Showing posts with label postcards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label postcards. Show all posts

Friday, March 23, 2012

Snow Soft

Snow Soft


I received this postcard from Kate in Russia for the February 50 Round Robin. It was in my favourites so I am very happy to have received it. Naturally I picked it because of the adorable sleeping cats ^_^

The artist is Anna Petrova and she appears to have quite a few postcards, all in this charming and whimsical style.

On the back of the card it says 'снежные-нежные' which according to Google translates as 'Snow-Soft'.

Postcard Friendship Friday

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

I Saw a Ship a-sailing

Hong Kong | Chinese Junk


After seeing Fabienne's post showing traditional boats in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam I decided to post this lovely junk I received only yesterday.

Junks were first in use about 2000 years ago during the Han Dynasty and evolved over time to be used in long sea voyages. They are still in use today in their modern form.

The English word 'junk' comes originally from the Chinese word 'chuán' which means a boat or ship.



Friday, March 16, 2012

Old Tom Gin

Cordial Old Tom Gin

This is an advertisement poster circa 1880 for Cordial Old Tom Gin distilled by Boord & Son of London and apparently distributed in the USA by Du Vivier & Co of New York.

Gin is an alcoholic beverage whose flavour comes primarily from Juniper berries. The name 'Gin' comes from either the French 'genièvre' or the Dutch 'jenever' both of which mean Juniper. There have apparently been various forms of gin over the years and Old Tom Gin was a slightly sweetened version that was popular in the 1700's in England (so long before this advert). It was a cloudy drink back then and only became the clear liquid known today when distillation methods improved.

I love this postcard but remember dogs and cats should never drink alcohol! (And nor should humans in my opinion.)

Postcard Friendship Friday

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Splendeurs de Bretagne

Splendeurs de Bretagne

Splendors of Brittany
Back in Brittany again and I do not have much time except to say that this adorable bird is a Puffin. There are only 3 species of Puffin in the world whereas there are 17 species of Penguins! This is an Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), the other two species live in the Pacific Ocean.

In spring orange plates grow over the bill which are then shed later, after the breeding season. Puffins are monogamous and both incubate the one egg and care for the chick that they hatch out.




Friday, March 9, 2012

A Chamber Opera

Puss in Boots - A Chamber Opera

I received this beautiful postcard from Russia when I took part in the Alphabetical tag on the Postcrossing Forum. Have you ever taken part in a tag? It can be lots of fun! The lovely person who tagged me checked my favourites ^_^

This is actually a poster, circa 1885 for a chamber opera. What is a chamber opera? I had no idea myself so I asked wikipedia who tells me:

Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra.

The term and form were invented by Benjamin Britten in the 1940s, when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small performance spaces.

So now I know! However I cannot imagine the story of Puss in Boots performed as an opera, even a small one.

Oddly enough I was just reading about Benjamin Britten the other day because he and WH Auden collaborated on an opera using the words of Auden's poem 'Stop all the clocks'. I happened to be looking it up because I took part in Emilie's 'Adopt Penguin Books Postcards' project. It will be interesting to see how long the cards take to travel back to the USA.

Postcard Friendship Friday

This was a post for Postcard Friendship Friday at "The Best Hearts are Crunchy". Check out the other participants to see more lovely postcards!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Sound that Isn't


I had never heard of Milford Sound until I received this postcard from New Zealand. I actually though the word 'Sound' was only used for bays in North America but it turns out there are 'Sounds' on every continent except Africa.

According to wikipedia:

In geography a sound or seaway is a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, and wider than a fjord; or it may be defined as a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land (see also strait).

This definition seems both pedantic and contradictory at the same time. You would have to measure the length, width, depth of the bay in order to determine if it was larger, deeper or wider than other bodies of water only to discover that it is allowed to be narrow as long as land is on either side.

Anyway it turns out that the usage of the word is inconsistent and although Milford is called a Sound it is too narrow and is actually a Fjord.

