Guests from Outer Space [Little drop #9]

      Let's continue with postcards received on 31st January -- 02nd February, 2021. First postcard shows 'Dalek Day Trip' design by Icon [the star sticker just was there on the card, stuck, so I left it while scanning as a case of postcards arriving with scraps of random decorations picked during travel], and since it was from tag where one supposed to write about their day, it has a bit of zeitgeist tale on the back. Stephanie writes that after all the morning activities she was reading instruction for a COVID-19 testing, because she was picked at random by a poll organization working with the UK Health Services to have a home test so they can estimate how many people are infected without symptoms.

left - received from WriteASmile, UK (My Day tag); right - received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

     Same as art postcards from little drop #8 the right one is a painting from Art Bird gallery in Ekaterinburg, which prints local artists [www.artbird.ru] - "Guests from space" by Ryzhkov Alexey, the artist is from Ekaterinburg and the city is often shown in his paintings like that one. And to top up the post - almost any postcard from United Kingdom is a treasure of amazing often unique - in a sense of me seeing them for the first time - stamps. They almost feel print-on-demand-picture stamps and not commemorative ones because of variety of topics covered, on other hand, I can name quite a few topics which do not appear on Russian stamps ever but desired by postcrossers. Right now not the worst selection on rusmarka stamps catalogue [rusmarka.ru/en/catalog/marki]: I see politician, military-themed, space-themed, cartoons, floral, culture [modern art and Bolshoi], transport [Kamaz trucks and buses]. For comparison, say, I go now on 2026.04.28 to the special stamps section on Royal Mail website [shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp-issues] and immediately see floral theme [roses], modern culture and fandoms [Lord of the Rings and Stranger things], some Royalty, transport [model railways and Concorde].

stamps of postcard, received from WriteASmile, UK (My Day tag)

Naïve and professional art: Brusilovsky and Korovkin [Little drop #8]

     As almost in any folder with scanned postcards on my computer there are a lot of amazing postcards from Lera, mondschein, - this time from same January 31st, 2021 folder they were interesting works from local Ekaterinburg's artists from Art Bird Gallery [www.artbird.ru]. First three are by Misha Brusilovsky in art style of figurative art, as defined in wikipedia, as well as graphics and murals [page about him on his museum site]. As can be seen from Brusilovsky works, he was working in many styles, and some of his works resemble Picasso to me, just reincarnated and reinventing surrealism and cubism yet again but from the inside out of the Socialist realism and mural art. The paintings are: (1) - 'To the West his squad was walking' [it's a quote from 'Parting' poem/song about Civil War by Mikhail Isakovsky, 1935], 1985; (2) - 'Expulsion from Eden', 1989; (3) - 'Samson and Delilah', 1998.

(1)                                 (2)                                       (3)
all received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

     Other four are by Albert Korovkin - amateur city folklore art painted on wooden panels, perfect example of naïve art. I think before I've only received a postcard with weird grey giraffe by Niko Pirosmani of similar style and of course another modern folklore painting by Vasya Lozhkin, even though I do enjoy amateur paintings both by postcrossers and renowned artists. The paintings are: (4) - 'Poacher', 1972--1984; (5) - 'Devilry', 1972--1984; (6) - 'Fish on the Bank', 1972--1984; (7) - 'Polar Explorers are Taking a Rest'. 1972--1984.

(4)                    (5)                    (6)                     (7)
all received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

Unusual water-related postcards [Little drop #7]

     This little drops sometimes will partly continue the 2021 received ones, but also serve as container for odd ends. Assassin Creed card I removed from the Witcher posts - initially I planned to make the post about both games but then decided to put more atmospheric Witcher cards instead there [not from the game but with game vibe, received from Poland and Czechia, later in parts #2-3]. And since whole little drop concept is that sometimes there are just nice postcards without the need to fit in some topic theme and write a lot of words about - I'm adding Vietnamese Water Puppet to the post, which was received on January 31st, 2021.

both received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap, right one - originally from Vietnam)

     The Assassin Creed games I can't say I was a fan of - I played the third one, because I loved all the jumping and hunting animals, and Black Flag, which is on the card, was purely ships the part I hated the most in control and playthrough [but my husband enjoyed the game as far as I remember]. Vietnamese water puppetry seems like very interesting branch of traditional Asian puppetry, I haven't heard about it before, and looks like something to visit on vacation there [another postcard related to water and - loosely - to puppetry was the one with enormous clown head which was a floating scene for annual festival on the lake Constance in Austria, Bregenzer Festspiele].

