Bits of fauna [post received 2024.02.08 - part#14]

     While animals are not on my exact wishlists, every pile I get contains some [but comparing with previous series of one-day-pack - there were some 'cheerleader effect' postcards, and current pile is almost flawless in that sense] - and starting from first one, they are quite special. First one is illustration 'Madame' (2017) by Franziska Fischer, ffuesch, of the cat she knew. On the back she shared one of postcrossing 'conspiracy' theories - that postcrossing gives away address multiple times at once, and even people who send singular cards and keeping their balance tight, sometimes receive 5 or 6 cards in one day [that's completely true - for me that effect always triggered positive feedback when I sent in bulk and received in bulk], of course it's more seen in the international cards.

left - received from ffuesch, Germany (direct swap); center - received from firna, Russia (direct swap); right - DE-13825616, from Silumi, Germany

     Second one is Sergei Anisimov's postcard 'Awaiting for gifts [meaning edibles, polar bears like all the human foods, one of the rules in the Arctic is not to feed them]' [www.anisimov-photo.com, his postcards are now also officially sold by Russian Geographical Society], firna writes that one of her fears is to encounter bear/polar bear in the expedition [being a palaeogeographer she sometimes camps with her colleagues in the middle of nowhere], and she certainly doesn't want to become an 'edible gift'. The funny donkey one is rather boring with printed text on the back, but with nice astronomical stamp with pretty cancellation of '100 Stadt Thale' [which is rather strange because it was in 2022, and sender is actually from Halle (Saale)]. Last postcard is from Dashushty's envelope from surprise group, it's from photo exhibition 'Normcorr' and says Viktor Zabuga 'Passenger without ticket' on the back.

left - received from Dashushty, Russia (Russian Many Themes RR#870); right - backside of postcard, received from ffuesch, Germany (direct swap)

Dark and weird [post received 2024.02.08 - part#13]

     Different definitions of weird in these three official postcards [all from Germany, I never understood complaints about German/US postcards being boring - big active countries means all sort of 'extra' topics on postcards besides the boring touristic views] - and you should probably check the images of official site, because my scanner didn't give them any favours. By how it looks like you can guess that first postcard was with metallic cover which reflects light during scanning, so the image you can see on official site and on my scan, I leave it like that intentionally, you can see the surface of postcard, which traveled openly - all the scratches! The postcard is from autumn/winter collection in the etsy mydearlove.shop, sender mentions interesting desired superpower 'ability to 'freeze' people and situations so that one can observe them in peace'. Second one shows illustration 'Ruins of Gold' by Björn Gooßes, sender writes that it causes them both disgust and fascination, and also seems a bit strange [interesting that postcard has a 'decoration' like blood splatter on the backside top right corner].

left - DE-13825573, from KiwiMS, Germany; center - DE-13825551, from alexina, Germany; right - DE-13825534, from Natalie_Bue, Germany

     Last one is an illustration by Matz Mainka, Hamburg, I didn't expect but after searching him online - quite well-known [or with significant digital presence which is equivalent to that in our age, www.matzmainka.com], first I thought it would be tattoo artist or something, but more like pop-art personality. It's sort of funny that person living in Hamburg assumes that that city is less known than Bremen, because of 'Town Musicians of Bremen', while Hamburg is well known being part of the Hansa, second largest city in Germany, important port, being only city-state besides Berlin and so on. Interesting that cancellation on the stamp is Hannover Briefzentrum, which is odd since Hamburg has its own two XXL and L post processing centers.

Maritime industrial [post received 2024.02.08 - part#12]

     The post on that day would not be complete without some icebreakers and accompanying industrial maritime postcards. First card is official rusmarka [Russian postal stamps publisher] issue of nuclear powered icebreakers - Sibir [Sibir and  Arktika on official site, they are used as base for maxicards for corresponding stamps issue]. The RR group theme was 'Surprise envelope', beside icebreaker there were two tea bags and one other postcard, which I show later, as well as received maxicards with these two icebreakers.

received from Dashushty, Russia (Russian Many Themes RR#870) and mondschein, Russia (direct swap) and probably more times which I don't remember, it's certainly THE postcard for me

