“Despite What the News Have Said About Us…” Received from China, Greece, Malaysia, Netherlands, Russia, the Philippines, Singapore, and the U.S. **RANT INCLUDED!**

Let’s dive in!

Look at that cooool Totoro card!  Be sure to scroll down & see the stickers on the back, too.  A Postcrosser in Seattle, Washington sent this to me in a Postcrossing Forum tag trade.

Right next to Totoro is a scene from Singapore’s very colorful Haji Lane.  I was able to request that card in another Postcrossing Forum tag–from the same person I’d received a similar card in this tag, a few months ago.

Then we go into the wild, sort of: Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.  The sender tells me:

“Greetings from Malaysia–a very warm country in South East Asia (avg. temperature: 30C).  Malaysia is a country with multiple cultures and religions.  Despite what the news have said about us, we still live in perfect harmony and celebrate all festival together.  I grew up in a small town call Cameron Highlands, a famous cool hill resorts which had average temperature of 16C throughout the year.  It is famous for its tea growing, vegetables farming and flower nurseries.  Now I live in the capital city–Kuala Lumpur.  But I still visit my parents back in Cameron Highlands during holidays.

Panda time: it comes from China, in another PF tag trade.

Also from China is that colorful Shanghai skyline, sent to me by an Instagram friend who’d been noticing my postcard posts, and put out a call to his friends who would like to see postcards while he was traveling in China & Taiwan.

Oh, there’s a story behind that orca card.  And by behind it, I mean regarding the back side.

I flipped the tag over to find a taped-on block of orca info printed out from Wikipedia.  C’mon.  After that, the sender jammed in a handwritten hi-how-are-you-hope-you-enjoy-this-card-take-care, and a scrawled hieroglyph of an initial.  I know the card came from Seattle, Washington, because it was clear in the postmark (clear postmarks never being a guarantee), but I didn’t know the venue (Postcrossing Forum?  swap-bot?), or the user name.  I had to spend some time going through my inbox looking for possible senders of this card, then trying to match those possibilities with locations in their profiles.  UGH!

I wish everyone using these sites would take greater care and PLEASE neatly print the following:

• The date (postmarks are not always clear–or present)
• Trade venue (Postcrossing Forum?  swap-bot?)
• Exact name of trade (many have similar names, and much trading is rapid)
• User name (c’mon)

End rant, let’s go to Manila, Philippines. This card was received via Postcard United, and the sender tells me about “the Philippine jeepney–a unique mode of transportation here in my country.”  They sound like an adventure!

Next, from Athens, Greece via a tag trade, comes the candy package, the contents of which are described by the sender as “ION Baloo, amazing butter candies.”  Onto the back of the card, she glued a panel from a box of tea I assume she also likes.  Scroll down & you’ll see it.

I got a colorful card & message from the Netherlands, in a regular Postcrossing incoming:

“I love the USA, I practically visit every year.  I’ve seen quite a lot of it…last visit was to San Francisco, what a beautiful city!  In daily life, I’m a nurse because I love to take care of people.  It was like a calling for me.”

Another Postcrossing card: it’s the cannon, & it’s from a real estate agent in Moscow, Russia.  He printed out his message & glued it to the card–I’m assuming it has to do with English skills.  This reminds me of another card I received recently, which I guess I’ll include in a later post (if I don’t lose it).

Last up, from somewhere in Minnesota via swap-bot, is that cereal.  The sender tells me, “for ‘diet’ food, it’s actually pretty good.”

Okay, time to look at all of the stamps, stickers, & stuff.  The Totoro on the 1st image looks like a stamp, but is just part of the postcard printing.  My favorite 3 stamps down here, in order of scrolling appearance, are the spoonbill (U.S.), the chicken (Singapore), and the flowers (Malaysia.  How about for you?

Mark as Logged: Received from England, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania, & the U.S.

