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 - Tuesday 19 April 2016 T for cakes and books and snails having tea

Hello lovely friends, Happy Tuesday to you!

I have some nice postcards for you today. I received so many this week, that I don't know which ones to show you. Here is one:

It came to me from Germany. I put in my profile what sort of cards I like and the theme 'books' is amongst them. Anything to do with books as I am a bookworm. This painting is by Frank Dicey and is called "The Novel, A Lady in a Garden Reading a Book". (1880)
The second one is this:

Again, this comes from Germany and again the theme is books. The text reads:'If you have a garden and a library, then you have everything you need.' I totally agree. There were some garden inspired stamps too:

I have been busy these days uploading all my postcards (1200 odd) onto Flickr. With our slow internet connection it took almost a minute per card but over a whole week I have now done it. Here is the link.
I'm now in the process of putting them (the card images) into appropriate folders. Little by little.

I'm linking up today as usual on a Tuesday with Elizabeth at Altered Booklover. She holds T for Tuesday where we all share something drink related. So here comes postcard number three. It is one that I am sending to Germany. (it's all German today, isn't it):

It's called "He just invited her for tea...." oil on canvas, bu Anna Silivonchik. I love it. I buy my cards online from Russia and they have some really talented artists.

Every Sunday I make a cake of some sort to share at our local church house group:

The base is cake and the top layers are made with greek yoghurt and whipped cream (and gelatine leaves). The coloured layer has instant coffee added to it. So come join us for a herbal tea and a piece of mocca yoghurt cake. Oh, coffee is your drink? Well that can be arranged....

Now I'm off to the hospital for a mammogram, ultrasound and x-ray. All in different departments so I have to queue up three times. This means I'll probably be hanging around all morning. Then my DH is taking me out to lunch so I will be late in commenting today. Will you wait up for me?

I wish everyone a great Tuesday, and I hope to see you all next week,
Blessings,
Lisca

WOYWW 351 - new material and lots of baking

Good Morning deskers! How are you all? Ready for a nosey bloghop? This is the bloghop where we all look at each other's desks to see what we are up to. 
(Want to know more? Goto Stamping Ground where Julia will explain it all).

This is part of my desk today.

It is the other side of my desk where my sewing machine is. I have bought some material recently and I have spread it out a bit for you to see. It is traditional Andalucian  curtain material that is used in caves for curtains  between rooms . (not all caves have doors to the rooms). I am going to use it to make a bag for my lace making cushion to replace the one that had been nibbled by mice. I really like the bright colors. I have a little bit of orange colored material I bought a few weeks back. I'll use that for the lining.The material is 2 m wide so I have enough left to do a cover for my sewing machine which is much needed as you can see. 

I've also been doing my jigsaw, which is now finished:

I love baking and I can't wait for my new kitchen to be ready so that I can use my new large oven to bake lots of nice things. This weekend I made a cake with fruits of the forest and cream. I had some cream which was nearing its use-by date so I found this recipe of a cake made with cream. 

It was nice but it didn't taste much different to a cake without cream (perhaps a bit heavier).
While I was at it I also made loads of muffins, also with the fruits of the forest. I had a whole pack of fruit in the freezer which I defrosted, so I had to use them up. (Well, that's my excuse...)

Has anyone heard of 'Farinata'? No, I hadn't either despite my years of living in Italy. It's a pizza without topping, made with chick pea flour (garbanzo flour). As I have a wheat intolerance, I'm experimenting with different flours to bake nice things. (I don't get to eat any of the cakes I make. I allow myself one bite to find out what it tastes like. That's it).
Here is the farinata I made. It was gorgeous:

 Crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

Sorry to have gone a bit off topic with my baking.... Is your mouth watering?

I'll leave it at that. Wishing you all happy WOYWW a good week ahead.

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 15 Jan 2016 Friday Smiles

  Hello friends,

We're back in Spain! What a fantastic  time we have had in Denmark! Our week has been great.
Saturday (still in Denmark) our friends took us to see the white cliffs of Denmark (Yes, they have them too). It was a lovely sunny frosty day.

There were steps down to the beach but there were so many and there was much snow, so we chickened out!

The nearby town is Stege and we had lunch in a restaurant of a well known Danish chef called David.

I had to pose with the wooden soldier in the restaurant. (The Danish royal family has guards with bearskin hats just like the British).
On Sunday we went to Copenhagen and saw the guards for real:

We also saw the statue of Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote the fairy tales.

We visited the part of Copenhagen which is an anarchistic city in a city: Christiania

We were not allowed to take pictures in the village

as they freely sell hashish, and that is still illegal.

Our last day in Denmark our friends had planned a drive along several castles and palaces in the area.  But a very thick fog descended on us and we couldn't see any of them from the road. Only this one.

This one is called Vallo castle and it used to house aristocratic virgins.

I'm sorry its so foggy and the photos have not  come out very well. There is no setting on the camera to compensate for fog, lol!
On the way back we stopped at the bakery:

We bought some bread and some of the famous Danish pastries!

It's a little out of focus...(I was so excited!)
As you can see I have had the most fantastic week! I'm linking up with Virginia at Rocking your World Friday.

That is all from me this morning. I'm trying to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time for Friday Smiles so here is my smiley photo:

Happy Friday,

Blessings,

Lisca