By Cycle Mail

This letter sent by Pedro from Portuga took nine days to arrive. Not bad, if you consider it came by bike...

The stamp belongs to the 2026 series As Bicicletas no Ciclismo (='Bicycles in Cycling'). 

He has recently sent more Portuguese bicycles. The stamps below are from the 2025 series As Bicicletas nas Profissões (='Bicycles in Professions'). Here you have the farmer's and the milkman's bikes:

Bird on Tree

I have received this pictorial postmark several times... But I love how perfectly the bird is perched on the tree in this one!

Year of the Fire Horse [I]

Postcard sent by Bryon (the USA).

Sunday Stamps | E is for Earth

Go to Sunday Stamps to see more E-stamps.

Bye, Year of the Snake!

Sunday Stamps | C Is for Circus

France, 2024. Booklet of 8 stamps on the theme of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and the theater of the same name. 

Netherlands, 2011. From a set of stamps commemorating the 100 Years of Circus Herman Renz.

Spain, 2018. Stamp commemorating 250th anniversary of the circus. The stamp reproduces an engraving from 1768 entitled: Horse Riding Exercise, by Bernardo Albiztur y Tornaria, currently held in the National Library of Spain.

USA, 1980. 100th birthday of William Claude Dukenfield - W.C. Fields (1880 - 1946).

USA, 1993.

A comment on this post made me think of circus as the C theme for this round of A-Z Sunday Stamps. 

This is a favourite theme, and I had already published some circus stamps. For example, here (EUROPA stamps 2002), here (Barnum and Bailey Circus), here (White clowns) and here (Circus stamps and postcards from Monaco).

Or Send Someone a Love Postcard

Postcards & stamps sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Postcard and stamps sent by Bryon (the USA). Notice the matching stamps and the pictorial cancellation:

And other ones, clearer:

Send Someone a Love Letter

Letter sent by Phillip (the USA).

Letter sent by Bryon (United Nations).

Letter sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Sunday Stamps | A Is for Abstract

France, 1981

Alléluia, by French painter Alfred Manessier (1965). 

Austria, 2023

75th birthday of Hans Kupelwieser

The stamp motif shows an untitled relief made in 2020, anodised aluminium, 170 by 180 by 30 centimetres.

Portugal, 2025

Burning in the Forbidden Sea, by Rui Chafes

USA, 2013

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, by Marcel Duchamp (1912)

A new A-Z starts in Sunday Stamps. Go to see more A related stamps!

250 Years of Delivering

Among the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the U. S. Postal Service last year, on 23th July they issued a sheet of stamps designed by American cartoonist Chris Ware. As described here:

The 20 interconnected stamps (printed in four rows of five) deliver a bird’s-eye view of a busy city, packed with perfectly drawn buildings, geometric trees and dozens of humans bustling about. In inimitable Chris Ware fashion, the progression of stamps also takes the viewer through all four seasons.

When I saw these online, they become instant favourites. And then I received them not once, but twice!

Postmark of the first day of issue:

Read more about this issue. The details are incredible.

Mail from Underland

Letter sent by Phillip (the USA), with SpongeBob stamps, and Christmas tree pictorial postmark (it arrived just before Christmas).

And another one with the First Day postmark!

Letter sent by Catherine (France).

Orca (Orcinus orca). Illustration by Pieter Folkens. Card sent by Bryon.