This time around, I’m sharing some recently-arrived cards, as well as some much older ones that (as far as I know) I haven’t shared previously.  Keeping track is hard!

The “World Famous Brighton Rock” card came from a postal pal in Brighton, England today–and today I learned “Brighton Rock!”  I had to look that up online, because my friend was actually lamenting a familiar situation:

“As for Peanuts postcards, I’m no closer to finding any of them here, so I’ve had to cheat and make my own with stickers that I found in New York last month.  Quite a few of the Hallmark shops where I would normally buy Snoopy stuff from had either shut down or no longer stocked Peanuts merchandise, which was a bit disappointing, but didn’t ruin my vacation!”

Another postal pal, Cindi in Hawaii, knows exactly how to get Peanuts postcards: throw down for mail order from the Charles M. Schulz museum in California!  I love this new “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” Snoopy card.  Make sure you check in at the bottom of this post, for all of the wonderful stamps, stickers, & washi tape from the card’s back side.

The next card shows three guys I am always very, very, happy to see: The Three Caballeros.  It was sent to me from Seattle, Washington, at the end of 2015 for a Postcrossing Forum “request a Disney card” tag, and I haven’t marked it as logged in this space.  The sender drew a fun rubber ducky pic on the back, so be sure to scroll down for that.

Second set of cards begins with another card postmarked in December of 2015, from a Postcrosser in Hong Kong.  She wrote:

“This is a new shop that just opened near my apartment in Hong Kong, and they were giving out some nice postcards.  I hope you enjoyed some dim sum and egg tarts in Hong Kong.  Egg tarts are my favorite!  Also egg waffles.  So good!”

I did indeed enjoy some dim sum while in HK (don’t recall if egg tarts were part of it), and I was in fact looking to buy an egg waffle maker while I was in town!  That didn’t happen, but around the time I received this card, I received one as a gift!  Made some egg waffles just last week, in fact.

That scary, scary monkey card might just have to get sent off to someone else.  It came my way from the Netherlands in a Postcrossing Forum “ugly postcard” trade.  I think this, and 2 or 3 other cards from today’s entry, had been serving as bookmarks!  My poor book!

The snowy card next to the monkey is from a Postcrosser in Japan.  This only goes back to September of 2016.  The sender told me she lives in a small town in the mountains, and she doesn’t have any beach cards, so she decided to send me a snow card.

The last set starts with another snow card, this one recently received from Romania via Postcard United.  The sender tells me:

“I love to spend time in the countryside, where life seems not to have changed in ages.”

We’ve got a food package next, this from another Postcrossing Forum tag, and sent to me from someone in Raleigh, North Carolina, who writes:

“My husband loves lychee and I love mochi.  These were delicious.  Ever had them?  My parents tease me for loving mochi so much.  It’s called dduk in Korean.  They call me a dduk-bo which is essentially a person who loves dduk.  Rice cakes freeze pretty well.

I think it was the weekend before I received this card last month that I’d just been buying fresh mochi treats in San Jose’s Japantown, so this was very timely.

Final card is another from who-knows-how-long-ago, a Postcrossing incoming from Mexico.  There were, as you will see, Doraemon stickers on the back, and the sender explained:

“Here are a couple of Doraemon stickers I was given in Hong Kong at supermarket.  Very nice place and yummy food!  Anyways, this postcard is from my hometown, we have yummy food, too!”

Okay, that’s it for the fronts.  I’ll mark them as logged now, so you won’t have to be bothered with them again.  Now poke around the backsides–so many amazing finds down there this time!

Time to Put the Hobby to Work: Sent to My Elected Representatives–and a Detained Australian Author

We live in strange, mind-boggling times.  Can the things that are happening, truly be happening?  We need out of this bad dystopian tale–no more “waiting and seeing,” it’s time to speak up.  And the good news is, we of the postcard persuasion are in an elevated position to make our voices heard!

It’s also a great way to be rid of your most hideous postcards!

