Halloween Spiders

Halloween letters sent to Phillip (the USA) and Gemma (PC). You can find this envelopes with spiders as free printables on The Postman's Knock blog.

And you can see here and here that all this Halloween mail arrived safe and sound!

Mysterious Stamps

The topic today in  Sunday Stamps-II is Bizarre or unexplainable. I guess somebody else will post the same stamps...

On 15 September 2016, Royal Mail issued a six-stamps set to mark the centenary of Agatha Christie's first crime novel, and also the 40th anniversary of her death.

The Special Stamps depict key scenes and principal characters from six iconic novels: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Orient Express, The Body in the Library, And Then There Were None and A Murder is Announced. 

To add even more mystery, the six stamps contain hidden secrets in the form of microtext, UV ink and thermochromic ink. These concealed clues can be revealed using either a magnifying glass, UV light or body heat and and provide pointers to the mysteries’ solutions.

I have received the two I am posting, but I haven't still had the time to find the hidden clues*...  Now I feel like reading again all these novels.

*Explained here.

Jack-O'Lanterns Stamps

What do you think about these Jack-O-Lanterns stamps? They arrived on this funny envelope from Phillip (the USA), made of a reused catalogue (I guess).

(Update: I was intrigued about the strange shape of these stamps... and I found this article.)

Front

Back

And on this vintage Halloween postcard, sent by Bryon (the USA):

The Umbrella Girl

Phillip (USA) sent to me this nice postcard of the Umbrella Girl. There is a kind of legend behind her:

The original Umbrella Girl was placed in German's Village's Schiller Park in 1872, only to disappear mysteriously in the mid 1950's. Renowned Columbus artist Joan Wobst sculpted the replacement and donated her to the German Village Society in 1966. Placed in the Grace Highfield Garden, the charming young girl enchants all who stop by.

I have never seen her in person. But thanks to the postcard, I also realised that umbrellas are very common on postcards. I found some in my collection. For instance:

Sent by Gabriela (Germany)

But, of course, umbrellas are not only for the rain...

Sent by Laura (Spain)
Ladies fearing the sun in vintage Burgos.

Sentby zhang (China)
Mr. Tomo... Do you have any information about this guy?

The sea air it does well. It's unfortunate that you must eat.
Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands)

And umbrellas can be very useful too when it is raining... err... delicatessen?

This is another post for Maria's linky party: Postcards for the weekend. The theme this week is Anything you wish. I wish it was raining right now.

Update 16/07/2019. Pstcard sent by Fabienne (France).

Have I Said That I Love Letters?

Letter sent by Alan (the UK) some time ago. Sometimes I enjoy so much reading the letters, and then replying to them, that don't think of taking pictures to share.

From Other Planets

Envelope and postcard sent by Eric (France), about two of his favourite sci-fi movies: Forbidden planet and The Man from Planet X.

That reminds me that I also sent an envelope (made of a page of a magazine) to Phillip (the USA) that shows creatures... from another planet?

Unconventional Monkeys

This was my third contribution to FinnBadger's mail art call: The Year of  the Monkey. It is a detail from Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, printed on balsa wood. I couldn't go to the post office to sent it, so I wasn't sure about the postage. Happily, it arrived safe and sound to the USA.


And the thank you mail that I received was everything but conventional: a monkey-shaped paper plate! A little ear wound, but, anyway... I would have never thought that an item like this could survive an intercontinental mail travel.

The Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London was a major blaze that swept through the central parts of the city of London from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants at that moment.

To mark its 350th anniversary, Royal Mail issued some stamps (look at them closely here) in a graphic novel style. 

Even if the subject is terribly tragic, I like this set of five stamps. I have received two of them, and they look still better in person.

This a post for Sunday Stamps-II; the topic today is Views of cities.

Samurai Letter

Letter sent by Hanako (Japan). The envelope was made of a museum leaflet.

And the content was not less interesting!

You Never Know

I have received this letter from two 10 years old girls. They used a pencil to write the address, they forgot to write my name on the envelope, and they stuck the wrong stamp (0,15€ less than the due amount)... but it arrived anyway. And quickly, I must add.

You never know what really happens inside the postal offices.

Flying Mail Carriers

Letter sent to Richard (France).

Tabarca

Tabarca is the smallest permanently inhabited islet in Spain, located in the Mediterranean Sea, close to the town of Santa Pola (Valencian Country). There are only 17 permanent inhabitants. 

