A Postcard A Day - Friday 12 September 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls (and boys),

How are you all? It's Friday so a good opportunity to look back at the week and list the positives, the smiles and the silver lining.

My week is always lightened up by the arrival of a postcard in my mailbox. This one made me smile:

Translated it reads: Dancing out of line is also an art. (I am that lady with the wrong leg forward).

It was sent to me by Gabi from Rheinland in Germany. She tells me she was in Bristol last year with a scholarship. 

The stamp is the usual Europe stamp with the paper castle and she has used some pretty stickers too:

Another big smile this week was my visit (with other friends) to our Catalan friends. We had a bit of supper:

This was after the meal when we had some coffee and cake. My friend Brenda had brought some brownies, and I had made choc brownies as well. 

My brownies were much too gooey. I should have perhaps cooked it a few minutes longer and chilled it in the fridge before cutting it. It was a mess. But they tasted really yummy so nobody minded.

Then we went out to the Feria, which is a week-long fun fair. We had ours in our village in August, but in the neighbouring town of Baza, they have their Feria in September.

This modest ferris wheel was at the start of the fair.  There were many scary rides much further down. I had to use ear plugs as every attraction was vying for your attention with loud music and I would end up with a head ache if I didn't use them. There were 'millions' of food stands, and there was a whole section of children's rides. It was an experience and we had a lovely evening.

Another highlight was Tuesday when my friends come for lunch. I didn't take any pictures but that morning I had found a punnet of strawberries in the local shop. It's very unusual to get something out of season over here. So I bought it, thinking they wouldn't taste of much. But they were lovely. I suppose because it's been warm so long this year, they might have had two harvests.

Anyway, for dessert I made Jamie Oliver's strawberry filo tarts: (Photo from the website)

Here is the recipe: https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/desserts/strawberry-filo-tarts/

Mine looked like this:

Jamie served his with yoghurt. I used a dollop of ice cream.

Close-up:

Finally the last big smile of the week was my doctor's visit. I got the results of my test: I am not allergic to my cat! phew! I'm allergic to a common weed called parietalis. That will be difficult to avoid as I live rurally, but at least I can't blame poor Ronnie. The other good news was that he did my 'markers' as we were doing a blood test anyway. The markers are an indication of cancer, (if they increase). But they were the same as last year and the year before so that is good news. I'm still in remission! Haleluyah! Praise God!

Just as I was writing this, my friend Patricia popped in on her way home from work for a surprise visit. We sat outside in my patio for a much needed catch-up. Another big smile! Life is good!

Those were my smiles. Now I'll give you a few smiles too in the form of some funnies at the end.

I hope some of you will read this as I can't link with Annie anymore. Have a lovely weekend,

and keep smiling!

Lisca

One of my best friends has just bought a Tesla. I hope he doesn't read this.... (I don't want to hurt his feelings).

And we're not even mentioning what to do with the spent batteries....

On the other side of Mount Rushmore:

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 9 September 2025 - T for a snake, a cookbook and a fish restaurant

 

Hello lovely ladies, How are you all? Tuesday has crept up at me this week and I really haven't got many photos to share with you. But I did receive some postcards, like this one below:

My friend Maggie sent it me. It features a snake necklace made by Cartier in Paris. It was commissioned by the actress María Félix in 1968. 

Maggie tells me they visited a Cartier jewellery exhibition at the V&A Museum in London. 

The publicity announcement that I found online reads: "A major exhibition featuring more than 350 objects, including precious jewels, historic gemstones, iconic watches and clocks, that chart the evolution of Cartier's legacy of art, design and craftsmanship since the turn of the 20th century."

An image (from the Internet) from a different angle on the snake necklace:

It's made of Platinum, white gold, yellow gold, diamonds, emeralds (eyes), enamel.

I had never heard of this actress. Who was she?

Good old Wikipedia writes: María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña: 8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was a Mexican actress and singer. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Considered one of the most beautiful actresses of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, her strong personality and taste for finesse garnered her the title of diva early in her career. She was known as La Doña, a name derived from her character in Doña Bárbara (1943), and María Bonita, thanks to the anthem composed exclusively for her as a wedding gift by her second husband, Agustín Lara. Her acting career consists of 47 films made in Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, and Argentina.

Félix favoured the taste and style of Maison Cartier in her passion for jewellery. Between 1959 and 1976, María Félix acquired iconic pieces: panther brooches and bracelets, coral pieces, necklaces made of interlocking shells, and a series of regal pieces with reptile motifs. She commissioned special pieces that dialogued with her strong personality. 

María Félix had a passion for reptiles. In 1968, she commissioned the imposing Snake necklace from Cartier. The articulated structure of this piece is made from platinum combined with white and yellow gold and diamonds. Densely set, these diamonds represent individual scales and shine in the light like the skin of a live serpent. The necklace drapes down the neckline with the snake’s head figuratively entwining with its tail.

I found a little video clip about her and her jewellery: You can find it here.

Fascinating. She must have earned lots of money to have so much jewellery.

What else can I tell you? My cookbook has arrived:

It's quite a thick, substantial book:

It's written by Nisha Vora, who I follow on YouTube. A lot of her recipes have Indian flavours or are inspired by the Indian cuisine. I love that.

