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 - Saturday 21 Nov 2015 - Belarus

Good Morning! 
It's weekend! Whoopee!
Are you going to do something exciting? Or is it a normal workday for you? (I used to be a nurse, so weekends didn't mean anything to me. And if i were working I knew that I'd be working with a skeleton staff.i.e. we'd be much busier).

Here is one of the cards I received this week from Belarus:

I like it very much. It is a map of the country with the relevant national costumes. 

I already had another card from the same series:

Beautiful, aren't they?

The stamp on the first card is very colourful:

In reality the red is bright red. This photo doesn't do it justice. The ladybird on the stamp is also embossed. 

The ladybird is called the Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata.  This 22-spot ladybird is different to other ladybirds because it eats mildew, unlike all other ladybirds who eat aphids. 

The other card I got this week from Belarus is this one:

Grain pudding. I have no idea what grain berries are so it will be difficult to make this at home. 

Again I already had a card from the same series with a potato pancakes recipe on it (which I shared with you a while ago).  

The stamp is very special. I can't read Belarussian but I reckon it is a painting by Marc Chagall.

OK, I've just looked it up and it is from a series of stamps about artists of the Paris school that were born in Belarus. They are Ossip Zadkine (the lake), Ossip Lubich (landscape with red roof), Chaim Soutine (Eva) and Marc Chagall (two lovers):

In case you wondered what the letters N and M stand for,  N is for surface mail abroad, and M is for air mail abroad.

That's it from me today.

Have a lovely weekend,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 6 Nov 2015 Friday Smiles

Hello peeps! 

It's Friday and I am linking up with Annie at a stitch in time for Friday Smiles. 

I like postcards with national costumes. I got sent this card from the US:

It is a photo from 1900 and shows a native American girl. 
But this is the one I like most:

This is (was) Sarah Winnemucca (1844-91), a native American rights activist. She gained fame as a translator and negotiator for the US army. She traveled extensively and lectured on behalf of her people and later established a school for native American children in Nevada. 
This is a card from a series of 'Women who dared'. I like women like that, don't you? This makes me smile!

This is a more modern card, it's more in the 'cutie' league:

She is from Southwest United States. Are you smiling?

And here is my 'funny' for this week. Unfortunately it has the F word in it, which I don't like,(and if you don't either, you can look away now). But otherwise it is quite funny:

Have a smiley Friday,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 9 Oct 2015 Friday Smiles

Good Morning! 

I didn't do a blog yesterday. I felt so tired I had a sleep day. Do you ever feel like that? 

But today I feel fine again and I can share a few things with you all. The weather here is on the turn. I still wear sandals and T-shirts but in the evening we certainly need a cardigan or jacket. Today it started to rain just as we started to eat and we had to stop and put table and chairs indoors. (Yes, we still eat outside). This is what we had today: bubble and squeak! 

A typical English winter dish! But my DH fancied it, so I went: 'Your wish is my command', got some leftovers out of the fridge and there we are. Very nice it was too!

And here is my postcard for today:

It was sent to me by Olga who lives in Moscow, Russia. She tells me she likes reading and that she is enjoying historical novels at the moment. I love the card. It shows how you can lose yourself in a book and visit a different world. The watch on the floor seems to indicate that time stops when you read. I'm into fantasy novels at the moment and have just finished reading the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb.

The stamps on this card are fabulous:

The stamp on the left is from a series called Culture of Russian People. It is a National Head dress - Middle of XIX Century, Nizhniy Novgorod Province.

The middle stamp is from the series of Kremlins (=fortifications). This one is the Kolomna Kremlin.

The triangular stamp on the right is from a series of decorative and applied art: Lace. 

I'm linking in with 'A stitch in time' for Friday smiles.
Here is my contribution

One of my Canadian relatives shared this with me. She is a quilter and cannot resist a piece of nice fabric!

That's it from me. 

Have a great week everyone.

See you tomorrow,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 2 Oct 2015 Friday Smiles

Good Morning! It's Friday! That means we share our smiles this week. Have a look yourself at Friday Smiles.

My week has been excellent. Daughter plus 10 yr old grandson stayed for 5 days. A good time was had by all. On Wednesday we drove them back to Malaga airport (3 hour drive). As we were in that part of the country, we then went to visit my sister and her man in Marbella and we stayed the night there. Lovely! They live on the coast. In the evening we walked down the road to the beach and had dinner in one of those 'chiringitos' (beach restaurants). Fantastic! Good food, live music and the waves rolling just yards from your feet. 

We are now back home and things will get back to normal....

Here is my postcard for today. It is one from Russia:

Asya, who wrote the card, did not give me much information about this picture. I managed to decipher the Russian word on the back of the card ('Tungus') and did some research:

Formerly known as the Tungus or Tunguz, the Evenks are an Indigenous People of central and eastern Siberia, Mongolia, and Inner Mongolia.

In addition to the general name, the Evenk (or Evenki, which means simply "person" or "people") also identify themselves by the names of their clans.

In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of roughly 35,500 people. In China, the Evenki are one of 56 Indigenous Peoples recognized by the People's Republic of China, with a population of 30,500.

Their clothing is absolutely beautiful. I found some photos on the internet.

I read that the patterns are beaded.

THe next few are antique examples of the bead work:

The stamps are beautiful too:

The two stamps on the left are of the series of Kremlins (fortifications), and the large one is from a series of contemporary fine art. But I have not been able to find out the artist.

Now for a little smile:

This is the sign outside the Crown Hotel in Llandegla in North Wales. It's a beautiful hotel, but someone was obviously taking the mickey. I would have definitely gone in with that sign by the door!

This is what it looks like:

That is all from me today. I hope you all have a good week with lots of smiles.

Blessings,

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