Halloween Mail (Sent)

Some Halloween mail sent to friends in the USA and Canada. The template of the envelope is from The Postman's Knock.

On the stamps, the castles in which the witches live!

Inspiring Mail-Related Drawings

Sent by Phillip (the USA). It is one of the postcards of the #Write_On Campaign, that began in 2014 with the challenge of writing 30 letters in 30 days.

Sent by Rosemary (Canada). It was created for the Letter Writing Club of The Regional Assembly of Text. If you happen to be in Vancouver the first Thursday of a month, you are welcome there!

----------

I added this post to Maria's link Postcards for the Weekend, that just started its second year. The theme this week is Monochrome. 

The Mountains or the Sea?

Postcard sent by Laura (the UK). This is Errigal Mountain in "the rugged and beautiful" County of Donegal. With a scratch that I thought was part of the picture, at first sight.

Mama's Beach, by Jan Kasprzycki. The real beach is on Maui's North Shore. This is another postcard that arrived thanks to the #AtoZChallenge. It arrived just two days after someone from Maui commented on the blog. It is my second postcard from Hawaii (but actually this was sent from Canada, by Rosemary).

But it is more likely that I visit the Mediterranean Sea, like on this postcard of the Costa Brava sent by Mom. Beautiful beaches near home! 

Castles & Walls

Qal'at Al-Bahrain Site Museum
متحف موقع قاعة البحرين

I am very fond of this postcard sent by Nila (Bahrain). Because it is a beautiful view, of course. But also because it is the first piece of mail I have ever got from Bahrain (a new country to the list!), and also because we arranged this swap thanks to the A to Z April Challenge. 

Laura sent me this postcard from Burgos, Spain, The Arco de San Esteban ('St Stephen's Arch'), built in the 12th century, is one of the twelve gates on the walls of the old city.

The castle of Guadalest, in my country. The postcard was sent by one of my nieces. She wrote that "it is not a real castle, but mostly ruins".

Kasteel Slangenburg

Two more castles sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

And More Summer!

Front

This postcard is a wonderful handmade collage, sent by Sally (the USA). I can easily identify myself with the happy people on the postcard. Summer means water!

Back of the postcard

By the way: this is another postcard that I received thanks to the A to Z April Challenge.

Challenge Survivor

There is an official Survivor badge for people who complete the #AtoZ April Challenge. But the unofficial congratulations, like this alphabet-themed envelope and postcard, sent by Heleen (the Netherlands)... is much more interesting. And it gives ideas for future challenges...

And more ideas arrived on this envelope from Phillip (the USA), made of a cover of a magazine that seems just perfect for mail art, even the colours they used. The stamp is almost hidden... At first sight I didn't spot it!

 

F Is for...

This week's theme in Postcards for the Weekend is Flags. During the A to Z April Challenge, I uploaded some recently received postcards with flags (see here; the USA flag is worth seeing!). I also published some free postcards, and there was a lot of people commenting that free postcards are scarce nowadays...

Later, I received this flag postcard from FinnBadger (the USA); he obtained it for free at an exhibit about communication and friendship. They even mailed it for free! Well... the cancellation of the stamps wasn't the best, as you can see.

I added this postcard to the album of lighthouses, because the Statue of Liberty was first conceived as a lighthouse. But, alas, it proved useless. This is the very first postcard I have received of it!

And there is another postcards with flags that comes also from an exhibition at the British Library (London, UK), sent by Laura. The text, written in four languages (Russian, Arabic and the local languages Circassian and Nogay), reads: "The Mountain Dweller - Muslim Cavalry Division of Colonel Pupovskii invites volunteer Mountain Dwellers and Muslims. Enlist". I don't know exactly which flags are those, do you?