Einstein: The spectrum of emotions

     With science in my wishlist I wonder why I haven't received more of him - Albert Einstein is like a 'mascot' of science and what scientist is and looks like for the masses, most known and recognizable [second one is Nicola Tesla, I think, or Nicolaus Copernicus, at least based on which postcards are printed!]. Maybe after I specified the wish with female scientists, people think that I'm an uncompromising feminist and postcards with male scientists would offend me or something? Any postcard with scientist is great - to receive someone less known is even better, maybe after collecting all 'Women in Science' set I should rewrite the wishlist to less specific again :) Left one is 1947's photograph by Philippe Halsman, Einstein is 68 year old on it. Right one is most famous photo, made by Arthur Sasse after Einstein's 72nd birthday party on March 14, 1951.

left - US-7062860, from ennasor, USA; center - CZ-359940, from <account closed, Lenka is the name in the signature>, Czechia; right - received from alice_smile, Russia (Favourites #198)

     On top of center one is a quote by Einstein to his wife. I wonder to which one - first wife, Mileva Marić, was talented mathematician and physicist and helped him to develop his groundbreaking theory but he divorced her once his career took off, - was cheating on her with and then he married his cousin - from maternal side, and simultaneously second cousin from father side - the quote sounds a bit 'ew' now, doesn't it? He also gave his Nobel Prize money to his first wife, so people keep speculating about what was exact contribution of each of then spouses to the theory.

     Interesting that Rosalind Franklin, for example, is out in the light with claim she made a pivotal research for discovery of DNA [considering her death prior to nomination we don't know whether she would be actually nominated if alive, so maybe all discrimination was not there even], but anything about Einstein wife is ignored - most articles say 'we can't know', 'there is no evidence' etc. [reading quite menial achievements on descriptions of female scientist's of 'Women in science' set, even 'calculations for the Relativity Theory' would be more than most there]. Maybe it's because of the public image was made for Albert Einstein, making him THE scientist, so any rewriting to his myth is not allowed, but still funny how 'feminists' are selective, probably starting seeing only things which are allowed to be seen? Sender writes a quote by K. Hepburn on the back: 'A friend is one, who knows all about you and likes you anyway.' [let's apply it to Einstein xD]

Weird postcard: Tiled buildings

     Interesting architectural tradition which is more typical for warmer countries with Islamic influences in the past are tiles on the walls inside the buildings [for outside tiling is being used pretty often - in Japan for most buildings and in Russia for mass-produced project panel buildings], as far as I remember from Russian museums in some cases tiles were used in the interior when it was special tiles - for example, Menshikov's interiors with Delft porcelain tiles which were used not only for fireplaces but for walls, floor, and even ceiling [blog entry in Russian where I read about Menshikov Palace recently, that blog has an amazing series of posts about porcelain types and evolution]. The tiled decoration of interiors of mosques and palaces became signature for XVI--XVII centuries in Ottoman Empire. Left postcard comes from Pécs, Hungary, and shows its Cathedral, photo by Ruprech Judit, tile design is probably drawn and not real tiles - and feels like interesting choice of using Ottoman motives in restoring Christian Cathedral after occupation ended, could the artistic tastes be influenced? Spanish postcard shows 14 columns of Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona built by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, second famous architect of Catalan modernism [which was greatly inspired by Hispano-Arabic, Moorish, and Mudéjar traditions to create Catalan identity] after Antoni Gaudí, photo is by John Lafond, 2013.

left - HU-156412, from galeszt, Hungary; right - ES-374485, from alex_95, Spain

     Odd that postcrossers from rarer countries use printed stamps way more often - I guess rarer means also worse availability of postal services overall [is there an example of a country with excellent postal system/service and small share of postcrossers?]. Even in big postal countries one usually needs to order pretty stamps online: from my travels around 10 years ago probably only Finland was providing all pretty stamps in regular local post offices too, all other countries - standard stamp from machine, Italy was a nice exception with philatelistic shop selling valid stamps along with all the rarities.

