A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 2 Feb 2016 - T for mugs, olive pips and coco cats

Good Morning! Happy Tuesday!

A bit later in the day today...I had a lie-in. 

I'm showing you a very comforting postcard today, especially comforting for those in the Northern hemisphere where it is cold and miserable. It is a card from my own collection that I have sent to someone. It is by a Russian artist who's name escapes me now. The card has been sent so I can't check. Sorry. 

Coffee, chocolates,cakes and a cat are all comforting things don't you think?

I'm linking up with Elizabeth and Bluebeard at T for Tuesday. The link is here. Please join us with anything drink related.

Last week we went to the olive processing plant to buy olive pips to burn in our stove.

When olives  get pressed after they are harvested, you get cold pressed olive oil (the best), what is left gets pressed again, and it gives normal olive oil. There is a further process that yields more oil but I think that is more  low grade stuff (I don't know what they do with that) but you end up with crumb like pips that look like this:

It's very cheap and we buy it by the trailer load.

A guy with a tractor just scoops up a load and dumps it in our little trailer.

We pay by weight so car and trailer have to be weighed on the weigh bridge before and after.

We mix the pips with the almond shells so the almond burner burns more efficiently and longer. This lot will last us through the winter and into the next. They are only for sale at this time of year (after the harvest).

I feel I almost have to apologise for the blue sky and the sunshine. I am very much aware that there is much bad weather around at the moment. Sorry folks. 

One more photo before I call it a day:

This is my kitchen in our holiday cave house (where I am at the moment). The rack and the mugs were all bought from Ikea (a few years ago). And at the moment I am enjoying a cup of chai tea with a dash of milk. Please share your drink with us. We'd love to see what you are drinking....

Happy T-day, have a good week,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 4 Dec 2015 Friday Smiles

Good Morning! Are you having a good day? Are you smiling today?

I'm linking up with Annie for Friday Smiles, so think of all the positiveness in your life and count your blessings and share them here with us.

I've had a good week. The weather here is still sunny every day although the temperatures are down at night, I can still sit outside in the sun and that makes me happy.

The highlight for me this week was yesterday when I joined a friend from church to make bread. Most people here have land although they live in the town or village. The land usually has a house on it that people use to relax or for holidays and of course when they work the land. My friend's name is Juanita, and in her place in the country she has an old fashioned oven (which is on my wishlist of things I would like) and with two more girls we made 20 loaves of bread.

Here she is building up a fire in the oven to heat it up for the next batch.

And here below she has just made some almond meringue type cup cakes. Very clever as the oven must not be too hot. They turned out perfect. I like a meringue with a bit of chewyness in the middle.

Our new bedroom is nearing completion and we hope to be able to sleep in there on Saturday. The electrician hasn't quite finished and my husband  needs to grout the tiles, and place the toilet.

Also this week my Tangle it! Journal has arrived! (I already wrote this on my Tuesday blog), but here it is:

Then on Wednesday morning my copy of the Flow Book for Paperlovers arrived too! I'm in seventh (paper) heaven!

 Can you read what it says? "More than 300 pages of paper goodies. *mini cards *postman paper doll * pop-up house * glitter postcards *wrapping paper *folding houses *coloring pages *craft paper *posters *stickers *and so much more!"

Here is their website and here is the link for the Youtube flipthrough. Do have a look.

Now for my postcard:

It's from my collection of WW2 motivational posters. During the Second World War people were encouraged in the US as well as in Britain, to make do and mend. There was no manufacturing, so new clothes were not available. 

When Kansas Wheat realized that women were sewing children's clothes out of their old sacks, they started to use sacks with pretty patterns.

Isn't that great! This is a photo from 1939. I found it on the internet. 

That's enough for today. I hope I have made you smile today. 

I'm also linking in with Virginia at Rocking your world Friday.

Have a good positive 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 - 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

A postcard a Day - Monday 12 Oct 2015 Map Monday

Hi folks, it's Monday again. 

Here in Spain it is a  national holiday. A bit like a Bank Holiday in UK. It is National Spain Day. It celebrates Nuestra Senora del Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar), the patron saint of Spain. We don't notice much here in the village but there are big parades in the capital that are televised. For most people here it is just an extra day off.

