Oxbridge Again

A view of the University of Oxford (UK) sent by John. 

And some from the University of Cambridge (UK) sent by Laura:

Trinity Street

St. John's College

St. John's College Gate

More postcards of Oxbridge universities, here.

From time to time, I also receive postcards showing other universities!

Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia

HitM | Celebrating the House

This is another entry to the Houses in the Mail project sent by Phillip (the USA). It celebrates the new house. It was thoughtful to add some beers, just in case we prefer it to wine...

This is another beer themed letter Phillip sent to me:

Or maybe an Elvis-themed letter, it we look closer at the stamps...

Women on Stamps | C for Casgrain

Thérèse Casgrain (1896-1981) was a French Canadian feminist, reformer, politician and senator. She led the women's suffrage movement in Quebec and campaigned for women's rights and for the right to vote in Quebec elections, a right that was not won until 1940. She was also the first woman to lead a provincial political party in Canada.

This stamp was issued on 17 April 1985.

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

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more C-stamps.

Some Days, Some Dreams

Themed letter sent to David, of Posted Letter (the USA). (The blue and white lighthouse was cut from an old place mat and turned into a shaped postcard.)

Women Envelope

I think the 8 March is the right day to show this wonderful (big!) envelope sent by Fabienne (France), so beautifully drawn and collaged, that shows only women on stamps.

The Mail Monsters Project | 28

Do you remember the Mail Monsters Project? I finished most of the letters with this words:

I hope you enjoy this project as much as I do. And, who knows? Maybe another mail monster will appear in your mailbox…

And this is what has happened! This pink monster was one of those that went astray. It seems it reached its destination (Heleen's mailbox), but them, who knows? Maybe it was attacked by a home-loving mail monster. Heleen sends so many pieces of mail that probably she houses her own resident mail monster...

Sometimes, the Mail Monsters
lick a stamp for desert. Delicious!

But then, after long months... it reappeared! (And, amazingly, he has changed my address to the current one).

Sometimes, the Mail Monsters
lick a stamp for desert. Delicious!
Even sticker stamps :)

It wasn't 100% the same... but almost. (Just to be clear: I did not drew the monster on the white envelope. I only drew the one on the pink envelope.)

And it brought even some replies to the question Do you believe in Monsters?

I used to not believe in mail monsters until I lost Eva's mmm* in my own home! So the mail monster not only is in the mail buildings, mail vehicles and in mail boxes. The mail monster is everywhere!*mail monsters mail

Huh? What to you mean, "Mail Monsters"? It was Alice.

No

Yes, because they make cards like this one shrink. And they eat mail. And they tear or cut or fold the mail...

"Polaroid" Postcards

It seems that Polaroid-style postcards are trendy... I received three last week! and I cannot say which one I love most.

They feature very beautiful views of the cities of Banyoles, Barcelona and Bruges -three places I have visited. 

HitM | A House in the Winter

A contribution by Phillip (the USA) to the Houses in the Mail project, with those Andrew Wyeth stamps that are just perfect...

And a postcard with a view from the inside...

The Blue Tit Window
By DITZ

Rosenmontag

74 Heumarkt / Martinsviertel
By Matthias Einhorn

This postcard was sent from Cologne by my friend Laura (Germany) the day after Rosenmontag, last year. She wrote that the ambience was a bit more chaotic than on the picture...

As read in the Wikipedia:

Rosenmontag ('Rose Monday') is the highlight of the German Carnival, and is on the Shrove Monday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Mardi Gras though celebrated on Tuesday, is a similar event. Rosenmontag is celebrated in German-speaking countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium (Eupen), but most heavily in the Karnevalshochburgen ('carnival strongholds'), which include the Rhineland, especially in Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Aachen and Mainz.

Women on Stamps | B for Brönte

Charlotte Brönte (1816-1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was the first of their books to know success.

The stamp above belongs to a series of 1980, that features Victorian Women in Literature: Charlotte Brönte (Jane Eyre), George Elliot (The Mill on the Floss), Emily Brönte (Wuthering Heights) and Elizabeth Gaskell (North and South). You can see the four stamps here.

In 2005, to commemorate World Book Day and the 150th anniversary of the death of Charlotte Bronte Royal Mail issued a set of 6 stamps, a miniature sheet and a prestige book. The stamps show different scenes of Jane Eyre.

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

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more B-stamps.

Two Postcards from India

Police Commissioner's Office, Bombay

A part of Postcrossing that some people enjoy a lot is the choice of the right postcard for the recipient, according with their profiles. For other postcrossers, however, is very difficult to figure out which postcard should they send. Very specific requests are sometimes annoying; they make people feel guilty if they cannot find anything suitable. I think it is equally annoying when people do not write anything about themselves or the postcards they like on their profiles.

Sometimes, when I receive a postcard, I cannot guess why the senders chose that very picture. It does not mean that I do not like it. After all, every postcard sent with care is very welcome. Sometimes, the message, or the stamps, or even the handwriting, is more important than the image itself. And... isn't randomness one of the best things about being a postcrosser?

Daggers with scabbards
Water Steel and Gold, 18th century
Hyderabad, India

Another Giant Coffee Pot?!?

I told you how I was impressed by the size of this giant coffee pot in Kingsburg (actually, it is a water tower, not a coffee tower*) that I received on a postcard, and I drew it on the envelope I replied with. 

Heleen (the Netherlands) read the post and, accidentally, she become aware that it used to be an enormous coffee pot in Groningen (the Netherlands). It was only 10 metres tall, and was an advertisement for a coffee shop, installed in 1903 at the entrance of the 1903 Groninger Exhibition Industry and Art Industry. They made it again in 1948.

Heleen sent me this postcard with a matching stamp.

But I have recently received more coffee & tea related mail, like this aerogram sent by Laura (the UK):

And this winter expresso postcard:

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*It’s a shame this enormous coffee pot doesn’t hold actual coffee. If the  pot could tilt, it could pour 1.28 million cups of coffee.

Everybody, Everywhere, Was Writing Letters

«At Fillmore Gardens, there was a sole telephone in the basement. But everybody could write letters: weary mothers writing to faraway sons -and, now, faraway daughters-late at night after chores were done; young women scribbling on paper held to their knees while riding crowded city buses; soldiers waiting in camps and aboard ships. Everybody had stationery and pen and pencil, and everybody, everywhere, was writing letters.»

Liza Mundy, Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II

Visit...

Envelope made by Phillip (the USA), and the postcards inside.

Don't you love these vintage (or vintage-style) postcards with the message Greetings from? 

Even when they depict places... difficult to be reached!

My Northern Cardinal

This was my reply letter to Phillip's birds in winter. I have never seen one of these birds in person (sorry, ornithologists!). I just liked the idea of painting in bright red in the middle of the winter...