What If You Need to Draw a Blue Cat?

Letter to Rosemary (Canada).

Autumn in Burgos

Sierra de Atapuerca Promenade in Burgos (Spain), showing its beautiful Autumn colours.

Postcard sent by Laura (Spain). 

The Tulips Travel Slowly

It took me a while to upload the picture of this letter sent by Fabienne (France). But sure, less time that it took the letter to arrive... 

It was posted on 27 March, and I found it in my postbox on 5 October. That must possibly be a kind of reverse record!

Anyway, it was a wonderful theme that included not only tulips (a catalogue!), but also nice stamps and postmarks. And, inside, some spring stamps (as it was intended as a spring letter!)and a postcard with this nice girl, who could easily be Little Red Riding Hood...

Sunday Stamps | Q(aboos)

Qaboos bin Said Al Said (Arabic: قابوس بن سعيد آل سعيد) is the Sultan of Oman. He is the longest serving Arab leader, having held the office since 1970. The stamp above was issued on 9 Novembre 2011 to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Sultan Qaboss University, the only public university in the Sultanate of Oman.

The stamp below, issued on 3 November 2012, celebrates the Sultan Qaboos Award for Sailing. It shows the golden trophy. It is a very impressive stamp, golden printed and with certain relief.

Q isn't an easy letter! See more Q-stamps on Sunday Stamps-II.

Original Cover

Envelope sent by Heleen (the Netherlands), made of a page of a magazine.

Literary Postcards

Maria chose the theme Books/Reading/Authors for today's Postcards for the Weekend. I receive often postcards related to literature. These are the latest I have got, all sent by Laura (the UK):

Have you recognized Kazuo Ishiguro? He has been awarded  the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. The painter of this portrait from the National Portrait Gallery was Peter Edwards, in 1995. 

Hall's Bookshop, in Tunbridge Wells (the UK). On the back of the postcard:

Ruben Hall began trading books in Chapel Place in 1898. In 1919 he was joined by an apprentice, Harry Pratley (president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association 1959-60), who created one of the finest bookshops in the South Est. Today the shop is run by another past-president, Adrian Harrington.

Dickens House  is a museum  that displays many artefacts relating to Charles Dickens and his life in Broadstairs (the UK).


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My album of postcards of Bookshops & Libraries
My album of postcards of Writers
My album dedicated to Charles Dickens

Lighthouses from Bulgaria

John (the UK), besides the hand-painted lighthouse, added some beautiful lighthouse stamps to this envelope. It is always a pleasure to receive such combination. By the way, have you realised that the line at the bottom of any stamp represent the way its light flashes?

Inside the envelope, among some postcards, I found this sheet of lighthouse stamps from Bulgaria:

It made me double happy, as usually I don't receive mail from that country. Actually, the only Bulgarian postcard I have received so far (thanks to Postcrossing), features one of the lighthouses of this sheet.

Green and Pink Tea

Letter sent to Fabienne (France), painted with watercolour pencils (just my second one!).

All You Need Is Words

«Il pensait à ceux qui se désolaient de n'avoir pas d'idées pour écrire leurs cartes postales, il pensait d'abord a eux. Avant toute instruction, tout avertissement, toute réflexion ou toute remarque, il fallait leur rappeler qu'on n'écrivait pas des cartes postales avec des idées mais avec des mots, des jolis mots de tous les jours.»

Sébastien Lapaque, Théorie de la carte postale

Sunday Stamps | P(enguins)

When I thought I hadn't any stamp for the theme P of Sunday Stamps-II, I found some penguins...

French stamp dedicated  to the commemoration of the 150th birthday of Jean-Baptiste Charcot (1867-1936), medical doctor an polar explorer. Stamp issued on 24 April 2017.

Argentina issued this stamp on 2011, on a set dedicated to the XXXIV Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. The penguin here is a Pygnoscelis papua or gentoo penguin. (Here a better view of the set.)

Stamp issued for the 100th anniversary of Burger's Zoo in Anhem (the Netherlands), showing a pair of Spheniscus demersus or African penguin. It belongs to an interesting set issued in 2013.