Milford Sound was a finalist in the New 7 Wonders of Nature contest

Our Wonderful World Tuesday





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Friday, March 2, 2012

New Friends

Germany | Munich

I received this lovely postcard today from Annett in Munich who found my address on lettermo.com.

Annett writes that the main photo for this card is of the Christmas market taking place in Marienplatz, which is right in the city centre. Doesn't it look wonderful with all the lights and the gorgeous Christmas tree? That magnificent building is the New Town Hall which was built between 1867 and 1908 and contains 400 rooms! They really do things big!

The other three smaller pictures were also taken in winter and show the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower in English) which is actually a famous beer garden; the Friedensengel (Angel of Peace in English) located in Maximilian Park and the Theatinerkirche (Theatine Church of St. Cajetan in English) built between 1663 and 1690.

I have received two other pieces of mail through lettermo - one from Tish in the USA and one from Linzé who lives in Pretoria! I haven't received any mail from another South African for ages, even my own family! My attempts to convince them to send me postcards fail because they tell me they will be back from their holiday before the postcard arrives!

So A Month of Letters is over. I did not post any letters because I had enough postcards to write and I managed to post 101 of them! I am pretty pleased with myself ^_~


Postcard Friendship Friday

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Mysterious Places

Mexico | Chichen Itza

I am late today and after seeing Sheila's blog I decided to also feature an ancient site - however a lot more is known about the ancient civilizations of South America than will probably ever be known about those of Africa.

Chichen Itza is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World although it is in fact really old - having been built around 600 CE (Common Era).





Our Wonderful World Tuesday






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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A Rebirth

Rusia | Omsk | Uspensky Cathedral

More than 2000 km south east of Moscow, where the Irtysh and Om rivers meet, is the amazing and beautiful city of Omsk. When Tanya contacted me about a trade I was astonished at the number of beautiful postcards she had and it was difficult to choose only three. However this postcard was definitely my first choice.

This is the info on the back of the card:
Omsk. The rebirth of the Uspensky Cathedral. 2007. It was built in 1891-1898. The Cathedral was demolished in 1935. Is in 2007 recovered.

I wondered why such a beautiful building was destroyed. Wikipedia added the info that it was 'blown up' but not why. In an article at the OmskTime website I found this (it is tranlated from Russian so please excuse Google ^_~):

The Cathedral is a unique historical monument, as during the Civil War, he was the main cathedral of White Russia, the Bolsheviks were therefore considered it their duty to destroy this holy Orthodox Russian people, as happened in 1935. Now the restoration of the cathedral was an act of repentance.

So only 37 years after completion the Cathedral was destroyed and then 72 years later it is rebuilt to the original design. Amazing! Despite everything that humans do to each other, we resiliently wait until we can rebuild.

Our Wonderful World Tuesday



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Saturday, February 18, 2012

A Delicious Day

France | Gâteau Breton | Brittany Butter Cake

This wonderful postcard above from Stéphanie in France via the France X Other Countries RR was just one of the 18 postcards and 1 folding card that I received in the mail today. What a Red Letter Day for me! Every postcard was beautiful but no less than 4 of these items were a complete and fantastic surprise - but more about that later.

Today I want to concentrate on this lovely cake. I was never much interested in recipe cards until I came across the Austrian recipe cards while surfing on postcrossing. Now one of them is mine and I like it very much so when I saw this in Stéphanie's selection for trade I knew I had to have it!

Brittany, also known as Little Britain, is a region on the west coast of France. To the north is the English Channel and Great Britain and as far as I know the Lesser and the Great were closely allied at one time. Breton, the language spoken in Brittany is a Celtic language similar to Welsh and Cornish.

Perhaps I am incorrect but I have always thought of these three regions; Wales, Cornwall and Brittany as Roman and associated with King Arthur.

Anyway so back to the cake. Here is the recipe as it is on the postcard in French.

