Machins on a Postcard

I got this postcard from John (the UK). Now I hesitate... Should I add it to my stamps album?

Some Nice Envelopes & Stamps

Received from Pina (Belgium), Laura (the UK), Claudia (Germany), Catherine (France) and Helen (the USA). The lime one, as you can read, meant that I won a lottery in the Postcrossing forum.

Sunday Stamps | Dutch Patents

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps is Inventions/Discoveries. 

The stamps above were issued on 9 February 2010 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Rijksoctrooiwet or State Patent Act. They feature several interesting inventions: Polyethylene fiber (DSM 1979), Dutch telescope (Lipperhey 1608)... and one I consider very important for letter writers: Handwriting recognition (TNT Post 1980).

The whole sheet:

Turkey & Friends

I got this letter from Bryon (the USA). It was postmarked in Turkey (Texas, USA), making a perfect match with the stamps. 

And... what do you think the envelope contained? More Turkey stamps, of course!

On the back of another postcard sent by Bryon, I found two friends of the turkey...

... and a perfectly matching postmark, again:

Stars of Summer

Collage on an envelope sent by Imma (PC).

Small!

I conduct a sort of postal experiment: I sent to Bryon (the USA) a very small card Oz-themed. (Sorry, I did not take any picture of it!)

It arrived safe and sound, and the reply came as a similar card, slightly smaller than the postal regulations allow. It travelled 28 days before reaching my mailbox. 

It was delivered while it was really pouring outside, hence those strange marks and the illegible postmark. But it was perfectly readable inside, and the Judy Garland's stamps remained in good condition.

Sunday Stamps | Summer

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps is... Summer!

Enjoy the Summer!

(... If you are in the northern hemisphere.)

Postcard sent by Laura (the UK). 

Vihreä asetelma, c. 1930, by Helene Schjerfbeck

Postcards sent by Hilkka and Piia (Finland), through the Postcrossing site.

Postcard sent by John (the UK).

Letter sent to Fabienne (France).

Art in Progress

Front

I send this envelope to Laura (the UK); I used art supplies packaging to made it. 

I made a similar one some time ago, but I can't find it in my files.

Back

Bluebells = Summer

Letter sent by Laura (the UK), and stamps arrived on the back of postcards from Finland and Germany.

Finnish Markets

Market in Turku

I got this postcard last week from Turku, Finland, from a postcrosser. I like poscards depicting  street life and markets. I think they give us a glimpse of real life. 

At first sight, I thought it was the same very postcard that I have received some years ago. But, of course, I was wrong: the postcards feature different cities. 

Hämeenlinnasta marketplace

And another difference is that in the newer postcard the faces of people are blurred (Can you appreciate it?). I had never seen that on a postcard.

Sunday Stamps | Lynxes

Today's topic in Sunday Stamps is Cats (big or small).

  

The stamp above belongs to a mini-sheet commemorating the eighties. One of the stamps depicts naturalist and broadcaster Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, very well known at that time for the highly successful series El Hombre y la Tierra ('The Man and the Earth'). On this stamp, he carries a baby lynx in his arms.

More lynxes I have got (although I had not realised until today):

Russia, 2008

USA, 2015

USA, 1990

Spain, 1998

Postcards from Cyprus

Sunset along the southern coastline

I got these postcards from Cyprus through the Postcrossing site, and they just made my day. Not only because the sender mailed two instead of only one, also because I love the themes and they were written completely in Greek (I need a bit more time to understand the 100%, of course...).

Leda and the goose. Pafos.

I had only received this postcard from Cyprus, back in 2013.

If You Send Typewriters

If you send typewriters... You get typewriters!

Postcards sent by Heleen (the Netherlands) and Laura (the UK). The sentence on the first postcard is especially appropriate this week!

Waberley, 1889

"Äußerst seltene englische Schreibmaschine

 mit rückwärtiger Typenhebelanordnung,

 um ,,sichtbares" Scheiben zu ermöglichen."

Erich Hartmann (Paris, France, 1982)

Sunday Stamps | USA 2018 Monochromes

Some classical designs for today's theme in Sunday Stamps: Monochrome.

These stamps were issued on 27 June 2018, along with a $5 one in brick red colour. They feature an illustration of the statue that tops the U.S. Capitol dome. The artwork is based on an engraved vignette originally created for a 1923 stamp, the $5 Head of Freedom Statue, by John Eissler (1873-1962). 

You can read more information about these stamps here. Also, I found a picture of the 1923 stamp (which I do not own):

Also in 2018, two stamps were issued in order to commemorate the centenary of the first air mail flight: on May 15, 1918, in the midst of World War I, a small group of Army pilots delivered mail along a route that linked Washington, Philadelphia, and New York—initiating the world's first regularly scheduled airmail service. (More information here).

The stamps feature a drawing of the type of plane typically used in the early days of airmail, a Curtiss JN4H biplane. This type of biplane was also featured on the 24 cent stamp that was issued in 1918 to commemorate the beginning of regularly scheduled airmail service. “EST” is an abbreviation for “established”. You can see the picture below (again, I do not own this).