A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 9 April 2019 - T for stamps, mother and coffee

Good Morning!

"That life may always serve us little cups of love".

Here we are on Tuesday, ready to join the T-party, organized by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. Do join us with a blogpost that has a beverage in it.

As you know I usually start by showing you some of the postcards that i have received this week. This one comes from the USA and pictures the  French quarter of New Orleans. Isn't it pretty. I have never been to new Orleans and what I know of it is the devastation of hurricane Katrina. 

 It was sent to me by someone who had visited new Orleans and had bought this card. The blurb on the card reads: "Along the narrow streets of the French Quarter, visitors discover lacey iron balconies, quiet courtyards, legendary old buildings and the historic St Louis Cathedral."

The stamps are lovely.

 The red stamp bottom right is the 2017 Lunar New Year stamp, designed by Kam Mak and issued by the United States Postal Service.

“We give red envelopes, called ang pao, to kids on the Lunar New Year, full of money, to protect them from evil spirits. If you’re over 30, you shouldn’t be taking red envelopes. It’s embarrassing. It’s for kids.”

The other red one is interesting as it looks quite old. I looked it up and it is a was issued in 1948:

This 1948 5¢ New York City Jubilee stamp commemorates the 50th anniversary of the consolidation of New York’s five boroughs  into a central government of New York City, encompassed by wedding ring as symbol of its incorporation. It was the first airmail stamp to commemorate an event not related to airmail history.

The seashell stamp was issued in 2017 and features an Alphabet Cone: The word "POSTCARD" on the stamps indicates their usage value. Like a Forever® stamp, these stamps will always be valid for the rate printed on them.

The next card comes from Russia. I have put in my profile that i love cooking, so people sometimes send me recipes. This card is about a soup called borscht.

 The ingredients are on the front and  the recipe is on the back:

There was hardly any room left to write as there were so many stamps on the back, and they are really stunning. I always research the stamps because I find them really interesting. 

I don't collect stamps or know much about them, but as i scan these to show you, I find the designs pretty and fascinating. So I go to good old mr Google and look for some more info....

The brown one on the left celebrates the 225th Anniversary of the Insurance industry in Russia.

And the pretty lady with the elaborate hat is from the series Culture of Russian people - National Head dress - Middle of XIX Century, Nizhniy Novgorod Province.

The stamp with the flowers is a joint Russia & PDR of Korea issue: Gladiolus gandavensis.
The stamp on the left with the building features the Pekrovsk Cathedral.

Contemporary Russian art:

I have been sending a lot of postcards this week and I have written some letters. Remember I said I had downloaded some letter art. Well here are some more. I coloured them with normal coloured pencils (I don't think I've done any colouring since infant school!). These two letters are on their way as from today.

Apart from writing cards and letters and playing my favorite online game Elvenar we haven't been up to much. The weather is absolutely foul. Storm raging, rain and mist. Snow on higher ground. Typical weather to stay indoors.

Luckily there is always some sun during the day, and I was able to take this photo out of the window to show you that there is snow in the sierra (I know they don't look very high, but we are on 3000ft, so they looks like little hills)

I am a member of the local photo club and last month the theme was 'old age'. After everyone had entered their photos, we gather at the pub and go through the photos to discuss them. I am the third on the right with an orangey cardigan.

My photo was one of my mum (95) that I had taken in Holland when I was visiting. A cousin of mine has photo equipment such as lights and a black curtain. She did a photo shoot, but when she had finished she let me take some with my camera. This is the result:

Unfortunately my photo got disqualified as I had reduced it, but I had reduced it too much. They had changed the parameters for 2019 and I hadn't cottoned on. Oh well...

But we did have drinks and tapas with some friends  this week:

And breakfast in town one day. I had my usual 'cafe cortado' and hubby had his 'cafe con leche'. With tis coffee I am joining the T-Party!

That's it from me for today. I wish you all a very happy T-Day.

Many blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 5 April 2019 - Friday Smiles

Good morning lovely ladies,

How are you all? Today is Friday and I'd like to share some postcards, some paper crafting and some funnies with you. (All of which have made me smile. What about you?)

First off is a postcard from Japan which I really liked. A cute girl swimming among the koi in a kimono. Michiko sent it me. She lives in Tokyo.

 She has used some nice stamps and has put washi tape all around the card.

The top stamp celebrates the 15th International Puppet Festival in 1988.

The second card comes from Russia. I have no information about the artist, but I do like this image in the style of the old pin-ups.

 The stamps are gorgeous and big. The one on the left with the horses is about native horse breeds. This breed being the Vladimir breed.

The middle stamp is a joint issue Thailand/Russia and features state rulers. The right hand stamp is from a series about railway uniforms.

My week has been very routine. Nothing out of the ordinary. Yesterday being Thursday, I spent the day in my craft room. This time I made some cards. I had received a card that was folded in a certain way. I copied the idea and made three cards of the same design.

 Then in the afternoon I made a scrapbook double page on Kraft paper.

 It is about Juan, one of our friends, who is a professional artist. Our daughter Tracey had celebrated her birthday a short while before coming to Spain to visit us. So we celebrated her birthday again. Our friends clubbed together and paid Juan to create a caricature of Tracey as a birthday present to her. She was delighted with the result.

I have some funnies too for you as usual. You'll find them at the end.

I'm off to Annie at A Stitch In Time and to Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday. 

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 2 April 2019 - T for Bakewell pudding, The Old Woman and the copper pot

Good morning all! The above picture says: A hug with love!
Today is the first T-party in April. I hope you will join us at Elizabeth and Bluebeard's with a blogpost that has a beverage in it. 

It is also the right day for Second on the 2nd, where we show a blog post from the past for te second time. At the end of this blog you will find my Second on the 2nd.