#AtoZChallenge | Collateral Effects

Trying to keep this short (really!)... Some collaterals effects of the #AtoZChallenge, and learnings, in alphabetical order:

E is for English

As a non-native English speaker, I discovered some words thanks to the challenge. Not only in A few drops of Ink, that dedicated the #AtoZChallenge to words, but in a lot of blogs. Even in my own! Eatery (suggested by Phillip), Obverse, Quail (by Bryon), and Xangô (by Heleen) are words I did not know before.

F is for Fun

This was my biggest expectation when I decided to take the challenge. And I achieved more fun that expected.

I is for Inspiration

• It seems that I inspired Phillip to take part in the challenge (he said I tried to convince him), which resulted in a series of posts about mail art, interesting as his always are.
• I am glad that postcards inspired also other posts in the challenge, like: P is for Play; Going Postal; Arti is thinking of rooting through her boxes of postcards and writing a post about... Any other?

(This U-post was not inspired by postcards, but you will find an original and funny display of mailboxes !)

• The postcards gave John an idea that he explained in another comment: I feel like starting a postcard collection from all the places I visit now. Wish my mind had thought of that earlier, but thanks for planting the seed in there now. (I asked him for royalties - inspiration is not free!... No answer so far). 
• Claire wrote on her reflections post: Eva at Mail Adventures has inspired me to start sending out postcards again. And there were some comments like this: I'm looking at these stamps and wondering why I stopped sending mail. Or this: I've actually been feeling inspired from your blog to start sending (and hopefully receiving) postcards more. I like to think that maybe someone else has sent a postcard after reading one of the posts... Let me know!

Postcard sent by Phillip (the USA)
Manipulated digital print

P is for Postcards 

• Before. I wrote in the theme reveal post that I had not any idea for some letters (E, Q, X, Y, Z)... And some friends sent postcards for those. I added most of them to the posts, resulting in some strange combinations like Quail & Quidditch, for instance, or Yeast &Yarn.
• During. Some postcards arrived in April made me modify the posts, without the senders being aware. Also I received two free postcards from a Canadian penfriend after she read the E-post.
• After. Some readers ask me for my address in order to send a postcard. Do you think they will arrive? If I get 26, I can start another challenge... (Update: One of the Some promised postcards have arrived! Hooray!)

Back of a postcard sent by John (the UK)
Do you know Postman Pat?

R is for Readers

The number of visits to this blog, and comments, have increased during April. I am going to miss that! But, this month, I have enjoyed discovering new blogs, and I guess I will continue reading some of them. So, I hope that some people who arrived to Mail Adventures thanks to the #AtoZChallenge will continue to enjoy my posts about, not only received postcards, but all postal things.

S is for Surprise

I wrote here that I learn a lot through postcards and post in general. Also through blogging, I must say. And the biggest surprise has been to discover that so many people thinks that nobody is writing postcards (or letters) any more. Lost art, they say. Well... now you know you were wrong!

T is for Thanks

To everyone who has been here, and especially those who have taken the time to left comments. Also to people who wrote so many interesting posts that I am still enjoying.

Z is for ZIP code

Don't forget it when you send your next postcard. For instance... why not today?

#AtoZChallenge | Z is for Zebra & Zarah

I guess that some people have chosen this word for the latest day of the #AtoZChallenge... but still I wanted to upload this nice zebra that Bryon (the USA) sent! (You knew already its cousin the quail, don't you?)

----------------------------------------------------------------

This postcard shows Buddhist Monks passing the Royal Palace in Phnom Pen, Cambodia. This is not the first postcard I have got from that country: back in 2009 and 2010 I swapped some postcards with Zarah.

This one was sent by Ana, though. Ana is from Macedonia, currently living in China, and travelling a lot. So you never know where her next postcard is arriving from: Malaysia, Greece... It can be even the house you were born in (That I call a real mail adventure!)

Actually, this postcard was signed by two people: Ana and... Zarah! I did not know that they were friends! Later, they sent me a picture of them together in front of the post office.

Don't you think sometimes that the world is small? 

#AtoZChallenge | Y is for Yeast & Yarn

This postcard seems a comercial one, but it was handmade by John (the UK), using a coaster. Isn't it a nice illustration for a brewery?