'stamp' of HU-156412, from galeszt, Hungary

Terry Pratchett's 'Going postal' stamps

     My favourite book by Terry Pratchett is 'Going postal', not only because of the theme [the picture of mountains of not delivered mail is something I imagine about Russian Post sorting centers sometimes] but also because after reading Rincewind and Death novels in translation, through reading Moist von Lipwig and then Watch novels in original, I got reintroduced and started to really appreciate the Pratchett writing, its multilayered educated humorous style. After seeing on the forum that there are Cinderella stamps of Ankh-Morpork postal service existing, I was lucky to organize a swap with someone who bought them - and it was metlodyt, creator of amazing handmade designs - so the card was a unique Sto-Lat cabbage plains postcard with clack towers in the back! xD

 
front side (left) and back side (right), received from metlodyt, Denmark, sent via Portugal (direct swap)

Europe vacation - part #2 [Robin_Goodfellow]

     Apparently the big trip around Europe of my penpal Robin_Goodfellow in 2013 was not even in a separate post! I travelled a lot myself during these years and was sending packs of postcards from each destination to all penpals, maybe that's why I didn't look much into it, the merrier to do it 10+ years after. Some postcards from vacations of Robin_Goodfellow already appeared in the blog: the previous 2014's trip post, Liechtenstein postcard from this 2013's trip, shaped postcard from 2015's spring trip to Slovenia, or Lithuanian wooden one from 2013-2014 New Year trip. The 2013 summer trip starts with crossing Belarus - 'From Minsk with love' postcard, written in the car on the road to Brest, sent from Brest on 30.06.13 [received 16.07.13]. Interesting that logically then there will be crossing of Poland, but there were no corresponding cards, maybe no major stops in any city.

received from Robin_Goodfellow, while on vacation in Belarus (direct swap)

     The Czech portrait of Franz Kafka is sent from Prague on 08.07.13 [received 19.07.13], zip code 222 00 seems to be reserved for postal needs, so sorting center. Robin_Goodfellow writes that it is a  rehabilitating postcard for the boring Minsk one - as  philologist by degree she read -- suffered through -- Kafka's books, especially 'The Castle', I've only read the 'fun' ones like 'The Transformation'. Austrian one is sent on 09.07.13 [received on 20.07.13], Natalia writes a postcard while drinking tea in the Austrian Alps after visiting the castle on the card - Burg Hohenwerfen, photo by Erwin Trampitsch, situated on the way from Salzburg to the South [they missed the guided tour because of the baby daughter but saw the falconry show - the eagle was scary].

all received from Robin_Goodfellow, while on vacation in Czechia (front side - top left, stamps - bottom left) and Austria (front side - top right, stamps - bottom right) (direct swap)

     Next it seems there was a main big stop in Italy, the first shaped fish is sent from Italian Lake Garda on 17.07.13 [received on 05.08.13], more precisely from the city on fish's back - Lazise, sender complains about heat and hoping France would be better. The postal shaped fish, art by Moldeo, MOL016 [so they are collectable or something], is sent from France, zip code 01033A on 19.07.13 [received 06.08.13] - zip code search returns me Valserhône [former Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, small commune near Swiss Geneva], and sender mentions caves, where guide was 'playing on the stalagmites like xylophone' nearby so could be it. 

all received from Robin_Goodfellow, while on vacation in Italy (front side - top left, stamps - bottom left) and France (front side - top right, stamps - bottom right) (direct swap)

     I must say that the route looks quite adventurous [with small kid in the car!] - going around Switzerland from Italy through France. The Liechtenstein postcard sent from Vaduz on 20-something.07.13 [received 19.08.13], Natasha, Robin_Goodfellow writes that she 'missed' Monako when choosing the route but got into Liechtenstein instead - two hours on mountain roads with bicycles, blind turns and cows, then the route lies further to Munich, Vienna, and Budapest. The illustration with Krtek by Zdeněk_Miler, 2012, is sent on 26.07.13 [received 14.08.13, cancellation has additional weird digits - 0911 - which don't match any dates or existing Hungarian zip codes] from Budapest, Hungary, and bought there while Krtek being Czech character, sender writes that Budapest is a heaven for stamps-lovers - they sell big bags of used stamps for small price. 

