Chineasy

These postcards make the Chinese language to seem almost easy...

貝 Shell (bei⁴)
Shells were once a form of currency

Wine vessel
Add 3 dots on the left to make the character for wine.

Postcards sent by Lothar (Germany) and Heleen (the Netherlands).

Sunday Stamps | Castles

Towers / castles / fortresses is today's theme in Sunday Stamps. I found some I wouldn't mind to pay a visit to!

Manzanares el Real (Spain)

I made some mail art with this one...

Dunvegan Castle (Scotland)

The postcard with this non-Royal-Mail stamp took ages to arrive!

Castell Caernarfon (Wales), 1978

Eagle Tower and Queen Eleanor's Gate
Castell Caernarfon (Wales)
Stamps from 1969

Nice to have several stamps featuring the same place!

Vajdahunyad Castle (Hungary)

Henkenshage (the Netherlands)

According to Wikipedia, not a real castle but a manor house.

The first stamp on this post was the Spanish contribution to the EUROPA stamps contest in 2017. And the stamp below was Finland's stamp (and one of my favourites!). You can see all the EUROPA 2017 castles here.

American Gardens

Two letters sent by Phillip (the USA). The calendar on the first envelope and the jigsaw letters match with the letters contents. and also do the stamps.

The stamps are just beautiful. They belong to the American Gardens series, issued on 13 May 2020.

The Huntington Botanical Gardens (California)
Biltmore Estate Gardens (North Carolina)
Dumbarton Oaks Garden (District of Columbia)
Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens (Ohio)
Brooklyn Botanic Garden (New York)

Norfolk Botanical Garden (Virginia)
Winterthur Garden (Delaware)
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (Maine)

And, actually, I have got the ten designs included on the pane:

Norfolk Botanical Garden (Virginia)
Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park (Florida)

Chicago Botanic Garden (Illinois)
Winterthur Garden (Delaware)

With the First Day cancellation, too!

Chicago Botanic Garden (Illinois
Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park (Florida)

Autumn Themed Letter

One nice thing about Autumn is... Autumn themed letters!

Newnormal vs. Oldnormal

On the Newnormal side...

Greetings from Self-Isolation
Postcard sent by Bryon (the USA)

Personnel soignant, merci / Thanks, healthcare workers
Bilingual postmark from Canada

Protect your loved ones.
Download your nation's contact tracing app.
Postmark from the UK

From the Oldnormal: postcard (also sent by Bryon) featuring the first Starbucks coffehouse store, established in 1971 in Seattle (Washington, the USA).

And... What about this one sent by Heleen (the Netherlands)? I know the picture was taken on Oldnormal times. But people in the terrace seem to be social distancing anyway...

Children from the Netherlands

Illustration by Dick Bruna

Two Dutch Girls in Costume
By Jos Brower, 1998

Postcards sent by Lena and Judith (the Netherlands).

Aerogram + Rupert

 I got this small letter from the UK:

The opening proved to be a bit tricky!

Who doesn't love those Rupert Bear stamps?

And I have got more of them!

Sunday Stamps | Under the Sea

 Some fishes and sea animals from around the world for today's topic in Sunday Stamps: Under the Sea. 

Box Jellyfish
Australia

Lamprea marina
Spain

Sturgeon
The UK

Snoek / Esox lucius
The Netherlands

White Shark and Mako Shark
The USA

Finding Nemo
The USA

Philatelovely

Patreon sendings from Philatelovely are the very best!

Guess Who Has Got a Favourite Stamp...

Bugs Bunny Stamps

The Bugs Bunny stamps were issued by the USPS on July 2020. The 20-stamps sheet include 10 different designs, featuring 80-years-old Bugs Bunny in 10 classic costumes: as a barber, a baseball player, a soldier, a mermaid, etc.

I find the stamps funny and cheerful. Traditional stamps collectors, however, are no fans of this issue, or so I have read. For instance, here.

A case can be made that one Bugs Bunny stamp was enough. The 1997 32¢ stamp (Scott 3137) shown here filled that bill nicely, especially so because of the varieties that make the issue interesting.

And yet, July 27 of this year saw the release of not one but 10 new Bugs Bunny stamps.

While I don’t want to be in the running for curmudgeon of the year, 10 new Bugs Bunny stamps seem excessive to me. But this is a case of the United States Postal Service trying to tempt people into becoming stamp collectors, or at least trying to get the Bugs lovers to invest in a pane or two to keep as a collectable and never use as postage.

(John M. Hotchner)

What do you think?