Thursday Postcard Hunt | Lake Constance

An impressive view of the city of Friedrichshafen on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the Bodensee) in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. The lake is situated where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet. 

The postcard was sent from Switzerland, through the Postcrossing site.

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Thursday Postcard Hunt

April theme: WATER

• Week 1 - Waterfalls
• Week 2 - Rivers
• Week 3 - Lakes
• Week 4 - Ocean, beaches
• Week 5 - Fountains

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Bloganniversary

Can you believe this blog is 13 years old?!?

Mail sent by Bryon and Phillip (the USA) and Heleen (the Netherlands).

Dear Eduardo

Do you remember the Eduardo Munez Letter Project? Maybe you sent a letter to this mysterious man. Or more than one, like I did myself. It was a very dear project to me: it is the first time (and the only, so far!) that I have appeared as Mail Art Consultant in the credits of a film.

Until FinnBadger attracted my attention to it, I had forgotten to tell you that the short film is available for free in Youtube (actually, since August 2023).

Tea with Paddington Bear

Sent by Laura (the UK). It has been a while since the last time a teddy bear arrived by mail...

Sunday Stamps | Russian Artists

Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya (Галина Павловна Вишневская), 1926 – 2012) was a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist. The stamp was issued in 2014, and belongs to the series Holders of Order "For Merit to the Fatherland - 2014.

I received it on this postcard, sent by Eduard (Russia).

In 2017 I received one stamp from the same series, but issued on 2017. It features Russian ballet artist Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya (Майя Михайловна Плисецкая), 1925 –  2015.

This is stamp for Sunday Stamps. Today's theme is one of my favourite on stamps: Women.

Il fallait oublier le confort

This postcard was made out of an old advertisement of Renault. It reads: Il fallait oublier le confort ('We had to forget about comfort'). And it is really big. Just look at the size of the pen!

Sent by Fabienne (France).

Calm & Postcards

This is a postcard sent by Bryon (the USA). I recognise a good piece of advice when I see one! 

I think I found the right postcard to reply.

(Keep Calm album)

Thursday Postcard Hunt | City Rivers

Ljubljanica River
Ljubljana, Slovenia

River Stour
Canterbury, UK

Zhujiang River
Yong Qing Fang, Guangzhou, China

Postcards sent by Ania (Lithuania), Laura (the UK) and Rui (China).

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Thursday Postcard Hunt

April theme: WATER

• Week 1 - Waterfalls
• Week 2 - Rivers
• Week 3 - Lakes
• Week 4 - Ocean, beaches
• Week 5 - Fountains

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Full of Fun and Play

Letter sent by Laura (the UK).

Alice Mail

The Guinness Alice

From time to time, Alice-related mail lands in my mailbox. Like the postcard above sent by Heleen (the Netherlands), and the cover below sent by Fabienne (France).

(Although this is an apocryphal quotation.)

Un beso y una flor

Envelope made by Imma (PC), using the recently issued stamp of the singer Nino Bravo.

Sunday Stamps | Science and Industry

Stamp issued in 1983, for the theme Industry in Sunday Stamps.

Empty Stamps Sheets

Do you also get these things from your friends, or are you normal?

From Myself to Myself

«As a child, I'd often send myself a postcard when I went on family holidays, It was an act of delayed masochism - I knew I wouldn't receive the card until I got back home and my holiday was over. The postcard was like a time capsule, sent from myself to myself, but the version of myself who sent the postcard was irritatingly smug. 'I'm sitting by the pool,' I'd write. 'I might go for another swim once I finish writing this. Anything good on TV in England? How's the weather?' Back at home, reading this message, I'd reconcile the sense of jealousy I felt towards the version of myself who was still on holiday with the fact that I knew things he didn't. I knew, for instance, that he'd leave his sunglasses behind in his hotel room and that his flight would be delayed on the way home.»

James Ward, Adventures in Stationery

Thursday Postcard Hunt | USA Wild and Domestic Waterfalls

Great Smoky Mountain National Park
 (North Carolina, Tennessee)

North Carolina

Salish, lodge and spa
(Washington)

Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterwork (1936)

All postcards received from the USA through the Postcrossing site. The last one was sent by Phillip long ago.