all received from Robin_Goodfellow, while on vacation in Liechtenstein (front side - top left, stamps - bottom) and Hungary (top right) (direct swap)

     From Germany the 3D space-related postcard was not from that trip [Munich postcard same as Polish card which was on the route there and back are absent originally], but it has stamps of Germany, Hungary, and France, all probably purchased back then, even though it was sent from Hamburg on 02.11.13, received on 21.11.13 [note that 'wrong' country stamps are left uncancelled - hmm, some Americans are putting German stamps along with USPS ones on their cards when sending 'via Germany' to reimburse German post, I should check whether I have any of those and whether they are cancelled by German post]. Actually I have quite a bit of similar 3D space postcards received, even a draft post prepared. They are slightly more expensive than regular postcard and I'm thankful when senders pick those for me. 

front side (left) and stamps (right), received from Robin_Goodfellow, while on vacation in Germany (direct swap)

Europe vacation - part #1 [Robin_Goodfellow]

     One of the 'postcards' from this vacation already appeared in my blog [the leaf], but there were more from other countries and I wanted to track the route of vacation by deciphering the zip-codes and sending dates. So, let's start! I already see that actual route mixed up in my head because I was receiving the postcard in the wrong order :) French one comes first it seems -  Robin_Goodfellow mentions the 'long vacation travel by car' starting in Alsace, sent on 10.07.14 [received 31.07.14], from train museum with exceptional old locomotives [www.citedutrain.com]. Second was unexpectedly Spain - sent from Barcelona on 18.07.14 [received 11.09.14], showing Mediterranian flora - Borago officinalis (Boraginaceae), Borratja or Borage, on card the 'postal experiment' is mentioned [=the leaf]. The travel by car from Mulhouse, where train museum is, to Barcelona, Spain, only takes about 10 hours by car, so it seems there were big stops to rest on the way. Another 10 hours are from Barcelona, Spain, to Luxembourg [then to Bruges and Amsterdam it's 3.5 and 3 hours respectively, I keep forgetting how small Europe is, for me sometimes travel from one to another side of Moscow can be 3 hours, and travelling for 3-4 hours to your summer house, dacha is normal].

all received from Robin_Goodfellow, Russia while she was in France (top left) and in Spain (top right) and French stamps and used stamps (bottom) (direct swap)

     Luxembourg's postcard has stamp with printed value from the machine, cancellation date of 28.07.14 [arrived 18.08.14], and shows: 1. Ville Basse du Grund; 2. Marché-aux-poissons; 3. Sculpture Mère et Enfant de Henry Moore; 4. L'Hôtel de Ville. The 'young guitar -- old lady', photo by Kent Barker, is sent from Gent, Belgium, on 29.07.14 [arrived 16.08.14] judging from cancellation stamp [note that city on the stamp in smaller countries sometimes mean closest sorting center - on postcard sender writes about Bruges and following day trip to Amsterdam (with children!), I did that route once myself too but without kids obviously xD], Robin_Goodfellow writes she chose something else to send being bored from city views and touristic cities, Bruges seemed too touristic for her [I have exactly opposite opinion of that city maybe because I visited it in between seasons]. I assume the trip ended in the Netherlands, because there were no follow-up postcards.

both received from Robin_Goodfellow, Russia while she was in Luxembourg (postcard on top left, stamp on bottom left) and in Belgium (postcard on top right, stamp on bottom right)(direct swap)

     It's funny and amazing in a way that the route of her trip has very similar segments from what I travelled later same year, 2014, except for the Spain and mine by trains and buses was more straight. Maybe because when planning touristic trips people come up with same nodes through which the road lies, picking 'famous' places about which there is a lot information online from other tourists. While searching for backside scans for these postcard, I noticed that Robin_Goodfellow had another long multi-country trip a year before in 2013, so I should write about the other one too!

