A Postcard A Day - Friday 10 July 2020 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely girls, it's Friday again and time to share what made us smile this week. Of course I will share a postcard with you as there were a few that landed in my mailbox. 

This card came from the Netherlands, in fact it comes from a place called Soest, right in the centre of the Netherlands. It was sent to me by Maruscha, who works for Museum Soest and is a card designer. The image on the card she sent me is actually fussy cut! Can you imagine cutting all those windows?

The museum has all sorts of exhibitions, some about the history of the area, some of work by local artists. 

The building used to be a convent (St Josef's convent) where the nuns looked after the elderly and also ran a school for girls and in the evening taught sewing. By 1965 the elderly were being looked after by social services and there were very few nuns left, so the place closed. 

 The stamp on the card is very interesting. I hadn't seen it. It's about Jan Janssonius.

Johannes Janssonius was a Dutch cartographer and publisher who lived and worked in Amsterdam in the 17th century.

So, what has happened this week. What were the highlights in my week?

Last Friday morning I went for a long walk with my friend. We came past a lavender field being harvested. We asked the tractor man if we could pick a bunch of lavender and he said yes, so that was lovely. I love the smell. I am always amazed by the size of the thistles that grow here! So I had to pose next to one.

In the evening we went to eat at our friends' house and (as they are Mexican) she cooked 'nachos' among other things. Yummy!

 We opened our first bottle of kombucha with a second fermentation. It was raspberry and was absolutely delicious with the right amount of fizz. Delicious!

 Hubby had bought a pump on Saturday and on Sunday it needed to be used. He does not like to work on the Lord's day but the irrigation system people have allocated Sunday as the day we would be able to access water, so water was pumped into a reservoir and from there to a higher reservoir. Needless to say hubby is 'pleased as Punch' with his new pump (the expression we use is 'chuffed to goolies' which won't mean anything to those outside the UK).

 On Monday another walk. This time among the olive plantations. Hubby bought two water containers. They are 1 m cubed, so they contain 1000 litres. 

 On Tuesday I went to the market while hubby spent almost the whole day cleaning the containers, as they were second hand and had had oil in them. He wants to use them for irrigation water.

 Wednesday was one of those 'potter' days, where you sort of potter about the house doing all sorts of things that need doing. I managed to frame my jigsaw puzzle. Hubby will hang it up soon.

 Thursday we went into town to the optician (on the scooter for easy parking). We stopped for coffee too. I really missed not being able to do that during the lockdown.

The jigsaw I have hung up is by one of my favorite artists Colin Thompson. This particular one is called the Higgledy Piggledy House.  Here is a better image for you to see:

He also has one called The Craft cupboard, which is on my wish list:

Isn't it fun?

That is all from me today. As usual I have put some funnies at the end. I have included some posters. It seems people have been amusing themselves by posting stupid and funny posters in their neighbourhood.  Some are funny, and some are a bit 'lame', or silly. Oh well, judge for yourself.

I'm going to join Annie at A Stitch In Time and I'll also visit Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

Have a great weekend and a good week following that.

Stay safe,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 7 July 2020 - T for coffee, long walks and water containers

Hello lovely girls,

How are you all today? Today is the day of the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. We all share a beverage, so lets kick off with mine:

 This is my coffee machine. It is called a Senseo. It works with flat pads. Unfortunately the nice fancy coffees that I used to buy in Holland, are unavailable here, so I have to drink plain coffee. not the cappuccino choco that I love so much.
Hubby's coffee is another story. When we were in Italy last year, hubby loved the espresso that my son makes. We went out to buy a bag of that same coffee that he uses.

Then he makes coffee in this tiny espresso machine (for one person).

I still haven't received many cards. There was one and I featured that in my Friday blog. So I will show you a card that I sent. The fellow that I sent this card to is and ex-army man in the German army. He is interested in military history and loves vintage postcards.

On this card you see a German military band marching on Guernsey, which was occupied by the Germans in 1940.

 Remember I talked about St John's Wort? I have left it out in the sun and it has already turned red, and that oil can be used for burns and small wounds.

My kombucha was a great success with my hubby, and I love it too of course. I had varied results with the secondary fermentation. But the raspberry was definitely my favorite so far.

 I have gone on a walk with my friend Antonia. Here you can see an apricot tree full of fruit.

 The irrigation system was working.

The water flows through canals and gets chanelled by opening and closing those little sluice gates.

 We also spotted some grapes.

 This is the road through the olives

 I spotted an oleander shrub, that normally grows in the middle between the two carriage ways of the motorway.
We heard from a friend, that this guy sells some water tanks. We need some for our plot of land.

So we went to have a look and chose two. They are second hand and very dirty. But we have been given a special cleaning product to mix with water that will clean out the mess.

That is all the news from me today. I'm so tired (It's midnight on Monday night) that I nearly fell asleep while typing. Beddibyes as they say in our family. (Child talk for byebyes to bed)

Happy T-Day,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 3 July 2020 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely girls,

Here we are again on Friday to show each other what made us smile this week. 

First of all my postcard:

That is the pretty envelope I received yesterday. The stamps on it are gorgeous! 

This is the postcard that was inside. It's a painting by Degas (Woman combing her hair) from the Louvre Museum in Paris.

 It was sent to me by Sylvie from Florida. And she sends me this 'Cheer up' sticker. Isn't that lovely?

And here is the little Renoir sticker

 There is a story attached to this piece of mail. Sylvie had sent this on the 6th of May and then was a little upset when her letter came back to her:

But she just stuck the whole thing in another envelope (the brown one at the top) and tried again, after communicating with me to make sure I was still living at this address. I explained to her that postal services had been suspended during lockdown in many countries, and that there were very few planes flying. I am so glad she persisted as I am over the moon with her card and the decorated envelopes. It made my day. Or should I say, it made my week, or even my month!!

I am really enjoying my walks with my friend twice a week. We walk for one hour and then sit down for ten minutes and turn round and go back. Sometimes by a different route like last Friday.

 Since the photo was taken I have done some more second fermentation with different fruits to see which one we like best (that is providing the kombucha turns out well)

 The 'hiperico' we collected on Friday is called St John's Wort in English:

You put it in a jar and cover it with olive oil. Leave it in the sun for a week and it will turn red. Below you can see that mine has already turned red.

The filtered oil will be very good for burns and grazes. It was used in WWI when of course they didn't have any antibiotica, but this works very well instead.

 My friend Dian came to visit me. She had some of the above mentioned cake and she was very enthusiastic about it.

It is called a yoghurt cake. It was so easy and quick  to make. If you have a little yoghurt pot in the fridge, this is what you can do with it! I used plain yoghurt and a few drops of coconut flavoring I have in the fridge. Here is the recipe, for those who are interested:

And then it was July.......

Hubby was on his scooter behind a car, who suddenly drove backwards and bashed into  his scooter. Both parties were insured and nobody was hurt, so it is no problem. We took the scooter to the repair shop, where the insurance assessor came to look at it. Then on Thursday we collected it again and are now waiting for the repair shop to tell us when we can bring it in.

That is it from me today. Now it's off to Annie at A Stitch In Time for the Link party. As usual I have some funnies for you at the end. This time I have some curious things about the English language, which are very funny to me, not being a native speaker. (And I couldn't help slipping in another nursing/medical joke).

Have a great weekend, and those of you in the US have a great 4th July celebration.
Take care,
Hugs,
Lisca