A Postcard A Day - Friday 8 July 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

It's Friday again and this week has really flown by. Nothing much has happened this week so I'll start with my postcard.

It is another one of the funny aunties. It comes to me from Finland and pictures the aunties diving into a hole in the ice (Brrrr!).

It's very hot here in Spain and it is good to look at a bit of snow and ice. In Finland they do dive in ice cold water as part of the sauna ritual.

The person that sent it to me is 70 years old and has been a nurse in her professional life, working for the Red Cross Blood Service.

The stamps are lovely and one of them features the aunties hoola-hooping down the stairs.

The aunties were made famous by the illustrator from Finland Inge Löök. I found this info about her on the Internet:

It was in the mid-70s that Inge Löök pseudonym of the artist, real name Ingeborg Lievonen, started working both as a graphic artist and as a gardener. At the same time, she started illustrating books and other printed material as a freelancer for various employers. Today, she feels that her drawing requires the gardening tasks to balance her every day life. When it rains and it’s dark outside it feels fine to stay inside, but not when the sun shines and it’s warm. Everything in life is about balance. It’s a great joy and fortune to do what one really enjoys.

Inge Löök drew the first four images of the aunties in 2003. These illustrations were intended as Valentine’s Day cards, but unexpectedly, the season became quite long. “I couldn’t understand why the cards became so popular and I still have a hard time understanding why two toothless and not so attractive old aunties have become this cherished. With my illustrations, I prefer to explore the inner world of the aunties, as opposed to their outer shell. I prefer to stay with the aunties in the small moments, which they share so well”, Inge Löök explains.

Her inspiration comes from things she has done with her neighbour. Together with her neighbour, Inge Löök has had wine in the tree, they have sailed with a parasol and they have had a picnic under the table. Most of the adventures of the aunties that Inge Löök has drawn show what she in real life has experienced with her neighbour.

Hubby is feeling a lot better and I have lots to smile about. Things are on the up. We went to Granada city this week for another scan, then there is one last scan (a TAC) on the 15th and then we hope to hear when the operation will be. Probably at the end of the month.

What else have we been doing this week? 

On Saturday evening we witnessed the baptism of our friends' son. It was held at the lake and it was a beautiful occasion. We were honoured to be there. As the boy is a minor (he is 15) I have blanked out his face. 

Afterwards there were soft drinks and snacks on the beach.

Another smile for me this week is my cactus. It seems to be having two little 'babies'!

I bought this cactus as a tiny little thing one day at Lidl, and look at it now.

That is all from me this Friday. As per usual, I will put some funnies at the end.

But for now I will say Goodbye and 

Have a lovely weekend,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

The map of Argentina with other countries on it to show its size.

Food Wednesday - Wednesday 6 July 2022 -

 Hello lovely ladies of Food Wednesday. I am Lisca and I normally write blogs about postcards and about our retired life here in southern Spain.

So it's only logical that I start with a postcard:

This postcard comes from Belarus and was sent by someone called Darya. She writes: "This picture shows a typical lunch of a peasant working in the field. Also, in addition to bread and milk, they would have for example salted lard. The men could go off to mow the grass and at lunchtime, their wives or children would bring food. After a break for rest and food the workers continued."

The card was sent to me in January and has a lovely Christmas stamp on it. The cancellation stamp mentions Postcrossing. This is the organisation through which I send and receive postcards. Read more about Postcrossing here, or go to www.postcrossing.com.

We live in rural southern Spain, in a village in the province of Granada. I live there with my hubby, a cat and four chickens. It gets very hot here in summer and the chickens lay less (and sometimes stop laying) . This week one of our 'ladies' struggled and laid this tiny egg. I have put a normal size egg there plus a teaspoon for comparison.

About food:

I have lived in Italy for many years before i came to Spain, so when I find a pizzeria that makes pizzas like I was used to in Italy (ie thin and crispy) I don't need much encouragement to sample the ware.

My cousin and his wife visited from the Netherlands and we went to the bar behind our house which has an excellent pizzaiolo and a proper oven. Result is these fab pizzas.

Then I did something an Italian would cringe at: I ordered pizza Hawaii! It has pieces of pineapple on it. (The Italians don't have that sort of pizza and they foo-foo it ). The first one has anchovies as well as pineapple on it.

We all loved it!

I try to keep fit (I'm in my early seventies) by going to the gym three times a week. But the gym closes in the summer (too hot. No, there is no air conditioning in the gym). After we had our last session, we all went out for a meal. It was just us girls:

I'm second from the left.

As my hubby doesn't like seafood, whenever I am out without him, I'll indulge in something 'fishy'. This time I had octopus:

 

The photo is a bit blurry, sorry. Here is a picture from the internet.

No, I was not drunk. I drank Tinto de Verano, (Just about visible in the above photo) a wine based drink with lemonade. (A ladies drink).

