Favorite planes: Tupolev OKB

     Even though I love ships more than planes [especially ice breakers, submarines and aircraft carriers], some planes are special. There were jet fighters in this blog already of mixed countries [part 1 and part 2], now there are couple of planes from Tupolev Design Bureau, now known as Aerospace and defence company: the infamous supersonic Tu-144, 'rip-off' of Concorde, and 'Bear' Tu-95 [also sort of a copy of famous Boeing B-29 Superfortress]. Tu-95 is very loud, but sort of cute, and I think Russian Air force use it to 'mark' their presence near NATO bases.

both received from dolennarven, Russia (direct swap)

Weird postcards: Strawberries

     I love strawberries way more than I care to admit [but hate the artificial flavouring of strawberry], so couple of the weird ones found me on postcrossing. First one was received under the barbarian profile, where most of the weird stuff comes from, it is a Michael Sowa's illustration 'Aardbei' [=strawberry]. Second one is from Mintfairy under the Happy RR.

right - RU-3582045, from LollipopsGirl, Russia; received from Mintfairy, Austria (HappyRR#243)

Unusual materials: Shattered dreams

     To be fair the sending by post is not the best choice of handling the fragile things, even when they are designed to survive post. This one is a wonderful DIY plane made from the light and thin wood, packed in a form of a postcard. But the travel by post in the envelope was not too kind to it. The thin wooden postcard shattered a bit in the narrow joints, so it is not possible to use it to initial purpose - make a plane from it.

front side (left) and back side (right) of US-4092385, from Jacqueline25, USA

front side (left) and back side (right) of an envelope of US-4092385, from Jacqueline25, USA

     And another case of shattered postcard is the wonderful handmade from spaghetti. Though, even broken a bit it looks like it was intended, and the window to the Universe supports the idea.

received from lisaalisa_13, Russia (direct swap)

Rare countries: Military Women of Vietnam

     Vietnam is one of the rare countries, even though there are 91 million people there, only 123 postcrossers [as of 11.11.2016] -- compare to Germany: 81 million people and 46,373 postcrossers, and active postcrossers in Vietnam, who logged in within last month, are about 20 of them.

     The top postcrosser in Vietnam is Jo, russianruby [she apparently worked in Russia and Kazakhstan, before her nickname was JoinHanoi], she's also quite active in the official forum, and my second Vietnamese postcard is from her [first Vietnamese postcard is here], not only rare county, but also nice topic -- military women -- and nice stamps -- communist Vietnam.

left - received from JoinHanoi, Vietnam (StampsRR#43); right - FI-1496745, from lukarei, Finland

     As to counterpart the Vietnamese postcard -- Finnish postcard about Tibet. It's interesting how the countries, West feels itself responsible to help, are picturing themselves -- as proud and independent warriors. I can imagine the first postcard being printed in Finland -- crying women with guns, aftermath, same uniform but dirty and ruined, some 'Tears on the roof of the world' text... And I can imagine the kid on the second postcard being clean and neat, advertising Free Tibet Movement or something. It is all just a point of view.

stamps, received from JoinHanoi, Vietnam (StampsRR#43)

Erotic postcards, part #15: Erm... Butterfly

     This erotic artsy postcard is probably the most risque, I've ever received [still fingers crossed for receiving really nasty ones from Netherlands, I saw genitalia postcards sold everywhere in Amsterdam, but who would have bought it for official postcrossing - noone, probably]. The photo collage is called BUTTER PUSSY FLY by artist, I can't find by googling, sadly.

     It is interesting, that the backside is decorated in the style I frequently use for my backsides, also from my childhood, with nice butterfly and ink stains.

front side (left) and back side (right), received from vegerle, Russia (direct swap)

     P.S. With the help of beesknees, the author of Butter Pussy Fly is David Choe [davidchoe.com], 2009. Another postcard with his work here.

Herbarium: More of this year [violets and chestnut]

     In the summer 2016 the handmades I did with dried flowers were a little bit different from previous years. I made full herbariums with written Latin names of all the plants from common grass canopy. Several postcards were with wild violets, by my opinion, one oа the cutest field flowers; and I used more creative backgrounds this time, which made the postcards look more neat.

two similar to RU-4742948, sent to lemonyellow, Germany (left) and severyanka, Russia (right)

     Another two are with almost non transparent background. One is made like a little window, but the technique of cutting out the perfectly round shape from the middle should be improved, because I did it with slight misalignment [hence the black frame]. Another one has little chestnut flowers aligned with leaves print and owls are left untouched. This one again not perfect on my taste, because flower became less visible and look like just a drawing rather than real flowers.

left - RU-4779041, sent to franhunne, Germany; right - sent to MsBear, Belarus, as thank-you for BY-1915578, battlekitten

Notable received redheads [part #4 - Pippi Longstocking]

[Notable received redheads - part#1, part#2, part#3]

     One of the favorite heroes from children books - Pippi Longstocking [in Russian version to make her name sound better she's 'Peppy'] by Swedish writer, Astrid Lindgren, she's very famous here and in Germany. My favorite character by her is Emil i Lönneberga, mischievous kid from little town in Småland.

