A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 15 Nov 2016 - T for cheese and crocusses

Good morning T-Gang!
Here I am a gain with a few little tings to share with you. As always on Monday night (I write this late Monday night) we are at our weekend home 40km away from where we live. Saturdays and Sundays are super busy as is Monday morning, so we escape Monday lunch time, (do the grocery shopping as it's on the way) and come here. 

We enjoy a relaxing time. I managed to sit outside in the sun for an hour to read and now we are sitting by a log fire as it gets cold as soon as the sun disappears behind the mountains. 

Guess what I found behind a stone in front of our house?

 They are a cluster of crocusses!

I think I held my finger a bit close to the lens, but you get the idea. Isn't it amazing to see flowers blooming so late in the season!

This Postcrossing postcard today arrived Friday from Lithuania.

Yummy Italian cheeses! I lived in Italy many years and I know (and like) most of them. 

These type of cards are published by Nouvelles Images and I have collected quite a few with subjects ranging from foods to antique cork screws.

The card was sent by Vilune who tells me she lives in a small town and is a dentist. She has used a nice stamp too:

From what I can glean from Wikipedia (in Lithuanian and badly translated) he was a philantropic duke who lived from 1765-1833. He is mainly known as a composer and has a modern day music festival named after him.

We found a bottle of cider at the back of the fridge and have decided to open it as the fire has made us hot and we could do with a cool drink.

And we had a light supper (On Tuesdays we always eat at a restaurant and 'pig out', so we have a modest supper on Monday. (But not so modest that we cannot have cider!)

See the cat sitting in the window sill on the outside?

I think I'll leave it at that. I am reading a good book, well, not high literature, but a so-called 'cozy mystery' that I got really cheap for my Kindle (e-book). I read number one in the series and got hooked. They are called Rose Gardner Mysteries by Denise Grover Swank. I've just finished this one:

It is the first in the series. It is fast moving, believable and witty. A light read. (I've just finished reading a book about Winston Churchill by Boris Johnson and wanted a change).

Before I go off to read my book, I want to tell you that I'm going to link up with Elizabeth and Bleubeard for T for Tuesday. See you at the tea party!

Happy T-Day,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 11 Nov 2016 - Friday Smiles (photo heavy)

Good Morning! 

It's Friday and I have loads to share (photo heavy I warn you).

First of all my postcard. It is a postcard sent to me from Germany but it features beach huts in Vlissingen, in my home country The Netherlands. I am posting this card as it makes me happy just to look at the colours and think of beaches... ahhh....

The stamps are nice too:

The large stamp shows Corvey Abbey, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Westphalia.

What has been happening here? What have I been up to? What made me smile this week?
Well this weekend there was lots going on in our village. One of the things was the annual horse fair. 

There are stalls and demonstrations as well as the usual horse dealing. There was a display that I would have loved to see but it was at a time that we were at church. But a friend called Jose Ramon took some photos that I share here:

Dressage is the thing they are good at here in Andalucia:

That Sunday was also my grandson's second birthday. He lives in Italy so I couldn't join in the celebrations. They did send me lots of photos though. Here are a few:

He had an adult party as they do in Italy, when the whole family comes together.

The drum set must have been one of his presents. I hope mummy has ear plugs!

On Tuesday morning we woke up to a white world! Yes, snow! In our neck of the woods there is very little autumn. The weather sometimes changes from summer to winter in a week.
The fig tree in front of the house had snow on its leaves. Very unusual:

So I got my winter clothes out, long sleeved things and a jacket etc. And my hubby lit the fire. Oh I love it when the fire is on. We have a dual burner that burns wood (in the main bit), or almond shells (in the hopper thing on the side) which we mix with crushed olive pips. 

The top of the stove has a little oven, just big enough for one dish. I cooked in there for the last two days.

Yesterday I cooked sausage, leek and potato casserole. It was very nice indeed. 

Everything washed down with a drop of red wine of course!

Phew! That was a marathon of photographs! If you made it this far I really appreciate it.

I'm not going to let you go yet! I plan to link up with Virginia at Rocking your world Friday to share my week, and as I will be linking up with Annie at Friday Smiles, I will share something funny:

I'm sure some of us can identify with this next scenario....

Have a very happy and smiley Friday!
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 8 Nov 2016 - T for coffee, wills and Austrian desserts

Good morning T-gang! It's Tuesday again.

Winter has come! The temperatures have dropped and we have had to light the fire. I am sitting by a lovely wood fire as I write this (late Monday night).

On Thursday we went into town as we had an appointment with our lawyer about property paperwork. We thought we'd ask him about our wills while we were there. He told us we can have a will according to the law of your country of residence or according to the law of your country of origin. We have made English wills so my will is no longer valid as I am from Holland and live in Spain! So now I have to make inquiries about Dutch wills. Oh what a palaver!

After we saw the lawyer we stopped at a cafe.

And had coffee

The cup that says 'papelera' is there to put your pieces of paper in (sugar bags, till receipts etc)
And then we had to choose some cake

And decided on carrot cake!

Very yummy it was too. I couldn't have made it better myself!

My sugar bag says: 'A cup of coffee doesn't change the world but it is a good start.'

Talking about sweet things: This is a postcard I received a while ago from Austria:

I don't know what it is. The Austrians are famous for their Sachertorte, but this doesn't look like one. It does make my mouth water whatever it is!

I'm now tempted to raid the biscuit bin! But I'd better not. I'm going to Elizabeth's blog at Altered Booklover to see if I can link in with the T-gang. Please join me with anything drink related. It's great fun.

PS This weekend there was a horse fair in the village, but I will post the photos of that on my Friday blog (as there was not a drink in sight).

Have a wonderful T-Day all of you!