I had already published this one, a Eudyptes chrysolophus or macaroni penguin, arrived from South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. This stamp was issued on 25 October 2015, and it belongs to a set of four penguins. 

The postmark makes it almost invisible, but there is a penguin on this Spanish stamp dedicated to the Spanish military shelter established on Deception Island in 1989. The shelter is named after the navigator and explorer Gabriel de Castilla. (More information and a bigger picture of the stamp)

Stamp issued by USPS on 1 June 2015, that pays tribute to the majestic Aptenodytes forsteri or emperor penguin. (More information)

Teariffic

Now this postcard made me smile...

And, for want of a more traditional postcard... Can I add this one to the theme Food & Beverage of Postcards for the Weekend?

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Autumn Letter

Hand-painted envelope (with watercolour pencils), sent to Laura (the UK).

Cleaner Letter

By the way, the reply to that battered letter, sent by Bryon (the USA), arrived really clean. 

Very interesting stamps. The fist one is not a real stamp, but impressed on the envelope:

Paper Wine

Letter sent to Bryon (the USA).

The stamp on the bottle is the Spanish contribution to the Europa Stamp Contest theme this year. It depicts de castle of Manzanares el Real in Madrid. When I was writing the letter, I thought that Castillo de Manzanares would make a great name for a Spanish wine... And after a short Internet research, I learned that it is an actual brand.

Bryon sent me a colour photocopy for me to see that, well, it was a certain battle between the envelope and the postal machines (and workers?). Poor bottle!

More information about the stamp, here. The other stamp, in the label, belongs to the basic series of the former king of Spain.

Sunday Stamps | O(scar de la Renta)

These stamps were issued on 16 February 2017, to honour one of the world’s leading fashion designers for 50 years, Oscar de la Renta (1932-2014). The stamp set includes 11 images: an evocative black-and-white portrait of de la Renta and 10 details from some of his most exquisite gowns.

These stamps are big and have a special soft touch. I think they look wonderful in person, like on these envelopes sent by Phillip.

I have received different combinations of them (see the whole set here), on several postcards and letters, and still don't know which one I prefer...

I am adding this post for the letter O of Sunday Stamps-II.

Visit London

The John Madjeski Garden at night
Victoria and Albert Museum
Photo: Edward Hill

Saatchi Gallery

Handmade postcard, from a box of tea

Postcards sent by Laura (the UK).

Because of the first postcard, I added this port to Postcards for the Weekend, today's theme being Reflections. 

Vintage Lighthouses

On the right, Smeaton's Tower is the third and most notable Eddystone Lighthouse. In use from 1759 to 1877, it was largely dismantled and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe in Plymouth, Devon, where it now stands as a memorial to its designer, John Smeaton, a celebrated civil engineer.

The sender wondered if there is a lighthouse on the left. There is not, but the First and Second World War Naval Memorial, unveiled in 1924.

This one is a second-hand postcard of the England's most South Westerly lighthouse: Longships.

This postcard was sent by the first time in 1965, when the stamp costed 3 old pence (1/80th of a pound). Modern postage is 117 new pence, or about 280 old pence.


Both postcards sent by John (the UK).

2000 Mail Adventures

This envelope was mailed by my friend Lluïsa in Madrid (Spain) on 11 September 2017, or so the postmark indicates. It arrived in Morocco on 19 October. Five weeks seem quite a lot for a letter from Spain...

The fact is that, if you look closely, you can see two postmarks. The round with the wavy lines is one of the commonest of Correos (the Spanish Postal Service). On the left, a second one, made on 3 October (exactly at 15h 56). So?  

Maybe I am wrong, but I think that SWLF on the postmark stands for Sydney West Letter Facility. 

So... the letter made, let's say, a little detour. Some letters just want to see a bit of the world.

(This is the 2,000th post on this blog. Thanks for reading.)

Smiles

Letter sent by Mim (the USA) as part of her mail project: to write a letter daily during the month. This is #5, and I received it actually in October. The collage is from Mim's series Sonrisas ('Smiles').

Red Mailboxes

Eva painted this postbox herself, and sent it as a postcard from Portugal. Isn't that perfect? Mailboxes can be very inspiring...

And this one was sent by Heleen from the Netherlands. It seems more British than Dutch!