     Next one is from Chinese set of WWII USA propaganda posters available globally, interesting that I had the set long ago too, back in 2011-2012 when I just started postcrossing, they are rather thin, backside is same beige as the frame on the front. backside was written in Russian. And the last one is one of British PHQs with nice stamps on the back [always amazed on how many pretty stamps there are in UK along with nice postcards made out of stamps] showing British Engineering Achievements (Emergency Support Vessel Iolair [Gaelic for eagle]), reproduced from a stamp designed by Michael Taylor and issued by the Post Office on 25 May 1983 [notice how British post office is THE, same as their stamps don't have country name on because they are THE stamps xD], price 13p, printed at The House of Questa, London, England.

left - DE-13825536, from Tiaronny, Germany; right - GB-1722558, from Jaycee, UK

stamps of GB-1722558, from Jaycee, UK

Perks of instant memory: Black and white

      Adding something really 'instant' - just received all three postcards for the 'Black and White' group of Russian Many Themes RR [took them about a month from end of February till end of March and postcards sent in March were arriving even faster] - interesting how they are all amazing, very different, and within my wishlist! First one is from Alisa Yufa's postcard set with dogs - 'July' [set is called 'Gav-gav-grrraphics by Alisa Yufa', playing on sounds of dog bark, also her cat illustration postcards are quite famous as well, and she's quite popular books illustrator]. Second one shows Lock #5 on Masurian Canal, now abandoned - the idea of connecting Lake Mamry with Baltic Sea near Königsberg [now Kaliningrad] appeared as early as 17th century but there were no technical possibilities to implement it, the project started in 1908 by Parliament of Eastern Prussia and then one War, hyperinflation, second War, it was never finished.

left - received from IrinaPiccolina, Russia; center - received from Katyi, Russia; right - received from Katya_Katya, Russia (all from Russian Many Themes RR#1586)

     Now it's industrial tourism object for lovers of ruins, Katyi writes on the back she visited it just this winter. Last postcard is official new merchandize of Karpinsky Institute [new name of VSEGEI mentioned here, they have pretty logo] - text on the back says 'Small postcard is an investment in big geological discovery!'. Postcard shows Mandschurosaurus amurensis Riabinin in Mining Research Museum of Feodosy Chernyshev [last part of the name was recently 'of VSEGEI Institute' - so they really did full rebranding from the 'allgays' abbreviations], photo made before 1982, but Katya writes that the Mandschurosaurus still stands on the same place. Also nice addition on the back from sticker pack merchandize is Asaphus kowalewskii Trilobite, the one with the cutest eyestalks.

Rhymed in composition - bits of classical art [post received 2024.02.08 - part#11]

     I love when two postcards match in composition and colours - doesn't it look like girl running away from the postcard on the right will storm into the room on the left? Left one is "The Artist's Studio" / "Das Atelier des Künstlers", by Hubert Robert (1733-1808), from collection of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen [www.boijmans.nl], Rotterdam, postcard is published by Art Unlimited in 1989 [I list that publisher in my wishlist, most of what they printed over the years is simply great]. Second one is 'Major's Marriage Proposal (Inspection of a Prospective Bride)', 1850-52 by Pavel Fedotov, the painting is very famous in Russia and even having its own wikipedia page. The postcard was chosen to match the quote from Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone with the Wind': "When she considered her training at the hands of Ellen and Mammy, she knew it had been thorough and good because it had always reaped results".

left - DE-13825514, from RunnIng_cat_mum, Germany; right - received from Dashushty, Russia (Russian Many Themes RR#898)

     Russian Many Themes RR is very special place run by amazing host Svetlana, Fatinika, and it is not only having very specific groups for card collectors but also fun ones where postcards you receive are pretty random, like the one, I usually participated - 'Alternative Divination' group. It's based on one of joke divination technique children use - one asks the question and then tells page and line of the book and book quote gives an 'answer'. Divination groups have one book, owned by group starter, other participants choose pages and lines, group starter announces the quotes and each member gets three postcards fitting the quotes [those would be making very nice posts each of three cards some time soon xD]. In the Alternative Divination group - all participants choose pages and lines, but each member has their own book to search answers for others, so each member eventually gets three random postcards each fitting chosen random quote and quotes are not known till postcard is received.

Wanna look at my collection?

