A Postcard A Day - Friday 12 May 2017 Friday Smiles

Hello everyone! It's Friday again and I'll tell you what I have been up to this week, I will show you a postcard I have received this week and I will share some smiles.

First off is my postcard. It comes from Lithuania:

It is the beautiful Trakai Island Castle in eastern Lithuania. 
The girl who sent it to me wrote a quote on the back of the card: "Don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try" - Jack Canfield.

The stamp is lovely too:

It is the 2014 'Holy Christmas and New Year' stamp.

So, what I have I been up to this week? On Saturday I started a 'four Saturdays' course learning how to use Lightroom. It is organized by our local photo club. We had to bring a laptop. Now I mostly use my desk top computer which is  new and up to date, and sometimes my tablet, which I don't get on with really. But my laptop is old and has Windows Vista! So no surprise really that I couldn't load the software. So I have taken my laptop to my local 'computer doctor' and he is re-formatting it, putting a modern operating system in and then re-loading all my 'stuff'. It is ready now and I will pick it up later today so I can attend the second Saturday of the course. Big smile! (And three cheers for my computer guy!)

I finished another book: Ice by Kevin Tinto. It is described as a mind-blowing thriller. Well, it was a good yarn if a little far-fetched. It kept me entertained and interested, and I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

This week has been a sort of run-of-the-mill week. We've not been anywhere and have not done anything out of the routine.
Yesterday we got up earlier than usual as we wanted to go to Lidl (supermarket). They were selling linen garments and we wanted to be there early or our sizes would be sold out. In this store: when its gone, its gone. Hubby bought three shirts and a pair of bermudas. I bought two pairs of trousers and two tops. Big smiles for both of us. It gets very hot here in summer, so we love wearing linen. And living in the back of beyond with no department stores to buy clothes within a 100 mile radius, I buy my clothes either in the market or at the supermarket.

Here is a photo of our village from the air:

We live (just out of view)next to the yellow house in the top right corner. The green bit is the Paseo, the little park in the centre of the village where everybody meets everybody. 

Another smile for me is the fact that I have finished the small scrapbook I have been working on. Remember the gypsy wedding we went to last month? I've done a 6x6" scrapbook with wedding photos. I can't show you yet as I haven't given it to them yet. So watch this space.

Here is another smile:

My hubby found these Spanish digestive biscuits. They are oat biscuits with dark chocolate. I can truly say, the best chocolate biscuits I have ever tasted! I dare say better than McVities!

I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time for Friday Smiles. Do join us with something that made you smile.

I'm also going to go to Virginia at Rocking your World Friday, so I might see you there too...

I'm going to leave you wishing you a lovely day and  my advice on how to have a lovely day. These are the things I try to always do, especially the smiling at strangers. I have a habit of doing that....

So have a lovely day,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 9 May 2017 - owl mug and dancing and skipping women

Today (as every Tuesday) I'm going to join Elizabeth and Bluebeard at Altered Book Lover for the weekly T-party. Post anything with a drink in it and you can join us!

I post my postcards that I receive or send through Postcrossing and today I have a postcard with a drink in it! How cool is that!

It was sent to me by Leslie who lives on an island on the Gulf Coast (USA). The card shows a self portrait of the artist Karolina Pietón, who is Polish as far as I can make out.
I love that little owl mug on top of a pile of books. What is in the mug?Green tea, chocolate? Or .coffee or just some lemon water? What is she clutching? A hot water bottle? or a painter's palette? A just a cushion? who knows. Anyway. I like this card very much.

On Thursday I went on an outing/ walk with the women's association of the village. 

Outside the village is an old sugar factory (see photo) that was built after Spain 'lost' Cuba and had no access to sugar. It has been abandoned since the 70s, but it is very beautiful in its own sort of way. Industrial heritage I think it is called.

We walked to an old iron bridge outside the village:

More industrial heritage I suppose as it is no longer used. The railway has been abandoned too. Here is another photo:

One of the ladies had come with her Landrover and brought a table and stuff to eat and drink. Here we are having our breakfast:

She is cutting up some sweetbread from the local baker:

And there were lots of broad beans/fava beans:

Fresh from the fields, picked that morning. They are so fresh that one can eat them raw! Just peel them and enjoy:

One of the ladies teaches pilates and she did a session with us.

We did smaller walks from the bridge. One walk was to the old station (which has been restored recently). Some ladies started to sing and spontaneously people began to dance:

 Old folk dances are still alive and kicking in the place.

I took a photo of this irrigation canal. They are called acequias and have been used since pre christian times. The moors introduced this web of canals, that work on gravity. Very clever system. It is widely used to this day. I should have put my bag next to it to show you the scale... the canal is about less than a foot wide.

Lunch was bread (baguette/stick bread) with salami and cheese and fish. This is cured mackrel. Very yummy.

In the afternoon we played games like 'tug-of-war':

And we had great fun skipping, using the rope from the tug of war:

And of course we played cards in small groups. I was invited (and taught) to play a card game called 'chinchon':

The cards they use are Napolitan cards like they use in Italy. 

I really enjoyed myself. It was such a fun day!  I hope you enjoyed looking at the photos.

Happy T-Day all!,
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 5 May 2017 - Friday smiles

Hello peeps, 
It's Friday again. And today is about smiles. I hope you are all wearing one today!

My week had many smiles in spite of the fact that it rained the weekend until Sunday.