• We already have the materials at hand
• The short form ensures the message will be concise
• Written, mailed communication holds more weight (I’m told) than online petitions, emails, or signed form letters

I also learned that when writing your folks in Washington, it’s best not to send your cards to Washington.  The communication stands more of a chance of being registered when sent to your representatives’ local offices.  So I rounded up those addresses, and sent my Congresspeople the first of what I’m sure will be many messages.

On a related note (oh, an unintended pun), I recently sent a postcard to Mem Fox, the international children’s book star from Australia who was recently rudely detained by TSA agents at the Los Angeles Airport.  She had such an ugly experience, that she feels an aversion toward returning to these shores.

I felt Fox needed letters of support from those of us who value her work (and I’ve used it a lot), so I grabbed a postcard (fittingly enough, I guess, it was book-themed) and sent her a note of praise, encouragement, and apology-by-proxy.

I’ll let you guess which of those three is the book-related postcard.  Somehow, I didn’t keep an image of the messages from this trio, the other two of which went out in Postcrossing Forum draws, or something.  As an apology, I’ll show you some stamps & stuff:

So, now that I’ve done this for the first time, it should become easier & quicker for me to make important communications by way of my postcard stash.  Do you send postcards to power?  Tell me about it!

 

 

Stickers to My Postal Pals! Sent to Hawaii & Japan

Do you ever get mail from postal pals, and wonder how you can possibly match–let alone top–their creativity, generosity, and/or resourcefulness?  Welcome to my world.  I just have to resign myself to do my best.  I recently sent a little something to friends in Hawaii & Tokyo, who just happen to both be Peanuts lovers.

I remember the “Easter Beagle” TV special being one of my favorites as a kid.  I don’t remember why, but I think I have the DVD around someplace, so I can rediscover the reason.

Fortunately, cool Peanuts stickers do turn up occasionally in a drugstore, supermarket, or card shop, as these two varieties did at the same time about a week ago. Then I made a couple of envelopes; a page from a worn out Richard Scarry book went off to Hawaii…

…along with a postcard that just came into my life a day or so before. I have a bad habit of sending Hawaii-related stuff right back to Hawaii, including this Mama’s Fish House card someone at my workplace apparently didn’t want anymore.

For my Tokyo-bound packet, I fashioned an envelope out of a photo from last year’s Save the Manatee Club calendar.  This is at least the 3rd year I’ve been making sure to have one of these calendars hanging in my kitchen–and for all I know, they keep publishing the same shots every year!

A note on a Snoopy card–because no one at work dumped off any postcards for Tokyo restaurants.

Here are the backs of the envelopes, complete with washi tape & on one, a sticker.  The sticker came from the Marine Mammal Center (a wonderful California organization for which a family member has volunteered; to which I occasionally donate; and to which my Amazon Smile preference is currently designated).

A Burger Topped with Tuna Salad? Received from Germany, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, & the U.S.

I got some cool mail from my post pal in Tokyo, Japan!  And it seems that “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” has been on stage there recently–just look at the envelope she made!

I love that postcard on the right, Pig-Pen & Peppermint Patty dancing.  It doesn’t show from my scan, but that seems to be a photo of original art.  The piece at a bottom, which I’ll use as a bookmark, was her ticket into the Snoopy Museum Tokyo.  She took some photos to show me, but first, let’s take a look at the back of her envelope.

Okay, the photos inside the museum–and of her lunch.  Those statues are so cool!

She told me about her visit (her 2nd time there):

“The theme was ‘Hello Snoopy, Again’ in this season (until April).  Snoopy is good at disguise, so there were many kind of Snoopy art as a vulture, penguin, helicopter, and so on.”

I love the old strips of Snoopy doing imitations. My favorites are when he copies Violet, Lucy, and even Mickey Mouse!