      Sometimes people I swap postcards with ask me to show what postcards I've already received. For one of the tries of reorganizing my storage of postcards I even made a page in this blog to list all countries and collections albums from google photos when I was still using the service [somehow you couldn't share all list of albums on google photos, option which was available in google picasa, now retired as album archive], page is retired now since I switched to different online storage in 2022. Even before I had to abandon flickr, where I had my collection almost uploaded and organized, after they started to limit upload amount and performing a simple action of uploading bunch of pictures became impossibly complicated... Now I keep postcards for swap on zonerama [not refreshing regularly though], but uploading collection yet again for fifth time -- I just don't want to do it anymore [maybe I'd do it for standalone site, but no time yet], so let it be stored privately both in the cloud and locally [especially since problem of reorganizing my collection physically is more urgent than electronically].

left - received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap); right - received from Baki, Russia (direct swap)

     On top of that one of the reasons I don't want to upload all received postcards to be available online to avoid duplicates besides too much work is that I don't see them as collection of pictures and photos, every postcard deserves to be looked at like I do in the posts, and uploading them doesn't feel respectful enough for what they are - not just image but piece of travel history, particularities of postal services, part of soul of the sender.

      And anyway what do I collect? Nothing and a lot of things. Thanks to azuregosa, I collect toilets and toilet rolls, reptiloids, and autopsy cards. The normal me also collects bog people and in general all anthropology-related sculls, women-scientists and anything related to the scientific research of Arctic. Thanks to mondschein, I collect pomegranates, Pallas' cats and polar foxes [and many other things - Lera literally sends me almost all available postcards published in Russia which loosely fit my wishlist]. In different profiles and posts I list different things to collect, but mostly I do it so it's easier to pick up postcards for me - and in the same time most interesting cards often tend to be completely random and out from those lists [often having references of your collections limits senders in choosing something original], so what's the point besides feeding the inner neat freak?

Erotic postcards, Part #25: Finnish firefighters

     There are many countries which issue charity erotic calendars [and postcards!] with firefighters, probably most famous on postcrossing is the one with Australians, never got one, but I had Finnish and British [even charity children rehab center in Saint Petersburg does the calendar for three years - one of 2026, for example]. I was still surprised to learn that Finnish firewomen also have their erotic postcards, and quite a remarkable ones!

received from jennylinnea, Finland (See my favorite tag)

     The stamp was interesting too - Finnish post is quite effective with issuing beautiful stamps which match the tariff exactly [and almost all of them turn into stickers long ago with Air Mail stickers on the same sheet - as of now, I can see they have an ugly QR-code same as German ones], so seldom one can see a variety on the same postcard but it's compensated by inventive designs - this 2004 Moomin stamp was printed on velvet paper. There are plenty other Moomin stamps issued almost yearly, you can read about them on Moomin museum page or see in my blog xD [2013 one with corresponding postcard, 2015 one, 2017 one]

stamps of the postcard, received from jennylinnea, Finland (See my favorite tag)

Art through postcrossing [part #4 - Ukiyo-e]

     Besides Miyazaki themed postcards, ukiyo-e [traditional genre of Japanese art, woodblock print,  flourished in 17 - 19 centuries] postcards are one of typical catch from Japan [they appeared in blog before, usually also under 'weird and erotic' category: 1 and 2], so I have received some. I'm not sure how I feel about ukiyo-e art-appreciation-wise, I can say for sure I liked them a lot decade ago, but now after I saw more of Japanese and overall Asian art periods and genres [especially regarding superior art form of China/Japan/Korea - porcelain, their unique mesmerizing shapes and ornaments], I find ukiyo-e rather simple in comparison - as they were intended to be, art made for lower classes, merchants, craftsmen, and workers.

left - JP-1253074, from KITTEmeguri, Japan; center - JP-1306502, from 7122maki, Japan; right - received from kyoto348, Japan (Just Postcards RR#703)

     Left postcard shows work of Kuniyoshi Utagawa (1798 - 1861) and postcard has nice round astronomical stamp, sender writes it vaguely reminds them the style of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Italy, 1526 - 1593), famous for series of imaginative heads consisting fully from other objects, like fruits. Center one is Utamaro: Girl of the River Bank, a Low Class Prostitute, from series 'Courtesans of the Northern Districts', backside had  an interesting Air Mail sticker, which are quite rare nowadays. For the right one sadly I don't have the backside scan at hand, since it was from 2012 round robin, I'll update the post when I find it physically ^__^

left - stamps of JP-1253074, from KITTEmeguri, Japan; right - stamps of JP-1306502, from 7122maki, Japan

