Tom & Jerry & Friends

Letter sent by Heleen (the Netherlands). Look at the stamps! Tom & Jerry were among my favourite cartoons during my childhood (and still!). By the way, they are very popular in Morocco too. And I also used to like The Flintstones. I am afraid I am too old for appreciating The Powerpuff Girls and the rest, but I really like the idea of matching children illustration with post world.

By the way, don't you think that the Queen looks somehow odd on this envelope?

Odd Shaped Stamps

[This is a post for Sunday Stamps, run by Viridian. The theme this week is Anything you wish.]

Do you like odd-shaped stamps? Have you seen these? At first sight I thought they weren't real stamps! How cool are they?

These are the first self-adhesive non-rectangular stamps in the Netherlands, and were designed for the Youth Philately Day, issued on April 2014. The orange stamp is a egel ('hedgehog'; the word for 'stamp' in Dutch is potstzegel - I hope I get the right sense of the words!). As he needed a friend, they created the duif ('pigeon'). If you are able to read Dutch, you can find more information here.

The stamps were sent by Heleen (the Netherlands) as part of this wonderful package:

In case of you wonder who is looking at you from inside... Is this nice Dutch woman in the shape of a folded card!

By the way, I am afraid that the postal service doesn't trust us any more. They felt that they had to check the postage:

Pisa from the UK

Postcard in a stamp shape sent by Laura. It didn't arrived from Italy, but from the UK. But it was a perfect choice anyway: my friend explained me on the postcard that she had eaten at an Italian restaurant that day... So this is more or less like being in Italy, isn't it?

Europa Stamps

EUROPA stamps are special stamps issued by European postal administrations/enterprises and bears the official EUROPA logo, started back in 1956.

Every year PostEurop hold the EUROPA Stamp Competition. This is an online event where everyone can vote for their favourite design (there is also a Jury competition in which the best design is choses by philatelic experts). The theme for the competition this year is Music. You can see the 2014 stamps and vote here. You have until 31 August to vote.

More information about the competition and past years stamps.

3rd Bloganniversary!

Three years blogging almost every day? I can hardly believe!

Postcard sent by Mélissa (Canada), for my own birthday.

Sir Rowland Hill

Sir Rowland Hill was an English teacher, inventor and postal reformer. He came up with the solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy and relatively cheap transfer of letters. He is usually credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service, including the invention of the postage stamps.

(Stamp sent by John - the UK)

Not Even a Letter

I smiled when I read that on an envelope that arrived from the Netherlands. I guess it was written because of the postal workers who are being a bit fussy about customs regulations. But I can imagine their faces like "Why on hell somebody is spending money in sending... cardboard?".

Little Mail Carrier

Letter sent to my nieces (PC).

I know the postwoman who delivers letters in their town is not very nice. I hope that at least she smiled when saw this letter drawn with love...

(I added this post to Paper Saturdays).

Go to the Nature!

Sent to Richard (France).

The monthly link-up of uncustomary is about Nature. There is some ways you can reach the nature. You can take advantage of every little chance to enjoy nature. I hope Little Red Riding Hood did so and had fun in woods and she arrived safe and sound to Richard's place...

Inspiration from Em's Den.

Horses on Stamps

I have recently received more horses that update this post:

From Canada

(Maybe you cannot appreciate it in this picture, but it is golden.)

From France

From Guernsey

From the UK

I am really happy to have received four of six stamps of the new series Working Horses issued on 4th February by Royal Mail, on different letters sent by different people:

From the USA

Can you see the gold horse in the left top corner?

Merci aux postiers

Envelope sent by Eric (France).

With a nice message on the back: Merci aux postiers (='Thanks to the post workers'):

ATC Moon

ATC (Artist Trading Card) sent to Eric (France) for his project One word... one ATC. I chose the word قمر (Arabic for 'moon'). I wrote a lullaby in Catalan about the moon on the back.

Eric sent me back his own illustration for the same word (lune, French for 'moon'). He also quoted an old French song:

Also published in Eric's blog for the project.

Sant Marcús

This stamp dates from 1975 and represents the Chapel of Mare de Deú de la Guia ('Our Lady of the Guide'), aka Chapel of Sant Marcús because it was built thanks to Bernat Marcús, a rich bourgeois from the city of Barcelona. He donated the land for the chapel and a cemetery for poor people in 1166. The chapel was finished in 1188.

The chapel was placed next to the strata franca, one of the main roads of the city leading to the North. It became the headquarters of the Confraria de Correus i Troters ('Brotherhood Mailmen'). It meant the birth of the oldest private postal service in Europe (outside the royal courts), with standardized rates and routes.

Under the porch of the chapel, the mail carriers were blessed before leave home.

(More pictures, better than the ones taken by me. It was too dark!)

Where's the Envelope?

Wonderful envelope sent by Tessa (the Netherlands). She runs an interesting blog about mail: You Have Mail From Me. 

The content of the envelope wasn't less wonderful!

Who Can Write a Long Letter...

«"But do you always write such charming long letters to her, Mr Darcy?"
"They are generally long; but whether always charming it is not for me to determine."
"It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter, with ease, cannot write ill."»

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, I, 10