You Are Not in Wonderland

-You are not in Wonderland!
-Aren't I?

Hand-painted envelope sent to Phillip (the USA).

It arrived!

Can You Do That?

«Anna put her letters on the table. 'The children ask question after question. Is it my obligation to answer? What rights do I have?'

'Not to answer,' Katri said.

'I can't do that.'»

Tove Jansson, The True Deceiver

HitM | Russian Country House

"Country House", from Motives of Russian Architecture, 1877. For the Houses in the Mail project.

As it usually happens with the postcards sent by Eduard, the back is as much interesting as the front.

Artistamps

Letter sent to Alan (the UK), with some artistamps on the envelope (not made by me, but by different artists).

Take Me to the Opera

The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet
Oslo, Norway

Sent by Ana & Danijel
(And yes: one of the stamps is trying to escape...)

Theatre of Opera and Ballet
Odessa, Ukraine

Sent by Olga

Wetherspoons Opera House Pub
Tunbridge Wells, UK

Sent by Laura

Women on Stamps | G for Gender Equality

The Magna Carta was granted by King John of England on 15 June 2015, establishing that the king was subject to the law rather than being above it. To commemorate its 800th anniversary, Royal Mail issued in 2015 a set of six stamps. They feature texts from Magna Carta, and other charters, bills and declarations that have developed the rule of law around the world.

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For the current round of Sunday Stamps A-Z I am showing stamps dedicated to women. You can see here all the Women on Stamps featured on this blog.

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more G-stamps.

National Parks Stamps

I have received two more letters from Phillip (the USA), with those stamps released in 2016 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the USA National Parks. They look superbe on stamps, and it is too wonderful to have now the whole set!

HitM | Delfts Blauwe KLM-Huisjes

A new contribution by Heleen to the Houses in the Mail project. These houses are actually bottles, and take the name from the KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij) air company.

Since the 1950s, they are presented as a gift for World Bussiness Class passenger. Each miniature depicts a real Dutch building, and they are filled with Dutch gin or genever. Every year on 7 October the birthday of the company is celebrated with the presentation of a new house.

Very nice houses on the postcard and the matching stamp... but difficult to live in!

Multiview

Genève, Switzerland

I received these postcards from Switzerland (written in Spanish!) and from Spain, thanks to the Postcrossing site and two friends. I think they are pretty and interesting, and make me feel curious about the places they depict.

I usually don't send multiview postcards. It is just because I don't have room enough on the back to explain the pictures (plus aaaaallll the other things I need to write on every single postcard!). I prefer single views, in general, but I don't have nothing against multiple views.

However, I have read on a lot of Postcrossing profiles that they strongly dislike (even hate!) multiview postcards. I wonder why.

Cáceres, Spain

Malta
(But the postcard was sent from Spain)

Year of the Sow

This postcard from Byron (Canada) was written on 15th February, but the date on the postmark is 4th March, and it arrived on 21 March. Well, actually it arrived on time for the New Year. Not the Chinese (18 February) but for the Persian or Nowruz, celebrated at the beginning of the spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

The postcard features a sow of Chato Murciano, a breed of domestic pig originating from Spain. As it reads on the back:

This delightful slate-grey pig has a very old Spanish ancestry, hailing from south-eastern Murcia. In 1865 there were 50,000 of them and more more than twice as many in 1929. It is a thrifty, hardy and easily managed, doing well on farm by-products and waste food. 

So, in a way, it was coming home. Unluckily, this breed is endangered nowadays.

I need to add the postcard to this post!

From Paris

Aerospace furniture, Trocadéro
Paris, 1967

These nice postcards from Paris were sent by Phillip (the USA)...

Sant-Germain-des-Prés

... inside this paper bag that I think is also Parisien...

... because of this secret hidden inside:

Suivez vos rêves, ils connaissent le chemin!
'Follow your dreams, they know the way'

Women on Stamps | F for Freier

Recha Freier (1892 – 1984) founded the Youth Aliyah organization in 1933. The organization saved the lives of 7,000 Jewish children by helping them to leave Germany for Palestine before and during the Holocaust. She was also a poet, musician, teacher and social activist.

The stamp was issued in 2018 (see here a better picture). The stamps of the Elephant Holon and the Lioness Jaffa were also issued in August 2018).

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For the current round of Sunday Stamps A-Z I am showing stamps dedicated to women. You can see here all the Women on Stamps featured on this blog.

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more F-stamps.

That Awkward Moment

And this is what you would call 
an extremely awkward moment:
Heleen finds out that a Mail Monster is living at home

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might know that something mysterious happened with a letter I sent to Heleen, belonging to the Mail Monsters Project.

On this postcard I sent later to her, I tried to capture the very moment when she discovered what had happened. You can see it also on this post of Heleen's blog, dedicated to weird existing (?!) animals.

Three Cities

Letters sent by Phillip (the USA), about three cities he visited. Of course, the letters din't arrived in the right order.

Envelope made out of a bookshop shopping bag 

Envelope made out of wrapping paper

Smurfcookies

I received a box of Smurfcookies as part of a wonderful birthday present. Of course, the design was too nice to just throw it away, so I added some stickers and tape, and made and envelope for Fabienne (France). I believe that all the Smurfs arrived safe and sound!