Goodbye, 2020

 

...and good riddance!

See you all in 2021.

Merry Christmas

 An unexpected, large package arrived in yesterday's mail.

Look at all those stunning stamps! 

And this beautifully wrapped gift. 

Thank you,  Fafa, it was a lovely surprise, with perfect timing. 

Have a great Christmas, everyone. And if you don't celebrate, I hope you have a peaceful day. 

 

The longest night of the longest year

Wishing everyone a safe solstice. 

Wallace and Gromit

 From Royal Mail's 2010 Christmas issue - one of my favorites. 

For links to more secular Christmas stamps, please visit Sunday Stamps.

The Christmas tortoise

 Another unexpected Christmas animal just arrived from Eva.

Thanks!

Even more unusual animals

Eva alerted me to the fact that last year the Greek postal service issued a set of stamps featuring unexpected Christmas animals.

Surprise surprise, a sloth and a llama. Unicorns are everywhere, too, even on my Christmas tree. 

I wonder if this year there'll be a lot of Christmas flamingos?

Here's the fun minisheet:

Christmas sloth

Even more prevalent than the llama has been the Christmas sloth!

I sent him to Eric.

Fa la la la llama

There has been a proliferation of unusual animals in the past few Christmases... I present the Christmas llama - sent to Momkat last year.

Christmas bear

Polar bears are ubiquitous at this time of year - presumably due to their association with snow. 

Sent to Eva last Christmas.

Hot Cocoa

When better than to have hot cocoa than in December?

Sent to Heleen last Christmas. It was a bit slow to arrive and did not make it in time for Santa Claus.

Candy Cane

Now you can see why I posted one of these yesterday :)

This one was sent to Fabienne last Christmas.

Mint chocolate chip

Sent to Eva some time ago for her Houses in the Mail project. It travelled well!

(Mostly) happy ghosts

Sent to Carole in a 2018 envelope exchange.

And to Fabienne, just because :)

Spooky postmark

 There's a new postmark in town, and it's a little scary

What do you think?

Which skull are you?

Expressive skulls on this envelope sent to Carolyn  and Maggie a couple of years ago.

Ghosts for Hester

Happy, unhappy and surprised ghosts sent a couple of years ago to Hester.

World Postcard Day...

 ...was yesterday. Initiated by Postcrossing, postcard exchangers were encouraged to send cards out on October 1st.

I received the official card sponsired by Postcrossing in September, from a US Postcrosser.

And I sent a handful out myself.

Ho, ho, ho, 'tis the Season...

...for dem bones!

Gift bags that I repurposed as envelopes  in 2018. Accompanied by the Magic of Vanishing and Prediction for Jean.

With the Magic of Production and Levitation for Chuck. 

And the Magic of Prediction, Transformation and Vanishing for Eric.

Royal Mail's post office underground railway

 Today's prompt for Sunday Stamps is 'urban'.

I don't think it gets much more urban than having a railway for mail that allowed for rapid movement under the city of London. This is a Royal Mail Post & Go postal label dispensed from a machine (in some countries they may be called stickers).

The post office railway was driverless and ran from 1927 to 2003. It is now a museum. It ran between Paddington and Whitechapel, was 6.5 miles (10.5 km) long and had eight stations. Each station was located underneath a sorting office. Over time, as sorting offices were relocated, only 3 stations remained in use. Finally, due to the fact that it was more expensive to run trains than to truck mail around London (although the trains were more environmentally friendly), the Mail Rail closed.

You can read more about this unique piece of postal history at its wikipedia page.

For links to more blogposts about stamps with an urban theme, head over to Sunday Stamps.

Black and white...

 ...and read all over.

Today's Sunday Stamps prompt is black and white.

Eva recently sent two stamps, both issued in 2006, that celebrate newspapers that have been in print for at least a century.

They were both issued in 2006. First, a stamp for the newspaper Levante, based in the region of Valencia and first published in 1872.

And second, one for Diario de Pontevedro, which first went to the presses in 1889.

For more black and white stamps, explore the links at Sunday Stamps.

Fiera Internazionale della Sardegna - Cagliari

 There are three flags on these 1998 Italian stamps: Italy, Sardinia (also know as 'The four moors flag'), and the European Union.

The stamp celebrates the International Fair of Sardinia, held in Cagliari every year since 1948 in its current form. I don't know if Italian stamps valued in lira are still valid as postage (there was a 2 euro stamp on the card also). 

And in the US flag stamps are ubiquitous. Here are two I received in the mail during the past two weeks.