I ordered a few other things too that came in a separate box:

As soon as I emptied the box it was occupied by Ronny. He loves boxes.

As this is Tuesday, I'm going to join Elizabeth and Bluebeard at the T-Party. I will need a drink for that. Well, last week I went out with my Danish friends (See Friday's blog) and eventually we ended up in a fish restaurant in Baza. 

These are my friends, but I'm showing you this photo because it shows the wine, my 'ticket' to the T-Party.

We had calamaris (squid):

And prawns (among other things):

The restaurant is a fishmonger by day, so all the seafood is super fresh. 

It was very delicious. 

That is all from me today.

Wishing you all a very happy T-Day!

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 5 September 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely girls, 

The weather has thankfully cooled down a bit. Especially at night. I'm still sleeping under a thin sheet but I am now wearing pyjamas. And I'm enjoying breakfasts in the patio. I love September for that reason.

There have been many smiles this week as I am feeling physically better. The heat really takes it out on me. 

But I am also changing my diet. I've always been a bit fussy about my food. It has to be natural, preferably organic. Lately I've been eating vegetarian apart from when I go out (and then I eat fish or seafood). Now I'm even thinking of going vegan! I don't trust the food industry and the world would be a better place if  we avoided animal products. I'm not fanatical because I still have a lovely leather jacket that I'm not getting rid of. But food wise, I'm seriously looking into it. My problem is that living here out in the sticks, many of the products I would need, are very difficult to get. Dry goods I can get online. Lidl have just started to sell tofu, and then only one kind. Perhaps an Asian supermarket.? There's bound to be one in Granada. That's a long way away but once a month would be doable. I am also getting in contact with an English lady who is vegan and lives in Baza. I have never met her but I have her number, so watch this space...

Enough waffle. Let me show you my postcard:

It was sent to me by my travelling friend Maggie. She writes that they only were in Ljubljana for two nights. So they left their hotel at 7 in the morning to see (and photograph) the sights before the tourists would arrive. Then back to the hotel for breakfast followed by a trip in the funicular to the castle.

In the postcard the castle is, I assume, that building at the top and in the photo below you can see the funicular:

A strange looking vehicle for sure.

The stamp is interesting:

It features an otter. It comes from a series about endangered species.

2018 Endangered Animals, Set of 5, self-adhesive. Designs: A, Lynx lynx (Eurasian lynx). B, Lepus timidus (Mountain hare), vert. €1, Mustela nivalis (Least weasel), vert. C, Neomys anomalus (Mediterranean water shrew). D, Lutra lutra (Eurasian otter). (Info and image from Hungaria Stamp Exchange)

Lets move from Slovenia to southern Spain where I am and see what smiles there were in. my life.

It was my Italian son's 49 birthday last week and of course that was an excuse for a video call. Here he is with his birthday cake:

I've been out with. my Danish friends. We initially went to see a craft market in Cuevas del Campo, a little town a half an hour's drive from here, but when we got there it was nothing but a flea market with 5 stalls. So we were done quite quickly and drove on to Castril where we had coffee:

The boss turned out to be Dutch, so I had a little chat (in Dutch) with him.

He offered to take a photo of us, but as it was against the sun, it's not such a good picture.

The next one is better:

I loved the big cactus near our table:

That is all from me. I hope you will all join me at Annie's at A Stitch In Time. In the meantime, I will leave you with some funnies at the end.

Have a lovely weekend,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 2 September 2025 - An old blogpost for Second on the 2nd

 Hello lovely girls,

Today I'm showing you an old blogpost from ten years ago (September 2015). My hubbie was still alive then and you can see him cleaning the little courtyard of the cavehouse where my friend Dian now lives. Other than that, it has the usual ingredients: postcard, stamp, and a beverage for the T-Party.

A Postcard a Day Tues 7 Sept 2015 T for Empress..Whaaat?

Good Morning lovely people and lovely Tuesday girls.

Hope you are all well. I am joining in with T for Tuesday at Elizabeth's altered booklover blogspot.

For that I must show you something drink related.... well here goes:

It is a postcard of the Russian empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1709-1761). It was sent to me by Marina from Voronezh in Russia. She tells me that she likes good food, quiet romantic evenings and interesting books. (That's my girl! I do too!) And she dreams of going to Australia and the Maldives. (Can I come with you?) But what has this to do with drink?

Well, look at the beautiful stamps:

The one on the left is of a gastronomy series and features a samovar (urn) with blini (pancakes) with red and black caviar. 
Here is a video of  how to make blini.

The stamp on the right is a joint issue of Russia and Monaco - History of Automobile Production - ZIL-111B.


And if a samovar wasn't drink related enough, I'm going to leave you with  my latest mug:

I haven't been sitting outside sipping wine lately as it has been raining the last few days! It doesn't rain much here. In fact we haven't seen any rain for about three months. And when it does rain, it washes the top soil away which is not nice for the local vegetable patches . 

I like to sit in our little courtyard under the shade of the vine. When it started raining, we forgot to check if there were any leaves on the drain hole.... result... a flooded courtyard! Here is DH trying to brush away the leaves so that the water can drain away, but couldn't quite remember where the hole was!

That's it from me today. Have a great Tuesday!

See you tomorrow when I link up with Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW).

Blessings,

Lisca