Gâteau Breton
Creuser une fontaine dans la farine et le sucre pour y mettre 5 jaunes d' oeufs. Travailler la préparation à la cuillère en bois puis frotter entre les paumes pour la rendre sableuse. Incorporer le beurre en petits morceaux et pétrir. Beurrer un moule pour y étaler la pâte. Badigeonner le gâteau de jaune d'oeuf. Mettre le moule dans le four chaud et laisser cuire environ 90 min. Servir ce gâteau breton accompagné de cidre doux.

350 g de farine
175g de sucre
6 jaunes d'oeufs
190g de beurre


Here it is translated by Google.

Translated?
Digging a fountain into the flour and sugar to put 5 egg yolks. Work preparing for the wooden spoon and rub between your palms to make sand. Stir the butter into small pieces and knead. Butter a mold in order to roll out the dough. Brush the cake with egg yolk. Put the pan in the preheated oven and cook about 90 min. Serve this cake with Breton cider sweet.

350 g flour
175g sugar
6 egg yolks
190g butter


Sand? Okay thank-you very much Google but I think I will try this recipe I found at Bakespace. It is from Nigella Lawson's book 'How to Be a Domestic Goddess'.

Cake Poll
Which of the following is your favourite cake?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
pollcode.com free polls 



On another topic completely, do you know that the Google translator has a nifty feature called the Virtual Keyboard?

Virtual Keyboard

Just choose your language at the top as normal and then use the virtual keyboard to type. Great for Russian!

Russian Keyboard

Friday, February 17, 2012

A Window With a View

Cat from the Ukraine

Right after I started being active on Postcrossing again in September last year I received a message from a wonderful girl (Ptawka) who offered to send me a card of hers that I had favourited. This is the card. It got a bit smudged by postal ink but I think that adds to the charm. Ptawka says she has a grey cat who never goes out because there are many stray dogs in Kiev so he loves to watch the birds from the windowsill. The picture, the stamps she used and her lovely message have made this one of my favourite received cards.

Postcard Friendship Friday

Monday, February 13, 2012

All Things Bright and Beautiful

7 Happy Kids

My mom sent me this postcard in 2000 when she was away on holiday. She wrote 'Happiness is these 7 kids". They are all adorable. Children are the future.

I am starting a new meme called Our Wonderful World Tuesday. Do you love our planet? Every Tuesday display a postcard from your collection which shows our world's natural beauty or the diversity of our many cultures or mankind's achievements. Anything that shows that this planet is worth caring for.

art by Melle TRALALA

I do not have any of these cute postcards published by 'Nouvelles Images' but they are on my wish list.




Lottery

Mü & Me 183: Greetings From The Big Five

If you participate in this first ever 'Our Wonderful World Tuesday' you are eligible to win this Mü & Me postcard by South African artist Daley Muller. If you also leave a comment you will be entered into the draw twice.


Our Wonderful World Tuesday






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What's in a Name

Roses
A Postcard for a Swapbot Swap | www.zazzle.com/lisawilliamsgifts

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

Today is Get a Different Name Day, so if your name does not please you can just pretend for a day that it is something else. This is actually a copyrighted holiday! A couple of other funny holidays they have come up with are 'Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo-Day', 'For Pete's Sake Day' and 'What if Cats & Dogs Had Opposable Thumbs Day'. Hahaha, yes what if?!

Anyway names have always fascinated me.

Character names in novels can make or break a story I think (imagine if Harry Potter had been named David Jones? Or Romeo had been named Neville?). Anne from 'Anne of Green Gables' agreed with me; she was rather partial to romantic sounding names such as Cordelia and Geraldine. One of my favourite possessions as a kid was a small book of baby names and I loved to look up the meanings so that I could name the characters in the stories I wrote appropriately. If a name meant white (Gwen for example) then the character must be virtuous!

According to this book my own name, Jocelyn, means playful. If you are interested in the meaning of your name here is an interesting site.

