A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 14 February 2023 - T for

 

Hello lovely ladies, 

Happy Valentine's Day! I personally don't celebrate Valentine's Day, as my 'Valentine' is no longer around. But even when he was, we didn't bother. "Every day is Valentine's Day" he would say. But I do hope you will have received some special attention or some special mail.

I've been looking through my cards and there is nothing remotely Valentine-ish in my collection. But I did think these cute hedgehogs would be appropriate:

They look like they could be good friends, even more than that. Who knows.

It was sent to me by Anna in Austria. She used a lovely colourful stamp:

In 2022, the Lego company celebrated the 90th anniversary of its founding in 1932. Lego Group launched the plastic Lego brick in its present form 64 years ago, in 1958.

On Sept. 16, 2022, The Austrian Post creatively introduced a new Lego postage stamp celebrating two milestones: the Lego Group’s 90th anniversary and the 125th anniversary of the Wiener Riesenrad, the giant Ferris wheel in Vienna constructed in 1897.

The above picture shows the ferris wheel tableau made out of Lego bricks and a large image of the stamp that was inspired by this tableau.

Above is a photograph of Vienna’s famous Ferris wheel with a yellow retail tent for the temporary post office in front of it. Available at the event were panes of the stamp, first-day covers, the cancellation, an information sheet and more.

OK enough about ferris wheels. I'm going to join the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard, so I have to find a drink somewhere. 

This was my breakfast on Sunday morning: scrambled eggs on toast.

I had a cup of herbal tea with that.

The weather has been awful here. Nothing compared to what some of you are going through but cold and miserable nevertheless. A reflection of the rainy window in the glass of my tablet:

My sister sent me this photo of her on the boulevard near Marbella, Costa del Sol:

The beach is deserted and the palm trees are looking very wet and windswept.

It's not nice, so I'm glad of my tv. I have been watching The Crown on Netflix (finishing series three now) and Happy Valley on BBC iPlayer (Watched the whole of series one) and The Chosen on YouTube (season 3, episode 1). Also a film called A Beautiful Mind on Amazon Prime. 

Our local Women's Association (called Minerva) is promoting cancer awareness in women and generally organizes things for cancer sufferers. I saw this on my way to the gym :

Gorgeous little flowering plants:

There is an irrigation system/tube in place so hopefully the plants will look lovwly this summer.

The notice reads: Freedom and life for women.

Because it is Valentine's Day, there have been flowers for sale in the supermarkets (very unusual) and I treated myself to a bunch of tulips. 

They are very tiny and nothing like what I would be used to in the Netherlands, but hey, we're in southern Spain, and these are the first tulips I have ever seen here. (So I had to have them). I do miss the abundance of flowers that we have in Holland. 

That is it from me today.

Happy T-Day all and also a happy Valentine's Day!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcar a Day - Friday 10 February 2023 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies, This is going to be short and sweet as I am in bed with the 'mother of all colds'. My nose started running last night and it got worse from there. I am sitting up in bed with my laptop and an enormous (industrial) kitchen  roll to use as tissues. I make myself hot drinks with lemon and honey and take Paracetamol. What more can I do but sit it out.

But we're here to share some smiles and you all know that a postcard in my mailbox will make me smile.

This is my postcard for today:

It comes from Poland and has no info on it as to who the photographer is. But the image is about books, lots of books in an old bookshop or library. One of those places I'd love to spend time....

The stamps are pretty:

It reads: 'Birds of Argentinia and Poland'. 

The Rusty Potter (Furnarius rufus) and the Crested Tit or European crested tit (Lophophanes cristatus)

Both species of birds build unusual structures worth mentioning. The Rusty Potter's nest is made of reeds and silt, very much like a closed clay pot or a bread oven. 

The male and female incubate the eggs and care for the chicks. 

The crested tit as a medium-sized breeding bird is under strict species protection in Poland. To build its nests, it uses rotten trees in which it drills hollows. 

An interesting fact is that the crested tit gathers food for the winter, which it presses into the cracks of the bark on the tree, where it has hollows, or into the moss covering it. They are located low above the ground (usually up to 1.5 m) and are lined with moss, grasses and lichens, and topped with bristles and fur. 

That is it from me. Lights out, I'm going to try and get some sleep if my stuffy nose will let me.

Have a great weekend,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Tuesday 7 February 2023 - T for a poet, fish and a book launch

 Hello lovely ladies,

Here we are again on a Tuesday. Are you all ready to join the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard? You only need a photo of a beverage, any beverage, or a drink reference.

Let me start with my postcard:

It's a card from the Czech Republic (or Czechia as it is now called).

It was sent to me by Hanicka who lives in Prostéjov, the birthplace of the poet Jirí Wolker.

Wikipedia says this:

Jiří Wolker  (29 March 1900 – 3 January 1924) was a Czech poet, journalist and playwright. He was born in Prostějov, into a cultural family. His birth place can be seen below:

He studied at the Prostějov gymnasium, and after he graduated, he moved to Prague. He studied law there, but simultaneously attended lectures of Zdeněk Nejedlý and F. X. Šalda at the Faculty of Arts. He was in close connection with the association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil. Wolker suffered of lung disease and died of tuberculosis at age 23.

The stamp is interesting too. It's about a conference called ICOM (to do with museums).

Prague, capital of the Czech Republic and a magnificent open-air museum, will welcome the 26th ICOM General Conference in the week of 20–28 August 2022.