My first postcard today comes from the UK. From a small town called Bakewell.

Bakewell is a small market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, well known for the local confection Bakewell pudding. It is located on the River Wye, about thirteen miles southwest of Sheffield. In the 2011 census the civil parish of Bakewell had a population of 3,949.

 I have been there several times and on one occasion my parents were gifted a balloon trip for their 50th wedding anniversary. My mum chickened out at the last minute and I took her place! It was amazing. We flew over Bakewell and the Peak district. Amazing!
The card features a Bakewell pudding.

Bakewell pudding is an English dessert consisting of a flaky pastry base with a layer of sieved jam and topped with a filling made of egg and almond paste.
Here is a link to the recipe. 
Link
I prefer a Bakewell tart which is similar but has a shortcrust pastry base.

My second card comes from Lithuania and freatures a pretty window in a wooden traditional house.

The stamp is beautiful. I had to look up what it was about:

Ąžuolynas is a public park in Lithuania's second largest city, Kaunas. The park covers about 84 hectares and is the largest urban stand of mature oaks in Europe. Vydūnas Alley serves as the park's northern border. It is a popular recreational destination for the inhabitants of Kaunas.

So, what has been happening here in Spain? Wednesday was a local day off, (No gym for me). Caniles celebrated La Vieja, which means: the old woman.

Caniles celebrates "the day of the Old Woman", a festive day in the middle of Lent. These photos are from the local newspaper.

Wednesday Caniles celebrated its traditional "Day of the Old Woman ", a party that has its origin in the popular tradition of "half-way Lent" to cushion the rigors of it, especially fasting and abstinence.
A day of great popular roots and which consists of going out to  spend a day of food or snacks in the country using a bull that was obtained by the people of Caniles to eat meat just on the Wednesday that splits Lent in two. 

But a day earlier, the brotherhood of San Sebastian dress as "old women" and visit the school, the market, and the City Hall where women offer pieces of cake to pedestrians. ( men also dressed as "old women" )

 In other places of Spain and in some towns of the Diocese they celebrate this day. The explanation of why an old woman would be the following: just as Don Carnal-the carnival-was fat and likable, Lent is usually represented as an  old, skinny, black woman with scrawny legs.

Sometimes she is represented with a basket of vegetables and a cod in her hand (because of fasting) and seven legs (one for each week) which are removed as a "Lenten calendar" until Easter Sunday . 

I've been busy getting my little downstairs patio ready with plants etc. We went to the garden centre and bought lots of geraniums and petunias for hanging baskets. While I was looking in the shed for some pots to put them in, I came across this old pot. It belonged to my dad and I remember it hanging in the lounge at my parents' appartment.

I didn't know what it was made of but it turns out to be copper.

I looked up how to clean it and tried half a lemon dipped in salt. 

Brilliant! It worked a treat.

I haven't decided what to put in it yet.  But I will show you when I do. This is what the patio looks like now. The two climbers are Jasmin, which suffered a bit over the winter. (we have cold winters).

We had an old railway sleeper and hubby stained it, put it on some bricks to make a bench. The the ugly grey plastic drain pipes underneath were painted white and voilá.

This is the view from the living area. There is a table under the window (inside) and we made the window fairly low so I could look onto the patio while sitting at the table. 
Hubby also hung the window boxes on the wall. I absolutely love it.

There is normally an outside table and chairs in the middle as we tend to have our meals out there if it is not too hot. I have phoned the chappie who makes the sun shades. He will come in the course of this week to measure up and give me a quote.  Then we can sit in the shade.

That is it from me this week. Have a great first week of April,

take care,

Hugs,

Lisca

And I've just in time remembered                        Second on the 2nd. Here is a post from the first week of April 2015:

I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter holiday. Here in Spain Easter Monday is a normal working day so everything has gone back to normal after a hectic Holy Week. I managed to make time to make ‘pasta mandorle’, a typical Easter treat from Abruzzo in Italy (where I used to live). It has almonds, eggs and bitter chocolate in it. Yumm!

It’s Wednesday again and today I’m showing you the desk (i.e. table) with all the action. This is at my friend Antonia’s house (the lady on the right). My friends wanted to start scrapbooking and I had promised to do a session with them. We did A4 format as that format is easiest to buy things for in the local shops. I took a crate full of stash over to Antonia’s and here we are having scrapping fun. On the left is Patricia from Mexico and in the middle is Patricia from Peru. Antonia is Spanish and I am Dutch. Quite the united nations!

While we waited for the other girls to arrive Antonia showed me her cheese making equipment as she had made a lovely goat’s cheese the week before. The freshly made cheese gets put in the baskety round thing that then gets tightened. A weight is put on top so that the liquid is being squeezed out and runs along the little ‘channels’ into a bucket. Clever he?

Where in England people drink tea and in US girls drink coffee when they get together, here in Andalucia we drink ‘infusion’ or herbal drinks. Sometimes we use ‘tea’ bags we buy in the shops but more often than not they are dried herbs that have been picked locally. Some herbs are quite bitter so I usually add a leaf of Stevia ( the dried leaves in the plastic bag). 

They are real sweet. I want to watch my weight but don’t like to take artificial sweeteners. This is a really good solution.  Many of my friends are from South America, and they are in the habit of drinking a caffeinated herbal drink called ‘mate’ (pronounced: ma-tay).

 It is drunk from a special beaker and a straw. Drinking through the straw prevents you getting ‘bits’ in your mouth. 

The beaker gets passed around and everyone gets a turn. The same beaker gets filled up with hot water after each person has had a drink. These photos I got from Wikipedia as I forgot to photograph my friends’ beaker (which is a shame because hers is much nicer).