No Rain No Flowers

Beautiful watercolour postcard painted and sent by Eva (Germany).

Altered Window

Altered postcard sent to Eduard (Russia) for the mail art project Windows to the world. 

This Oz-themed window was my first contribution. The mail art call is open, so you can contribute if you wish. See the blog of the project.

Spring Green Letter

Spring letter sent by FinnBadger (USA). I did not know how o take a picture of these. But, if you look carefully behind the grass... you will find some shy insects!

He sent some of these. It is nice to see all them together!

València GPO

Mail boxes in the main post office in Valencia.

There are two slots: foreign countries (extanjero) and within Spain. However, they have three different postage rates: Spain, Europe and Rest of the World.

I like these tiny detail!

Game of Thrones Postcard

Postcard received from Laura (the UK), with some of the Irish locations of the series Game of Thrones.

Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe in Bankside, London 

Postcards sent by Laura (the UK), and great additions to my Shakespeare's album.

The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
in the Shakespeare's Globe
A candlelit theatre!

Royal Mail is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare with a special collection of stamps and coins. And also this postmark:

Roses & Princess

Postcard sent by Laura (the UK)

Letter sent by Catherine (France)

Stamps from the USA
The one of the right is the Chinese New Year stamp
(The Year of the Monkey)

Postcard sent by Micu (Hungary)

Letter With Monkeys

Letter sent to Phillip's mail art call about The Year of the Monkey, also published in the blog of the project.

I Love Postcards of Women Who Love Reading

Woman Reading (1879/80), by Edouard Manet
Sent by Eutrapèlia (the USA)

The Dickinson Children (c. 1840), 
by O. A. Bullard
Sent by Eutrapèlia (the USA)

Reading Fictional Characters: Elizabeth
By Susannesart
Sent by John (the UK)

Cara and Clovis, by Sarah Mac
Sent by John (the UK)

Bertha Wegmann (1847-1926), 
by Jeanna Bauck
Sent by Laura (the UK)

Almost Naked Minion

Front and back of a funny envelope coloured by FinnBadger (the USA). It looks more yellow in person!

More of the same family in this FinnBadger's blog post.

A Postcard from Antarctica?!?

This stamp was issued on 25 October 2015. It belongs to a set of four penguins. This one is the Macaroni (Don't you love the hairstyle?).

A penguin is not a mammal of the sea, so this would not do for today's Sunday Stamps-II. But it arrived on the back of this postcard, showing a Young Bull Fur Seal on Bird Island... Would you accept that?

Photograph taken by Mr Ben Osborne

I had absolutely to share this postcard because it arrived from a place that is difficult to add to the places I've been to category: South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. A postcard from Antarctica! How cool is it? It arrived on 1 April, after a 34-days trip.

As you can see on the postmark, it was sent from King Edward Point Research Station, but the sender remains a mystery. If it was you, I just want let you know that you made my day! (And of course, let me know if you wish to receive a postcard back.) Mystery solved! I don't know exactly who sent it, but I know who arranged the sending.

Stamps Recreated

These are the kind of things I do not dare to do with old stamps. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed looking at Monica Lee's recreated stamps here and here.

The Missing Horse

Thanks to this post about The Year of The Horse, I received some stamps of horses. And especially about this series issued by Royal Mail on 4 February 2014: Working Horses.

First I got four of them. Some months later, another one. And when I had almost forgotten... the last one landed in my mailbox, thanks to John (the UK)!

Let me show you another received stamp that could made part of the working horses set:

And also... Well, not exactly a horse. But Muffin de Mule makes a wonderful stamp!

An Expensive Letter

«Aquí llegábamos con nuestra plática, cuando Pancracio puso la mano en el seno y sacó dél una carta con su cubierta, y, besándola, me la puso en la mano. Leí el sobrescrito y vi que decía desta manera:

A Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,

en la calle de las Huertas,

frontero de las casas donde solía vivir el príncipe de Marruecos, en Madrid.

Al porte, medio real,

digo, diecisiete maravedís.

Escandalizóme el porte, y de la declaración del medio real, digo diecisiete; y, volviéndosela, le dije:

—Estando yo en Valladolid, llevaron una carta a mi casa para mí, con un real de porte; recibióla y pagó el porte una sobrina mía, que nunca ella le pagara; pero diome por disculpa que muchas veces me había oído decir que en tres cosas era bien gastado el dinero: en dar limosna, en pagar al buen médico y en el porte de las cartas, ora sean de amigos o de enemigos; que las de los amigos avisan, y de las de los enemigos se puede tomar algún indicio de sus pensamientos. Diéronmela, y venía en ella un soneto malo, desmayado, sin garbo ni agudeza alguna, diciendo mal de Don Quijote; y de lo que me pesó fue del real, y propuse desde entonces de no tomar carta con porte. Así que, si vuesa merced le quiere llevar desta, bien se la puede volver; que yo sé que no me puede importar tanto como el medio real que se me pide.»

