Sunday Stamps | E Is for Elephant

Australia, 2016

Israel, 2018

Spain, 2017

USA, 1993

USA, 2022

Elephants for Sunday Stamps: The Letter "E". I have never got the Spanish stamp, winner of the stamp design contest Disello in 2016. But I have sent it on several letters.

Bunday

It seems there are a lot of Bundays at Mail Adventures this year. This paper and wood postcard was sent by Phillip (the USA).

The New Year stamps from this and past years look really gorgeous when put together!

Greetings from the Keystone State

Pennsylvania-themed letter sent by Phillip (the USA). On the envelope, a non-Pennsylvanian wine label, that matches perfectly with Erie Harbor North Pier Light, with an unique design ("the tower tapers from its base to its midsection, then rises straight from there to the top")

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh and a detailed map of the state.

And matching stamps: Erie Harbor Light and the state flag.

A week after this letter arrived, I got this postcard through the Postcrossing site, featuring Erie Land Light another one of the three Erie lighthouses.

Love (or Hearts) on Stamps

Sunday Stamps | Lighthouses on Islands

Today's theme on Sunday Stamps is Islands. And, of course, the best islands are those with a lighthouse.

Île Vierge (Enez-Werc'h) is an islet lying 1,5 kilometres off the north-west coast of Brittany It is the location of the tallest stone lighthouse in Europe, and the tallest "traditional lighthouse" in the world. 

Terschelling (Skylge / Schylge) is an island in the northern Netherlands, one of the West Frisian Islands. The Brandaris is the oldest preserved tower specifically built as a lighthouse in the Netherlands.

Byriuchyi Island (Бирючий Острів) is a spit (former island) in the north-western part of the Azov Sea. Its name is translated as 'a wolf island' (byriuk= 'a lone-wolf').

Sand Island Light is a decommissioned lighthouse located at the southernmost point of the state of Alabama. It is on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List, as one of the most endangered lighthouses in the country. It was damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 

Liberty Island is a federally owned island in Upper New York Bay in the United States. Its most notable feature is the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), a large statue by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi that was dedicated in 1886. Long known as Bedloe's Island, it was renamed by an act of the United States Congress in 1956. The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901, and then transferred to the War Department, as it had proved useless as a lighthouse.

This Is London

Letter sent by Laura (the UK), with postcards of Guildhall Art Gallery. The Amphitheatre, on the basement of the building, was rediscovered by archaeologists working on the site in 1988.

Guildhall Art Gallery

London's Roman Amphitheatre

The Eve of St Agnes, 1848
William Holman Hunt

New Cancellation

I complained about this pen cancellation months ago. Last week, I received the stamp below on the back of a Postcrossing postcard:

It features Cape Forchu Lighthouse, on a vintage travel poster designed by Saskatchewan-born Peter Ewart, c. 1950.

My Happiness Right Here

Front and back of an envelope sent by Laura (the UK).

Monster Mail

This monster letter sent by Phillip (the USA) landed in my mailbox two weeks ago. (Well, actually, it didn't: I had to go to the post office to retrieve it.)

All these monsters together! Of course, nobody dared to face the monsters, and the envelope arrieved safe and sound. 

And with even more monsters inside. As First Day covers...

And a mint pane!

The Chief Pleasure of the Correspondance

«He wrote me long letters on lined legal-pad sheets, and I wrote him short typewritten letters. A correspondance is a kind of love affair. It takes place in a mall, closed, private space—a sheet of paper within an envelope is its vehicle and emblem—and it is tinged by a subtle but palpable eroticism. When we write to someone regularly, we begin to look forward to his letters and to feel increasing emotion at the sight of the familiar envelope. But if we are honest with ourselves we will acknowledge that the chief pleasure of the correspondance lies in its responsive aspect rather than in its receptive one. It is with our own epistolary persona that we fall in love, rather than with that of our pen pal; what makes the arrival of a letter a momentous event is the occasion it affords for writing rather than for reading. »

Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer

Lunar New Year

Postcard sent by Bryon (the USA). On the back, the 2023 Lunar New Year stamp. 

One more rabbit to be added to this post!

Sunday Stamps | Lord Mayor's Show

Today's theme is Sunday Stamps is Anniversaries. 

The stamps below were issued on 17 October 1989, to commemorate the 800th anniversary of Lord Major's Show. According to the Wikipedia:

The Lord Mayor's Show is one of the best-known annual events in London as well as one of the longest-established, dating back to the 13th century. A new lord mayor is appointed every year, and the public parade that takes place as his or her inauguration ceremony reflects that this was once one of the most prominent offices in England.

 

You can read more about the show here, and see the details of the stamps here.

I could not find any older anniversary!

Three Stamps from Germany

Three favourite stamps from Germany arrived the same day last week. How lucky am I?

Letter Attack

Martian-themed envelope sent to Phillip (the USA).

(Yes, one of these terrible Martians is called Abigail. Do not ask.)

Fête

From the picture, you canot appreciate how nice this envelope is! (And its contents as well).

Sent by Fabienne (France).