgotten my hat and it was very hot that day. So I found a scarf to wear. Here I'm looking at these red berries in the tree.

Every day after our walk we would be tired, hot and thirsty. We would treat ourselves to a cold glass of lager. 

Of course we have beers in our fridge in the campervan but the campsite restaurant keeps the beer glasses in the freezer and they also have wifi which makes drinking out extra attractive.

This is where I would do my blogging. See those two little dishes on the table? Those are the tapas which (in our province of Granada they are free) you get with every drink you order. This is 'salmorejo', a sort of gazpacho (cold soup) with 'bits' in it.

Now, I'd better show you my postcard of today before I get too carried away:

I got this from Holland (of course with a clog). He's quite a hunk. On the back of the card is the info about said hunk: he is Rick Rio from Brazil. The photographer is Lutz van Dijk.
Adrie from Wedervoort sent me this card and she also put some gorgeous stamps on it.

The one on the left coal mines in the south of the netherlands (no longer working).

The middle one is about Constantijn Huygens. Commemorating 300 years since his death in 1687.

Sir Constantijn Huygens, was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens. (Wikipedia)

 But this is the image that will qualify me for T for Tuesday: A stamp with a cup of coffee. The Dutch do like their cup of coffee.

That's it for today. A rather long spiel, so if you made it until here: well done and thank you for visiting.

I'll be here again tomorrow with WOYWW.

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day 1 Sept 2015 T for Tuesday= T for grape juice

Good Morning, Good Tuesday!

I'm linking in with all you lovely T for Tuesday ladies (are there any males out there?).

We have a lot of grapes on the vine in our little courtyard outside the kitchen. I can't find the photo so I'll show you this little corner with DH on it (about to sweep the chimney, bless him). There must be at least 100 bunches of grapes hanging there, waiting for something...

I've resurrected my old juicer. I might be 20 years old, I don't remember how long I have had it. It's called the Jack Lalanne power juicer. Expensive (£250 +) but sturdy and very good. 

I put a large bunch of grapes in the fridge every morning and in the afternoon when we are ready for a snack and a drink, I juice them. Yumm!

Get that down ya Babe!
Now, true to form, here is my postcard:

Nothing to do with T for Tuesday you'd say. But just wait until I show you the stamps....

Anyway, this is a card from Holland showing the Dutch royal family. King Willem Alexander with his wife queen Maxima, and three little princesses Amalia, Alexia and Ariane. It was sent to me by Melanie, who was studying speech therapy at the time  (Dec '13).

Here are the stamps:

The stamp on the right needs no comment other than: cheers! (or in Dutch: proost!)

The ones on the left are so called children's stamps. The added 19 cents go to childrens charities. The illustrations are from a very old childrens book called Ot and Sien. Ot en Sien are the main characters in a series of Dutch children's tales that were very popular in the first half of the 20th century. They were meant to expose young people to a (what was then considered) a healthy daily family life. The illustrations were made by Cornelis Jetses. In the above stamp you see Ot (the boy in the story) burning his mouth and being told off by his mother for drinking his milk before it was sufficiently cooled down. The bonus bit of the stamp has the little rhyme and an added image of a couple of modern children eating their snack or breakfast.

The illustrations by Jetses have enjoyed a revival and there have been many exhibitions of his work in recent years.

That's it for today. Tomorrow I will link up with Whats on your workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW),

See you then,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a day - 17 July 2015 - Books....

Hi folks,

Books, books, books, books..... I love books! And I have mentioned that in my profile for Postcrossing so that people sending me a card know that I would appreciate any card about books.

Here are two cards that I like very much:

This one is from Canada and was sent by Shelley, a primary school teacher. She decorated the card with washi tape and put a typical Canadian stamp on it: a moose.

The second one I want to show you is similar, and was sent to me from the Netherlands. As I come from the Netherlands myself, the sender Marijn, who works as a journalist in Utrecht, could write in Dutch.

The stamps are stunning! 

The one on the right is about mushrooms. The two middle ones are 'children's stamps'. People pay an added value which goes to charity. These stamps are from 2004 but obviously still valid, as this card was only sent to me months ago. I don't know anything about the stamp on the left, but it looks like the normal 30 euro cent stamp.

I hope you enjoyed these dusty old books!

I'll show you another card tomorrow,

CU then,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - 12 July 2015, Zeeland National costumes

Good morning,

Today I want to show you a typical Dutch card with national costumes. I received it last month from Berlin (short for Berlinda). She lives in the south west part of the Netherlands called Zeeland. (Here in the dark blue colour).

(I’m pretty sure New Zealand was named after this province).

Zeeland has a large variety of national costumes as the province was made up out of islands. 

(The above card I got off the internet to show you what Zeeland looks like.)

Nowadays there are dykes everywhere connecting all the islands. The dyke project (called Delta plan) was started after Zeeland flooded in 1953. It is now complete and is a feat of engineering.

This is Berlin's card. I hope you can see the pictures of the costumes as the pictures are tiny. They are numbered from left to right: 1 and 2 are Arnemuiden, 3. Axel, 4. Cadzand, 5. Nieuw en St Joostland, 6 & 7 Walcheren, 8 & 9.Protestant Zuid Beveland.

The headdress is made of ‘broderie anglaise' and is starched and folded and then pinned over a little cap. The front of the hair get combed over to finish it off.

Here is a short video of a woman (from Arnemuiden I believe) folding her headdress. It is in Dutch but the pictures are self explanatory. The ‘rag’ on the table is a headdress as it comes out of the wash, unstarched. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYQwqWTQWOM

The stamp shows young king Willem Alexander. (Don't know what happened to his mouth...)

That is my contribution for today,

CU tomorrow,

Lisca