Four long travelers [Russian post sorting the 2025-collapse]

     Every postal collapse or even temporal difficulties with delivery result in either postcards which travelled in a creative way or just for a long time [like handmade addressed to Kanerva]. It was my double first time this March to get official postcards which traveled more than a year, and I'm happy now postcrossing site provides the opportunity to send thank you to sender [obviously I suggested to send a thank-you cards, but no answers yet]. First postcard shows Emperor Nicholas II in the uniform of Her Majesty Empress Marie Theorodovna Chevalier Guard Regiment, painting by Hugo Bakmanson, 1896. Postcard says hello from Stavropol, Russia. The date on the card written by sender is 19.07.24 but the cancellation stamp has date of 31.12.25 [was it lost for 1.5 years in Stavropol post office and someone found it during long boring almost-new-year shift? we'll never know], so it even departured already being expired beyond registering. Then near the zip-code it has twice letter 'Д' [means 'forwarding' when postcard/letter arrives in wrong post office], but still delivered within 2.5 months - on March, 15th, 2026. Backside has adorable answers to superpower and cat questions: talent to give happiness and health to ones who need it and no climbing on trees, because of acrophobia.

left - RU-10181241, from pancake_or_fritter, Russia; DE-15092915, from christinemarie, Germany (both traveled for more than a year)

     Second unregistrable postcard was from Germany, sender was worried that it's not from wishlist, but actually reminds me of postcards my husband sent to me when we were still living in different countries. Backside says it's Nr. 9358 of Grafik Werkstatt "Das original" [seems it's sort of workshop producing all sorts of graphic art production]. Interesting that outgoing cancellation dates don't match the dates of obtaining address for sending from official site [note the amazing car races stamp! <3] - October 2025, it would be at least 7 months later than drawing the address, could be a repeat postcard or just delayed sending.

stamps of DE-15092915, from christinemarie, Germany

     Another two long travelers were sent on postcrossing birthday, 14th July 2025 [that's when I send a lot of cards still travelling, so some hope sparks]. Korean postcard is the 'Painting of a Ferocious Tiger' from National Museum of Korea, Joseon Dynasty, 18th century, hanging scroll painting on paper, 96.0cm by 55.1cm. Latvian is made from package of crispbread with sunflower seeds, flax seeds and thyme - there is 'I hope you'll hate this card' challenge mark on the back [and 20 years of postcrossing special sticker] but seems both me and sender love upcycling our postcards! xD

left - KR-365375, from iammichhh, South Korea; right - LV-438628, from UnaPhoto, Latvia

     Interesting that not only Latvian but both senders love recycled postcards, same as I do. Korean sender writes in their profile: "I care a lot about low-impact living and am always trying to waste less—whether that means upcycling bits and bobs or just being more intentional about what I use." Latvian sender writes in their profile: "I love green World and every recycled postcard is a little step on this way. I'm a fan of recycling/upcycling... I don't really understand why so many postcrossers say they don't like hand made cards. To me it's very special if someone takes the time and effort to make a unique little work of art just for me!" Ditto to both!

Barbarian overflow

     Due to postal uncertainties in Moscow last year both of my profiles were blocked from sending in winter 2025/2016 - because there were too many expired travelling cards - I usually keep profiles inactive and send whenever I feel like it and then when I have positive difference, I 'open' profile to get all due postcards [yes, I prefer them in packs!]. I was sending mostly on postcrossing birthday, July 14th, 2025, World postcard day on 1st October, and in the end of October before tariffs raise. At those times I was still hopeful that Moscow sorting center problem is something similar to what we encountered already, and will be resolved soon. And you going to love the randomness of postcrossing algorithms - one of profiles has postcard difference of 1598 SENT / 1612 RECEIVED [as of 20.03.2026, some of October cards arrived], and #barbarian profile has an overflow of sent postcards - 715 SENT / 700 RECEIVED [once amount of traveling postcard reduced to 20, account was opened to sending which I used to send some of my meet-up postcards, still it's a puzzle to me how cards sent in the same time arrive much better on one of the accounts].

