A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 8 June 2021 - T for Mucha, Monaco and Moomins

 

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today I have three cards for you as I have such a large pile of postcards to get through, I'm combining. 

The theme today is the turn of the century. For me, as a lover of history, that is a fascinating time. Lots of things changed. I'm thinking technology, education, economic change, human rights, women's rights etc. 

In the art world Art Nouveau (or Jugenstil or Modernista) was the 'new style' with its long fluid lines. I love it. Especially the architecture (Think Gaudi). The art on my postcards this week is all made around 1900. First off is Topaz (1900) by Alfons Mucha, a Czech painter who lived from 1860-1939.

This card was sent to me from Northern Germany.

The next card also has an image by Mucha.

This one is called 'Dance' painted in 1898. It came to me all the way from Japan from Emi, who was celebrating her 60th birthday on the same day as I was celebrating my 70th. She writes that she is looking forward to meeting her friend whom she hasn't seen since the beginning of Corona.

 

The stamps are gorgeous. The top one features the Moomins.

The Moomins are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Swedish-speaking Finnish illustrator Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of white, round fairy tale characters with large snouts that make them resemble hippopotamuses. Wikipedia

From left to right, Sniff, Moominmamma, Moominpappa, Moomintroll (Moomin) and Little My

Below is a photo of the lady who wrote and designed the Moomins: Tove Jansson. (9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001)

In a letter to Paul Ariste, an Estonian linguist, Jansson wrote in 1973 that she had created an artificial word which expresses something soft. She came up with an ad hoc Swedish word mumintrollet, because, in her opinion, the consonant sound of m in particular conveys a sensation of softness. As an artist, Jansson gave the Moomins a shape that also expresses softness, as opposed to flabbiness.

The last card is also from 1900 and is a travel poster advertising Monaco, and inparticular the motorboat show and races (Canots automobiles  are motorboats in French). The artist is Elio Ximenes (1855-1926).

This card comes to me from Arizona in the USA. And is adorned with beautiful stamps. I love the one with the Mayflower, and another one with what I thought was an orchid and an artichoke. In fact it is a boutonniere (buttonhole in English). Read about it here.

Above the stamps is some really pretty washi tape with books. 

OK, so much for my postcards. 

Today is Tuesday and time for the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. My drink is a glass of Radler (Lager with lemon) at our favorite restaurant.

My soup is a cold soup called Salmorejo. It is a sort of gazpacho with pieces of Iberico ham and hard boiled egg.

But I would also like to show you my mum's drink:

This is my mum in Holland while talking to me on the phone. It was her 97th birthday last Saturday. She is an amazing lady, still living independently. Travel restrictions have been relaxed a little bit and my sister was able to fly over and stay with her for a few days to celebrate.

We've had a very quiet week as hubby's platelets were too low for the chemo, so he has had another week's respite. He busies himself building a large chicken house on the roof terrace of the cave house (next door):

He is taking a picture of me, taking a picture of him!

Here am I:

(It will be a chicken palace if you ask me!)

I have another drink reference:

This was my breakfast the other day: cereal, fruit and soya milk.

Yesterday we went shopping. We wanted grapefruit. They are difficult to find here, but in this supermarket (the second one we tried) they had some.

Another rarity is rye bread, or any brown bread in fact. We found some and I am posing with it.

A new store had opened and we went to check it out. It turned out to be one of those Chinese super bazaars and we always come away with more than what's on our list. In this case we bought two patio chair cushions.

You can tell we've had an uneventful week when I post pictures of our shopping trip. Oh well, better too quiet than too eventful.

That's all for now ladies,

Have a happy T-Day,

Stay safe,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 4 June 2021 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely ladies, I have another postcard to share with you today. It comes from the Czech Republic. 

The message translates: ´Cycling greetings from the Giant Mountains´. To me they look like a group of train conductors, but they could be postmen of course. I don't know.

The stamps are  quite beautiful. 

There is a Lily of the Valley on the left. At the center we see a fighter plane. The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer developed in Czechoslovakia by Aero Vodochody. 

It was designed during the 1960s as a replacement for the Aero L-29 Delfín as a principal training aircraft. It was the first trainer aircraft to be equipped with a turbofan powerplant. The type was exported to a wide range of countries as a military trainer.(Wikipedia)

The stamp on the right is a 2020 Christmas stamp.

I hope you have all had a good week. Our week has had many highlights and the weather has been sunny and bright, so I really can't complain. On Thursday night we collected our new dining chairs, which had been a few months on order. The factory that makes them had to close down during Covid lockdown and the shop had no idea when (and if) the chairs would be delivered. But eventually they did appear, and we love them.

Saturday we went out with our Danish friends (and neighbors). They hadn't been able to come to Spain at all since more than a year. We took them to a place that had dark beer and wickedly delicious triple burgers. I was the only one that had a normal bap with pork fillet and tomato jam. The chicken dish in the middle is the tapa we got with our drinks. It looks a bit messy because we were all tucking in.

On Sunday we usually take it easy and watch church services and I cook something simple, like this rice dish. I cook my rice in an electric pan called the Remoska. I have had it for 20 years and I swear by it for certain things. It's like a mini oven (It's not a rice cooker)

This is what a Remoska looks like:

I bought mine at Lakeland and it was meant for the caravan. But I liked it so much that I bought a second on for the house.