My map card today can't be anything other than a Spanish card:

It is a region of Spain called the Extremadura. 

Extremadura, is a western Spanish (autonomous) region bordering Portugal; it comprises the provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz. It’s a remote area of mountains, forests, lakes and reserves, notably Monfragüe National Park and Cornalvo Natural Park, both sheltering diverse birdlife. The capital, Mérida, is known for its well-preserved Roman ruins, including aqueducts, theaters, a circus and a long bridge over the Guadiana River.

The stamp is interesting:

The text translates: 'Have a good look at me'. And it features some sort of bar code and a winking emoticon.The stamp is issued in a series to do with Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC), translated: information and communication technologies (ICT). I found out that the bar code shows a video about Realidad Aumentada (augmented reality).(But I don't know how to read it...)

Isn't that interesting. That's it for today,

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

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 25 Sept 2015 Friday Smiles

Hello Friday Smilers! 

Has there been something to smile about this week? I'm sure there was if you think about it. In fact there will have been many smiley moments. I hope to read about all your smiles at A Stitch in Time. 

I'm smiling because tonight we will be driving to Malaga Airport to pick up one daughter and one grandson! He is ten years old (or will be soon, this is his birthday treat) and we have some fun things planned.

My card for today is this one:

Two little munchkins from Finland. Aren't they gorgeous? It was sent to me by Juha, who lives with his wife and two dogs in a small village in Finland (2300 inhabitants).

This is the stamp. That too is gorgeous. It looks like a flower fairy, but i have not been able to find out more info about this stamp.

When I say I had lots to smile about.... my husband and I have been away in our campervan. We stayed local as we live in such a beautiful area. Here are some photos:

DH overlooking the reservoir (which is quite low at the end of the summer).

A little bridge we had just walked across.

All of a sudden we spotted some deer in front of us. They stood still, as did we and we looked at each other for a minute or so, then they ran off. Wow!

Now for some 'internet' fun:
Notice left on the back gate: "Parcel left under the table in the garden"!

Have a good week everyone and... keep smiling!

Blessings,

Lisca

WOYWW 329 Happy mail and village bakery

Hi Peeps, It's Wednesday again! Comes round so fast! Today I can look over everyone's shoulder and look at their desk to see what the are up to (or not). The lovely Julia hosts this blog hop and here you can read all about it.

Now I'll let you look over my shoulder and look at the scene on my desk. 

This was late last night, as this morning there is nothing. I've packed my stuff as we are going to spend more than a week at 'home'. (not here on the building site). DD plus one grandson are coming to stay. So fun days ahead. The photo, blue bubble and Kraft paper are a lay out I'm making of said daughter and grandson.

Below is the happy mail I received from the USA.

A blog friend called Krisha wanted to get rid of some small stamps and didn't mind sending them across the 'pond'. Wow! She sent me about 26! plus a few die cuts and cardboard shapes. How cool is that! That is so kind of her. They are all small, perfect for ATCs and perhaps card making. I'm thrilled as I don't have many stamps. 

I've packed most things I need for the coming week. All I need to do now is pop round to the baker and get some bread. 
I took some photos earlier in the week as I always include some pictures of 'life in Spain'.

This is baker Pilar's daughter (can't remember her name) putting my bread in the bag. The basket in the foreground is the typical woven basket (locally made) they use here for everything. Mostly they are round and made from some sort of plant stalk.

I also asked for a square of pizza as DH likes that as a snack. There is a banner on the shelf saying that Pilar makes the best donuts in the world!

I tore myself away from all those lovely smells and took a picture of the outside. The power cable is hanging loose as they are working on the building next door. 'Pan' means 'bread'. And 'dulces' are 'sweet things'. Silnia is the name of the shop.

Lastly a photo I found on a FB page advertising cave houses for rent in our area. It is a beautiful photo and it is where I live. I never tire of this!

If you want to see what a cave house looks like, have a look at the photos. Here is the link to the Facebook page. 

That's it for today. Have a good week and see you soon.

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