Matchy Matchy

A postcard I loved from the moment I received it, from Russia, of the Spasskaya chapel in Cherdyn, near the Ural mountains. 

Apparently there are a lot of beautiful churches in the area. I'm drawn to spiritual places, they have a non-wordly atmosphere about them, a hint and touch of something sacred, of something other than the material world we live in, and I will go into any religious place of worship just to feel its sense.

One of the stamps matches the postcard. Thank you Tanya for being so thoughtful in the matching, both stamps are large, and beautiful :).

Crabs on Christmas Island

The perfect postmark, from Christmas Island.  Although Christmas Island is an Australian Territory and is off the coast of my home state and the postmark includes my state's initials (WA), it is seriously very far away, and much closer to Indonesia. 

There are only 2 postcrossers from this small island so I was pretty stoked when I received a postcard from one of them :).  Both of them have sent about the same number of postcards, around about 260.

The Queen's Wave

Having a bit of fun with a stamp of the Queen on an envelope. Sending it off to my English penpal who's living in Greece. Surely he must be missing her!

Something Devilish

Postcard art for Denise in Germany. In her postcrossing profile she likes anything morbid, gothic, anything strange, things like cemeteries and skulls, black and white, and sinister. I hope she likes my card, I included some R.I.P's especially for her, and something devilish 😄.

Such Tiny Printing!

Stamps from a postcard received from Nadia, Italy.

This first one is interesting, it is one of 8 in the series "Piazza d'Italia" and depicts the Piazza Della Repubblika Roma, meaning the Republic Square in Rome. All other stamps in the series are also of public squares.

The blue B refers to the tariff, or the code of the postage. Since July 2016 Italian postage stamps no longer have a written value in cents or euros. Instead, the stamp only shows a combination of letters and numbers. In this case and in the Donald Duck stamp below, the value is B. (Other values can be A Zona 1, B Zona 2 50g etc.) 

But what really intrigued me is that blue vertical column on the side of the stamp which just looks like a pattern, but is actually repeated micro-writing saying "Ministero Dello Sviluppo Economico", or in English - Ministry of Economic Development. It is so fine, but if I wear 2 pairs of reading glasses, one on top of the other, and shine a bright torch on the stamps, I can just make it out 😄. How can a printer make such tiny lettering? 

The other stamp I've also seen micro-writing on is a Canadian stamp (pen cancelled).

The stamp is of the Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, and has the name of the trail microprinted along the horizon.

I daresay I'll keep a lookout for more micro-printing, I find it quite fascinating.

Koala Bear? No, just a koala.

Loving this koala postcard from Australia Post ❤️. It's going to Jim in Canada, for his 103rd birthday.

 Postcrossing is asking if anyone wants to send him some birthday greetings so if you want, you can find his address in the forum. Hope he'll get lots of love from all over the world 🤗, I imagine he'll be thrilled!! 

Red Riches In The Mail

Made my first envelope showcasing Western Australian bright wildflowers. I ended up making an envelope template myself; folded A5 paper fit perfectly inside it. I hope Marina likes it ❤️.

Silo Art

A series of stamps issued in 2018 features photographs of 4 painted silos in Australia, revitalising small, drought-stricken rural communities. An art trail in the Wimmera Mallee region, Victoria, takes you on a journey through their 8 painted silos and takes about 2 hours to complete.

"These artworks are more than just a beautiful addition to the local landscape, for many towns and communities it's a lifeline. Many regional towns across Australia are struggling due to loss of business infrastructure, drought, bushfires, and now covid19. Towns that have decided to join the trail are now seeing an increase in tourism, which boosts community incomes and community spirit."

Each silo art depicts typical rural life and community in Australia. I've driven past the ones in Ravensthorpe twice, the scale of them is pretty amazing. All of them are incredible.

I've shown other beautiful and impressive silo art below not chosen on the stamps, simply for your enjoyment ❤️.

While On Holidays

I sent two replies to Miranda, one while I was on holidays, and one once I got back home in reply to her question about how covid19 was going where I live. I hope she likes my envelope art, it was fun drawing them :).

Day Of The Dead

I've been on holidays for 2 weeks so I have a bit of catching up to do. The morning we left, this spooky letter was sitting in the letterbox, the first pen-pal letter I've received in years!! So exciting!

It's from Miranda, a new pen-pal in Canada. Miranda apologised for all the black glitter on the card.  I've scratched it off as I didn't want it spreading around the hired campervan any more than it already had :D. 

It's interesting that there are 2 kinds of postmarks, but neither of them managed to get near the stamp so it was pen cancelled.