She told me the statue pictured is one of five in front of the museum, and she also told me the food was tasty, but she didn’t tell me what it was.  I asked her, and am still waiting to hear back.  I recognize the fries, & they look good.  Is that a burger topped with tuna salad?  Are those l’il corn dogs?

More postcards, more food!  Especially loving the two cards from Taiwan.  The delicious bowl of noodles came my way in a Postcrossing Forum “Taiwan meets the world” tag,” and the sender wants to talk movies:

“Last week I watched ‘Arrival.’  It’s interesting, really want to know my future, but impossible.”

The card covered in food illustrations had been in my Postcrossing Favorites, and was sent to me in a forum tag just for favorites.  The sender writes:

“Greetings from Taiwan.  This card shows some of the most representative of Taiwanese foods.  Lucky that you live in California, there are so many Taiwanese immigrants (I was one of them) that offers authentic Taiwanese foods in Cali!  Give it a try! =D”

As I write this, it has been 2 days since my last stop into a Taiwanese food establishment!

The sushi card came to me from Georgsmarienhütte, Germany, via Postcrossing. The sender writes:

“I live with my wife in a small town (35,000 people).  We are both retired and enjoy traveling.  We prefer the sea, mountain hiking, and cycling along rivers.  One of our hobbies is playing pétanque, you know?  Now we are waiting for a nice springtime.”

I learned something!  Pétanque was a mystery to me, and when the description started out by saying it was a form of “boules,” I was more confused, still!  The most helpful description I saw pretty much called it horseshoes, but with balls.

Time for the last set of cards, starting with that lovely lighthouse photo taken by a Postcrosser in Taichung, Taiwan.  This was for a “photo you have taken yourself” forum tag, and the photographer tells me:

“I took the photo in Green Island, a volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean about 33 km off the eastern coast of Taiwan.  I love the beautiful place very much.”

The drawing of the two people came to me from Karelia, Russia, via Postcard United.  The sender tells me the illustration is “of the Siberian fairy tales,” but I’m sad to say that she didn’t tell me which one(s).  If you know something, please say something.

Finally, there’s the San Diego postcard, sent to me thanks to a Postcrossing Forum “last trip/vacation tag.”  Flipping it over:

“Greetings from Arizona! I just got back from a road trip to San Diego. It was a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed the tour of the Midway.  Tons of things to see and explore!”

Time for all of the stamps, postmarks, stickers, & washi tape!  As usual, I’m especially enjoying the beautiful Taiwanese fruit stamps.  I had never seen the stamps on the back of the San Diego card before, and I mentioned it to the sender.  She said that during her trip, she found a stamp dealer who was selling old U.S. postage at below-marked price.  Cool!

The fish tape is pretty awesome.

Is My Postman Trolling Me?!?

This is no postcard; it’s a BOOMERANG.

This postcard is not addressed to me, but my mailman seems to think I should keep it.  I’m really frustrated, after what happened today.  Let’s update the timeline:

February 28: I received a card meant for the same house number, 2 streets over

March 2: I dropped it into a post office mailbox

March 4: The card found me a 2nd time

March 5: I dropped it into a mail box in front of another post office

March 8: I’ve received the same card, for the 3rd time!

March 9: I dropped the card into a mailbox in a different county.

March 15: The card was delivered to me, for the 4th time.

March 16: I attached the card to the outside of my home mail slot

March 16: I came home to find the postman had STUCK IT RIGHT BACK IN.  5th delivery.

This last bit doesn’t even make sense.  Does the postman not know what street he’s on?  How does ANY of my mail make it to me?  How does any of these other people’s mail find them?  I mean, assuming it does…

I’m going to try to find time tomorrow to take this to the local post office & have a conversation with the clerk.