Wikipedia writes:

Tinto de verano (literally "summer red [wine]") is a cold, wine-based drink popular in Spain. It is similar to sangria and is typically made up of 1 part of table red wine and 1 part soda, usually lemonade. Traditional brands of soda, or gaseosa, such as La Casera, can be replicated by mixing Sprite or 7-Up with carbonated water. The drink is served over ice, often with a slice of lemon or orange.

As the name suggests, tinto de verano is usually served during the summertime. It is often home-made, or bought ready-bottled from supermarkets. In the Costa del Sol and other Southern regions of Spain it is common for locals to drink tinto de verano as it is easy to make oneself, or has many variations of pre-prepared varieties for the same price as many cola drinks. Sangria is considered more commercial and "touristy" as it requires more time to make and is often sold in restaurants at a more expensive price, whereas tinto de verano is common at parties, festivals, and dive bars where drinks are affordable and consumed in volume.

Before I go, I'd like to show you what I had for dessert:

(You can tell I really liked my octopus. I ate every scrap)

This dessert was really yummy. It is called chocolate coulant. Coulant means flowing and as soon as you stick your spoon in it, warm chocolates flows out of the center. It is utterly delicious.

I have probably left you hungry now. I hope you are prompted to prepare something delicious for your family (or for yourself).

Buen provecho (bon appetite),

and see you next month.

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 5 July 2022 - T for airports and planes

 Hello lovely ladies,

It is Monday night again and here I am writing another blogpost. As many people are going on holiday and as many airports here in Europe are terribly short-staffed and chaotic, I thought I'd show you are postcard with a photo of Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam) in the 1930s:

The card was part of a series sold to celebrate 100 years Schiphol, which dates from 1916. Here is a link to an article about its history.

The stamp is interesting:

It's a stamp on a stamp. This particular one was issued to celebrate the stamp exhibition in 1977 called Amphilex. And it depicts a stamp that in its day (1898) was issued to celebrate the inauguration of Wilhelmina a s queen of the Netherlands in 1898. 

Amphilex was a major international stamp exhibition that took place in the Netherlands a total of three times: in 1967, in 1977 and in 2002. 'Amphilex' is an abbreviation of 'AMsterdam PHILatelic EXhibition' (Amsterdam Stamp Exhibition).

In 1977 four stamps of 55 cents appeared, with a surcharge of 45 cents. 

All stamps were designed by Wim Crouwel . All stamps contain several scaled-down reproductions of stamps depicting Queen Wilhelmina .

Wilhelmina was born in 1880, the daughter of King Willem III and his wife Emma, ​​who was more than forty years younger. When she was four years old, Wilhelmina's only living (half)brother, Alexander, died and she became the official heir to the throne. From then on, her upbringing became even stricter. Emma was appointed guardian and regent of Wilhelmina in connection with the advanced age of William III. In 1890 the king died after a short illness. Emma then became Queen Regent and thus the first female head of state in the Netherlands.

Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont was Queen of the Netherlands and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg as the wife of King-Grand Duke William III. An immensely popular member of the Dutch Royal Family, Queen Emma served as regent for her daughter, Queen Wilhelmina, during the latter's minority from 1890 until 1898. Wikipedia

On August 31, 1898, Wilhelmina turned eighteen and with that she also received the authority to take on the government. The inauguration of Wilhelmina as Queen of the Netherlands took place a week after her eighteenth birthday. On September 5, she arrived in Amsterdam with her mother and made a festive tour through the city. The actual inauguration took place a day later. At the end of the morning, the new queen walked from the Royal Palace on Dam Square, dressed in the famous ermine cloak that her grandfather King Willem II had worn in 1840, to the Nieuwe Kerk for the ceremonial ceremony. Meanwhile the bells tolled and cannon shots rang out.

In the church, Wilhelmina then took the oath to the constitution and read her inauguration speech. This included the conviction that kingship should be regarded as a God-given assignment.

So what have we been up to this week? We have had my cousin and his wife visiting from the Netherlands. (They live in Friesland in the north of the country).

They came in a caravan and stayed on a camp site near us, then came to see us from there. Of course we went out for something to eat. Hubby had had some dental treatment and couldn't eat. So the three of us went to eat pizza locally. Just behind our house they make excellent pizzas, thin and crispy, cooked in a special pizza oven.

I will show the pizzas on Wednesday (Food Wednesday).

The last day of June was also the last day of our senior gym. We all wore the same shirts and had our photo taken. There aren't many this month. People have dropped off for one reason or another.

Then after the (shorter) gym session  we all went out for breakfast. (also locally and a 4 min walk from our house).

I am sitting third from the left.

And the the following Friday we all went out for dinner. Also very close to home (I am so lucky to live near the center of the village):

My main meal was octopus. (Pulpo a la brasa). 