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 4 Nov 2016 - Friday Smiles

Good Morning! And a happy Friday to you! How has your week been? 

My week has been unusual, with lots of eating and drinking.

I still had visitors last Friday, who went out for the day on Saturday, so I spent the day baking. I made a cheese cake, a fruit loaf and an almond/pear cake. Sorry, I forgot to take photos. 

That night went out for dinner as it was their last evening. I had this meat dish slow cooked in cider. Delicious!

And my friend had king prawns wrapped in aubergines (eggplant).

Our visitors left on Sunday after church, and we were invited to lunch at friends from church. What a treat.

Monday was spent stripping beds and washing bedding etc. The things one does after visitors leave.

Tuesday is our usual day for eating out at our local. We came to the restaurant in our campervan and had to then park in the lorry car park. This lorry was parked near us.  These are all raw blocks of marble! (We live near a major marble quarry area.)

Wednesday I went to the gym and cleaned the house. Yesterday we spent a day in town as we had an appointment with the lawyer about paperwork of one of the properties. 

On the way home I suddenly remembered that my passport expires next week! I got in touch with the Dutch embassy to apply for a new passport. The earliest appointment I could get was the 13th of December. That is one day before my hubby's birthday. The embassy is in Madrid and that is too far to travel in one day. And as neither of us have ever been to Madrid I suggested we turn it into a little holiday and dear hubby will celebrate his (70th) birthday in Madrid! 

So I think it appropriate that my postcard for today is one from Madrid:

Palacio Real translates as royal palace. It is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, but I have been informed that in fact the king and his family live in a smaller palace on the outskirts of Madrid, and the Palacio Real is used for state ceremonies etc. 
This is the stamp:

You can perhaps guess what 'creatividad' means: Of course it means 'creativity'!

Now I will end with some funnies, before I go and link up with 'Rocking Your World Friday'  and Friday Smiles.

2nd Look on the 2nd - a blogpost from 2014

Hi peeps,
I remembered! It's Second on the Second! Here is a blogpost from 2014. I had had the news that I had a grandchild. Said grandchild will be two years old this week. How time flies.
Also the build of our house has progressed quite a bit.
Here is the old blogpost:

WOYWW 284 I'm a grandma

Hi Peeps! It’s Wednesday again! It comes round so quickly.

On Wednesdays around 80 crafters photograph their desk/work space and post it on their blogs. Then we all have fun hopping from one desk to another to see what people are doing. It’s a great source of inspiration and encouragement. Read more about it at Julia’s blog:http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

Here is my desk. I continue with my motto: ‘use up the stash that you have’ and I’m making Christmas cards with papers and elements from a cardmaking magazine from 2009! I love the colours.

The Christmas cards were pushed aside temporarily to make a very special card! My son in Italy and his wife have just had a baby boy! So I’ve made a little bassinet card from an Anna Griffin book. Anna Griffin was very popular a few years ago but I still like the style and from time to time I dip into my Anna Griffin box to do a project. 

Isn’t it cute? The colour is a soft olive green although it’s not very clear in the photo. My daughter-in-law doesn’t like the boy-blue/girl-pink thing and she has decorated and painted the nursery in green, so she’s getting a green card too!

I’m still crafting in the pantry and I’m finding it very cosy. As many of you have commented, I can just stretch my arm to get my hands on a large slab of dark chocolate..... (Oh temptation...)

The build of the house is going to plan although no work was done today as it rained. I had to smile at that. I’ve lived in the UK for several years. If builders went home every time it rained in England they would never ever get anything built!

Here is a photo of the building so far. It’s built over 4 floors. The men are working on the roof. We’re having a wooden roof with wooden beams, visible on the inside. (It will be tiled on the outside). The white building on the left with the green gate is also ours. The green gate is the entrance to a small vine covered court yard. From that court yard you can come into the (cave) house where inside I am typing this at the moment.

Do come in! It’s nice and warm inside. I've just made a pumpkin pie. (I made pumpkin soup the yesterday. These pumpkins are so big I have to continuously think of things to cook with it.) But the pie is definitely my favourite. I had some allspice sent to me from a friend in Mexico, and although I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, an American lady  in our church said my pies are delicious.

Thanks for visiting. I will try and visit as many of you as I can over the course of the week. Have a good week.

God bless

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 1 Nov 2016 - T for guests and roses

Good morning everyone! It’s Tuesday again. How that week flies!

Here in Spain the Halloween thing has wafted over from the USA and children here are also dressed up as witches and wear ghoulish mask. How awful. I know people think it is a bit of fun, but personally I don’t like it. So here we are, hiding away in our country ‘residence’, far from the maddening crowd so to speak.

I got some postcards in my letterbox this morning. And guess what, I received this card:

I got it from Lithuania, from a girl called Indri. Bang on theme!

I also got this one today:

This one is also very apt as we have changed to winter time on Sunday. This card came from Germany.

What have you all been up to? I have been very busy and have had visitors back to back. I do apologize for not commenting last week. I promise to make up for that this week and visit each one of you.

I’m going to link up with the lovely Elizabeth at AlteredBook Lover. Anything drink related is welcome. Well, here is mine…

My dear hubby got given a ‘grind and brew’ coffee machine, a combined gift from his children. A wonderful thing and it makes delicious coffee. He is so pleased with it. Last week we had Dutch friends staying with us. Here we are sampling the coffee from the new machine.

Later we took our guests to the ceramic shop, as she wanted to buy a mug for her son to take home. We took them to our favourite road side stall:

Remember I told you I’d been to a conference not long ago. I would like to share the beautiful paper flowers they had displayed in the church’s court yard as we came in to the conference.

Beautiful aren’t they? 

Here is a close up:

That is it from me today.

Happy T-Day and a very good week too,

Blessings and hugs,

Lisca