A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 18 Novembre 2025 - T for bird's nest, donkeys and a cat

 Hello lovely peeps,

I was so busy today that I completely forgot to write my blog. So here I am late at night quickly throwing something together. I'm afraid it will be lots of photos and not much content. OK, more next week. But I do have a postcard:

It's the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, called the Bird's Nest for obvious reasons. The olympics in Beijing were in 2008. I remember the opening ceremony. It was amazing.

This card was sent to me by Xiang who is 16 and lives in Wenzhou City. Wenzhou has many attractions, writes Xiang, like the Yandang Mountain, the Nanxi River and the National Flag Museum.

The stam is colourful:

The stamp celebrates the 22nd UPU Congress in Beijing. The Internet  writes:

The Universal Postal Union (UPU)'s 22nd Congress took place in Beijing in 1999, where it adopted the Beijing Postal Strategy for 2000-2004 and implemented a new terminal dues system that laid the groundwork for country-specific rates. Other key outcomes included the election of Carlos Silva as chair of the Postal Operations Council and addressing challenges posed by globalization and electronic communication. 

What have I been up to? I have started a make-up 

course. I would like to use a bit of make-up on special 

occasions, but I don't know where to start. So I have 

been to the first evening, where we brought everything 

had. In my case that were a lot of unopened containers 

and little boxes:

But I didn't have any eye pencil or lip pencil or 

foundation, so this morning I went out and bought 

some. 

I hope it fits the bill. It's difficult to guess the colour 

even though there was a mirror. I put some of the 

sampler on my hand, but my hand is much darker 

than my face. Anyway, we'll see....

I was at my friend Isa's cortijo (farm house) and 

noticed that the prickly pears that she has planted 

are doing well. I might have mentioned before that 

the prickly pear cactus was nearly wiped out completely 

by a virus ten years ago but is slowly coming back. 

It was such an important part of the landscape.

Isa has planted new cacti all along this fence and look at them now!!

I also paid a visit to the donkeys. (Isa loves donkeys):

They have all got names but I don't know them.

One of them is a smaller type:

She has three or four donkeys but I only saw these

At home, my 'Christmas cactus' is starting to flower:

It's purple rather than green, which means it's not 

happy, but it keeps growing and flowering, even 

though I have moved it a few times thinking it doesn't 

get enough light.

My cat Ronnie is happy and affectionate as ever:

Not camera shy at all.

And because I'm joining the lovely ladies at the T-Party 

hosted by Bluebeard and Elizabeth,

I need a drink. I haven't got one at the moment

 but I had just previously made a cup of 'tea', well, 

infusion:

I'll leave you with that.

Happy T-Day,

Lisca

 

A Postcard A Day - Friday 14 November 2025 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely peeps,

Happy Friday!

Time to share those smiles and silver linings of my week.

But first I will show you a pretty postcard I received from Korea (North Korea that is):

As written on the card, it features Dancheong. Wikipedia writes:

Dancheong (Korean: 단청 丹靑) refers to Korean decorative colouring on wooden buildings and artifacts for the purpose of style. It is an adaptation of the Chinese practice danqing, danqing refers to Chinese painting on silk and paper, and also decoration on wood. It literally means "cinnabar and blue-green", and is sometimes translated as "red and blue" in English. 

Along with its decorations and the choice of paint colours, Dancheong carries various symbolic meanings. It is based on five basic colours; blue (east), white (west), red (south), black (north), and yellow (center). Together, these colours symbolize the desire for stability, peace, and a rewarding afterlife. Furthermore, the use of those five colours reflected the use of the yin and yang principle and the philosophy of the five elements.

The stamps are pretty too:

The bottom stamp celebrates Philately Hobby Week 1991. And the top one reads 'Koreans must visit...' The last word is not being picked up by Google translate because of the cancellation stamp.

The sender also added a nice sticker:

So, what has been happening here that made me smile?

Saturday I hosted our English speaking Bible group for a Bible study and fellowship 'bring-and-share' lunch, and on Sunday I went for a long hike. Photos on last Tuesday's blog. 

That weekend two missionaries arrived from Canada and they were accommodated in somebody's cave house. We took turns in hosting them. I was busy over the weekend but on Monday I joined my friends at Conchita's house where she made an excellent paella, the dish par exelence for gatherings.