Surely it must be easier to do great things if you have a suitable name. Stonewall Jackson or Ulysses S Grant for example! (I am sure the beards also helped.)

USA | Civil War Generals 1861 - 1865
A Postcard for a Private Swap


Famous people love to give their poor children silly names. Jason Lee of 'My Name is Earl' fame called his kid Pilot Inspektor. I think he should have stuck to Earl Jnr quite frankly!

Place names are the best! When I was in Senior School my teacher had a big map of the United States on the back wall. There were other maps of course, including a Map of the World but I loved the USA one best because of all the cool names! The state names are awesome - Dakota, Wyoming, Montana for example. Then there were towns called 'Bowling Green' and 'Flag Pole' and ones named after more famous places like 'Paris, Iowa', 'Moscow, Arkansas' and 'Rome, Oregon'. Neat!

USA | Oklahoma
A Postcard for a Swapbot Swap

When I lived in London I heard about a flat available tn the tube stop of 'Angel'. I was very taken with the idea of living in 'Angel' because I imagined, rather whimsically, that my mail would be addressed to 'Jocelyn, Angel'. 'Angel' turned out to be a dump. I never lived there.

Now I know there are plenty of place names I wouldn't want my mail sent to including 'Lost Nation, Nevada' (depressing); 'Tick Bite, North Carolina' (no thanks!); 'Boring, Maryland' (snore).

Yugoslavia as was
A Postcard for a Private Swap from RenatoBG

Here's a country that apparently didn't like it's name and swapped it for 6 others!

Do you like your name and if you could have another name for the day what would it be?

Friday, February 10, 2012

Mountain Lion

USA | Mountain Lion (Felis concolor)

This postcard is from Susan in the USA, someone I love to swap with because she is just so considerate and also she loves South Africa. I love the card mostly because I love cats of all sorts but also because it reminds me of a poem by DH Lawrence which was one of my favourites in my teens.

The Mountain Lion
D.H. Lawrence (1885 -1930)

Climbing through the January snow, into the Lobo canyon
Dark grow the spruce-trees, blue is the balsam, water sounds
still unfrozen, and the trail is still evident.

Men!
Two men!
Men! The only animal in the world to fear!

They hesitate.
We hesitate.
They have a gun.
We have no gun.

Then we all advance, to meet.

Two Mexicans, strangers, emerging out of the dark and snow
and inwardness of the Lobo valley.
What are you doing here on this vanishing trail'?

What is he carrying?
Something yellow.
A deer?

Que tiene, amigo?
Leon -
He smiles, foolishly, as if he were caught doing wrong.
And we smile, foolishly, as if we didn't know.
He is quite gentle and dark-faced.

It is a mountain lion,
A long, long slim cat, yellow like a lioness.
Dead.
He trapped her this morning, he says, smiling foolishly.

Lift up her face,
Her round, bright face, bright as frost.
Her round, fine-fashioned head, with two dead ears;
And stripes in the brilliant frost of her face, sharp, fine dark rays,
Dark, keen, fine eyes in the brilliant frost of her face.
Beautiful dead eyes.

Hermoso es!

They go out towards the open;
We go on into the gloom of Lobo.
And above the trees I found her lair,
A hole in the blood-orange brilliant rocks that stick up, a little cave,
And bones, and twigs, and a perilous ascent.

So, she will never leap up that way again, with the yellow
flash of a mountain lion's long shoot!
And her bright striped frost-face will never watch any more,
out of the shadow of the cave in the blood-orange rock,
Above the trees of the Lobo dark valley-mouth!

Instead, I look out.
And out to the dim of the desert, like a dream, never real;
To the snow of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the ice of
the mountains of Picoris,
And near across at the opposite steep of snow, green trees
motionless standing in snow, like a Christmas toy.

And I think in this empty world there was room for me and
a mountain lion.
And I think in the world beyond, how easily we might spare
a million or two of humans
And never miss them.
Yet what a gap in the world, the missing white frost-face of
that slim yellow mountain lion!