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Thursday Postcard Hunt

April theme: WATER

• Week 1 - Waterfalls
• Week 2 - Rivers
• Week 3 - Lakes
• Week 4 - Ocean, beaches
• Week 5 - Fountains

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

The May 2nd Penny Black

This postcard illustrates the Penny Black on piece with letters 'A' 'A' which was posted on the 2nd May 1840 and cancelled on arrival in London with a red 'tombstone' cancellation. Thus by the time the now famous Penny Black was officially issued on the 6th May, 1840, Postal History had already been made - in Bath.

Postcard from the Bath Postal Museum, sent by Laura (the UK).

Stickers and Stamps

If you are like me, and like all kinds of postal projects, you might consider to participate in Kristin's Stickers and Stamps project. 

What is the goal of the project?

1. Support the USPS by purchasing and using as many stamps as I can.
2. Send little moments of joy to as many people as possible. When was the last time you got a treat in a hand addressed envelope?
3. Collaborate with as many people as possible to collect USPS delivery times across the United States, and beyond.

How does this work?

1. You sign up.
2. I mail a sticker to you.
3. You tell me when it arrives.

Pau

Andorra is a small country without a postal company of its own. The mail service is provided by the Spanish and French public companies: Correos (since 1928) and La Poste (since 1931). Both companies issue stamps to be used in Andorra.

The stamp above was sent by Fabienne (France), and the stamp below was bought by myself in Spain, for the Peace Stamp project.

When sending mail from there, you must be careful and use the right stamps and mail boxes!

Mail box of La Poste (left) and of Correos (right) 
in l'Aldosa de la Massana (Andorra)
(Picture taken from here)

Sunday Stamps | Marine Sanctuaries

Reused big envelope sent by Phillip (the USA). The stamps belong to the National Marine Sanctuaries, issued on 5 August 2022, of which Phillip has sent the whole series on different envelopes. How cool is this?

To see more Marine Life on stamps, go to Sunday Stamps.

Netherlands King's Day

Postcard & matching stamp sent last year by Heleen (the Netherlands) to celebrate Koningsdag. 

I would have expected orange stamps to celebrate Koningsdag... And they arrived on the back of another postcard!

Keeping calm is always a good idea. And also celebrating, of course!

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

Have you ever thought about what having an address means? Or not having it? When most people, and especially mail lovers, think about street addresses, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail.

 
The Address Book takes this apparently banal topic and makes you aware of how big it is. Addresses were not invented to help you find your way: they were created to find you. And believe it or not, they reveal more than you think about you. There are complex and fascinating stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who does not, and why.

Thursday Postcard Hunt | Koala

On this postcard received from Australia: The Three Sisters, Scenic Skyway Katoomba, Govett's Leap, the Great Canyon... And a koala!

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Thursday Postcard Hunt

April theme: TRANSPORTATION

• Week 1 - Boats, ferries
• Week 2 - Buses, trams, taxis
• Week 3 - Bicycles, tuk tuks
• Week 4 - Cable cars, gondolas

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Lights Out

Lately, eclipse-related mail has become a thing. Before 8 April, I got a letter on this map from Bryon (the USA). 

On 18 April (only ten days after the total eclipse!), a couple of pieces of mail arrived, postmarked on the very eclipse day:

This postcard from Phillip shows the successive phases of an eclipse on the Sun (taken from Larousse Encyclopedia of Astronomy by Lucien Rudaux and G. de Vaucouleurs, 1962). But the clever thing here is how the stamps are lined up on the envelope: the Moon pass in front of the Sun, eclipsing it. An unbeatable way of sending a real eclipse by snail mail!

The eclipse stamp was issued on 2017,  and it uses thermochromic ink. I took a picture to show how it works. You can see it on this post.

The eclipse path of 2017 was quite different from the 2024 path!

Bryon, Canada, sent this postcard that arrived also on 18 April:

On the back, the stamps include superb images of northern lights and the Milky Way. And also the stamp issued by Canada Post on March 2024, which celebrates the total eclipse:

Printed with a special spot-gloss varnish that glows when exposed to black light, it shows the eclipse set against a darkened sky. A thin silver line depicts its path across Canada, and a collage along the bottom of the stamp highlights some of the landscapes over which it passes – including Ontario’s Niagara Falls and Spillars Cove in Newfoundland and Labrador.

I love that the postcard was postmarked in Bonavista, meaning, literally 'Good view'.