1172 - 1184 with Christmas wishes

1172 – From Dai Li in China.  I always like envelopes from China – they are so attractive.  And in this one was the Chinese red envelope (紅包, hóngbāo). 

And a beautiful miniature stamp sheet.

1173 – From Annina in snowy Finland (FI-1955477), a snowy painting by Arvo Laihonen.  It is entitled Lentävä lammas which according to Google Translate means ‘Flying sheep’.  Somehow I doubt that’s what it really means but then again Lammas in English is 1^st August so it surely doesn’t mean that either.

1174 – My first card from Macedonia and the 54^th country that I have received cards from. It’s always a real thrill to get a card from a new country.

  

And this postcrossing card (MK-4177) from Iva was made even more perfect by being a map.

And its stamps.

1176 – From Maryna in the Ukraine (UA-865355) came this work of art from Canadian illustrator, Claudia Tremblay.  There are some more of her lovely works on her blog.

And its stamp.

1177 – From Kasia in Poland (PL-812166) a map of the natural history of Malopolska.

Małopolska or Lesser Poland (also Little Poland) is a historical region of Poland; its capital is the city Kraków. It forms the southern part of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland. Historical Lesser Poland is much bigger than the current voivodeship which bears its name, stretching from Częstochowa in the west to the lands northeast of Lublin in the east. In the late Middle Ages, Lesser Poland gradually became the centre of Polish statehood, with Kraków being the capital of the country from the mid-11th century until 1596.

The card had stamps and a perfect miniature stamp sheet

And this lovely little sticker with the clever addition of arms and legs.  Postcrossers are often so imaginative and take so much trouble.

What more could one ask for from a card?  Daughter-who-takes-photos also thought it was absolutely super.

1178 – A Christmas card from Siggi in Germany which Daughter-who-takes-photos thought was lovely too. 

 

1179 – From Chris (the Flamblogger) came this view of Oceanside, California. 

1180 – From Germany with Susanne’s usual delightful patterns and stickers on the back –

 

1181 - I can't get used to cards which say the children are excited 'for Santa to visit and for summer break.  It goes against all my innate logic to have a Santa who comes arrives in the summer but that's what happens in Jamie's world down under!

1182 – Although this card is labelled Tokyo it came from Nelly, Hugo and Theo in France with Christmas and New Year wishes.

1183 – These Greenfinches came from a German postcrosser, Gisela (DE-2732108).

 

1184 – MaryLou and Greg in the San Diego, California (US-2541193), sent me this postcard of the lovely Audrey Hepburn.

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...

546 - Historic Centre of Sighișoara, Romania

Card no 546 – Andrås 

Historic Centre of Sighișoara 

Country Card Sent From: Romania 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Targu Mures 

Date Received: 8th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,308 miles 

Time Taken: 6 days 

Sighișoara is a fine example of a small, fortified medieval town. I didn't need to do any research on this card because Andrås told me about this part of the World Heritage Site - "Sighișoara is located in the middle of the Transylvanian plateau. You can see here the clock tower, the castle, some very old houses - all are situated in the medieval citadel, which is the only inhabited medieval castle in the whole of Eastern Europe. Built by German Saxons today it is a very famous Romanian tourist attraction."

Cards no 542- 545 and 553

Cards no 542- 545 and 553 - Martine 

Country Card Sent From: France 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Corsica 

Date Received: 10th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 942 miles 

 Time Taken: 7 days 

542 – The Recipe for Bouillabaisse

543 – Rodin, the light of the Ancient

 In 2013, the famous museum in Arles will host an exhibition "Rodin, the light of the Ancient" that will explore cross inspirations, the links forged through the centuries. Rodin wanted to anchor his practice of sculpture in ancient Greek art. His art echoes the plastic perfection and expressive forms; the Greek ideal.

544 – Nice

A map of the coastal area ‘The Bay of Angels’ is a Mediterranean stretching from Nice, with the Promenade des Anglais and the wharf United States, to Cap d'Antibes.

545 – Côte d’Azur 2014 Calendar

553 – The Ferry Boat at Marseilles

The Ferry-boat: So cherished by the Provençal writer and film director, Marcel Pagnol, leaves from the quay in front of the City Hall to make several daily crossings of the Vieux-Port. The crossings began in June 1880, thus opening the famous passage from the City Hall to the Place aux Huiles, a square located on the opposite side of the port.

These cards all came in the same envelope and these were the stamps used by my good friend Martine. 

540 - Chicago

Card no 540 – Karen 

The Chicago Skyline 

Country Card Sent From: Canada 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Winnipeg 

Date Received: 7th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 3,741 miles 

Time Taken: 9 days 

The Chicago skyline showing the Hancock Building and the lake shore. 

Some pretty, delicate flower stamps.  They are Magnolias - Eskimo and Yellow Bird.

and a black cat...

This is one of five 'Adopt a pet' stamps (2 dogs, 2 cats, a parrot).  Did you notice the little mouse on the bird table?

536 – A medieval walled village

Card no 536 - Maylis et Jean-Pierre 

The village of Vence, France

Country Card Sent From: France 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Nice 

Date Received: 4th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 805 miles 

Time Taken: 4 days 

Postcrossing id – FR-282890  

The medieval walled village of Vence is set in the hills of the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-eastern France between Nice and Antibes. Vence is famous for its spring water, which can be collected from numerous fountains in the town.

The stamps shows the church at Aulnay, a busy little town famous for this 12th Century church on the pilgrimage route to the shrine of St James of Compostela. There is a delightful market in the town square on Sunday and Thursday mornings.

In medieval times, the Via Turonensis (Way of Tours) was the most westerly of the four traditional pilgrim routes. It was a fairly movable feast, with several strands running roughly parallel in a southerly direction. It catered for pilgrims from the Low Countries, Paris and Britain, and converged with two of the others at Saint-Palais in the Pyrénées, before crossing into Spain for the final push to Compostella. 

533 – Tongariro National Park

Card no 533 - GB 

North Island, New Zealand 

Country Card Sent From: New Zealand 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Napier 

Date Received: 3rd May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 11,493 miles 

Time Taken: 6 days 

A World Heritage Site to add to my collection. Many thanks, GB.

In 1993 Tongariro became the first property to be inscribed on the World Heritage List under the revised criteria describing cultural landscapes. The mountains at the heart of the park have cultural and religious significance for the Maori people and symbolize the spiritual links between this community and its environment. The park has active and extinct volcanoes, a diverse range of ecosystems and some spectacular landscapes.

Tongariro lies at the south-western terminus of a Pacific chain of volcanoes aligned along a major tectonic plate boundary. The park's volcanoes, which are outstanding scenic features of the island, contain a complete range of volcanic features. The related ecological succession of plant communities is of special scientific interest. The site is directly associated with the living traditions, beliefs and artistic works of the Maori people, which are of outstanding universal significance.