Easter Postcard

Easter postcard received from Laura (the UK).

Pics from Fez

These pictures were taken in Fez (Morocco) some months ago. The first one is the mail slot in a particular house, in the old town. Funny thing: Pamela from Capuccino And Art Journal took almost the same picture, almost the same time!

This is the roof of a post office in the edge of the old town. 

Letters to the Ocean

Sometimes I read about mail projects that really fascinate me. Like Letters to the ocean:

Every day for the last twelve years, I have sent a letter to the Pacific Ocean. The letters are returned by the US Postal Service with markings indicating that "no such place exists." I have over 3,000 returned letters which I have exhibited at various points in the project.

The American artist John Peña started in 2003 to send letters to a undeliverable place: the ocean. The project is still ongoing. In this article, he explains that: “It helps me relax into the uncertainty of the world and frees me up to make absurd moves like sending a letter to the ocean every day.”

Do not you feel like writing to this man? I did!

Wish You Were Here

Wish you were here, by Emily Martin

“Consists of 21 envelopes and 57 postcards commemorating the artist’s trip to Wales and mailed to Iowa City, Iowa. The postcards, numbered sequentially from 1 to 57, are distributed in groups of 3 in the envelopes, each set forming one continuous communication. Each envelope also contains some memento from the trip, e.g., an airline boarding pass, a hotel receipt, a parking ticket, etc. Postmarked chiefly from Cardiff, Wales, the envelopes are joined to each other by interlocking loops cut from their ends and hinged together by a series of red and yellow pencils”.

Taken from here.

Dragon Brings Mail

Letter sent to Heleen (the Netherlands), inspired in the drawings of the Spanish cartoonist Nicolás, and especially in his character La Gorda de las Galaxias, that was popular in the eighthies (you can see/read some pages here).

Update: Also published here, with the stamps.

Slow, Slow Letters

I am more or less used to letters and postcards travelling one or two months before reaching their recipients in Russia and China, especially when I post them in Morocco. It is the same for other distant countries. For instance, I was not surprised that those postcards from Jordan, Palestine and Mexico needed two months to reach my mailbox. To be honest: I was surprised they arrived eventually.

Long delays do not happen often when sending mail to Europe and the USA, or receiving mail from there. However, I sent a letter to the USA on 3 February, and it arrived on 19 March. As the recipient pointed out, it must be some kind of record... And at least four letters from the USA were sent several weeks ago, and they have not arrived (yet?).

This letter sent by Micu (Hungary) is the latest which has amazed me. I received it last Friday (18 March). At first I did not realised that it was actually sent long time ago. If you can see the postmark, you read: 7 December 2015. This was registered. The tracking service of Magyar Posta said that it was sent abroad two days later... But it arrived in Morocco in 15 March, according to Poste Maroc.

I am not sure because the blue postmark is not clear, but I think this one was missent to Algeria. What a long travel for the Smurf who was inside...!

George Town Street Art & Trains

I had seen this amazing mural sometimes on the net, by I did not know where it belonged to. Until Jobbo (Malaysia) sent this postcard.

It is Little Children on a Bicycle Mural, painted by Ernest Zacharevic for the George Town Festival 2012. George Town, the capital and largest city in Penang, was listed as UNESCO WHS in 2008. In the recent years, the sender says, has become famous for its street art, which has turned the town into "something of a regional mecca for hipsters" (the sender wrote).

See the stamp on the back, issued in December 2015:

That reminds me that I had received another wonderful train on a postcard, sent by Eutrapèlia (the USA). It is an ad postcard from a restaurant. My friend altered it in order to make clear that she went for a Sunday brunch. I wonder if there were also some hipsters there...

By Stephen Sheffield

Madrith

Letter sent to the Galician writer Séchu Sende (Spain), author of Made in Galiza. I enjoyed so much the short stories of this book, that I tried to draw on the envelope one of them: Madrith. I would like to know if the letter reached its destination and if the recipient enjoyed the drawing. But I have not got any reply (so far?).

The theme for today Sunday Stamps- II is The colour green, so I thought I could add this stamp as well. It was issued by Correos two years ago, on 14 March, 2014, dedicated to Information and Communication Technologies (TIC, in Spanish) . See also the FDC.

It combines three ICT elements: the emoticon, the QR code and the Augmented reality. If we capture the QR code, we can see a video about AR and its applications. So this stamp offers the possibility of access information beyond the stamp itself. For that reason it asks ¡Mírame bien! (='Look carefully at me').

Correos has issued some AR stamps. From now on, you can also make your own official stamp with a QR code that allows the recipient to see a video. I am not sure that this is really interesting, but I found it curious anyway. It sounds like the mail in the books of Harry Potter, where the letters from your Mom can shout at you...

Snoopy's Mailbox

I read in the Postcrossing blog about the exhibition With love from Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. I sent the envelope above. I hope it arrived!

I draw another Snoopy-themed cover for Phillip (the USA). Happily, it reached its destination safe and sound!

Letters Written on Stamps

Yesterday's yummy postcard arrived with a non-less yummy stamp on the back:

I think that it is impossible to collect all the Van Gogh stamps issued by the Netherlands. Only in 2015, they issued at least... 60! But I am not an exhaustive collector (Actually, I do not call myself a collector). So I am happy just to see Van Gogh on my letters and postcards, in order to get to know more about this amazing artist.

On the following stamp, issued in August, 2015, you can read (see here the whole set, bigger) a fragment of The Letters of Vincent van Gogh. It is written both in Dutch and the original French:

"Waarde Theo, ik ben als een bezetene aan het werk, want de bomen staan in bloei en ik wilde een Provençaalse boomgaard maken van kolossale vrolijkheid." /  "Mon cher Theo, je suis dans une rage de travail puisque les arbres sont en fleurs et que je voulais faire un verger de Provence d'une gaieté monstre"

A letter written on a stamp... isn't it a sort of disturbing idea?

Winter Mail Keeps Arriving

Two postcards from Stockholm, sent by Laura (Sweden). Above you can see Mariatorget and the Norse god Thor (a sculpture by Anders Henrik Wissler), slaying the sea serpent Jörmungandr. Below, Söderkåkar, also covered by snow.

I have been in Stockholm once, and this was in the middle of the summer. So, my memories of the city are completely different.

The next postcard was sent by Heleen (the Netherlands). It shows the Dutch version of pea soup or snert. A good dish for snertweer (='bad weather')!

And I have also received another one of the coldest stamps ever...

Dada Is Self-Aware

Sent by Keith aka Amalgamated Confusion (the USA).

Beetles

Letter sent to Heleen (the Netherlands) on a hand-drawn envelope. I uploaded her picture first, because the letters are more beautiful after its travel, don't you think so?

Erased Address

Sometimes I just wonder how the mail services manage to get letters delivered. On this letter sent by Catherine (France), the address was almost erased. It arrived anyway!

Postal Pics from Rabat

Street art on a mailbox - I

Street art on a mailbox - II

Another colourful Moroccan post motorbike

The main post office 

Pictures taken in Rabat.