Bye bye clocks...

I am disappointed that I did not manage to blog many of the dozens and dozens of lovely clock cards I received during 2015.  I had not anticipated getting so many but that is really no excuse.  Life simply took over...  The same applies of course to the hundreds of other postcards I received during the year, only a fraction of which made it onto this blog.

So in future I shall not attempt to keep the clock postcard blog running.  I shall, however, try to post more frequently on this blog.

Just as a reminder of how great everyone has been contributing to my clock collection here is a piece of mail art I received today from Eva in Spain.

Blue cats, Old ladies and assorted other cards

I receive far too many cards to be able to post them but in 2016 I shall make a better effort at so doing.  Here are just a couple of the recent ones that have dropped onto my doormat and enhanced my days.

The top two of these blue cats came from Susanne in Germany and the bottom one from Anastasia in Belarus.  You can see the rest of the blue cats I have received in my Google photo album - if I can work out how to link to it!  I think this is the link!

And more of Inge Look's old ladies have entered my collection. Both of these were courtesy of Susanne, as well.

Postcards of people reading are among my favourites.  This is another from Susanne who really knows how to choose cards!  Entitled 'Peasant reading the Bible' it was painted by Albert Anker (1831-1910).

Hanka, a friend in the Czech Republic sent me this one which is probably among my top twenty of 2015.  It is entitled 'Peace and Quiet' by Lucie Ernestová.

The following card from Heleen in the Netherlands is called 'Compromise' and was a photo project by Gulsun Karamustafa.  (I should really put this on my blog for clock cards but I like it so much I have put it here.  Maybe one day my clock card blog will be updated but please don't hold your breath!)

And finally for this post - a beautiful card from Monica in Sweden.

Entitled 'Autumn Memories' (Thanks for the translation, Monica) it is a photo by Per Johansson.  I mention that it is a photo because it has such a dream-like quality that it could easily be a painting.   As it is, Monica added her own little Autumn tree to the back of the card -

Bear-ly time to write (or post!)

2865 - From Tina in Canada.  With all her commitments I'm not surprised she claims she has 'bear-ly' time to write.  In fact she is a regular correspondent. Isn't this a super card by artist Lawson Wood.

2853 - From Susanne in Germany - an Inge Look card.  In the UK this pinching of apples from a neighbour or over a farmer's fence is known as 'scrumping'.

2802 - Eva, my friend in Morocco / Spain (who now wants to lie in the sea off a Greek Island!) recently added to my UNESCO World Heritage Site cards with this super one of the library at El Escorial near Madrid.

2813 - Another from Susanne. This is called Armchair Dog and is by artist Rudi Hurzlmeier.

2614- Tina in Canada has a lot of similar tastes to me as do the rest of her family.  I envy her daughter because she has a Leopard Gecko, just like the one on this card they sent me.

Another Irina Zenyuk

2795 - Susanne, in Germany, sent me lots of cards while I was away in the Hebrides and it was a great pleasure to come back to them last week.  Hopefully I shall blog a few of them but there is little chance of me managing to show you them all.  Between her, Danielle, Monica, Heleen, Eva, Katya, Anastasia, Dai, JarieLyn, Tina, and so many other generous friends there must have been about forty cards waiting for me!

Not the usual four days!

Usually cards from Germany to the UK take about four days.  This one took four months.  Dated 22nd December this delightful card from Susanne arrived yesterday - 22nd April!  I suppose I should just be grateful it arrived at all but I wonder where it has been hiding all this time?

So Many Cards

I have received so many cards and have not blogged them for ages.  So here is a tiny selection

2532 - Susanne in Germany always knows exactly the right card to send so when I was unwell recently and the most I could do was lie in bed and read she sent this one - 'Reading Woman lying on a garden bench' by Carl Larsson.

2541 - Susanne also sent this one - The Reading Room by Carl Larsson.:-

2540 - Another from my friend Susanne - Anna Karenina byAnzhela Dzherih:-

2539 - I have a student friend in China, Dai Li, who regularly sends me cards and has contributed enormously to my collection of Chinese World Heritage Sites.   Her latest card shows Wuhan at night - the strip without lights down the middle is the Yangtze River.

Li always chooses super stamps as well.

2534/2535 - Cats are a constant (and welcome) theme among the cards I receive. These two are from Eva in Morocco.

2533 - It is April so Monica in Sweden celebrated the start of the month as she usually does - with a card for that month.

2528 - It was Easter this month so Katya and her mum Marina sent this lovely card from Ukraine.

And, as always, there were lovely stamps on it.

2526 -The last one for this post is another from Dai Li - these two cats look remarkably like our two ()Annabel and Mac)

‘A letter is not a system of debt.’