On the left is 'U.S. Flag' designed from a photograph, issued in 2019, and on the right is a graphically designed 'U.S. Flag' issued in 2018. I hadn't noticed that they have the same name - in the past I remember the flag stamps having their own distinct names. The 2018 stamp takes its cue from another stamp issued in 2018 to commemorate the centenary of the Flag Act of 1818. The Flag Act formalized the design if the US flag - thirteen horizontal stripes and a star for each state - as well as the fact that changes to the flag after admission of a new state would always occur on Independence Day, July 4th.

Bonus:

Inspired by CJ's comment, here's more on the flag stamps issued by USPS over the last 10 years, and whether I am a fan or not. 

2020 "U.S. Flag stamped envelope". Graphic design.

No U.S Flag stamp issued (so far). There is a flag on the prestamped envelope - I am not a fan of this design (it reminds me of that roasting pan in the oven). The stars around the edge are a nice touch.

2019 'U.S. Flag'. Photo.

See main post. I wish there was less white space on the stamp.

2018 'U.S. Flag'. Graphic design.

See main post. It's OK, not my favorite of the graphic design flags. It's counterpart celebrating the Flag Act is a bit strange - that would be one oddly shaped flag if fully extended.

2017 'U.S. Flag'. Photo.

I like this close up detail of the flag.

2016 'U.S. Flag'. Photo.

Better than the 2019 design.

2015 'Stars & Stripes Presort Coil'. Graphic design.

There was no first class flag stamp issued, however there was a design of 3 stamps (that look best when seen together) at the presorted rate. I love this design, and would have enjoyed this at a first class rate.

2014 "Star-spangled Banner". Design created graphically from a photo.

This was different take on the more classic approach to flag stamps. I liked this one, and used it on mail. I remember some people not liking it because the flag was a little blurry. I believe the idea was to represent the flag in motion.

2014 "Red, white and blue". Graphic design.

This is my favorite of the graphic designs of the past 10 years. I remember reading some comments from people who despised them as too abstract. I believe it was only issued as a coil set. I bought a strip of them back when the post office sold strips of 20 stamps - not sure if the philatelic service still does that, lately I've been seeing strips of 500 being offered (coils usually come in 1, 5 or 10 thousand).

2013 "Flag for all seasons". Art design (possibly made/inspired by photos)

This was a nice take on a set of flag stamps, although hard to depict a difference from spring to summer though.

2012 "Four flags". Art design.

I believe this was a very popular set. I don't have a strong opinion on it.

2011 "Lady Liberty and Flag" Photo design.

I liked these stamps, although the Lady Liberty turned out to be a photo of an imitation in Las Vegas. Note that USPS since dropped the 'first-class' from their first class stamps, and just use the 'forever' term.

So it looks like giving (slightly) more descriptive names to the flag stamps stopped in 2016.

Explore more links to flags on postage at Sunday Stamps.

Big animals

 Today's theme is big animals. I chose animals that are (mostly) larger than a human.

A giraffe and a giant panda on these US stamps issued in 1992.

And western lowland gorillas, a critically endangered species, on this stamp from Australia issued in 2016.

For more big animals on stamps, explore the links at Sunday Stamps.

Terra Australis

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is southern hemisphere. While there are many countries in the southern half of the world, the land down under often springs to mind.

I received a postcrossing card from Australia with 3 nice stamps and a nice postmark, asking people to keep letter carriers safe by securing their dogs.

Terra Australis, southern land, is a term European explorers used to describe what is now the country of Australia. Depicted on this shaped stamp issued for disaster relief earlier this year. The stamp is part of a set of 5, issued as a sheet with AUS$2 of the AUS$5.50 going to a relief fund.

This Sydney to Perth train stamp celebrates the 50th anniversary of Australia's transcontinental railway. 

And finally a stamp issued by Norfolk Island that celebrates early botanical art. It was issued as a mini-sheet earlier this year.

Explore more stamps of the southern hemisphere (and more from Australia) - head over to check out the links at Sunday Stamps.

Yellow

 The theme for Sunday Stamps today is yellow.

From left to right:

The current 2c definitive featuring Meyer lemons, issued in 2018.

A yellow dress designed by Oscar de la Renta, issued in 2017.

Yellow white (1961) one of Ellsworth Kelly's abstract paintings on a stamp issued in 2019.

For more yellow stamps visit the links at Sunday Stamps.

Under the sea

I was about to send out some envelopes using the coral reef postcard stamps when Fafa sent me a closely matching postcard.

In a senior moment, I scanned it upside down, so here is the postcard the right way up.

Thanks for this great postal coincidence, Fafa.