Fairy tales and cheese.

1115 - Veronika from Russia sent me this postcrossing card (RU-2166217) which arrived on 26^th November. It looks like the sort of picture found in old fairy tales books.

 I'm not sure who the artist is - perhaps some Russian speaker could enlighten me?

1116 – A wonderful selection of cheeses on this postcrossing card from Johanna in Germany (DE-2667852). If you want to see the individual cheeses you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

 

The Marigold is quite a common card on German cards and I’ve seen the Tulip before but this is the first time I’ve seen the lovely Lily-of-the-Valley stamp.

More from October

975 - Tristina from Canada (CA-378725) sent this picture of Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun (1755-1842)

Aren’t these stamps cute?

976 – Heleen from Amsterdam sent this 1698 map of Amsterdam and pointed out that the North is to the bottom of the map.  The canals (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) were already in existence in those days.  I was surprised at just how many canals there were.

That’s a very romantic stamp on the right.

977 – Susanne in Germany sent me this super card of clocks.

978 – Isn’t this a brilliant maxi-card from Sini in Finland.

 And even the stamp is postage oriented.

979 -  Chimney Rock - Danielle, my most consistent postcard-sending friend, from Nebraska, USA, sent this.

Located East of Scottsbluff, on Highway 34 near Bayard, Nebraska, Chimney Rock is one of the most recognisable landmarks of the American West.  For settlers moving West on the Orgeon Trail; this unique formation marked the end of the Great Plains and the beginning of the ascent into the Rocky Mountains.

980 – Another Inge Löök card courtesy of Pirkko in Finland (FI-1888799)

From Croatia, from Sweden, from the USA.....

954 – from Danielle in Nebraska another bookish card for my collection.  I wonder why there are so many postcards of books and reading (not that I’m complaining – far from it!)?  This is not a photo, as it might appear first glance.  It’s a rather superb oil on canvas by John Frederick Peto (1854-1907).

 

Peto was an American trompe l'oeil ("fool the eye") painter who was long forgotten until his paintings were rediscovered.  In his day they were considered mere novelty and trickery and ignored by the artistic community.  Peto was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at the same time as fellow trompe l'oeil artist William Harnett. Until he was in his mid-thirties, he submitted paintings regularly to the annual exhibitions at the Philadelphia Academy. In 1889, he moved to the resort town of Island Heights, New Jersey, where he worked in obscurity for the rest of his life. He and his wife took in seasonal boarders, he found work playing cornet at the town's camp revival meetings, and he supplemented his income by selling his paintings to tourists. He never had a gallery exhibition in his lifetime.

Trompe l'oeil is a genre of still life that aims to deceive the viewer into mistaking painted objects for reality. Exploiting the fallibility of human perception, the trompe l'oeil painter depicts objects in accordance with a set of rules unique to the genre. For example, Peto and Harnett both represented the objects in their paintings at their actual size, and the objects rarely were cut off by the edge of the painting, as this would allow a visual cue to the viewer that the depiction was not real. But the main technical device was to arrange the subject matter in a shallow space, using the shadow of the objects to suggest depth without the eye seeing actual depth. Thus the term trompe l'oeil—"fool the eye". 

A couple more ‘Forever’ stamps from 2013.

955 – It’s autumn and apple-picking season, says Monica, who sent me this lovely, gentle Jan Bergerlind painting from Sweden.

956 – from Gerrit in the Netherlands (NL-2090475).  Alkmaar is noted for its cheese market, every Friday during Summer.  

957 – from Veronica in Russia (RU-1968385) came this lovely Russian Folk Arts card. 

The stamp depicts a woollen shawl woven in Pavlovsky Posad in Moscow Oblast.

 958 – This is the second postcard I have had from Malaysian postcrosser Khor (MY-169659).  It shows the traditional Indian festival of Thaipusam.  It looks rather painful to me!!

Aren’t these the most beautiful stamps?