Hawwa pointed me in the direction of The Letters Page.  It is well worth taking a look.  I loved this quote from the Editor -

And this editor has noticed, in
a recent revival of personal correspondence-
by-post, how easily people feel the burden
of letter writing. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t replied
sooner,’ our letters all seem to begin, in the
tone of a muttering student handing in a late
assignment. Dear readers and fellow letter-
writers, don’t be so burdened! Write, or don’t
write, but enjoy it when you do. It’s nice to
reply to a letter, but there’s no need to turn
it into a chore; after all, if there’s a message
that can’t wait, you can always send an email.
(Remember email?) One of our editorial
board members, the poet and publisher
Éireann Lorsung, puts it very well: ‘A letter,’
she tweeted recently, ‘is not a system of debt.’

The 101 Tower

2404 - Li, from China, recently went to Taiwan and spent a few days in Taipei.  Her schedule included a trip to the top of the 101 Tower.

The Taipei 101 tower has 101 floors above ground and five underground. Upon its completion Taipei 101 claimed the official records for:

    Ground to highest architectural structure (spire): 508 m (1,667 ft). Previously held by the Petronas Towers 451.9 m (1,483 ft).
    Ground to roof: 449.2 m (1,474 ft). Formerly held by the Willis Tower 442 m (1,450 ft).
    Ground to highest occupied floor: 438 m (1,437 ft). Formerly held by the Willis Tower 412.4 m (1,353 ft).
    Fastest ascending elevator speed: designed to be 1,010 meters per minute, which is 16.83 m/s (55.22 ft/s) (60.6 kilometres per hour (37.7 mph)).
    Largest countdown clock: Displayed on New Year's Eve.
    Tallest sundial.

The Reading Frog

2302 - From Renate in Austria came this frog, reading Grimm's tales.  Reading frogs are not as strange as they may seem - I recently sent a postcard of Jeremy Fisher (Beatrix Potter's character) reading!

Two new countries - Chile and Barbados

I have recently received cards from two new countries.  I must amend my countries page.

2344 - From my friend Vee in Barbados.  She only regretted she couldn't send some of her sunshine with it!

2328 - Sini, on holiday from Finland, spent a few days in December on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile.  Not only is this a new country but I never expected to get such a wonderful UNESCO WHS.

Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, bears witness to a unique cultural phenomenon. A society of Polynesian origin that settled there c. A.D. 300 established a powerful, imaginative and original tradition of monumental sculpture and architecture, free from any external influence. From the 10th to the 16th century this society built shrines and erected enormous stone figures known as moai , which created an unrivalled cultural landscape that continues to fascinate people throughout the world.

Cats Galore

2409 - Another card from Li.  This, to my amazement, is made of metal.   She sent it from Houtong on Taiwan.

Known as the Cat Village, Houtong is situated at Hou Tong Station on the railway to Yilan and is an hour's ride from Taipei Station. The whole area is filled with cats which are friendly and not afraid of people. There are also plenty of shops selling souvenirs relating to cats.

  2429 - Another Findus card from my Swedish friend Monica.  These cards  are irresistible.

 2456 - Another cat from Li in China.   This time it is wooden.

2438 - And another cat from Monica.

2441 - A Maine Coon from Arianne.

2447 -  And another cat from Arianne in the USA.

2440 - Heleen in the Netherlands sent this brilliant cartoon.  I love it!

2364 - Susanne from Dortmund chooses some wonderful cards to send me - often finding ones that are in my favourites folder on Postcrossing.  This was one of those.

2400 - In some cases it was the arrival of Annabel and Mac in the household that caused folk to send me cat pictures but Anastasia in Belarus was simply aware that I likle the Blue Cat series and thought I might like Pookie as well.  I do!

2471 - This card from Katya and her mum Marina in Ukraine is both a cat card and a clock card so it will end up on both my card blogs.  Indeed, it is so great I am almost tempted to put it on my Rambles blog as well.....  The artists is Alexey Dolotov.

The Tap Stamp

A few times recently I have seen on people's blogs this weird and wonderful stamp from Spain.  On card 2462 (shown on my clock postcard blog as No.15) from Eva I recieved it.

It reminds me of the pictures of the Dutch graphic artist, M. C. Escher.

Two more Findus cards

2347 - From Monica in Sweden:-

It is Findus, it is a cat, it is reading...  Where on earth am I going to file it?

2350 - From Eva in Morocco.  This card meant a lot to her so it was very kind of her to part with it.

2336 - Stamps from Ukraine

I have featured stamps from Ukraine before and have received many more than I have blogged about.  But I had to mention this one -  Katya often sends me minaiture sheets and this is one of the nicest yet:-