Some recent cards

1299 – Yoko in Japan (JP-488187) sent me this card of a Japanese Maiko.

1300 - The London Library after the Blitz sent to me by Dai Li in China.  A most moving picture.

1304, 1313 – Audrey Hepburn cards from Dai Li.  

Some of a few that she kindly sent me, including a packet of Audrey Hepburn cards.

1287 – Siggi in Germany also sent me a beautiful Audrey Hepburn card.

1305 & 1306 – I don’t know who the artist is of these two pictures from Dai Li but I love their simplicity.  They remind me of the Picasso picture of a reclining woman.

1315 & 1316 – From Lena (RU-2303812) came two cards and a lot of stamps.

1317 – It was snowing when Monica sent me this from Sweden.   An excuse top send me another super Lennart Helje picture.

1318 –A map maxi-card from Susanne in Germany. 

1319 – Another maxi-card from Susanne – this time it’s a postman’s bicycle, probably from the early 1900s.

Isn’t this a lovely envelope?

1150-1157 - a miscellany

1150 – A sculpture from the Great Tower at Gangaikonda Cholapuram from Amit in India.

Gangaikonda Cholapuram was erected as the capital of the Cholas by Rajendra Chola I, the son and successor of Rajaraja Chola, the great Chola who conquered a large area in South India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Sumatra, Kadaram (Kedah in Malaysia) at the beginning of the 11th century A.D. It occupies an important place in the history of India. As the capital of the Cholas from about 1025 A.D. for about 250 years, the city controlled the affairs of the entire south of India, from Tungabhadra in the north to Ceylon in the south, and other south east Asian countries. 

The great temple of Siva at this place is next only to the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur in its monumental nature and surpasses it in sculptural quality.  It is one of the three Great Living Chola Temples which make up an Indian UNESCO WHS.

1151 – A delightfully cute Christmas card from my friend Susanne in Germany. 

Another good stamp

And a sticker.

1152 – Historic post uniforms from around 1850 on this maxi-card from Lars in Germany (DE-270646)

1153 – Miriam sent this typical Dutch card (NL-220140).    It’s just SO Dutch…

1154 – Ute in Germany sent this card (DE-2702719) – a reminder of Ivy!

1155 – Rita, such a kind friend in Denmark, sent me this picture of a Danish postman.

And on the back was one of the Europa postal vehicle stamps.

1156 – From Monica in Sweden, a rabbit.  You can almost see its nose twitch.

1157 – Also from Monica, another Lennart Helje card.

Lennart Helje, born in 1940 in Lima , is a Swedish artist , best known for his Christmas cards with little gnomes or brownies on them. 

Quite often Helje’s brownie is accompanied by animals such as a fox or a moose.  As Monica wrote, the fact that there is no actual Christmas greeting on the cards means she can send more than one.  Both of the ones she has sent this month will be displayed with our Christmas cards which straddle the living room.

Skipping forward...

The only way I stand a chance of getting up-to-date is to skip forward from 1002 to 1111 which was one of yesterday’s cards.

1111 – Monica in Sweden made this card, received 25^th November 2013, from her own photos.   Or perhaps, arguably, it’s a photo not a card but since it has a message on the back and is certainly worth blogging I’m counting it.  It’s a lot clearer and more attractive than many a postcard you buy in the shops. 

The envelope it came in contained other things and the stamps were fantastic.  So much wildlife…

 

1112 – Another  card from Monica, this is one of the Lennart Helje cards.  It’s called Snårlvinter which doesn’t really translate into English since the literal translation ‘mean winter’ suggests something a lot deeper in snow and ‘skimpy winter’ or ‘scrimpy winter’ don’t convey very much. So we’ll settle for Snårlvinter.

 Helje’s little Brownie was on the very first (ugh – ‘the very first’  - horrible expression.  I mean, of course, simply ‘the first’.) card that I put on a  postcard blog – see here.

1113 – From Eva in Morocco came this card of Tangier.  On the left is Hercules’s cave.  

It is said to be the shape of Africa, which, if you turn it round, I think it is. 

So presumably if you look inwards from outside it looks Africa-shaped but that would be so much less impressive. 

A new stamp-