 

Let’s Start Out Nice, Get to the Sad Meat of the Issue, & End with Beautifully Busy Backsides

Yes, I’ve got a little something to whine about, but I’ll put it off for a moment!  This first trio of postcards is awesome.  I love the retro Goofy cartoon cartoon poster, which came to me from Germany in a swap-bot trade of Disney cards.  The sender told me her favorite Disney character is Belle, and asked who mine is.  Such a pantheon, it’s hard to choose, but I do love Chip & Dale, and Donald, and I have a soft spot for obscure characters–such as Grandma Duck & Li’l Bad Wolf!  OH, and April, May, & June!  OHH, and Morty & Ferdie!

Who’s driving the Peanuts bus?  It came all the way from Hawaii, thanks to “Good ol’ Cindi!” Keep on scrolling down to see the beautiful decorating she did on the back side of the card!

The Little Mermaid card is the product of another swap-bot Disney card trade, and it came to me from a swapper somewhere in Texas who tells me:

“I also love comics.  My husband and I both love the New Archie and I am super into Harley Quinn.”

Okay, let’s take a short break to enjoy something less pleasant.  Another swap-bot trade coming in is one of “free/ad food cards.”  A swapper in Colorado sent me a promo card from a restaurant in Texas she likes. The challenge was that it wasn’t designed to be used for correspondence: it’s printed all over.  She found the solution: to add a sticker to make my address legible.  I’m sad to report she didn’t use the same solution in her message to me; she used red ink, even over reddish brown print, and between that & some creative spelling, I had a REALLY tough time making out the message!   I had to go near a bright light & wag the card from side to side to read the reflection of the words.

Cool robot sticker, though.

Oh, and someone else this time wrote part of her message in green ink.  Honestly: not all of us can read whatever people write, not matter how they write it. #writeinblackinkplease

Let’s move on!  The statue came to me from Hong Kong, in a “Hong Kong to the World” Postcrossing Forum tag, and you’ll see the back below, very decorated in plenty of beautiful stamps, washi tape, & more.

A swap-bot “upcycled cardboard trade” is what brought me that panel from a box of chocolate-ish.  I saw it was rum & raisin, & went “oof” a little inside.  The sender, who is in Canada, writes:

I had this box of chocolates for months before actually trying it.  I put it off because I hate rum & raisin flavour…so obviously I didn’t like this chocolate.  Just remembering the taste makes my stomach turn.  It lives a better life as a postcard now.

You see this group contains the front of the card we discussed earlier.  On to the next set!  I love this “Taiwan Bravo!” card.  Apparently I’d favorited it, because it came to me in a Postcrossing Forum thread in which we are to send the person we tag a postcard from their favorites.  The sender tells me, “I’m a social worker.  Work for poor children.  =)”

I had a really tough time finding out who sent me that Studio Ghibli card at right, so that I could acknowledge its receipt.  The sender did write the tag name, but no name, user name, or date.  Really, there’s a lot of identifying stuff that needs to be written on cards in the trade site game.  Often it’s good to write the important ones twice, as insurance against inky cancellations & machine tears.  I’d entered the particular trade multiple times lately, so used the fact that this card bears stamps from Taiwan to guess at who the sender is.  I sent her a conditional “thank you.” By the way, she wrote: “Ghibli is a nice cartoon.  There are many warm story.”

Last in that set is another from a swap-bot Disney swap.  Those bugs are from The Princess and the Frog, and was sent to me from a swapper in Green Cove Springs, Florida.  She wrote:

I am an avid Disney fan.  I love visiting Walt Disney World whenever I can.  In two weeks I’ll be renewing my annual pass for another year.  I hope you have a magical day!

She used some cool old stamps on her card–and a sticker of Stitch, too.

Last pair of cards: the “CCTV New Headquarter in CBD” was sent to me by a high schooler in Changchun, China. He didn’t note the tag trade thread, but he did write his user name, so that helped me find & thank him.  He wrote:

“Changchun is a city located in northeastern China.  My hometown is famous for winter sightseeing and automobile industry–a city of cars, like Detroit in U.S.  Welcome to China!”

He uses an extremely neat block print.  I should take such care when writing my postcards to be read around the world!