I was there last summer, and I was told there wasn't any post office, just the yellow post box that you see on the picture. And I was also told that the post service operates every day. 

I sent five postcards from there (I didn't dare to send more!) on 13 July. At least two of them arrived, so I guess the rest did so. One of them was postmarked on 22 July and arrived in the Netherlands a week later (29 July). I am glad it arrived but... What does it mean every day?

Lunch Is Ready!

Today's theme of Sunday Stamps-II is Foods of the world. I have been looking among my stamps to offer you something delicious. So... are you hungry?

Just a minute! Let me introduce the cookers first: Felipe Rojas Lombardi, Edna Lewis and James Beard are three of the five celebrity chefs immortalized by USPS on these stamps issued in 2014. See the details about these stamps.

What do you think? And not only the cookers: everything is glamorous here! The ceramic tableware and the flatware are designed by two pioneers of American industrial design (stamps released on 29 June 2011 by USPS. See here the complete 12-stamps set).

The first option is one of my favourite stamps ever. I sent some of them, and I was happy to receive two on a postcard. This stamp was issued by the Spanish postal service on 23 January 2014. It is dedicated to the gastronomy of Burgos, chosen as the Spanish Capital of Gastronomy for 2013. 

The stamp depicts a still-life of typical dishes such as black pudding, olla podrida, made with pinto beans, chorizo sausage and lamb, a variety of cheeses and a glass of local wine.

More information here.

But maybe you prefer something completely different... What about a bubbling pot of sukiyaki? This stamp (along with a stamp depicting a steaming bowl of ramen; see the set here) was released on 29 January 2015. I especially love the extra illustration of the border of the sheet.

And, thanks to the French postal service, the vegetarian option is available. This stamp belong to the 12-stamps set Ensemble, agissons pour préserver le climat ('Together, let's save the climate'), issued in April 2014. The designer is France Dumas. Every stamp give an advice about small gestures that can help our planet, like the consommation of organic products. (I had received another stamp from this set.)

Update: I forgot the desert! These were issued on 21 July 2016. I received the complete set of five on this envelope sent by Bryon (the USA).

Two Postcards That Some Children Might Like

Postcard sent by Laura (the UK). It seems a real house, but it is actually one of the 100 dolls' houses kept in the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, in London (the UK): the Whiteladies House, made of wood in 1935, by Moray Thomas.

Postcard sent by Gian Luca (Italy). It shows the village of Vernante, in Italy. If you visit it, you will find most of the houses covered with wall paintings, depicting scenes from the novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (by Italian author Carlo Collodi). Attilio Mussino, the illustrator of the 1911 edition of this book, used to live there.

I added this post to Maria's linky. This week the theme is Children.

Postcards for a Classroom

The class 8R (10-12 years old) of a primary school in Zwijndrecht (the Netherlands) has started a simple but ambitious postal project:

We're trying to receive a postcard from each country (+ US states) in the world! Will you help?

I was glad to contribute with some postcards (inside the envelope of the picture). If you would like to do so, this is the address:

OBS De Twee Wieken

t.a.v. groep 8

Roerdompstraat 3

3334 AG Zwijndrecht

THE NETHERLANDS

(You can contact first via their Twitter or their Facebook page.)

Another Tiny, Tiny Letter

Some weeks ago I received this special letter from John (the UK). It measures only 74 x 98 mm!

In Spain, the minimum dimensions of the letters must not be less that 140 x 90 mm. I do not know if there is a rule for Morocco. But this letter arrived anyway!

(Also Heleen received one of these). So, yes: Small mail is trendy this season!

Tiny Mail from Australia

Naomi (From the blog Naomi Loves) made 54 tiny letters of antique tissue-paper, and offered to spread them around the world. I received my little letter with an inspiring sentence... What a wonderful short letter!

Complete Series of Postcrossing Stamps!

When the second series of Postcrossing stamps were issued by Dutch Post last March, I expected to be lucky enough to get one or two of them. But not the whole series! Heleen (the Netherlands) has been sending them on different postcards and letters throughout the latest months. Now the series is complete and looks really, really gorgeous. I guess that many postcrossers would be envious.

I really love the design of these stamps, and the Dutch highlights chosen to illustrate them. The only think I find odd is... I didn't spot any cow on them! It seems impossible. Maybe a cow is hidden among the illustrations and I cannot see it...

I added this entry to Sunday Stamps - II. The theme of this week is postal related.