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.

A Quick Catch-up

In order to bring my cards received up-to-date I am rolling a number of them together.  As a result I am not providing any great detail about them.  My apologies to the senders.

Card no 361 – Danielle

I like postcards of reading men.  There are a lot of postcards of reading women but few of reading men.  I suspect it is because men generally preferred to be painted doing activities that were seen as more masculine. Especially during the Victorian era when reading novels was most definitely a girl’s activity – the only one’s men read (allegedly) were French ones in plain yellow wrappers (i.e. naughty ones) which they hid in their desks when anyone was around.  I know Danielle has been seeking cards of reading men for me, so thanks Danielle.

Among the stamps was this one from another of my favourite activities – watching racing cars. The Indy 500 race was first run in 1911 and this is an anniversary stamp.

 

Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955) was an American Modernist poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1955.

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Card no 362 – EJ

Partridges – a fresco at Knossos from around 1500 B.C. 

As usual this card was as much about the used postage stamps that EJ stuck on the back as about the card itself.

Here they are –

And the stamps which ensured its delivery –

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Card no 363 – Anna
A great map of the Canary Isles.  

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 Card no 364 –Anja

The Town hall in the city of Hulst, Netherlands. 

And a nice Red Squirrel stamp.

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 Card no 365 – Keke

Keke in Finland sent this postcard of a Common Lizard

And this un-named flower stamp.

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Card no 366 – Lin

A postcard of an Australian lighthouse – Perpendicular Point Lighthouse, NSW, built in 1899 – but it actually came from China with no message; just its postcrossing ID.

Its stamp:-

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Card no 367 - Iveta

This card from the Czech Republic adds to my collection of map cards a map of the centre of Prague. 

Knowing I like unusual stamps Iveta included this one showing an Alfonse Mucha poster with Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda.

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Card no 368 – Danielle

Biltmore House, North Carolina in 1910.

 And the stamps included -

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Card no 369 – Diana

Rotterdam, Netherlands.

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Card no 370 – Els

Antwerp, Belgium.

An iconic map from the point of view of Els from Antwerp.  It shows Tzuid – the city itself; Linkoerover on the Schelde side of Antwerp; St Anneke is the beach of Antwerp; and Nachtegalenpark and Peerdsbos are green areas. 

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