So many postcards.....

 So many postcards, so many lovely smiles they have brought me.

1750 - this view of Germany by night is from Susanne.  what you cannot tell from this scan is that if you tip the card at an angle you get a different picture - a relief map of Germany.  Wonderful.

1749 - Igor, a postcrosser, sent me this card of Cheboksary, the capital city of the Chuvash Republic, Russia and a port on the Volga River. Population: 453,721 (2010 Census).

The Europa stamp theme this year is music and the Russian one of musicians is lovely -

1747 / 1748 - Two cards from Natallia in Belarus.

1746 - And another Belarusian friend, Anastasia, sent me this card and stamp.  The Ice Hockey World Championships are being held in Belarus this year.

1745 -  Arches National Park in Utah has more than 2,000 stone arches.  Thanks Bonnie Jeanne - I think this is the first time I've had a card with a hole in it!  An intentional hole any way. :-)

1743 - My super postcard swapping and blogging friend Danielle in Nebraska sends me lots of cards, all of them fascinating.  This one is from a recent visit she made to Texas.

For the drovers heading longhorn cattle up the Chisholm Trail, Fort Worth was the last major stop for rest and supplies.  Between 1866 and 1890 more than four million head of cattle were trailed through Fort Worth which was soon known as 'Cowtown'.  That makes this chap look rather lonely!

1742 - A lovely card from Heleen in the Netherlands.  It is ironic that I was over the moon when colour photography became accessible to all and now I find the atmosphere of black and white usually so much greater.

This is a Europe music stamp from the Netherlands.

I have just had a lovely letter from Arianne in Washington State.  Her envelope had a lot of different stamps.

Among the many interesting bits and pieces enclosed with the letter were a couple of playing cards -

1741 - I started with a card from Susanne in Germany and will finish with another -

I love that pigeon post card!  It's called 'Racing Pigeon' by Gerhard Gluck, the 65 year old award-winning German caricaturist.

award-winning German caricaturist, 65

And on the back Susanne included a football badge.

Home and Away or vice-versa

Whoopee.  My friend Danielle from Nebraska had a business trip to Texas last week and didn't forget me in the process.   From Dallas came card no. 1695 -

 1693 - Texas heroes from Danielle - but who are they?

1694 - Meanwhile, Sini from Finland, was holidaying in Poland, and sent me this card of Silesian Folk Costume.

 1692 -  And another friend has just just returned from Saskatchewan ...

I think it's lovely that folk who are away from home are kind enough to think of me while they are away.

A Postcrosser, 8 year old Katia from Ternopil, Ukraine, sent me her home postcard -

1690 - GB, now back home in the Hebrides, stopped off in Glasgow en route and visited the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.   He sent me this iconic view of 'A Funeral Service in the Highlands' by James Guthire (1859-1930)

1689 - Some day I must do a post about all the UNESCO World Heritage Site cards that my friends have sent from China, Belarus, Bulgaria and elsewhere.   Dai Li from Wuhan has sent me lots of them and this was the latest -

The stamps on Dai's cards are always beautiful...

1687 - This time last year Canadian Chickadee was in New Mexico.  This card shows another UNESCO WHS - Taos Peublo in New Mexico.

Situated in the valley of a small tributary of the Rio Grande, this Pueblo Indian settlement, consisting of adobe dwellings and ceremonial buildings, exemplifies the enduring culture of a group of the present-day Pueblo Indians. It is one of a group of settlements established in the late 13th and early 14th centuries in the valleys of the Rio Grande and its tributaries that have survived to the present day and constitutes a significant stage in the history of urban, community and cultural life and development in this region.

1686 - Katya from Ukraine has sent me some illustrations by E. Bem.

She too picks lovely stamps.  These are some recent ones.

 

1681 - Susanne in Germany sent me one of the cards I had listed among my favourites on my Postcrossing Profile.  Elvira Amrhein - "In Wahrheit Ist Es Liebe" (In truth, Is It Love?)

Elvira Amrhein was born in 1957 in Germany, she lives and works in France. Daughter and granddaughter of artists, Elvira Amrhein’s work is deeply spiritual, intriguing and overwhelming.



Susanne's card had a cat stamp...

as did a recent one from Dai Li

1654 - From Monica. This delightful card by Stiftelsen Birkagarden is based on a Swedish children's story.

That's all for now...

Someone knows my initials!

Postcards - 1377, 1491 and 1547, from Sweden, created by Ottila Adelborg.   Thank you, Monica.

Eva Ottilia Adelborg (1855 - 1936) iwas a Swedish watercolor artist , author, pioneer in comics, children's book illustrator and author. She also illustrated books for adults, designed posters, and composed wallpaper patterns

Arizona

1637 - Thanks to Julia, a postcrosser, Arizona became the 16th state of which I have received a map card.  I'm nearly a third of the way there!

Williamson Art Gallery

We went to the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead the other day.  On either side of the front door was a donation box.  Both had previously been post boxes.

This post box came from Wallasey Town Hall.

And this one from Birkenhead Town Hall.  The Post Office notice on it points out that while the Post Office collected from the box it took no responsibility for anything lost in transit. 

Outside the Gallery is one of the few remaining Victorian fluted pillar boxes with a vertical aperture from the 1850s.

Prior to 1859 there was no standard colour, although there is evidence that the lettering and Royal Cypher were sometimes picked out in gold. In 1859, a bronze green colour became standard until 1874. Initially it was thought that the green colour would be unobtrusive. Too unobtrusive, as it turned out — people kept walking into them. Red became the standard colour in 1874, although ten more years elapsed before every box in the UK had been repainted.

Judging by this early twentieth century postcard that I got from E-bay, people still bumped into them after they'd been painted red.