Bye bye clocks...

I am disappointed that I did not manage to blog many of the dozens and dozens of lovely clock cards I received during 2015.  I had not anticipated getting so many but that is really no excuse.  Life simply took over...  The same applies of course to the hundreds of other postcards I received during the year, only a fraction of which made it onto this blog.

So in future I shall not attempt to keep the clock postcard blog running.  I shall, however, try to post more frequently on this blog.

Just as a reminder of how great everyone has been contributing to my clock collection here is a piece of mail art I received today from Eva in Spain.

Blue cats, Old ladies and assorted other cards

I receive far too many cards to be able to post them but in 2016 I shall make a better effort at so doing.  Here are just a couple of the recent ones that have dropped onto my doormat and enhanced my days.

The top two of these blue cats came from Susanne in Germany and the bottom one from Anastasia in Belarus.  You can see the rest of the blue cats I have received in my Google photo album - if I can work out how to link to it!  I think this is the link!

And more of Inge Look's old ladies have entered my collection. Both of these were courtesy of Susanne, as well.

Postcards of people reading are among my favourites.  This is another from Susanne who really knows how to choose cards!  Entitled 'Peasant reading the Bible' it was painted by Albert Anker (1831-1910).

Hanka, a friend in the Czech Republic sent me this one which is probably among my top twenty of 2015.  It is entitled 'Peace and Quiet' by Lucie Ernestová.

The following card from Heleen in the Netherlands is called 'Compromise' and was a photo project by Gulsun Karamustafa.  (I should really put this on my blog for clock cards but I like it so much I have put it here.  Maybe one day my clock card blog will be updated but please don't hold your breath!)

And finally for this post - a beautiful card from Monica in Sweden.

Entitled 'Autumn Memories' (Thanks for the translation, Monica) it is a photo by Per Johansson.  I mention that it is a photo because it has such a dream-like quality that it could easily be a painting.   As it is, Monica added her own little Autumn tree to the back of the card -

Bear-ly time to write (or post!)

2865 - From Tina in Canada.  With all her commitments I'm not surprised she claims she has 'bear-ly' time to write.  In fact she is a regular correspondent. Isn't this a super card by artist Lawson Wood.

2853 - From Susanne in Germany - an Inge Look card.  In the UK this pinching of apples from a neighbour or over a farmer's fence is known as 'scrumping'.

2802 - Eva, my friend in Morocco / Spain (who now wants to lie in the sea off a Greek Island!) recently added to my UNESCO World Heritage Site cards with this super one of the library at El Escorial near Madrid.

2813 - Another from Susanne. This is called Armchair Dog and is by artist Rudi Hurzlmeier.

2614- Tina in Canada has a lot of similar tastes to me as do the rest of her family.  I envy her daughter because she has a Leopard Gecko, just like the one on this card they sent me.

Another Irina Zenyuk

2795 - Susanne, in Germany, sent me lots of cards while I was away in the Hebrides and it was a great pleasure to come back to them last week.  Hopefully I shall blog a few of them but there is little chance of me managing to show you them all.  Between her, Danielle, Monica, Heleen, Eva, Katya, Anastasia, Dai, JarieLyn, Tina, and so many other generous friends there must have been about forty cards waiting for me!

Not the usual four days!

Usually cards from Germany to the UK take about four days.  This one took four months.  Dated 22nd December this delightful card from Susanne arrived yesterday - 22nd April!  I suppose I should just be grateful it arrived at all but I wonder where it has been hiding all this time?

So Many Cards

I have received so many cards and have not blogged them for ages.  So here is a tiny selection

2532 - Susanne in Germany always knows exactly the right card to send so when I was unwell recently and the most I could do was lie in bed and read she sent this one - 'Reading Woman lying on a garden bench' by Carl Larsson.

2541 - Susanne also sent this one - The Reading Room by Carl Larsson.:-

2540 - Another from my friend Susanne - Anna Karenina byAnzhela Dzherih:-

2539 - I have a student friend in China, Dai Li, who regularly sends me cards and has contributed enormously to my collection of Chinese World Heritage Sites.   Her latest card shows Wuhan at night - the strip without lights down the middle is the Yangtze River.

Li always chooses super stamps as well.

2534/2535 - Cats are a constant (and welcome) theme among the cards I receive. These two are from Eva in Morocco.

2533 - It is April so Monica in Sweden celebrated the start of the month as she usually does - with a card for that month.

2528 - It was Easter this month so Katya and her mum Marina sent this lovely card from Ukraine.

And, as always, there were lovely stamps on it.

2526 -The last one for this post is another from Dai Li - these two cats look remarkably like our two ()Annabel and Mac)

‘A letter is not a system of debt.’

Hawwa pointed me in the direction of The Letters Page.  It is well worth taking a look.  I loved this quote from the Editor -

And this editor has noticed, in
a recent revival of personal correspondence-
by-post, how easily people feel the burden
of letter writing. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t replied
sooner,’ our letters all seem to begin, in the
tone of a muttering student handing in a late
assignment. Dear readers and fellow letter-
writers, don’t be so burdened! Write, or don’t
write, but enjoy it when you do. It’s nice to
reply to a letter, but there’s no need to turn
it into a chore; after all, if there’s a message
that can’t wait, you can always send an email.
(Remember email?) One of our editorial
board members, the poet and publisher
Éireann Lorsung, puts it very well: ‘A letter,’
she tweeted recently, ‘is not a system of debt.’