Deck the halls

 This card made me smile. 

How is your snail mail faring this season? 

S is for holiday Stamps with last year's festive Snowman postmark

 Stamps that arrived in 2024

A deer and tree (Holiday Delights, 2020)

Santa's sleigh and reindeer (A visit from St Nick, 2021)

More deer, in a snow forest (Winter Scenes, 2020)

Madonna and child (2024)

Yet another deer (Woodland animals, 2023)

And any stamp can be a holiday stamp with a jolly snowman postmark (Liberty, from Four Flags, 2012)

 

Christmas cactus

 Sent via a Postcrosser in Arizona - I love it!

What's your tree like?

How ready are you?

 Mariah Carey has fully defrosted, my tree is up, and the first Christmas mail has arrived.

On a scale of scream to 10, how ready are you for Christmas?

Hlukhiv

 Today's postcard hunt theme is buildingss. 

In 2020, I received this card via postcrossing showing landmarks in Hlukhiv, a city in northeast Ukraine, close to the Russian border, showing famous city landmarks.

Left: the Church of the Savior's Transfiguration (1765)

Middle: Hlukhiv water tower, constructed 1927-1929

Right: I've seen several names for this one, including the Orthodox Church of Three Saint Anastasias, and Holy Three Anastasias Cathedral.

For links to more postcards featuring pictorial landmarks, head over to See it on a Postcard

Happy Halloween!

 

Thanks to CJ for this fab Halloween card and envelope, with excellent Halloween reflective foil stamp.

And thanks to Eva for this skeleton postcard, as well as the brainskull sticker on the back of an envelope.

Enjoy spooky season!

F is for Fish

The theme for today's Sunday Stamps is the letter F

Eva sent me this wonderful (and large!) stamp, showcasing fish, and fishing, as a major component of Spanish gastronomy. 

Despite the importance of fishing in Spain, consumption of fish has decreased recently, and Correos has issued this stamp has the slogan: 'Fill your table with the sea'.

The stamp also has a very. nice foil effect, which is a bit hard to capture in a still image. Eva also mentioned that she has an additional reason to like the stamp - it shows the correct postage to send to the USA :)

For links to more stamps with this theme, visit See it on a Postcard.

Blue

 Blue is the theme of today's Sunday Stamps, and I have this first class stamp from Finland issued in 2014.

For more blue stamps, explore the links at See it on a Postcard. 

Raven Story

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is stories and fairytales. One of my favorite stamps with this theme is the Raven Story, issued by USPS in 2021.

The National Postal Museum website has a nice description of the meaning of the Raven in northwest American native cultures. The stamp features a Raven that is transitioning from human form to avian form - you can see the hand shape at the bottom of the stamp. The stars and orbs are highlighted in gold foil, representing the Raven as lightbringer.

I used these stamp in a Pushing the Envelopes envelope exchange earlier in the year, making envelopes from calendar pages showcasing inuit art.

For links to more stamps with today's theme, head over to See it on a Postcard

Postbox Saturday

 I'm loving the dinosaur sticker

Postbox Saturday

 A repurposed USPS mailing box for postbox Saturday

Kebaya sulam

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is patterns.

This Malaysian stamp features a traditional South Asian tunic,  a kebaya, with embroidery (sulam in Malay).

For more patterns on Stamps, explore the links at See it on a Postcard. 

Postbox Saturday

 Spotted at Columbus Zoo.

I wish it was real so I could send postcards from there!

Boston Public Garden

 Gardens is the subject for today's postcard hunt.

CJ sent me this great card from Boston showing the famous swanboats at dock. The opening date for the boats this year was April 19th - and this is the 158th year!

This is also a place I have visited, albeit about 20 years ago.

For links to more gardens on postcards visit See it on a Postcard

White magic

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is white, and I love the white images on these Art of Magic stamps issued in 2018. The white rabbit being pulled from a top hat and the white dove emerging from a flower are great symbols of magic, representing the illusions of production and transformation.

Thanks to CJ for sending them on this wonderful envelope in 2020. The classic playing card suits letters are perfect, and the first day of issue was, appropriately, Las Vegas.

And the hand made card inside used an image of another stamp in this set - the empty white cage signifying a vanishing act.

For links to more stamps with a white theme, head over to See it on a Postcard.

Eagle

 Today's postcard hunt theme is (song)birds.

Looking through my postcards I have very few birds. The only one I found was this bald eagle on a postcard commemorating 50 years since the moon landing of the Apollo 11 mission.

For more birds on postcards, explore the links at See it on a Postcard

Pony Express

 Sign seen in Nashville

Waterfalls

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is waterfalls and rivers.