Last card! It’s thanks to Postcard United, and it’s from Budapest, Hungary.  The sender wrote:

The Hungarian Parliament building is the 3th most biggest parliament building in the world.  It is very interesting, because Hungary is a little country.

So much beauty in the backsides: stamps, stickers, washi tape.  Enjoy!

Taiwan’s stamps are so beautiful & colorful.

I really, really like my country’s shorebirds postcard stamps.  I’d love for them to be a permanent offering!

Here’s the Mail, it Sometimes Fails…

Ah, you again.  I am haunted by this piece of mail that is not mine.

A revised timeline of our ongoing saga:

February 28: I received a card meant for the same house number, 2 streets over

March 2: I dropped it into a post office mailbox

March 4: The card found me a 2nd time

March 5: I dropped it into a mail box in front of another post office

March 8: I’ve received the same card, for the 3rd time!

Tomorrow I plan on dropping it into yet another mailbox, on the opposite side of the San Francisco Bay.  Do you think the card will come back to me?  This could be the series of incidents that finally has me filing a formal report with my local post office.

Seven in One Blow! Sent to Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, & Russia

What a day, yesterday–I started with a card to a post pal, went off & mailed that, then came home in the evening to a Postcrossing Forum inbox full of addresses for trades I’d entered!  That’s seven outgoing cards, all in one day.  Here we go.

The first two cards are from a Monterey Bay Aquarium postcard book, and the first creature is a Purple-Striped Jelly.  It’s off to Hamburg, Germany, in a Marine Life & Sea Creatures tag.

The Black Tip Reef Shark goes to someone in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, who stated a preference for sea creatures cards.  I didn’t realize it until I was addressing the card, but he is the same person who sent the two very-fully written cards I received last week!

I signed up in a “food & drinks” tag, for which I am sending one of my restaurant wall postcards off to Volgograd, Russia.

I recently got a bunch of new San Francisco postcards–not from SF, of course.  If you can find touristy postcards around the Bay Area, it is safe to say that whatever the city, they carry more SF cards than those depicting their own city.  And do you notice what’s so beautiful about this SF card?  It barely shows Frisco at all!  Just looking off across the Bay to the Marin Headlands.  This one is off to Changchun, Jilin, China.

A Postcrosser in Gloucester, Ontario, Canada, selected the Fairyland post office from among my available cards I had posted for a  “you can choose” tag.

Vote for Franklin! That’s the first of these cards I prepped & sent, and it went to my Peanuts-loving postal pal in Tokyo, Japan.

Finally comes the panel from a box of Nesquik Cereal (YUCK), off on its way to Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.  It’s off in a food package postcard tag, and yes, it’s better off as a postcard than as a package for part of an awful breakfast.

Time to turn everything over, & enjoy the stamps, stamps, stickers, & washi tape!  I’m loving my new fish stickers (purchased in the same stationary store where I found the SF postcards).  I like them so much, I’m afraid they will be gone quite soon!

A Post So Action-Packed, it’s Got BULLET-POINTS! Received from Canada, Germany, Macau, Malaysia, & Taiwan

So much going on, I’ll hype in in bullet points right here at the top!

• Snoopy!
• Hamilton!
• Another Postcard United Quirk: In & Outta Macau
• A Very Special Postmark, & an IDGAF Hand Cancellation!

Okay, let’s get down to it…

First group of cards: STAR POWER!  This cool shaped Snoopy & Woodstock card came to me from Taiwan, thanks to a Postcrossing Forum Snoopy/Peanuts tag.  The back was cool, too, as you’ll see toward the bottom of this post.

From NYC: the “Ham Across America” card is a thank-you for making a donation to the Planned Parenthood Foundation of America as a special contest/fundraising promotion Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was promoting.  His mother is on the national board of directors of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.  No, I did not win anything, but I was really looking forward to receiving this postcard–and I already have my tickets for Hamilton’s SF run.