I still use it quite a bit. Anything you can do in an oven, you can cook in the Remoska (size permitting).

On Monday we had our new soft water system installed. What a difference it makes! Now I wish we didn't do it earlier. 

I found an insect in our patio that I had never seen before. I hope it's not that new invasive bug with its nasty sting.

I also made a quick banana cake as there were two overripe bananas in the pantry. I have several banana cake recipes, but this is the quickest. I use a round rice ring. (Recipe at the bottom).

On Tuesday we had to go to the hospital for hubby's blood tests and Covid test. In the car park we saw a fake duck with her ducklings and also a tortoise (also made of stone).

When we got back I stopped at the market to buy some cinnamon.

Later that day we went out to our favorite restaurant to celebrate the last day of hubby's 'week off' the chemo.

The next day we went to the hospital for hubby's chemo, only to be told that his platelets are too low (again). So no chemo, and another week off. Of course hubby is very pleased with another week in which he can work on his chicken run. Like last week, the cherry man was selling cherries again through the fence, straight from the trees!

In the afternoon we went to our plot as we had bought some fruit trees in the market. We met mama partridge with her brood on the track. I took the photo out of the car window. I hope you can see them:

Yesterday was a bitty day. I made a lasagna from scratch, making a bolognese sauce in the morning, and after coffee I made a cheese sauce, then I put the whole thing together and stuck it in the oven. I usually make a large one so there will be two meals worth going in the freezer.

I'm writing this on Thursday evening just before midnight. It's time for bed. Tomorrow morning I will link in with Annie at A Stitch In Time and with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

And yes, there will be some funnies at the end.

Wishing you all a great weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 1 June 2021 - T for Russian newspapers and Dutch national costume

 Hello, good morning lovely ladies!

It-s Tuesday again and time for our T-Party! Yes, the famous T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. All you need to join in the fun is an image of (or even a reference to) a beverage.

That said, I'm going to start off with my postcard for today. This one comes from Russia as you might have guessed. It depicts a newspaper from 1910. That is all I can decipher. 

It was sent to me by Ulyana at the end of March. She writes that the temperature is below freezing where she is and she also draws a little sun, so I assume it is sunny as well.

Let's get to the matter at hand. This is the rice I cooked the other day. It has bacon lardons, onion, bell peppers and sweetcorn. My drink is a Bitter Kas (non alcoholic Campari)

On Sunday morning our drink was rooibos tea (redbush) with scrambled eggs on rye. We don't get any other bread than white around here, so when I found this rye bread in one of the supermarkets, I jumped for joy!

Hubby is on his week of 'rest', meaning he is not taking any chemo pills this week. So we have been out with our friends (and neighbors) for lunch and instead of ordering a dessert, we went to our favoraite ice cream shop.

Eusebio (the owner) makes his own ice cream to traditional recipe. All natural ingredients. He spends the winter (when they are closed) making the cones. They are deliciously biscuity.

This is the outside. I might have shown you this before...

When my husband is having his chemo, he can't have anything cold. It is one of those side effects of this particular chemo therapy. He can't eat or touch anything cold. So ice cream is out of the question. But during his week off, the effects are reduced, so he is so happy he can have his beloved ice cream!

Yesterday, we had a professional plumber roll up as we have ordered a water softening system. In our village we have very hard water, and appliances break down within a couple of years because of the 'kettle stone'. 

This thing will pay for itself in a year's time. 

I had taken everything off the shelves in my pantry thinking I would not be able to get at anything, but look! Plenty of room, so all my items can go back on the shelf.

Now for something completely different. Our Dutch friend down the road had his parents visiting this past week. As we know the parents well, we couldn't wait to get together, but had to wait until hubby's rest week. So we finally got together the other day. The village where they come from is called Spakenburg, it is one of the few villages in the Netherlands where people still wear traditional costume. Nowadays only older people do, unfortunately. When our friend's grandmother died, she left all her traditional dress. 

I have permission from my friend's parents, Jan and Maaike to write about grandma, and they have kindly given me a couple of photos of her.

Here she is:

Her name is(was) Lutje Huijgen.

This is what the costume looks like (photo from internet):

And from the back:

Those shoulder parts are starched pieces of material. They are called 'kraplappen'. Oma (grandma) Lutje had many of them. Ladies that have lost a loved one have darker 'kraplappen'. This again is from the internet, just to show you:

My friend Maaike had inherited a lot of those shoulder strips. 

She painstakingly 'de-starched' them, and then sewed them together to make a curtain for her daughter-in-law in Spain.

The red band is also part of the national costume.

You can see Jan (Maaike's husband)'s legs (He is holding up the curtain). The 'kraplappen'  Oma Lutje is wearing in the photo is right at the top. (Sort of Paisley motif).

Of course I had to pose too:

Here is Oma Lutje again. Maaike has made masks from the sleeves. 

She is a clever lady. She has an Instagram page called Eco_Maaike for those who are interested. (In English).

That was it from me today. I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. 

Happy T-Day everyone!

Hugs,

Lisca