The missionaries come from Nigerian families, but they (and their wives and children) live in Winnipeg.

Then on Tuesday, we went to have breakfast in Baza. We had churros, which is something typically Spanish:

They are eaten dipped in thick chocolate. Yum!

My friends Kim and Andy came on Tuesday for lunch (someone else hosted the missionaries).

I made Pad Thai:

It was the first time I made it and it turned out very well. I will certainly make it again. This was the recipe I used.

Yesterday I had help from one of my friends to get pellets for my stove. It involved getting the trailer and driving to the merchant that sells them and then carrying the sacks inside to be stored.

I bought as much sacks as the trailer could carry, which was 33. And then my friend, bless him, carried all the sacks inside, up a few steps and into my (storage) cave. I am set up for the winter now. 

That is all from me. Lots to smile about and as if that wasn't enough, I have put some funnies at the end.

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 11 November 2025 - T for Nobel prize, pot-lunch and a long walk

 Hello lovely peeps,

I have an interesting postcard for you today. It's a Maxi card again. That means it's a special postcard to celebrate the First Day Issue of a particular stamp. Usually the postcard has the same image (or similar) to the stamp. 

Today's postcard features Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet:

Sir Frank received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1960.

The image on the stamp was created/painted by Clifton Pugh.

Wikipedia writes:

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (3 September 1899 – 31 August 1985), usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist known for his contributions to immunology. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for predicting acquired immune tolerance. He also developed the theory of clonal selection.

Burnet received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Melbourne in 1924, and his PhD from the University of London in 1928. He went on to conduct pioneering research in microbiology and immunology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, and served as director of the Institute from 1944 to 1965. From 1965 until his retirement in 1978, Burnet worked at the University of Melbourne. Throughout his career he played an active role in the development of public policy for the medical sciences in Australia and was a founding member of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), and served as its president from 1965 to 1969.

Burnet's major achievements in microbiology included discovering the causative agents of Q-fever and psittacosis; developing assays for the isolation, culture and detection of influenza virus; describing the recombination of influenza strains; demonstrating that the myxomatosis virus does not cause disease in humans. Modern methods for producing influenza vaccines are still based on Burnet's work improving virus growing processes in hen's eggs.

For his contributions to Australian science, Burnet was made the first Australian of the Year in 1960,^[3] and in 1978 a Knight of the Order of Australia. He was recognised internationally for his achievements: in addition to the Nobel, he received the Lasker Award and the Royal and Copley Medal from the Royal Society, honorary doctorates, and distinguished service honours from the Commonwealth of Nations and Japan.

The stamp comes from a series of Australian Nobel Prize winners:

From left to right: Sir Frank Macfarlane, Sir John Carew Eccles (Physiology or Medicine, 1963), Patrick White (Literature, 1973), Sir Howard Walter Florey (Physiology or Medicine, 1945), William Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915).

The card was sent on the first of October (World Postcard Day):

Enough high brow stuff. What have I been doing?

On Saturday I hosted a few of my English speaking chums and we had lunch and did a Bibles study.

We take it in turns to host each month.

Everybody brings something, so our plates are a mixed bag of potato tortilla, couscous, chicken and broccoli and taco's. There are several drinks on the table for T for Tuesday, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. My drink (the orange one, which is nearly empty) is an Aperol spritz.

Then on Sunday I went for a long hike (also once a month) with the local walking club.

We were a coach load from our village and as it was a provincial thing, I've been told there were 300 participants.

We were divided in two groups. The long route and a shorter one. In my experience the short one is long enough for me.

This is from my Strava app.

The landscape was interesting. Lots of asparto grass (for basket making etc):

Here is a close-up:

An unintentional close-up as it took a picture as I was putting my phone back in my pocket.

I was told that the area has sulphur mines too although we didn't see any.

The children in the group were picking pistachios from trees that were too close to the path. 

There were lots of cave houses, but that's nothing unusual in our area.

Nice views. This village is called Benamaurel.

After the walk, which was about 8km, my friend and I had a beer in a local bar:

Then back to the tent in the town square to eat paella:

Paella for 300 people!

That is all from me today,

I will join Elisabeth and Bluebeard at the T-Party so,

Happy T-Day all!

Lisca