HitM | Shells

Heleen (the Netherlands) sent two new postcards for the Houses in the Mail project. 

The postcards arrived inside this nice envelope, featuring another (if temporary) house: the egg shell.

Let me show also a postcard received when the project did not exist yet...

The Seashore and Seashore Life, a Ladybird book from 1964. Sent by Laura (the UK)

Unofficial Greetings from Russia

Since I know nobody almost nobody in Russia, and that country is not a common destination among my friends, these Russian postcards have been sent through the Postcrossing site.

This one belongs to a series that some postcrossers collect: Greetings from... by Postallove.  I have got some of them, too. However, on the back, something caught my attention. It reads: Greetings from Russia (unofficial). Photo by Franco [illegible]. And the web of a company: www.poststation.ru

I checked and... Yes: there are some differences with what must be the official postcard. Apart from the most obvious (the picture, the design of the bear and the matryoshka doll, the number of postcrossers...) there are more subtile differences (the map, the extension of the country, the Famous Russians section...).

All the matter seems curious to me.

This postcard illustrated a Russian proverb: Где любовь да совет, там и горя нет. As translated (?) on the back: 'Where is the are love and advice, there is no sorrow'.

Yekaterininsky Canal near the St Nicholas Cathedral in St. Petersburg, 1900s.

Women on Stamps | H for Haasse

Hella Haasse (1918 – 2011)[1] was a Dutch writer, often referred to as the Grand Old Lady of Dutch literature, and whose novel Oeroeg (1948) was a staple for generations of Dutch schoolchildren. Her internationally acclaimed magnum opus is Heren van de Thee, translated to 'The Tea Lords'. Haasse lived in the Dutch East Indies for most of the 20 first years of her life. So, and important segment of her literary work consist of Dutch Indies Literature.

The stamp was issued in 2012, belonging to the Grenzeloos sheet, dedicated to Indonesia.

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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 H-stamps.

Railways on Postcards

De Koploper, Intercitymaterieel (ICM)
Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands)

Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Sent by Heleen

Toronto, Canada
Sent by Phillip (the USA)

The Union Station Ticket Lobby shortly after the station opened in 1927. Long considered one of the most magnificent public rooms in Canada, by the 1970s this space became known as the Great Hall. Although the room was altered little over the years, the magnificent marble pylon in the centre with the clock was removed in 1967.

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'