Don't You?

«Don't you like to write letters? I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something.»

Ernest Hemingway

Back to School!

Uris Library, McGraw Tower (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA). Postcards sent by Phillip.

University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Postcard sent by Heleen.

Sunday Stamps | I Is for Isabella II

The first Spanish stamps reproduce the image of Isabella II, queen o Spain from 1833 until 1868. The same stamp was issued in different colours and face values. 

Spain was the tenth country to adopt the innovative system ot the stamps, and the first Spanish stamps were issued on 1st January 1850. Until 1865, stamps were presented without perforation, with a separation between stamps of one mil·límetre, and had to be separated by scissors. 

6.227.090 of these black stamps were sold during 1850. However, only five envelopes bearing it have survived.

On 7 January 2025, this self-adhesive stamp was issued to commemorate the 175th anniversary.

(This is the I-post for A-Z Sunday Stamps.)

Reading in Pink

Letter sent by Laura (the UK).

Recent Post Labels

Croatia

Hungary

Italy

Portugal

United Kingdom

Thursday Postcard Hunt | Traditional Dresses

Urk (Netherlands)

Ohcejohka/Utsjoki (Lapland, Finland)

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Thursday Postcard Hunt
September theme: LEARNING

• Week 1 - Legends, Children's Stories
• Week 2 - Famous People
• Week 3 - National Parks
• Week 4 - History (Could Be Historical Buildings)

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Orange Letter

Letter sent by Laura (the UK).

What Do You Futz Around With?

«"You like futzing around with postage stamps?"

She gave me a blank, frowning look. "What do you futz around with, huh? Hitting an innocent little white ball with a long stick? Soldering wires together and playing four-track-stereo? Slamming some dumb little car around corners, upshifting and downshifting? Are you a gun futz or a muscle futs?"

"I think I know where you're going with that"

"Where I'm going is that there's no list to tell you where you rate on some kind of scale of permanent values and find out how unimportant you are. But I can tell you what nobody ought to be doing."

"What's that?"

"Nobody ought to be sneering at anybody else way of life."»

John D. Macdonald, The Scarlet Ruse

Autumn Is Here

Today is the first day of Autumn in this hemisphere. I hope the Autumn mail will arrive safe and sound!

Sunday Stamps | H Is for Height & Horne

Dorothy Height (1912 – 2010) was an African-American civil rights and women's rights activist. She is credited as the first leader in the civil rights movement to recognize inequality for women and African Americans as problems that should be considered as a whole. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. Height's role in the Big Six civil rights movement was frequently ignored by the press due to sexism. 

Lena Horne (1917 – 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. A groundbreaking African-American performer, Horne advocated for civil rights and took part in the March on Washington in August 1963.

More H-stamps on Sunday Stamps!

Ink Project Update

How many postcards do you think you can write with the same pen?

Do you remember the The Ink Project? Well, I can inform you that finally my only postcards BIC pen run out of ink... After having written 451,5 postcards.

What do  you think?

Mail Makes Everything Better

Postcard sent by Bryon from the USA.

Thursday Postcard Hunt | Rhön Biosphere Reserve & Appalachian Trail

Abtsrodaer Hilltop in the Rhön Biosphere Reserve, Hesse (Germany).

A century after its creation, the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) continues to whisk hikers away on therapeutic adventures in ever-increasing numbers, either for the entire almost 2,200-mile hike from Georgia to Maine or to enjoy a single out-and-back trek. Photo by Nico Schueler.

Postcards sent by Ines (Germany) and Phillip (the USA).

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Thursday Postcard Hunt
September theme: LEARNING

• Week 1 - Legends, Children's Stories
• Week 2 - Famous People
• Week 3 - National Parks
• Week 4 - History (Could Be Historical Buildings)

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Postcards on Postcards

Two postcards sent by Bryon (the USA).

Stationery Girl

Collage on envelope sent by Laura (the UK).

Wise Words (III): Answer the Letter

«Sec. 3. How to go on with a Letter
[...]

My second Rule is, don't fill more than a page and a half with apologies for not having written sooner!

The best subject, to begin with, is your friend's last letter. Write with the letter open before you. Answer his questions, and make any remarks his letter suggests. Then go on to what you want to say yourself.»

Lewis Carrol, Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter-Writing

Sunday Stamps | G Is for Gender Violence

Every year, Correos (the Spanish postal service) issues a stamp dedicated to Civic Values -a set of behaviours that is considered positive for the development of society. The theme in 2020 was No to Gender Based Violence.

This is my G-stamp for this round of A-Z Sunday Stamps (dedicated to women in Mail Adventures).

Good People Meet

Last month, I received this postcard through the Postcrossing site. It had traveled from China for 72 days! There were nice stamps on the back, but no explanation. The message was simply "Happy Postcrossing", wihthout names.