Postcard Friendship Friday

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Tintin and Snowy

Tintin and Snowy

I am so happy! Just this morning I was envious of Anna who had received a Tintin postcard. This afternoon I received my own, very first ever Tintin and Snowy card from the wonderful Andrea in Austria! Thank-you!

When I was about 11 or so I was crazy about Tintin and Asterix. Our school library had copies but they were very expensive and couldn't be issued so I spent a lot of breaks curled up in a big leather chair reading them. It was horrible when the bell rang and I had to go back to class, especially if it was in the middle of an exciting part!

In other news .. I was mentioned by name on Gem's World Postcards so I am famous! Glen has the most fantastic collection of postcards from all sorts of places. It is brilliant to pick a place in the side bar and see how many cards he has! British Virgin Islands - check! Cocos ( Keeling ) Islands - check! Qatar - check!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Month of Letters

A Month of Letters

Mary Robinette Kowal, an author, has started a challenge: 'A Month of Letters'. The aim is to write a piece of mail for every day in February that the USPS is open (not Sundays or Public Holidays). So only 24 items! Easy peasy! I mean I am already doing the February 50 RR at the Postcrossing Forum so I will complete the challenge anyway!

I first saw her button as an avatar at the Postcrossing Forum but now I am seeing it on lots of websites and Missive Maven even wrote about it on her blog.

You can register at the site and see a list of other participants and send friend requests. Here is my profile.

Monday, February 6, 2012

A New Year Dragon

A New Year Dragon

According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar system 2012 starts on January 23rd and is the 4,709th Chinese year! There are 12 Animal Branches that fall in the following order: Rat, Ox/Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster/Chicken, Dog and Pig.

I was born in 1973, an Ox year and this is what I have read about it:

Those born under the influence of the Ox are fortunate to be stable and persevering. The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character. Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task or an objective.

I have to tell you that is all completely untrue! I wish I had those characteristics.

This lovely pink Dragon came from Kotona in Japan via Choose a Country RR.

I received a great message this evening from an American Swapbot user who finally received the 'One Sentence Journal - October' that I made and posted on Nov 12, 2011! How amazing is that! It arrived in a plain white envelope. I sent it in a handmade envelope made from a calender but the Post Office must have taken exception to this and decided to put it in their own envelope and keep it for a bit before sending it on. Or perhaps it was delayed at this end?

My mother warned me about my handmade envelopes and the way I write the addresses on them (why shouldn't the address go up the giraffes leg I ask??) but I said "These are postal workers - they get the mail through rain or shin, snow or hail!" Well I was right ^_~ Thank-you USPS!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Great Buddha

Japan | Great Buddha of Todaiji Temple | Nara

This is the Great Buddha of Todaiji Temple in Nara, a major city in Japan. This is an Official card.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

First Bobcat

USA | Bobcat (Lynx rufus) | Order: Carnivora | Family: Felidae

My very first Bobcat has arrived from the USA thanks to Erin and the Choose a Country RR. Bobcats are from the genus Lynx and live in North America. Apparently there are a number of subspecies ranging geographically from the south of Canada to the north of Mexico. All Lynx have short tails, none live in Africa. :( I am exceedingly pleased to have received this very cute cat ^_~

Friday, February 3, 2012

Roztocze

Poland | Roztocze

More beauty. This is Roztocze, a range of hills in Poland and Ukraine threaded through with a river which I think is the Wieprz River. Part of the range in Poland is a National Park. There are many mammal species living there (all my favourites) as well as more than 190 species of bird as well as adorable little Polish ponies!

There are many reasons I love this card. First the white border; most South African postcards have white borders and I find them very attractive. Then the nice font; a quick way to ruin a good card is to use an inappropriate or ugly font. Thirdly the picture is just gorgeous for many reasons. Lastly it came from Poland, which must be one of my favourite European countries!


Postcard Friendship Friday