Sent by Laura (the UK), this postcard shows some colourful pub signs in Ireland. It arrived just before the  A to Z Challenge started, when I was struggling with the letter Y.

I found more wonderful names for pubs in my mailbox a week later:

Some interesting names of pubs and beers on the multiples postcards. The creative names of Irish (and English...) pubs amazes me. Which name is your favourite?

----------------------------------------------------------------

The slogan of this one, sent by Heleen (the Netherlands) makes me think of the challenge itself. Plus, it relates to another beloved hobby of mine. Plus, it arrived with a perfectly matching stamp on the back. Plus... nothing prevents you to from knitting on a pub!

#AtoZChallenge | X is for Xangô

Xangô is an orisha, a kind of god from the African Yoruba. It is also the title of a beautiful song that the sender knows. And a music store in Utretcht (the Netherlands), named after Xango "the fighter lover, drum player and dancer who loves music" (as it is written on the back). 

So this was another free postcard, sent by Heleen (the Netherlands) especially for the challenge (as the Q-postcards were). You can see that clearly written on the cover (that, by the way, confused a bit the postal workers):

This was a completely new word for me. Also it was eatery, suggested by a fellow a-to-zer. I guess that, especially for non-English native speakers, a collateral effect of the A to Z Challenge is the learning of vocabulary. Have you discovered any word this month?

#AtoZChallenge | W is for Windmills

Postcard sent by Heleen, showing De Zaanse Schans (The Netherlands). Most people associate windmills with the Netherlands, but of course you can find them anywhere in the world. I have gathered a small collection of windmills on postcards and stamps, and I still don't know why I love them so much.

A bonus stamps, from the Postcrossing series. Do you know Postcrossing? (If not, I need to warn you: it is highly addictive!)

#AtoZChallenge | V is for Vintage

75 To Margarita in Paris, November 1903:
"Manolo passed his exams very well and today it is
Aberto's turn. A tender kiss, your Mamilla"

Dearest Margarita: An Edwardian Love Story in Postcards is both a book and a box containing a collection of 100 postcards. It tells the story of a forbidden love affair between Margarita Johnson (a wealthy young Cuban girl, born in 1880) and Charles Lumb. They were forced by circumstances to conduct their romance in secret, across continents. I have received some postcards of this collection, from Laura (the UK).

At the time of this love affair, 1900-1906, a craze for postcards was sweeping through Europe. It became the fashion to send and receive cards from friends -in most places there were three postal services a day. The law at the time prevented the sender from writing a message on the address side, so phrases were inserted around the picture side of the card. Cards were often kept in elaborate personalised albums and this was where Margarita kept hers. Over the six-year period the cards came in from family, friends and Charles, who wrote from America, England and Europe - wherever he was on his travels.

92 Bathers at Dieppe. 'Anticipating the pleasure of the coming
month. Yours ever, C.' June 1905

54 Napoleon, a card from Raul von Schroeder,
July 1903.

Can you imagine that someone, in the future, would do that with your love story?

#AtoZChallenge | U is for Ugly & University

This is one of Heleen's works of art, turned into a postcard. Of course I don't think this is ugly! But, when I looked up for blobfish in the Wikipedia, I read this:

In September 2013 the blobfish was voted the "World's Ugliest Animal", based on photographs of decompressed specimens, and adopted as the mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, in an initiative "dedicated to raising the profile of some of Mother Nature’s more aesthetically challenged children".

Well, it doesn't seem so ugly here. And it is nice when it meets a... err... tapir diver?

The back of the postcard is worth looking at, even with a personalised (real!) stamp with the same drawing:

----------------------------------------------------------------

And for the serious part of the post (if someone needs any), a postcard sent by John, showing the University of York (the UK). Derwent College from Heslington Hall gardens. 

Most people remember that they wrote a lot of letters/postcards when they were at University (and most of them stopped after that... Why?). Did/Do you send this kind of postcards?