I think this extreme sport counts. This is Descenso de Barrancos, issued by Correos in 2006, and sent by Eva. Whatever this is (waterfall, river, rapids?), it looks horrendous :)

This stamp is Harrison Wright Falls in Pennsylvania. I'll take fast running water as a spectator sport, please.

It arrived on this lovely February exchange envelope from Maggie M.

For more links to stamps with this week's theme, head over to See it on a Postcard

Sunday Stamps on Monday

 This week's Sunday Stamps theme is lighthouses.

The German definitive series 'World of Letters' includes this beauty, which I was lucky to receive.

For linkks to more lighthouses on stamps visit See it on a Postcard.

Stamp

Last Sunday's Wordle

Ssserpent Sssaturday

 The year of the snake continues with many twists and turns, and it is only March!

Stay calm and enjoy great mail instead.

Fafa sent me this great postcard

Accompanied by this beautiful lunar new year stamp.

Merci!

Alice and Friends

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is famous women.

Eva sent me two women on this envelope made from a calendar page.

The women featured are:

María Bernaldo de Quirós Bustillo was the first Spanish woman to obtain a pilot's license - in 1928. You can read a little bit more about this aviation pioneer on her wikipedia page. Iberia airlines named one of their planes after her.

Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira was a social activist, a feminist, and writer. She was a prodigy who coud read at the age of two, spoke four languages by the age of eight, and finished law school at seventeen. Sadly she died aged eighteen, shot to death by her own mother. You can read more about her unconventional life on her wikipedia page. 

Although fictional, Alice from Lewis Carroll's novels is even more famous.

The third stamp features the date 8 March, International Women's Day.

For links to more famous women on stamps, visit See it on a Postcard.

Ohio

 Today's postcard hunt prompt is maps of states/provinces/counties.

Here's an Ohio map postcard I've sent out in the past.

For links to more map postcards, visit See it on a Postcard

Jaar van die slang

 This great internationaal stamp from Nederland arrived, courtesy of Heleen, accompanied with nice selvage to celebrate jaar van die slang. Included are the Chinese characters for snake.

In contrast, the postcard is all in English, the language of Postcrossing.

For links to more stamps with no English words on them, head over to See it on a Postcard.

Pictorial landmarks

 The postcard hunt theme for today is pictorial landmarks on maps.

This is a really small part of a map, with a drawing of my favorite independent book shop. 

For more links to maps with this theme, head over to See it on a Postcard

Flags

 The theme for Sunday Stamps is flags.

A couple of Dutch stamps sent by Heleen.

The German and US flags vs the Dutch lion on Football/Soccer World cup stamps:

And a stamp featuring the flag of Gelderland, one of the provinces of the Netherlands.

You can see the blue, yellow and black flag at wikipedia. The words of the Gelderland anthem 'Ons Gelderland'(Our Gelderland) are featured on the stamp.

 Explore the links at See it on a Postcard for more philatelic flags.

Caturday

 Great cat postcard from Eva :)

Post 2000

 What better way to celebrate post 2000 of the blog than with an envelope from Jean - who's blog I found back in 2013!

I like how Jean made this stamp look like not a stamp. The addition of decorative leaves and suns to go with the motifs on this Thinking of You stamp (issued in 2023) is a lovely creative touch.

Thanks for all the visits and comments along the way!

Stratford-upon-Avon

 Today's postcard theme is maps - city/transportation system.

I received this map of Shakespeare's home town via postcrossing.

For more map postcards, visit the links at See it on a Postcard.

Turquoise

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is minerals and gems. I chose turquoise which is featured on this 2c stamp, set in silver in a squash blossom design with crescent motifs at the bottom. The turquoise looks pale in my scan, for a better image and more information about the stamp, the National Postal Museum has a great page.

A photo of my remaining 2c stamps:

The 2c Navajo Jewelry stamp was issued in 2004, and reprinted several times due to price increases in the days before 'forever' stamps. There's a detailed article here. 

Here it is on a couple of envelopes I sent in 2020 to celebrate it being a leap year.

This stamp is part of the definitive low value postage set featuring American Design. It was withdrawn from sale in 2019.

For links to more stamps on this topic, head over to See it on a Postcard.

Two for TGIF

 Blog buddy CJ posts the Friday Five every week - five positive things that happened.

I've got a couple today - two for thank goodness it's Friday1

1. The ice storm earlier in the week was not as bad as expected - I didn't wake up to an ice cube car the morning after :)

2. This fab Pushing the Envelopes exchange envelope from Julliana Q was the most snow I saw this week