Miguel de Cervantes, Viaje del Parnaso (1614)

This is from the time before the prepaid stamps were invented. So, the you had to pay in order to get the letters. In this quotation, the recipient complains about the rate, because he thinks the content will not be worthy that price.

Would you pay for your incoming correspondence?

What or Whom Is She Staring At?

Heleen (the Netherlands) drew this postcard inspired by a visit to the Rijksmuseum. She made some copies and sent them to several mail artists, as an add & return, because she was curious to know what other people would think she is thinking of.

This was my version:

Is that a bird? How strange! Oh, I need my glasses.

You can see HERE what other people have created.

Hand-Written Card Wanted

I sent this letter to Hana (Japan), because Heleen told me about her collection of languages. She wants people to send her a 10x15 cm (4x6 in) papers/postcards with some sentences written in their mother tongue, inside an envelope. (If you wish to help her, you can contact Hana via Postcrossing or via Instagram.)

I immediately wanted to collaborate (I love odd collections, you know). But that raised a complex question. Imagine you are sending only few words in your language, which is completely unknown by the recipient, to the other side of the world... Which words would you choose?

In case you feel curious: I selected the poem Orografia aèria (see the 2n page for English translation), by Anna Aguilar-Amat.

Flying Biscuits

When I saw this packaging, I could not help thinking that the designer is a mail artist...

I had to make a postcard of this! I sent it to Suus in Mokum (the Netherlands).

Climate on Stamps

When I read the theme for today on Sunday Stamps-II, Weather, this is the first that came to mind:

Probably you have seen before. this international rate stamp issued by USPS in 2014, dedicated to Sea Surface Temperatures. I read here that it is not a real image, but a model. Still, and despite I have received it many times, I love this design and the theme.

Thanks to Heleen's post, I learned that the following stamp, sent by her some years ago, is also about weather (cloud formations). It belongs to a series of Summer Stamps from 1990. I did not realised, at first sight, that the black lines are actually isobares, and do not belong to the postmark! 

And weather leads also to the four seasons. I have uploaded some stamps about spring to the blog. I love specially the sakura stamps (like these). Again, thanks to Sunday Stamps, I looked more closely at this one and discovered it is dedicated to the spring too, and belong to a series of four (see here the whole) issued during 2006.

(See here more stamps related to weather.)

Poetree

Letter sent to Phillip (USA). Pictures after the trip (taken from his blog).

It seems that the cancellation machine did a battle with this envelope. And the latter won: they tried harshly, but finally they were not able to postmark the stamp!

Snail Mail, by Michelle Mackintosh

I bought Snail Mail, by Michelle Mackintosh, due to this post in Rose Tinted Crafting. Hannah wrote a long review and posted some pictures of the book, so I refer you to her post.

I just want to add that the book is a pleasure to see. Even if I had already tried most of her ideas, I found some inspiration. And it could be really a good gift for people who does not know how to start in the world of the creative mail.

Snails & Slugs

Postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

You know I love illustrations of snails, and I have gathered quite a collection of postcards. But this is the first time I have received the shell-less version: slugs!

Thanks to this postcard sent by Bryon (the USA), I learned that banana slugs are able to cause a huge panic. At least, they did in the famous Pike Place Market of Seattle, according to this work of Paul Sloan (Slug Attack).

Passer comme une lettre à la poste

passer comme une lettre à la poste vi familier

go through smoothly, go off without a hitch vi

WordReference English-French Dictionary ©

passer comme une lettre à la poste
[familier]
(décision, réforme)
to go through smoothly ou without a hitch
(excuse)
to be accepted without any questions

Oxford Dictionaries

Reading Animals & Robots

I keep receiving Reading Animals, like this postcard from Bryon (the USA). I wonder what kind of catalog is the frog reading.

Ruth Caroline Eger from Rimskittle's Book, 1926

Ant the rabbits on this stamps from the UK, what are they reading?

But not just animals like reading. Look at the collage sent by Eutrapèlia (the USA). It seems that robots enjoy comics a lot...