left - CN-2674608, from <account closed>, name on cards is Cherry Cao, China; right - DE-8088039, from Lelia_R, Germany

     Interesting that I used to talk about current overflow post draft from 2019 - then I had typical situation of more received than sent on that profile, somewhere around then I figured out preferred way of cycling between activity and non-activity with sending to adapt to changed times of delivery of post and my own comfort. Left postcard is awesome Warcraft warhammer from Cherry, she writes that I'm 'the first barbarian of her life' and that Warcraft is her favourite game, the postcard was completed with amazing stamps. Right one is type of the majestic cat postcard which I get through battlekittens wish, it's 'Maha Raja', 2005 by Geoffrey Martin from Animal Box: 100 Postcards by 10 Artists, published by Princeton Architectural Press, 2015.

stamps of CN-2674608, from <account closed>, name on cards is Cherry Cao, China

Dear - birthday - data [handmade from taebbig]

     There are plenty of pretty amazing handmade postcards I've enjoyed getting and making through the years and then there are THE HANDMADE which tops almost all of them - prepared to be put on the wall by taebbig. Laura wrote me somewhere in May 2024 with unusual request - trying to make an embroidery cards for Handmade RR [by then I stopped participating in that amazing round robin due to lack of time with work and kids], she needed weather data [both high and low temperatures and precipitation] for birth towns of participants, she thought it will be Austrian and US towns which are easy to find, but one of the participants was born in Ulan Ude, Buryatia, USSR. I found couple of archive website links [one with most USSR cities month by month and another one with similar data] and for that quick search I got an amazing bonus handmade just three months later!

front side (left) and back side (right), received from taebbig, Germany (RAS from Handmade RR#1630)

     My scans look a bit blurry because of the thickness of the design, but most info can be read: middle is my birthplace [technically I was born in the same town I live now - part of Moscow but a bit to North-West, nowadays weather can be different here and in 'big' Moscow, but size of Moscow-city is enormous, different parts get different amount of rain/snow/sun] and year of birth; inside circle shows minimum temperature of the day and outside circle shows maximum temperature; and the pearls represent the amount of precipitation on each day.

photo of all designs side by side [courtesy of Laura, taebbig]

     P.S. This post was reminded by Yulia's comment in one of the earlier posts - Postcard project: Dear data [seems that post can be new ideas for amazing handmades!].

X-Files monster: The scariest

      Yulia, Yulia-and-Mark, asked me a question - with so many drafts, how do I choose what about the next post will be? Well, I just go into blogger.com interface, check 'Drafts' option [currently, there are 889 drafts so the title description of my blog is not technically correct - I need to make couple more drafts asap, seems writing a post per day drains them very fast xD] and scroll till I feel like it - the name of future possible post and the preview of first image in it are seen, so it's rather easy to 'feel the spark' [aligns with my current mood or random thoughts of the day] or not - if not in the mood, I try to find a draft with least amount of 'work' - usually with postcards, which are easy, just find the backside and rewrite the info from there with some light googling. Choosing this gnarly postcard doesn't mean I'm in the bad mood though - still makes me smile thinking of top-1 gnarliest postcard I've ever received, and this one would be second place!

front side (left) and stamps (right) of US-7150757, from NewburyportNathan, USA

     One of the scariest monsters of X-files - the Flukeman, some mutant human-flatworm hybrid, and as far as I remember he survived in the end! xD Backside tells the episode pictured is 'The Host', first aired: September 23, 1994, the card is from official X-Files postcard set. Sender writes that the card goes for the 'I hope you'll hate it' challenge, and some older stamps were used for the card - always nice to see new ones!