With its 21 working groups, ICOM-CC offers conservators, scientists, curators and other professionals the opportunity to collaborate, study and promote the conservation and analysis of culturally and historically significant works.

What has been happening here in Spain? 

My daughter is still here and on Saturday we took a trip to Albox, Albox is a little town 65 km away, where lots of English have settled. So there are many English shops and restaurants. My friend Dian, who had come along too, had some errands to run and when that was done, we stopped at the fish and chips place and had lunch. 

Tracey had a Guinness, and that will be my ticket to the T-Party, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. Come and join us! A photo of a drink or anything drink-related will be accepted.

On Saturday night we had an Intercambio session. English speakers who want to practice their Spanish, and Spanish speakers who want to practice English. A lady called Jayne comes every week. She is very keen. My friend Antonia was there as Spanish speaker so she could explain things and correct our pronunciation. It is an unheated classroom, so I always bring a kettle and we have some cuppa-soup or tea.

Sunday we went to church. We went to a church where they have translation, as Tracey doesn't speak Spanish.

In our village there is always something going on. Also on Saturday, I went to a book launch:

The author spoke about this book, which is about our area. It is called Geopark because of it geological features. And as it was all in Spanish I had left Tracey at home. I got a distress call at some point as she wasn't very successful in lighting the fire and she was cold, so I hurried home without actually buying the book. No worries, I can buy it later this week in the book shop.

The other thing that was going on in the village was a demonstration (If one can call it that) about cancer. The ladies of the local Women's Association stood in the shape of the 'cancer ribbon' to show solidarity. 

I obviously didn't take this picture, but  the Women's Association distributed it amongst the members.

That is it from me this week,

Happy T-Day,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day . Friday 3 February 2022- Friday smiles

 

Hello lovely ladies, How are you all? It's Friday and I have a lot to smile about. My daughter is visiting from the UK and we are having a lovely time.

But first let me show you a postcard:

The card shows Still Life with Books, 2014 by Sam Kalda.

It was sent to me from Germany by someone called Elvire. She lives in Nordlingen in Bavaria. She loves baking and her favorite cake is carrot cake.

The stamp is from the famous German flower series:

The Flockenblume is Psephellus dealbatus or Persian Cornflower.

A few days ago my daughter Tracey came over from England to stay for a week. 

We went shopping yesterday (Thursday) and then of course we stopped for coffee and chatted in the sun.

She has lots of nice things planned for the week. Amongst other things a day skiing in the Sierra Nevada on Monday. Great fun! (I'm not going) She is very excited as she has always skied on dry slopes but never on real snow.

Another really big smile is this: I have some help with my house work! This sweet girl comes for a few hours a week to clean my house. What a luxury. (I can just about afford it and she really needs the money). 

This week she did the usual down here in my flat. But then she also cleaned the guestroom and guest bathroom. I love her!

Another big smile this week is that the builder is making good progress in the cave house next door. The little kitchenette is done:

And he has also made a fire place to put the stove in:

Yesterday I went to my knitting group. I'm knitting socks and the leader of the group wanted to learn how to knit socks the way I do it (toe up and with a fish lips  kiss heel ). 

The Fish Lips Kiss Heel (or FLK Heel) is type of short row heel invented by Sox Therapist. Short row heels are great for most foot types. They knit up quicker than a heel flap and gusset and look great in a contrast color!

I bought the description of the technique a while back for 1$ and I don't regret it. There are also videos that teach this technique. 

I taught this heel yesterday at the group and they were impressed how quickly the heel got done.

What else made me smile? Strawberries! Yes, the first strawberries have arrived and I bought some the other day (plus some mango) and made a fruit salad:

My friends Kim and Andy were here to enjoy it with me.

I had a dash of aniseed liquor poured over the fruit.

Finally a dollop of ice cream. Yumm!

That is all from me today. I will have more smiles next Friday. Lets visit Annie at A Stitch In Time for more smiles.

Have a lovely weekend,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca

 

A Postcard A Day - Thursday 2 February 2023 - Second on the 2nd

Hello lovely ladies,

Sorry I'm late but I've been trying to do this post on my Macbook but I don't seem to be able to drag photos. So back to the drawing board.....

Here is a blogpost from February 2015 when I had attended a Patchwork workshop. I made two cushion covers. One of them is still on my sofa to this day:

So here is my Second on the 2nd for this month:

Hello lovely blog readers,

Saturday I went to our nearby town to do a beginner’s course in Patchwork. I’ve always wanted to do this. 

In the morning we made a cushion cover with strips of material. (Log Cabin I think she called it) We sewed (by hand) onto a backing that had a pattern on it. Every piece on the backing was numbered to make it easy, and it felt a bit like ‘painting by numbers’. It really was easy. 

This little chicken sat on the work table. 

We were given the pattern so we can have a go at home with whatever scraps we have. She looks cute doesn’t she?

Here are a few action shots.

This is a shot of the shop. I was like a kid in a sweet shop! All those gorgeous fabrics! Lovely! 

In the afternoon we started on the hexagons. That's very pretty but very labour intensive. In fact I haven't finished this project yet. It will be a cushion cover matching the one we made in the morning.

I shall definitely come back to this shop to buy more of these gorgeous fabrics and perhaps make a tote or a zipper bag. There are so many tutorials on the internet. I'm going to have some fun!

Thanks for visiting my blog,

See you soon!

Lisca