Hubby doesn't like seafood, so when I go out without him I always order something fishy.

And of course I had something chocolaty for dessert. I can't remember what it was called but it had a liquid center and the chocolate just oozed out of the center of the chocolate cake. Delicious!

I suspect you are all hungry by now.

I will be linking with Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T-Party, so here is some coffee in case there aren't any drinks clearly visible. 

Happy T-Day all!

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A day - Saturday 2 July 2022 - Second on the 2nd

 Hello everyone,

here is a blogpost from 2015 which I am posting and linking with Elizabeth and Bluebeard for 'Second on the 2nd'. The idea is to post a blogpost that has been published before.

I am showing you this post from 2015. It has a watercolor postcard on it and I though Kate Yetter in particular would like it as she paints buildings so beautifully.

Here it is:

A Postcard a Day - 18 July 2015 - Taiwan

Hi peeps, how are you all this morning?

I have another postcard to share with you this morning. I got it this week from Taiwan (formerly Formosa). Anna sent it to me and I like it very much. It looks like a water colour painting but I'm not sure if it really is a painting or a 'photoshopped' photo. Whichever is the case, it is very beautiful. Anna writes that this is the Museum of Taiwan Literature.

The stamps are also very beautiful:

The flowers on the left are Rhodomyrtus tomontosa 

1. (Rhodomyrtus tomentosa also known as Downy Rose Myrtle is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to southern and southeastern Asia, from India, east to southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines, and south to Malaysia and Sulawesi. Wikipedia)

 and on the right Lantana camara. (Lantana camara, also known as big sage, wild sage, red sage, white sage and tickberry, is a species of flowering plant within the verbena family, Verbenaceae, that is native to the American tropics. Wikipedia)

So thank you Anna for a lovely card this week.

Tomorrow I will show you another card. Until then,

Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 1 July 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

I hope things are going well with you. Life here in rural Spain is hot and busy. We have had visitors (a friend from work)  last week and this week my cousin and his wife from the Netherlands are here. What a blessing. It is great to see them and to have them here. I'm writing this early on Friday morning while they are still asleep, so it is going to be a short post.

I still want to tell you about our smiles for this week, so lets begin with a postcard that arrived last week:

It was sent to me by Xenia in Germany. It's entitled: "Du hast die Macht" (=You have the power). The photo is from the Shutterstock, the Everett Collection.

There is no date, but looking at the clothing, it should be between the two world wars. He is wearing plus fours. This is what Wikipedia says about Plus fours:

Plus fours are breeches or trousers that extend four inches (10 cm) below the knee (and thus four inches longer than traditional knickerbockers, hence the name). Knickerbockers have been traditionally associated with sporting attire since the 1860s. Plus fours were introduced in the 1920s and became popular among sportsmen—particularly golfers and game shooters—as they allowed more freedom of movement than knickerbockers.^[1]An "extravagant, careless style that fit right in with the looser fashions and lifestyles of the 1920s", plus fours were introduced to the United States by Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) during a trip in 1924.

The stamp is a beautiful digital stamp with baby mountain goats on it.

As I mentioned above, we have been busy with visitors, We have a guest room upstairs with a shower and toilet and a large terrace, so hubby can still have his naps etc.

We have had many highlights and many smiles this week. Partly because of our guests and partly because hubby is feeling a lot better. We saw the surgeon and the anesthetist and the stoma nurse and the nutritionist. (Yes that was a busy day). We got so much information that in the evening I had to sit down and write it all down in a timeline. We have not been given a date yet but the operation is going to be the second part of July and we will be told a week in advance and then all the prep is done at home. We even got the first Heparine injection to do ourselves pre-op. It's all very exciting. 

My cousin is traveling through Europe in his caravan (they are retired) and I found them a camp site 10 min from here:

The camp site is small, only 7 pitches, but they also rent out some beautiful cave houses. I saw some flowering prickly pears. That is the first time. All the prickly pears in our area have been destroyed by some disease. But this one is doing well:

Below another picture of the camp site. The plant is an agave. This one was almost as tall as I am.

Here is my cousin parked up at the back of our garage:

The other smile this week was for my hubby as he went to buy a new pump. (to pump the water from the reservoir into the irrigation system) He was like a little boy with a new toy. Here he is with the guy from the shop. The guy is pouring fuel in it so that they can try it out. The picture was taken at the back of the store in their yard.

I'm going to leave you here. The gang will soon wake up. But of course I will leave some funnies at the end for you to have some extra smiles.

Have a lovely weekend,

Keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

The one with the pebbles is not a funny but I saw them and thought of Angela....

Things have not changed much since 1764...

Only people of a certain age 'get' this next one. (Start singing ladies!)

This one is for Angela. These pebbles are so beautifully adorned!