Bye, Morocco!

This is the very last postcard I sent from Morocco. As usual, I waited until the recipient got it for uploading the illustration, in order not to spoil the surprise...

Pleasures

«One of the pleasures of reading old letters is the knowledge that they need no answer.»

Lord Byron

Multiples on Postcards

Many-of-the-same-thing or multiples is a favourite topic for some postcard collectors, and also a favourite of mine.

These postcards have been send by my friend Laura (the UK). A postcard of postcards... isn't it a great idea? By the way, this is not the reproduction of a picture, but an stunning oil painting.

Holland, 2000
By Tjalf Sparnnay

Two surprises from Maria: a postcard of traditional music instruments sent from South Korea, and another one from Singapur

 

 

A postcard from John (the UK):

HitM | Old House

Another contribution to the Houses in the Mail project, sent by Phillip (the USA). He made this envelope more than 25 years ago (!!) and, obviously, it is impossible to remember where this house is placed. 

Update: You can see the before on the sender's blog.

I like how the stamps integrate on the design. By the way, this guy is appearing a lot on my mail, lately!

Wild Postcards

Montana - Mountain Goat

Yellowstone
America's First National Park

On the postcard: Old Faithful (Upper Geyser Basin), Lower Falls (Gran Canyon of the Yellowstone) and Grand Prismatic Spring. Plus, some extra information on the back:

With more than 10,000 hydrothermal features with its boundaries, Yellowstone National Park has more natural hot springs, geysers, mud pots and steam vents than any other place in the world. Yellowstone sits on an active volcano which erupted 640,000 years ago and may very well erupt again in the near future. Yellowstone was made the first national park in 1872.

Banana Slug
Photographer: Alan Justice

The Banana Slug (Ariolimax columbians) gets its' name from its' bright yellow colour. Found in the damp, foggy coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, banana slugs eats vegetation thus speeding up the decomposition and soil building process.

The Armadillo is found through Texas. One of the many oddities is tha all the young in each litter are of the same sex.

Postcards sent by Bryon (the USA).

Sunday Stamps | B for Banksia

The genus Banksia is very common in Australia. The 4-stamps set (3 arrived on a postcard) features the artwork of celebrated Australian botanical artist Celia Rosser. More about this issue.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, letter B.

Refreshing!

Postcard made of beer packaging, tape and stickers, sent to the Laura (the UK).

And I also got some beer postcards from Phillip (the USA)!

Women on Postcards

Postcard sent by Bryon (Canada). The Lesson (1984), by Will Barnet. Oil on canvas.

Postcard sent by Fabienne (France). Souvenir from the exhibition Women House at Monnaie de Paris.

Postcard sent by Laura (Spain). Painting on wood from 15th century in San Gil Church in Burgos: Doña Constanza García.

Still Hot Weather

Watercolour postcard sent to Eduard and Sofia (Russia). I don't know if it is so hot there!

Repurposing: Notebook Cover

I made this postcard with the cover an old notebook. The illustration is the poster of a play.

In 2017 and 2018, a lot of stamps featuring hands have been issued by the Spanish postal service.

Sent to Phillip (the USA).

HitM | Cherries House

Imma (PC) sent a wonderful illustration of a house in France when she spent a week. There were cherry trees, silence and squirrels (can you spot them on the picture).

The house arrived inside a transparent envelope. 

Don't you just like transparent envelopes?

This one was sent by David (the USA). On just two words you can appreciate his wonderful permanship, can't you?

From Where...?

«¿De dónde habrá surgido la idea de que las personas pueden comunicarse mediante cartas?»

Ángeles Doñate, El invierno que tomamos cartas en el asunto

Sunday Stamps | A for Aroma

Welcome to the third A-Z round of Sunday Stamps!

I have planned to do another thematic one, like in the previous round. Alas, I cannot access my computer right now, neither my full collection (things are a bit messy when one moves from a country to another!). 

So, at least for the first letters, I am going to show you some of the latest stamps I have got on letters and postcards. I hope I will find at least an interesting one for every letter!

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A is for Aroma: scratch and sniff stamps issued by USPS on 20 June. They come in 10 different stamp designs.

Do you like special stamps like those, or do you prefer the more conventional ones?

It Is Raining Cats & Dogs

Well... not really.

Hand painted envelope sent to John (the UK) 

Study French!

Among the funny mail I am getting this summer, I received this postcard from Julia (Australia), promoting courses of French language.

Four days latter, two more postcards arrived from a friend living in my country... encoraging me to study French!

Letters to Djinns

The Feroz Shah Kotla is a fortress built by Sultan Feroz Shah Tughlaq in the 14th century, in India.

Inside, there is a pyramid-like structure on which stands the Minar-e-Zarreen: a 13 m polished sandstone pillar. It was originally erected in the 3rd century BC and centuries later lifted to Kotla.