Perks of instant memory: Weird cats from feltra

     Funny that quite a proportion of postcards received from direct swaps with feltra were about funny cats [I even have created a tag for cats doing human-like things - #nine lives of a cat - or as azuregosa once wrote on a card: "Who is a pervert there? Liking all the cats in stupid clothes"]. First postcard wasn't planned in the post originally, but I found it while checking the scans of backsides [instant is never instant, remember] and it fits the theme - iconic French poster 'Prochainement Tournée du Chat Noir', lithography, 1896, by T.-A. Steinlen, copy from French National Library, printed in France. To be honest, before I read on the back that Anya, feltra, loves that artist, I didn't realize how many of his posters I actually saw and knew. The other two arrived together back in 2018: one 'still life' cat from Chinese set and one from set by illustrator Margarita Zhuravleva [her page on one of websites specialized on souvenirs with cats], printed by catbycat in 2014. Text on the card says: 'Tea? Coffee? Let me sniff...'

all received from feltra, Russia (direct swap)

     Previous cat-related post from feltra: same set as central card; cats of Rome; Cat Days postcards [technically it was send-my-postcards-back thing, but one of my favourite sets of anthropized cats ever]; half-liquid story of Maria Pavlova cats; breeds of cats; Fox Ulysses illustrations.

Weird postcard: Ponies and unicorns

     As an epigraph to this post I just need to quote here from one of my penpals, Aina-the-Unicorn, profile: "I collect unicorn figurines and have about 200 of them, so I would be happy to receive postcards with unicorns drawn in fantasy, realistic, heraldic or medieval style. Sorry, I don't like unicorns drawn in cartoon style like a fat pony :)" [obviously when I read that, my first impulse was to find the card with the cutest fattest pony-unicorn right away!]. Fitting that anti-wish I had received the almost canonical 'fat pony'-unicorn card [on the left] which says 'Dance when nobody is watching, eat like crazy', and second card is just magic little ponies from famous animated series, known for surprisingly adult fanbase, both from azuregosa, one of my best supplier of weird and geeky cards.

both received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap)

     For Aina-the-Unicorn I mostly used 'fat ponies' in postcards' decoration, because I had just the washi tape with rainbow cute unicorns for that, and to send I usually repeated unicorn postcards from her favourites, like replica of RU-7541359, or her favourite unicorn memes, like the one in the center. Central card is transparent with dried laminated petals of Peruvian lily and then unicorn and human are drawn with permanent black marker on one side, coloured white and pink with acryl markers on other side; text on the card says says: 'Person with opposite opinion who in the same time is open to normal discussion, I found you finally' [that type of person is a unicorn = doesn't exist]. On the back of the little pony card from azuregosa there were some funny stickers, text said: "It is a magic postcard! By the power of pony magic its receiver gets: [stickers] +5 to Creativity; +7 to Luck; +5 to Morale; +2.5 to Boobs [it's the one with cabbage because it's believed that eating cabbage when you're a girl makes your boobs grow bigger]"

left and center - handmades I sent to Aina-the-Unicorn, Russia (direct swap); right - backside, received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap)

Alphabetical swap, part#11 (Э-Ю-Я)

"Э" ("E") is for a cup of Espresso ("Эспрессо"); "Ю" ("Yu") is for South ("Юг"); "Я" ("Ya") is for first person personal pronoun ("Я").

     First choice is pretty self-explanatory - not a lot of words starting with "Э", usually foreign ones [I prefer latte and fresh roasts!]. Center postcard is 'A hot summer day' illustration by Aleksandr Zhuravlev [IG: @zhuravlev_graphic_art], Lera write a song on the back about going by train to summer vacation to the South, so that's why the card clicked with the letter. Words of the song by and Eduard Uspenskiy, music by Vladimir Shainsky, singer Maya Kristalinskaya: "Sun is shining bright light / Over Moscow and around. / Why do everyone in summer / shipping off to South? // In the Moscow region it's bream fishing, / there are plenty of mushrooms, berries, flowers. / There is no better place, / You only waste your time trying to find it. // On the South it's horrible: / Temperature is +35C in the shadow. / To swim in the blue sea, / you need to wait in a line." And the last one says: "I'm your captive", and has an awesome drawing of the battleaxe on the back.

left -received from elvigo, Russia (direct swap); center - received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap); right - RU-4037112, from elena_po4tarik, Russia

battleaxe on the back of RU-4037112, from elena_po4tarik, Russia

part#1 (A-Б-В), part#2 (Г-Д-Е), part#3 (Ё-Ж-З), part#4 (И-Й-К), part#5 (Л-М-Н), part#6 (О-П-Р), part#7 (С-Т-У), part#8 (Ф-Х-Ц), part#9 (Ч-Ш-Щ), part#10 (Ъ-Ы-Ь), part#11(Э-Ю-Я)