Our Danish neighbours are letting another couple stay in their house for two weeks holiday. They are both stressed out due to personal circumstances and have come to relax. Well, that was not to be: (probably because of the rain) the house was very damp and the electricity was very inconsistant for a while and then packed up completely. Meaning they couldn't operate the heating system and they were cold. The was no light and no heating. How miserable can you get. We taught them to light the almond shell stove but for some reason it kept smoking and this lady has asthma. In the end we got the electrician out and he got them power again. What I want to say with all this is that most of our week has consisted of helping the Danes.

After the power was fixed, they were a lot happier. I showed them a place called Guadix, a town 55 km from where we live. It has a beautiful cathedral:

This is the main entrance.

The pavement is typical Andalucian

 There were many of these beautiful doors.

 There was a museum attached to the cathedral and was included in the price. This vestment is all gold embroidered!

This one too.

This book didn't have an explanation by it but I think it is ancient notation of Gregorian chant.

Now for a few funny photos:

This is our dear cat, no, not roaring. He was yawning!

This beauty was growing along the side of the road. It is far from our house so I won't be able to come back and see the flowers which would come out probably the next day (or night).

Now for my postcard: 

It comes from Portugal. It features the Alfama district of Lisbon, best known for its 'Fado' clubs. (fado clubs are clubs in which people come to hear fado music, obviously. fado is a sad, somber, emotional kind of music, with a mellow atmosphere. you can order food and drinks there, and listen to the entertainment.)

The stamp is beautiful too. It shows the Arrabida bridge in Porto.

I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time to join in with her Friday Smiles. I'm also joining Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday. I hope you will join us too.

Bye for now,

Lisca

Second on the second - A post from 2014

Here is my contribution  for Second on the second. It is a blogpost from May 2014 when we visited a friend in Granada. We have fond memories of that weekend.

It features a breakfast table on the terrace with the obligatory drinks on it.

Here it is:

Hello peeps,

Thank you for stopping by. 

Today a bit more about our life here in Andalucia, Spain. Last weekend Gray and I were invited by a friend in Granada (our nearest city) to spend the weekend there. Although it is only an hour’s drive from where we live, we have only been a couple of times. Granada is beautiful.

Our friend lives in the old part, called the Albaicin. This is her street. (No cars as it's very narrow)

 She has a terrace on the roof where we had breakfast every morning. There is a beautiful view of the Alhambra, the famous palace from the time of the last sultan. (We visited the Alhambra a few years ago and it is stunningly beautiful.)

 This building, in the same style as the Alhambra, we just found by walking around. I don't think it has a name. It's just a building hidden away in a little side street but it's very old and very beautiful. Granada is full of surprises...

On Sunday night our friend also had a surprise in stall for us and she took us to a club where we had lessons in salsa dancing! Great fun! 

I hope all of you have had a good weekend too. That's it for now.

God bless and..... keep scrapping!

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 2 May 2017 T for crosses, drinks, stamps and a donkey

Hello peeps,
It's Tuesday again. Are you all coming to the T-party? Elizabeth hosts T for Tuesday at  Altered Book Lover, so please join us with a blogpost with a drink in it.

I have several drinks to show you, but first I would like to share a few more photos from my photo club outing last week.

As we walked past, this donkey just popped his head out of the window. Gotcha! Donkeys are still used here by the older people on their land and seeing a donkey in the village is quite normal.

When they are not working their little patches of land, the older folk often do this sort of basket weaving. My neighbour does it too and he sometimes gives me something he made. On our walk last week we saw this:

Someone probably knew we were coming along with about 90 people and saw an opportunity.

I rather like the bottle holder and behold my first drink for the T-party:

The photoclub does a sort of a challenge every month with a theme. The theme this month was 'red' and this is my entry:

Of course I was at the bottom of the league table, but that doesn't matter. It was my first attempt and I have already learnt quite a bit.

Ok, what's been happening here in Spain? This weekend was the May cross festival. Everywhere in the village people, businesses and associations decorate a cross. Some outside on public squares, some indoors in businesses or clubs. 
Sunday morning we got up early to go to a certain bar/restaurant here in the village that does lovely churros 

(I featured them last week I think). On Sundays they do them from 7-11 in the morning. We went there early, before going to church. As it was the May Crosses festival, the bar had a cross in it too, representing something 'foodie' items and something typical of the area.

The name of the bar is El Patio de Angela.

The first glass is a bit wonky (purposely?)

A pair of flamenco dancing shoes (size cutesy small).
My friend works in the main hospital in Granada in the department for vascular surgery. This is theirs:

As per usual there are artifacts typical of the region and the board with the dancing lady is for the nurses to have fun with as there is a hole to put your face in.

They even had a plaque made for the occasion.

Now, lets not forget my postcard today. This week I received three from Russia. This is one of them:

It had some gorgeous stamps on it:

The triangular stamp is about Arts and crafts: shawls.

The green one is from 2010: Culture of Peoples of Russia - Head dresses of the Republic of Tatarstan - Kamchat burek.

The one on the right is from 2009 with another head dress: Culture of Russian People - National Head dress - Middle of XIX Century, Nizhniy Novgorod Province.

The card was sent to me by Liuba who lives in the Siberian city of Tomsk. She writes about the main event each spring when the main river that runs through her town reopens from the ice. She writes:"It happened with a lot of noise and cracking. The blocks of ice carry to the shore. Interesting and impressive sight."

I think I'll leave it at that. 
Happy T-Day all!
Lisca