Second set of cards: FOOD!  That lovely illustrated recipe came to me from Malaysia in another Postcrossing Forum tag.  The sender writes:

I’ve been to SG, TW, Thailand, Indo but I realized I haven’t tried all the delicious cuisine in Malaysia.  Malaysia is a multiracial country and also a gourmet heaven.  Hope you can come and try it next time.

His country holds the very top slot on my “want to visit” list.

Spoons!  They’re from Lithuania, thanks to Postcard United, and the sender wries:

I live in the capital city with my family & dog & rabbit.  I love animals a lot.  They always make me smile!  Traveling is my passion.  I haven’t been to US yet, but hopefully I’ll get a chance one day!

The next card is from Nagoya City, Japan, also via Postcard United, and the sender tells me, “I love these Japanese sweets, wagashi.”

Third set of cards: NATURE!  I love this depiction of Malaysian foliage.  It’s yet another Postcrossing Forum tag (can you tell I love those things?), from the same sender as the food card above.  This time, he writes:

Have you ever heard about Terengganu?  It’s one of the states of Malaysia and famous with islands, beaches, and other unmatched beauty.  As a local, normally I went for off-road cycling/jungle trekking/hiking with my friends during the weekend.  There are lots of interesting looking plants inside the wood including the Pitcher plant from the postcard.  The local named it “Periuk Kera,” means monkey pot because they think monkeys drink and eat from the “pot.”  Though playing in the wild was fun, there’s still some rules and taboo you must know before going to the forest and mountain.  It might sound superstitious, but there’s a lot of strange and explainable things that me and my friends encounter before.  But not enough space to write here.

Ugh!  Just when it was getting to the good part!  Well, I hope he tags me again soon.  You know what, though?  Look at that message above.  Such a long, content-filled note!  So much, in a tight, pretty neat, hand.  This is what I just love to see on a postcard.  Cool texture on the card, too–it even shows up in the scan.

Remains from sea creatures, arranged neatly in the sand…it’s a regular Postcrossing draw from Germany, and I like the way the card’s sender closes her message:

“…let us all hope for peace on earth!!”

Now, I’m no fan of excessive exclamation points, but it’s definitely a good time for us all to hope for peace on earth!!

Those leaves are from A Bug’s Life, and the sender is Melissa, who was writing specifically to try to get me the special Canada Post cancellation from Saint-Valentin, Quebec.  It worked, as you’ll see if you scroll down.  They kinda cancelled out her message, rather than the stamps, but the red ink wouldn’t have shown up well on the red stamps, anyhow.  Scroll on down, and you’ll see the postal worker’s inelegant solution to make sure the stamps couldn’t be reused!

Fourth & final group of cards: MANMADE STUFF!  Taipei 101 is from a Facebook friend in Canada who’s noticed my postcard postings in social media.  He recently took a trip to Taiwan & China, and put out a notice to his contacts to let him know if they’d like him to send them postcards along the way.  Why, yes, please!

Oh, the Macau card!  I mentioned this situation recently! One day, I clicked on Postcard United’s “send a postcard” link, and was assigned a recipient in Macau–and the very next day, I received a card from that same person!  As I said in my other post, this is not the first time this has happened with old P.U.  Do you have any similar experiences?

The sender of the card is also the card’s artist.  She writes:

I love painting & take photo.  My dream is to send my art works all over the world.

I don’t remember if I noticed at the time I received this card that the sender was also the artist.  Horrible memory, so there’s another reason it’s good I do this bloggy thing with my cards.

The last card is the one with those interesting beach chairs.  It’s a swap-bot trade from Berlin, Germany, and the sender tells me:

This is how a German beach looks like usually.  At least at the Baltic Sea.  And I love how colorful it is.

Time to look at the backs of the cards, with all the stuff I mentioned earlier, & more…

Cool postmark AND stamps!

I love the tasty Japanese food stickers.