The Mail Monsters Project | 16

The Mail Monsters make letters disappear.

And they can also be tricky, according to John:

What people think they look like

What they really look like

Actually, the sender knows quite a lot about these creatures that steal our mail...

The term "mail monster" is really a misnomer. A monster is described in the dictionary as a "large, ugly and frightening, imaginary creature".

The creatures that sidetrack, delay and even consume our mail are not imaginary. They are as real as hen's teeth but not as rare. They are also very small which enables them to hide in post offices, aeroplane holders, vans and even post boxes. However, like monsters they are ugly and frightening which is why post office cats leave them alone, enabling them to reproduce and multiply in the darker corners of post office canteens, amid the old, discarded mail sacks.

Mail monsters have very vivid imaginations and are very intelligent. As a result they get bored easily. One way of relieving that boredom is to read; so they extract mail and take it into their nests where it may lie for weeks or months before being spotted by a passing postman. Because postcards don't have to be chewed open and have pretty pictures they are the mail monster's favourite type of post.

Sometimes, when the nest gets overflowing with mail mummy monsters make the children take it back to the mail slots. But instead of putting back where it came from, they will simply dump a whole armful in the nearest hole. So mail for Sweden or Malaysia may end up in the slot for Morocco or the Netherlands.

But the worst damage is done by pregnant female monsters. They always get a craving for paper and can consume ten or twelve postcards or letters.

No way of eradicating mail monsters has yet been found.

HitM | Castles

A new contribution for the Houses of the Mail project: no less than a castle! Heleen's favourite castle, Muiderslot, beautifully painted on the envelope, and on the matching stamp.

Not long ago, I wrote on a post: "Sometimes I imagine the post deliverer bringing me a real house... :)"... Well, not exactly a house, but a castle appeared inside of the envelope! Carefully folded, and ready to be rebuilt. What I did, of course!

Oh, and another castle on the back!

Middachten Castle

The Mail Monsters Project | 15

The Mail Monsters' favourite food is... mail art

Another envelope clearly attacked by a mail monster! And the fact is that it doesn't seem so dangerous at first sight...

It was sent back all the way from Russia by Eduard and Evgeniy.

HitM | New Home

I am getting some wishes for the new home, in the form of beautiful illustrated postcards. Mostly, they show the cute houses that everybody would like to live in...

Designed by Deva Evans

Postcards sends by Laura and John (the UK), and Heleen (the Netherlands).

Sunday Stamps | M for Mines

Different types of mines for the letter M of Sunday Stamps:

This stamp was issued in Chile on 30 October 2013, to commemorate the rescue of 33 miners after the Copiapó mining accident. It shows the rescue capsule. The stamp belongs to a serie of six stamps.

 

Stamps issued on 20 February 2015, that commemorates the 70th Anniversary of the Mine Clearing Service in France.

The St Agnes Mining District is that part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site surrounding the village of St Agnes, Cornwall (the UK). It contains Wheal Coates tin mine, and Blue Hills, which is the only surviving tin production centre in the United Kingdom. This stamp was issued in 1989, and belongs to the 4-stamps series Industrial Architecture.

Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget, postmark received last year.

The Mail Monsters Project | 14

Some Mail Monsters can fly.
These are the most dangerous.

Difficult Paper

Envelope sent by Phillip (USA), but made by another person. This kind of paper doesn't like the ink. The rubber stamps are a bit blurred, but happily the address was readable for the postal machines! 

The stamps seem to be part of the collage, isn't it? There has been a bit of discussion about its design...

Pink or Blue Tea

I like getting beer postcards any time of the year. But mostly, in Autumn, I prefer to drink tea!

BP Portrait Award 2018
An Angel at my Table
by Miriam Escofet, 2017

Postcards sent by Laura (the UK).

The Mail Monsters Project | 13

What would you do if you ran into a Mail Monster?

I bet that this design made by Alan features the very pillar box where he posted this letter... Because it was attacked by the mail monster inside (can you see its eyes in the dark?). At least, the stamps were vandalised!

Inside, the most interesting text and... a bit troubling.

Pillar Boxes are so familiar on the streets of British towns that, unless you need to post a letter, you hardly notice them. Some of them have Queen Victoria's royal cypher on the door and they are older than any of the people who pass them and probably most of the buildings of the street. 

But if you happen to be passing when one of them is emptied, then you notice it. Who can resist looking inside when the postman gets out his big bunch of official keys and swings the heavy iron door open? There is a wire basket to catch the letters and stop them failing down the base of the box, but what is in that space?

If you have ever seen one being moved, you know that they go surprisingly deep underground -- there must be a large space in that black painted base, a dark void which hasn't seen the light of day for over a hundred years. Anything which does fall through the wire mesh will drop into that unknown space, into the domain of whatever unknown creatures live down there, feeding upon lost mail and detached postage stamps. 

Perhaps that is why the postman is always in such a hurry to take the mail and close the door again, to slam it shut and lock it with those ancient keys, before the mail monsters get out!

More Postcrossing Meet-ups

This seems to be the Postcrossing meeting season... Another official postcard from a Postcrossing meet-up that took place in Begur. It was sent by Imma, and stamped with the official stamp. It is the first personalized stamp from Correos I have got (and the closest to a Spanish Postcrossing stamp I have seen).

The following postcard is also from a meeting, but it wasn't sent from there directly. Anyway, I like it!

Sunday Stamps | L for Light

For the letter L of Sunday Stamps, I have chosen to show some received stamps related to the topic Light.

Canada

Two stamps from the series Weather Wonders (18 June 2015).

Northern Lights, from the 2002 stamp series Tourist Attractions, issued on 1 June (I received it from the UK, along with an UK-stamp on the back of a reused postcard!)

A stunning light show in the skies above Nunavut’s Arctic Bay. One of the stamps of the 2018 Tourism set, entitled "From Far and Wide / Terre de nos Aïeux", issued on 15 January.

The United Kingdom

The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) is one of the album covers that Royal Mail chose to commemorate the British rock band Pink Floyd in 2016. The prism spectrum has become a very recognoscible symbol. See here the rest of the set.

Mexico

Stamp issued on 3 February 2016 to commemorate the closing of the International Year of Light.

The Netherlands

A powerful use of light on a photography by Quinta Buma.

The USA

Three Fingers Mountain in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, WA, photograph by Kevin Ebi. From the series O Beautiful.

Tiffany Lamp, 2008.

The Mail Monsters Project | 12

Some mail monsters are really big

And, of course, they need to keep eating more and more letters...!

Sharks!

 Brochure from an exhibition about sharks, with perfectly matching stamps. Sent by Phillip (the USA), with a letter inside.

HitM | Peranakan

Postcard sent by Maria (Singapore), for the Houses in the Mail project. 

It shows a whimsical art of heritage Peranakan house. Peranakan is a blend of people from a marriage between Chinese/Indian men and Malay/Indonesian women. There is plenty of preserved Peranakan houses are plenty in the old neighbourhoods of Singapur.