left - received from anra, Germany (direct swap); right - received from elvigo, Russia (direct swap, well, technically, the win in the lottery in the Favorites)

Dutch dolmens

     The Dolmen - the megalithic tombs - are present in many countries, but, I guess, you mostly know only your own country ones and consider them unique. Russian dolmens are on the south mostly in the North West Caucasus mountains [here is the postcard with one of them: RU-4781604], and I thought Continental Europe doesn't have these. But, apparently, Dutch Drenthe [and many-many other places] also have dolmens [no separate wikipedia page in English though...]. In Dutch dolmens are called hunebed, and ones depicted on the postcard are in Borger, D27 [also in this town there are D28 and D29, the museum site, on the back of the postcard there is text 'Drenthe, Hunebed Boerger'].

NL-3476518, from LexTervelde, Netherlands

U.S.S. Cairo [perks of instant memory]

     I think USA has one of the nicest old military postcards I've seen, they are usually smaller size with cute and accurate text on the back [like this Mercury one, for instance]. The ship is  one of the first American ironclad warships, built in the time of the U.S. Civil War. The ship rests in the museum in Viсksburg National Military Park.

     The back side of this postcard is quite attractive on its own: three different stamps, both American and Russian automatic sorting machines bar codes, the special cancellation stamp from the Military park, nice remarks from the sender and piece of the family trip story ^^

     The text description on the back says: 'U.S.S. Cairo Sunk on December 12, 1862 by an electrically detonated [this part is under question from sender's husband, but distant detonation would be one of first ever historically documented events of this kind] mine in the Yazoo River approximately 10 miles north of Vicksburg. Now on display in Vicksburg National Military Park'.

front (left) and back side (right), US-4286611, from Corazon, USA

     P.S. U.S.S. means 'United States Ship', but first I heard this abbreviation from Star Trek, of course. But there in 23th century Universe there is no United States anymore, but United Earth [the franchise even has Chekov as more or less adequate and not too much stereotypical Russian], why U.S.S. then? The Star Trek wiki says, that it means either 'United Space Ship' or 'United Star Ship'. 

The address in Icelandian style

     I come across interesting postal address post on dirty.ru [source]: in the 'to whom' field it says 'Horse farm of Icelandic-Danish couple with three kids and bunch of sheeps' and instead of address just a drawing of the map. the post was delivered despite no name and no address. Frankly, Russian post also can do that, sometimes it delivered me the tricky post with not full address, just by default of me being one of not many postcrossers in the district, I guess.

     I know that some countries instead of real address', they use somewhat 'description' of the place. For Ireland it's name of cottage or building rather than street name + number, like for most countries, for example.

left - the envelope with drawn address; right - the satellite image of the house in question

     P.S. Not related, but worth sharing: couple of trees in Germany have real postal address and you can send there [Bridegroom's Oak: Bräutigamseiche, Dodauer Forst, 23701 Eutin].

#barbarian: Oil pump and zombies for Halloween

     Two fantastic postcards dedicated to Halloween: both postcards received last year, but better later, than never! [this year brought a lot of Halloween postcards as well, so, mmm, in a year, maybe? xD]

     The 'anything industrial and construction related' theme doesn't come to my mailbox often, but every time it is a treasure. I've wanted to receive something form the Texas oil fields, and it came through official barbarian profile from Lubbock, Texas with nice pumpjack at the sunset. Moreover, the back side had a pumpkin and a zombie drawings!

front side (left) and back side drawings (right), US-3630686, from alymaykra, USA

     The second Halloween postcard came from dearest penpal, hedgehod_neff, from Germany: cutest microbes/monsters, mummy-zombie, a bat and a dragon - quite a catch!

front side (left) and back side (right), received from hedgehog_neff, Germany (direct swap)

Handmade: Food package box

<AAAAAnd I'm back with posting after changing the postal address and unfortunate death of google picasa, shame on you, google!>

     When you see something like 'If you are sending from outside of the USA, I would love to receive a PC you've made from a food package box. I find them interesting!' in the profile - it is where the fun starts! Usually I use the boxes of kid's chocolate '+1', it has nice cow on it [to be fair the chocolate is very cool itself too - striped brown and white cubes, which add +1, +2 or +3 to health, agility, strength, intelligence or happiness]. This type of 'postcards' considered to be eco-friendly, because you recycle the food carton boxes, so it's less of a handmade, but still fun.

front side (left) and back side (right), RU-4955858, sent to gbnaabennett, USA

     The second eco-friendly postcard I received is from azuregoza - the box of hamster food, 'pimped' with washi tape and sticker 'Life is beautiful'. And one more postcard from the food box is a cake one, I wrote about before.

received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap)

Canada as how my friends see it [from Irina and Deni]

     I think that I received postcards, more or less from all and every friend, since I've been doing postcrossing. Irina and Deni are Russian/French Canadian couple, living in Quebec, visiting Moscow every year in winter -- winters here are milder apparently [well, before all political events and visa requirements becoming stricter in Russia]. So three postcards are like scaling down -- province Quebec, then Quebec's capital, Montreal, then their hometown Sherbrooke.

all received from Ira&Deni, Canada (direct swap)

     And the last postcard is with a little bit of Quebec's words, in French, about food [my favorite part of learning any language].

received from Ira&Deni, Canada (direct swap, sort of, Irina just brought it for me)

#antropology: Early arts and crafts

     The left postcard shows a symbolically-rendered modern picture inspired of Perm bronze metal plastics of III - IV century, animal style picture by Elizaveta Talavira shows 'parents and kids standing on the lizard under the sky of elk heads', 2007.