Source

Popular belief goes that the chief of the Kotla djinns, dwells in the pillar and accept requests and wishes from people in the form of written letters. So, every Thursday, a huge crowd gathers at the fort. They bring several photocopies of the same letter, to be sure that the correct department of djinns gets the application.

Source

According to this article, the association to djinns dates from the 70s. It was only since 1977, a few months after the end of the Emergency, that there are first records of people starting to come to Firoz Shah Kotla in large numbers.

Transparent Postcard

I have contributed several times to Eduard's mail art call, Windows to the World. This time, I decided to sent him a postcard with a window located in his own city. 

I. e.: if you look through this window, you can see the city you are living in. It is valid for every city in the world ;-)

Really, it works! See the postcard after reaching its destination:

Women on Stamps | Babe Zaharias

I hope you have enjoyed this A-Z round of Sunday Stamps-II as much as I have. In some ways, it has been a sort of long-distance race... So, the stamp for Z had to be an athlete, of course!

Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (1911 – 1956) was an American athlete who achieved a great deal of success in golf, basketball, baseball and track and field. On 22 September 1981, the USPS issued this stamp commemorating her.

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For this edition of Sunday Stamps-II A to Z, I have decided to show some of the stamps I have got on letters and postcards, related to one topic: women. This is the post for the letter Z.

More women on stamps.

Todas as Cartas de Amor são Ridículas

Todas as cartas de amor são Ridículas.
Não seriam cartas de amor se não fossem
Ridículas.

Também escrevi em meu tempo cartas de amor,
Como as outras,
Ridículas.

As cartas de amor, se há amor,
Têm de ser
Ridículas.

Mas, afinal,
Só as criaturas que nunca escreveram
Cartas de amor
É que são
Ridículas.

Quem me dera no tempo em que escrevia
Sem dar por isso
Cartas de amor
Ridículas.

A verdade é que hoje
As minhas memórias
Dessas cartas de amor
É que são
Ridículas.

(Todas as palavras esdrúxulas,
Como os sentimentos esdrúxulos,
São naturalmente
Ridículas.)

Álvaro de Campos

Violet Gnome

Postcard sent to Sebastian (Germany), through the Postcrossing site,with another member of this family on the back.

Do you like to draw on the back of postcards?

Postcardstamps

Laura (the UK) sent me this postcard that seems an stamp. With the two that she had previously sent, they start to seem like a little collection...

What would you depict on a similar postcard from your country?

See here

And here

35 Km

I have ben recently aware that two people I exchange postcards with (but I have never met in person) live only 35 km far from each other.

Now I can't stop wondering if they have ever crossed paths...

Repurposing: A Colouring Booklet

I made this envelope for Heleen (the Netherlands) using a free colouring booklet, given to children in a clothes shop. 

Can you spot what I added on the front (fruits) and back (animals) of the envelope?

Roman Lighthouse and More

And more postcards that bring memories, because I visited this place some years ago, with a couple of friends and a baby that is a teenager now...

St Mary's Church sits in the grounds of Dover Castle (in England, the UK). It is a heavily restored Saxon structure, built next to a Roman lighthouse which became the church bell-tower.

Under Henry II's command, The Great Tower at Dover Castle was built to entertain Europe's most powerful pilgrims on their way to Thomas Becket's shrine at Canterbury Cathedral. Since 2007, English Heritage has worked with historian and craftspeople to re-presents the rooms in a late 12th century style. The images show the interior of King's Chamber and a replica of the Lewis Chessman.

(A lot of the postcards from the UK have been arriving with a chewed off corner - ?!?)

Women on Stamps | Youthful Heroines

This stamp dedicated to Sybil Ludington was issued in 1975. The caption Youthful Heroine (better picture here) caught my attention when I got it. So, who was this girl? 

Sybil Ludington (1761 – 1839), of Putnam County, New York, is celebrated as a heroine of the American Revolutionary War. On the night of April 26, 1777, at the age of 16, she rode to alert militia forces in villages of Putnam County, New York and Danbury, Connecticut, to the approach of the British regular forces. She rode a total of 40 miles (64 km) in the hours of darkness.

Anne Frank (1929 – 1945) was one of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. She gained fame posthumously with the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis) in which she documents two years of her life in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. 

On 2 September 2016, PostNL issued a stamp sheet to mark the Year of the Book. Ten special books from the Royal Library were depicted on the sheet, Frank's diary among them. I was more than happy to receive the whole set two years ago.

Yakoute Chennaoui isn't a heroine (yet), but she won one of the 4 prices of the stamp design contest by the Moroccan postal service, under the theme "Design a green stamp", for children between 8 an 14 years old. You can see here the four stamps, that belong to the series Children's Creativity.

I don't get mail from Morocco often!

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For the new edition of Sunday Stamps-II A to Z, I have decided to show some of the stamps I have got on letters and postcards, related to one topic: women. This is the post for the letter Y.

More women on stamps.

Hand Made Envelopes

Sent to Janet (USA)

Sent to Laura (UK)

(Made of wrapping paper and a page of a magazine.)