After registering it, I looked at the sender's profile and saw that the same postcard had been sent several times:

I felt curious about the picture. An online translator told me that the words on top mean something like "Good People Meet" (It looks like a good slogan for Postcrossing, doesn't it?). After further researching, I found out that this kind of images are made in Yunnan by Bai people, using old wood engraving techniques.

You can read more here and here, for instance I do not know how accurate the information is, but the pictures are wonderful!

Postcrossing & Bowling

Heleen (the Netherlands) sent me this postcard last year. And a couple of weeks ago, I received the followint one from her:

I did not know that the combination bowling & Postcrossing was so popular! 

Thursday Postcard Hunt | Famous Women

Rosalyn Yallow (1821-2011)
Medical Physicist

Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, 1879
By Edgar Degas

Postcards sent by Phillip (the USA) and Laura (the UK).

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Thursday Postcard Hunt
September theme: LEARNING

• Week 1 - Legends, Children's Stories
• Week 2 - Famous People
• Week 3 - National Parks
• Week 4 - History (Could Be Historical Buildings)

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Mail Day

Envelope on a collage sent by Laura (UK).

Fishing Season in My Mailbox (and III)

Fishing season continues in my mailbox, with stamps, postcards and pictorial postmarks!

Sent by Phillip (the USA).

Wise Words (II): Write Legibly

«Sec. 3. How to go on with a Letter

[...]

Here is a golden Rule to begin with. Write legibly.»

Lewis Carrol, Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter-Writing

Sunday Stamps | F is for Feminist

Simonne Monet-Chartrand (1919 – 1993) was a Canadian labor activist, feminist writer, and pacifist.

The stamp were issued in 2023, along with two more stamps featuring Léa Roback and Madeleine Parent. All three women were born in Montréal and were lifelong advocates for women’s and workers’ rights and other causes. You can read more about them in the Canada Post online magazine.

This is my F entry for the A-Z Sunday Stamps.

250 Years of US Postal Service (1,2)

In 2025, the United States celebrates a milestone: 250 years of postal service. This collection of postcards have been released one a month. All 12 align to form a timeline spanning from 1775 to 2025.

1.

This postcard commemorates the establishment of the United States Post Office by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on July 26, 1775, and highlights Benjamin Franklin's appointment as the first Postmaster General. Received 25 March 2025

2.

This postcard commemorates the first issuance of postage stamps by the U.S. Post Office in 1847, marking the beginning of prepaid postage in the United States.

Two stamps were introduced:

• A 5-cent stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin for letters weighing less than 1/2 ounce and traveling up to 300 miles.
• A 10-cent stamp depicting George Washington for deliveries to locations greater than 300 miles or for letters twice the weight of those covered by the 5-cent stamp.

Postcards sent by Bryon (the USA).

What If You Do Not Have Any Tape or Envelopes...

... but you desperately need to send a letter from a small island?

Thursday Postcard Hunt | NYC

I received this postcard through the Postcrossing site. On it, a wonderful little artist tells her story. She drew the whole family and the house they live in. I absolutely love the taxi!

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Thursday Postcard Hunt
September theme: LEARNING

• Week 1 - Legends, Children's Stories
• Week 2 - Famous People
• Week 3 - National Parks
• Week 4 - History (Could Be Historical Buildings)

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Special Letters from Portugal

Stamps and postmark about Art déco, issued on 25 August and arrived only four days later.

Stamps commemorative of Dom Afonso Henriques, first king of Portugal. He made himself a knight on his own account in the Cathedral of Zamora (nowadays, Spain) in 1125. Some years later, in 1143, the Treaty of Zamora recognised Portugal as an independent kingdom.

The envelope bears a special postmark from Zamora.

Both envelopes sent by Pedro (Portugal).

Not a Bad Mail Month, After All

(August update of my 2025 postal project: counting the days I get mail.)

Wise Words (I): That Way Madness Lies

«Sec. 2. How to begin a Letter.

If the Letter is to be in answer to another, begin by getting out that other letter and reading it through, in order to refresh your memory [...]

Next, Address and Stamp the Envelope. "What! Before writing the Letter?" Most certainly. And I'll tell you what will happen if you don't. You will go on writing till the last moment, and just in the middle of the last sentence, you will become aware that 'time's up!' Then comes the hurried wind-up — the wildly-scrawled signature — the hastily-fastened envelope, which comes open in the post — the address, a mere hieroglyphic — the horrible discovery that you've forgotten to replenish your Stamp-Case — the frantic appeal, to every one in the house, to lend you a Stamp — the headlong rush to the Post Office, arriving, hot and gasping, just after the box has closed — and finally, a week afterwards, the return of the Letter, from the Dead-Letter Office, marked "address illegible"!

Next, put the date in full. It is another aggravating thing, when you wish, years afterwards, to arrange a series of letters, to find them dated "Feb. 17", "Aug. 2", without any year to guide you as to which comes first. And never, never, dear Madam (N.B. this remark is addressed to ladies only: no man would ever do such a thing), put "Wednesday", simply, as the date!

"That way madness lies."»


Lewis Carrol, Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter-Writing