     The right postcard shows cave drawings from Khakassia. The backside says: "The Evil and Good Beast of the fantastical appearance. In the traits of the most predatory and sickening creatures of the Earth are combined. Above the animal - a soft and pleasing human face. The both images symbolize two antagonistic forces of the World - those of the Darkness and Evil, the Light and Good."

left - RU-4831227, from FoxM, Russia; right - RU-4784019, from Na_talie, Russia (also long time pen pal from LJ community)

     The stamp which fits the theme, one of my favorite, is the stamp, issued in 2006, -- '250 years anniversary of voluntary affiliation of Altai people to Russian Empire'. On the stamp the image of griffon from one of the tattoos of Siberian Ice Maiden, Princess of Ukok.

left - part of back side, sent to Rina_bis, Russia (direct swap); left - the stamp itself

Weird postcard: Vision for the future

     The blend of illustration in style similar to Ivan Bilibin with futuristic rockets and domes is on the first postcard [googling Slavic art brought me on some odd website which had a list of 'Slavic' artists and painters]. Second postcard is sort of alternative future, 'New Union' (USSR), called Victory-city, = 'Pobedograd', 2012 [in some sense similar to Alternative Universe ones here], text on postcard says 'We come to the Victory of Communistic Labour!'. The concept of communist successful alternative future is a huge art movement here, I really like the art contests - USSR 2061.

left - received from zabava_zanoza, Russia (direct swap or Favorites 249, we are having big swap, so I lost the track xD); right - received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap)

     Second time when I receive the fruit stickers on postcard [first was special one for it from Keri Smith 'Everything is Connected'] - now from zabava_zanoza, and she writes that she collects them - what a nice thing to collect [looking from the point of compactness xD].

back side, received from zabava_zanoza, Russia (direct swap)

Czech and French "Bones Structures"

     If you have a wish for macabre postcard, these two are doubtless must have. First is from Catacombs of Paris, and second one is from Sedlec Ossuary. The Catacombs postcard shows bones from the battles of the Revolution, as far as I can read the tomb stone, it is from the storming the Tuileries Palace on August, 10th 1792. If the creation of the Catacombs of Paris was dire necessity of utilizing the cemeteries within the city limits, Czech Roman Catholic Church in Kutná Hora with its artistically arranged bones is more controversial [also utilizing the popular cemetery, but making the bones a decoration material to that extent is too much].

left - received from post_de_post, from Israel, but French postcard (Happy Birthday RR); right - CZ-606603, from PetraJelinkova16, Czech Republic

Breeds of cats: Arsehole

     I don't particularly like the 'multiples' postcards [like Nouvelles Images publishes, for example, or Russian style: RU-4677775 or RU-4831493] with only one exception: cats! the first one can be favorited here: GB-610260, and second one here: RU-3997346.

     All these postcards remind me of funnies, I saw: when dog breeds are all marked properly, and cat breeds just have a word 'cunt' or 'asshole' under each picture of cat. Through postcrossing I came to a realization that my favorite breed of cats are internet cats xD

left - received from zabava_zanoza, Russia (Favorites 239); right - received from feltra, Russia (direct swap)

Belarusian and Taiwanese 'Voice of Freedom'

     It's interesting, that around the world lately supposingly 'peaceful' and 'civil rights' organizations are founding movements, which become bloody revolutions and civil wars. Many countries have these ticking-bomb organizations, here are two examples of political ads from Belarus and Taiwan.

     Danish Institute of Human Rights sponsored a postcard about the Right of Freedom of assembly [also postcard has a link to an opposition website - http://spring96.org, not linking it, sorry, postcrossing is beyond politics, even though I rant about it sometimes xD]. Interesting, how the sender changed the postcard with stickers, thus dumbing down with irony the serious message behind it. The mouth says 'Devoooour!', the Eye says 'Sleeeep!', the Ear says '...'.

     The Taiwanese postcard images the protesting against forced evictions [the text means 'forbid tearing down'], which to be honest is done with style! the question is what do turkeys do there?

left - BY-1820987, from ororo_geometry, Belarus; right - TW-1975678, from ZoTW, Taiwan

     Belorussian postcard also has a cutest drawing of an axe on the backside with 'Raskolnikov mode on'. And a stamp of 'Belorussian' fauna - Siberian tiger, funny, how in some aspects Belarus considers Russia as joined territory.

the back side drawing of an axe (left) and a stamp on the envelope (right) of BY-1820987, from ororo_geometry