959 – And another wonderful Inge Look card – this one from Seija (FI-1880985).  They are coming in thick and fast!

This is the first time I’ve had one duplicated but since it’s my favourite I don’t mind at all – one of them can stay on my notice board.

960 – I thought this is my first Croatian card, thanks to Nikola (HR-46344), but I've discovered I have had a Croatian postcard previously but it was actually sent from Belarus so it didn't count.

 

Betina is a village located on the Croatian island of Murter, seven km from Tisno, where a drawbridge connects the island and the mainland. The largest of the Šibenik archipelago islands, and the closest to the mainland, it has been populated since the time of the Illyrians (tribe of Liburns). Remains of the Roman settlement of Colentum as well as many ruins of Roman villas, murals, and mosaic testify to its occupation during the period of the Roman Empire.

  

Cards no 550 - 556 - a little miscellany

Oh Gosh!
 I have not managed to upload any postcard pictures this last three weeks. I am, amazingly, now sixty cards behind. I cannot believe that I have received so many cards in just three weeks. That is an average of over three a day. It makes me wonder if there is any chance of getting this blog up-to-date and, perhaps more to the point, keeping it up-to-date in the future without sacrificing the need to do various other things, like wash my face and drink my morning tea.
And yet some of the cards are so lovely that I really must share them with the blogosphere. So in the future I shall endeavour to do a compromise. This will mean some cards don’t get very much research or description. That doesn’t mean they are any less valuable additions to my collection – they are simply the sacrificial lambs to being able to continue with this blog. Any way, here goes….

Card no 550 – Bryony and Mark 

Dove Cottage, Grasmere

Country Card Sent From: England, GB 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Sheffield 

Date Received: 8th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 77 miles 

Time Taken: 1 day

It seems strange to now be the recipient of family cards from the Lake District having been the sender of so many from there in my youth. Dove Cottage was once the home of William Wordsworth.  I suspect a great deal has changed there since I visited it forty years ago when a few visitors a day was all it received.  Nowadays it has a major Visitor Centre.

Card no 551 – Xiaowen 

Hong Kong Metro map 

Country Card Sent From: China

Place that Card Sender Lives:  Fuzhou

Date Received: 8th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 5,970 miles 

Time Taken: 29 days 

Postcrossing i/d -  CN-911638

This stylised version of the Hong Kong Metro is based on the idea of the London Underground map by Harry Beck (1931) one of the greatest designs of the twentieth century.

Card no 552 – Ashlyn 

Hong Kong Metro map 

Country Card Sent From: Singapore 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Singapore 

Date Received: 8th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 6,834 miles 

Time Taken: 7 days 

Postcrossing i/d - SG-102214

 

Isn’t this a delightful Panda stamp.

Card no 553 – Martine 

Le Ferry-boat, Marseille 

Country Card Sent From: Corsica 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Piedigriggio 

Date Received: 10th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 942 miles 

Time Taken:   days

Card no 554 – Dasha 

Russian Revolution Campaign poster 

Country Card Sent From: Russia 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Moscow 

Date Received: 9th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,618 miles 

 Time Taken: 14 days 

The stamps included one of Russia's Winter Olympic's mascots.

Card no 555 – Maaike 

Letterboxes 

Country Card Sent From: Netherlands 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Roden, nr Groningen 

Date Received: 9th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 388 miles 

Time Taken: 6 days 

 Postcrossing i/d – NL-1849420 

Card no 556 – Jo 

Rubens the Cat 

Country Card Sent From: Belgium 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Schoten, nr Antwerp 

Date Received: 9th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 342 miles 

Time Taken: 4 days 

 Postcrossing i/d – BE-207987 

I like this owl stamp.

That's all for now...

535 – Wonderful you

Card no 535 - Darlene Rose 

An art card 

Country Card Sent From: USA 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Burlingame, California 

Date Received: 4th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 5,209 miles 

Time Taken: 3 days 

Postcrossing id – US - 2206621