Lots more cards

819 - Sini in Finland has sent me some super maxi-cards.

821 - Ann from Sydney in Australia sent me this beautiful picture of the Sydney Opera House - (another UNESCO WHS) as a thank you for some cards I sent to her.

Lovely wildlife stamps.

823 - My lovely friend Martine - my favourite Corsican - has sent me lots of maps of Corsica.  I doubt anywhere has more map postcards. This one has a charming little pussy cat on it.

826 - Seren in the USA (US-2371932) sent me a picture of her favourite hotel 299 Madison Avenue - the Library Hotel, just down the street from the New York Public Library.

I love all her stamps.

838 - A thank-you card from Andrea, David and Petra in Hungary.  It shows part of a cyclorama which depicts the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin in 895.

839 - Another post-related maxi from Sini.

859 - My Chinese postcrossing friends Dai Li and Feng have both sent me lots of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  This one from Feng shows the Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall.

844 - This is another UNESCO site - The Potala Palace in China - from Dai Li.

841 - And another UNESCO site from Dai Li but this is in Cambodia.

Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. Stretching over some 400 sq km, and including a forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations. UNESCO has set up a wide-ranging programme to safeguard this symbolic site and its surroundings.

848 - Irina in Bulgaria sends me lots of cards and many of them are the shape of the country like this one.

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851 - Another from Irina - God's Bridge.  It is not a UNESCO site but regarded by many as one of the world's natural wonders.

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907 - My first card from Thailand (TH-145305) - thanks Leedonghee.

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1206  - Rita from Lithuania sent me this wonderful card (LT-341001).

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1212 & 1214 - Virginia from Barbados sent me a number of cards from one of her visits to New York.

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1222 - Monica in Sweden and Danielle in the USA are fellow bloggers and send me lots of cards - they are my most regular swappers and have become friends over the years.  This card from Danielle is really atmospheric.

1221 - Bonnie Jeanne from Pennsylvania sent me a card that I have sent to others - it is from the postcard book 'The Reading Woman' and I love it to bits.

Bonnie Jeanne used these stamps.

1227 - Amit in India sent me this view of The Valley Of Flowers.  I appreciate the scale is probably a bit different but it could easily be a view in the Grampians.

Some odds and ends from last August...

 795 - Polina in Russia (RU-1853454) sent me this lovely photo of a ballet dancer.  And this stamp is super.

797 - This is a Barbed Agama or Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps) from 'Frightener' in Belarus (BY-978739)

798 - My friends Carol and Rob sent this card of Deception Falls on the scenic Stevens Pass Highjway over the Cascades in Washington State. In the early days of their marriage they used to go picnicing along this river with Rob's brother and his family.

800 - Rita has sent me postcards of Danish UNESCO World Heritage Sites including this one - Roskilde Cathedral on the island of Zealand.  Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, this was Scandinavia's first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick and it encouraged the spread of this style throughout northern Europe. It has been the mausoleum of the Danish royal family since the 15th century. Porches and side chapels were added up to the end of the 19th century. Thus it provides a clear overview of the development of European religious architecture.

The Europa stamp theme for this year is postal vehicles.

804 - Damien in France sends me lots of maps of the different Departments.

811 - Audrey Hepburn is my ideal but this card of Brigitte Bardot from Didier (FR-308280) was just as welcome!

813 - My friend Eva had a holiday in The Azores and was kind enough to send me a card of these old vineyards on Pico Island - a UNESCO WHS. 

The 987-ha site on the volcanic island of Pico, the second largest in the Azores archipelago, consists of a remarkable pattern of spaced-out, long linear walls running inland from, and parallel to, the rocky shore. The walls were built to protect the thousands of small, contiguous, rectangular plots (currais) from wind and seawater. Evidence of this viniculture, whose origins date back to the 15th century, is manifest in the extraordinary assembly of the fields, in houses and early 19th-century manor houses, in wine-cellars, churches and ports. The extraordinarily beautiful man-made landscape of the site is the best remaining area of a once much more widespread practice.

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.