Sunday Stamps | Q for Queen

This stamp belongs to a set entitled Picture Book Animals, issued by USPS on 10 January 2006. 

Maisy's ABC (1194) is a book by Lucy Cousins. The main character is a female mouse who lives in an orange house with a red roof. She loves to paint and play with her friends. Her birthday is February 10.

In the same letter, I received another stamp from that set: Frederick, the main character of the book with the same name by Leo Lionni (1967).

I have not read any of the books. But, somehow, Frederick on this stamp seems to me the poor relative of Queen Maisy...

I added this post to Sunday Stamps, for the letter Q.

The Mail Monsters Project | 21

The Mail Monsters grasp a letter whenever they can.

Don't tell me I didn't warn you...

Hard Postal Work

Emptying the pillar box
John's picture

An Attack on the Exeter Mail in 1816
Stamp designed by Keith Bassford
and Stanley Paine, engraved by Csezlaw Slania,
and issued on 31 July 1984
Maxicard sent by John (the UK)

Distribution of the letter
(Self-delivering letters?!?)

From the French stamp series
The Journey of a Letter (1984)

HitM | Georgian Houses in Bath

The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent in the city of Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, it is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the United Kingdom. 

You can visit the number one and, see, for instance, the lady's room that appears on the postcard below... (I bet your bedroom is more or less like this!)

The Bath Assembly Rooms were designed in 1769 by the same architect. They are a set of elegant assembly rooms located in the heart of Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visitor attraction. On the postcard, you can see the Great Octagon Room, built in 1771.

The Herschel Museum of Astronomy is located at 19 New King Street. This well preserved house represents a middle-grade Georgian town house, typical of the homes of artisans and tradesmen of the city of Bath (but contrasting with Bath's grand visitor houses).

Postcards sent by Laura (the UK).

Happy Sinterklaas Eve!

Postcard arrived last year with a wonderful wonderful present (I didn't take any picture, sorry), from Heleen (the Netherlands).

If you are waiting for Sinterklaas to arrive... I wish you a lot of presents & chocolate!

(Almost) Ready!

So... most of my Christmas & Winter Holidays mail is ready to be sent!

(Most are letters and/or commercial postcards, but the foreground Santa is my drawing.)

Time for Christmas Mail Again?

Here some of the Christmas greetings I sent last year. Painted with watercolours pencils:

And made of catalogues:

Sunday Stamps | P for Police

For the letter P of Sunday Stamps I have chosen Police. Actually, this theme is not a favourite of mine. But I have recently discovered that the police is a very common theme for stamps collectors (?!), and I started to look if I have received any of those...

25 years of the Czech Police
Czech Republic, 2016
(More information)

London Police
United Kingdom, 1979

London Police
United Kingdom, 1979

Lighthouses on Stamps

On the back of an envelope, John included some lighthouses on stamps from other countries, for my pleasure.

The Netherlands

Pakistan

The USA

Germany

HitM | An Autumn House

Fabienne (France) sent this nice envelope for the Houses in the Mail project. Don't you love the red stamps-tiles?

Among the stamps, two of them are especially related to houses. The one below, is the Francia contribution to the EUROMED stamps. The theme chosen this year is Houses in the Mediterranean,

The Mail Monsters Project | 20

One more letter, please!

This Mail Monster visited Fabienne in France, and it came back with a friend:

Not only they brought me a little present.They also were very respectful with the envelope and didn't touch the stamps!

Do you believe in Mail Monsters? Why?

Oui j'y crois comme je crois au Père Noël.

Car au fond de moi il reste une âme d'enfant, et que le rêve en fait partie. Je crois que dans ce monde imparfait il existe des êtres capables de connecter les gens et les mail monsters en font partie comme des elfes posées sur une épaule.

HitM | Houses in California

This is Claire's entry for the Houses in the Mail project. This house is in a tiny coastal town in California (the USA). It was built in 1950 and added onto, so it is a very quirky house. You can get great views of the pacific ocean from the deck. Wow!

And this one is in Kingsburg. Can you imagine that dogwood tree in blossom?

The house is on the Kingo River, which comes from Sierra Nevada.

Besides the postcards, Claire's packet contained nice surprises. The envelope itself was just wonderful!

The Mail Monsters Project | 19

This collage-postcard with a Mail Monster appeared spontaneously in my mail box. (Well, I guess Eduard had something to be with the fact...)

Alice's Mail

Alice-related mail sent by John (the UK):

"Have I gone mad?"
"I'm afraid so, you're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you
a secret... All the best people are."

The Frog looked ad the door with
his large dull eyes for a minute
Illustration by J. Tenniel,
coloured by Diz Wallis

In another moment Alicia was
though the glass, and had jumped
down lightly into the
Looking-glass room.
Illustration by J. Tenniel,
coloured by Diz Wallis

And sent by Bryon (the USA):

On the back, you can read some curious facts:

Issued in 1885,this cover depicts Alice, the iconic character from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, visiting Yellowstone National Park. Carroll's books and the Park become forever intertwined in the public consciousness when, just after the American Civil War, the Nation journalists saw the analogy between those two lands full of strange and magical wonders. Beginning around the time the rail line near the park was completed in 1883, the Northern Pacific Railroad began using this analogy as a clever way to promote Yellowstone and their railroad as the way visitors could now reach the real "Wonderland".

Sunday Stamps | O for Owl

This is my entry for Sunday Stamps, letter O.

This imposing Búho real or Eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) appeared in the 2014 series of endangered especies, issued on 20 October. You can see the 4-stamps die-cut set here. (And another one that appeared recently in Sunday Stamps!)

The little owl (Athene noctua) belongs to a series of  British Owls issued on 11 May 2018. See the 10 different stamps here.

This stamp arrived on this envelope from Alan (the UK):

  

Do you guess why he wrote this on the envelope?