Weird postcard: Trypophobic pots

     A lot of senders write that they've learnt word 'trypophobia' from me - I don't have it obviously, and I think I learnt the word myself from internet in discussions about unexpected phobias, the ones you might have but never realized you do, because you haven't ever seen lotus seed pod head. Recently I read/saw certain optical illusion where people who grew in the cities see rectangles and people who were born and raised in more natural habitat see circles, just because they are used to natural shapes around and nothing is parallel/perpendicular/straight in nature. Thinking of it, could be trypophobia be sort of fear of nature by someone urban, expressed in the discomfort of odd round shapes [there are also theories that those pattern cause visual processing overload]; some scientists though connect it with disgust-based reaction to something resembling venomous animals, parasites, or infectious diseases.

received from lizoshek, Russia (Happy Birthday 2020 in LJ)

     I find that trypophobic images are having eye-catching patterns [no wonder many fabric designs in IKEA employ similar patterns, when coloured all the periodic enclosed circles look fresh and energetic], and it's interesting topic to collect because of the effort needed from sender to choose the corresponding card. Interesting that on that card trypophobia is not even mentioned, so it might be just accidentally weird postcard without any intention, 'Crafts series: Pots on rest', photo by Tanishkina, printed in 2010 by Kyiv's webshop photoFabrique [since neither photographer nor publisher were triggered by image, probably the whole trypophobia is social learning - one is only triggered if one already saw other people sharing triggering images].

Weird postcard: Spanish ghost busters!

     One of simple and cute pixel art postcards came officially from Spain, printed by madridalcubo, Madrid - on the back 'Today is a good day to have a great day' sticker in Spanish, barbarian axe drawing [sender writes they like the vikings], the ghostbusters are placed in a square called 'Plaza de Castilla' in Madrid.

ES-394971, from vickita, Spain

Where is Wally?

     There were some received Wally/Waldo postcards already, and there are probably more after these two, they are easy choice for weird wish and fun to look at. Also it's a fun puzzle for Monday's morning - besides Wally left one asks to find: Four robots; Four six-armed aliens; An alien with its arms folded, right one: a queen bee; a punctured hose; a hedgehog.

left - LT-452140, from ilikebirds, Lithuania (I clicked on user and now they are from USA, moved to L.A., neat! At the time of the card they wrote about studying Chinese, I wonder how it all turned around); right - received from Sehan, South Korea (direct swap)

Utilization [part#8] - Three big ones

     The following postcards are interesting photo and illustrations, children absolutely loved the steam engines, but all three postcards have one serious drawback - large size! I understand common requirement in profiles to fit 10 by 15 cm of standard collection albums, but since I store postcards in boxes I don't have problem with slightly non standard ones - two other common sizes are 13 by 18 cm and long one - 10 by 20 cm [I checked the standard typography sizes, it seems they are: 90x140mm, 105x148mm, and 98x210mm, but I guess it's plus-minus half a centimeter easily], and it's silly to limit the sender choice. But some postcards are just too cumbersome to store - only way to fit the boxes is putting them flat in the bottom under other postcards because they are too big to slide on the side even. Left illustration is by Mariya Volkova, 'Railway station' in Tyumen, first city in Siberia, founded in 1586, postcard is printed by company 'Department of Photography and Design' which doesn't exist anymore, watercolour, original painting size is 65 cm by 32.5 cm. Right one shows train on Wilenskiy railway station in Minsk - that's how main railway station in Minsk was called in 1872 -- 1944, interesting that Warsaw has railway station of that name.

left - received from chubarovskaya, Russia (Transport tag, I presume); right - BY-515773, from Pashko, Belarus

     The third one was the typical 'Happy postcrossing! and that's it' card, with single stamp and hippie sticker, which didn't fit the front side at all - it shows Medovaya [=Honey] street in Brest-Litovsk, Russian Empire, now named Karl-Marx street in Brest, Belarus. Certainly size and easiness of storage are factors which weighted in when I sort postcards to keep and to give away. Whenever I receive a big postcard, I still laughing at someone's complaint on forum long ago that they put 'maxicard' in the wishlist and someone sent them large postcard, thinking that it would be satisfying the wish.

BY-1871635, from yanakulak, Belarus

Colour it yourself postcards

     Main question I have about these - WHO COLOURS THEM? Is it sender or receiver? Are they meant to be postcards at all or just some sort of mandala, stress colouring minibook for adults [like left one is from 'Enchanted Forest 20 Postcards' by Johanna Basford, 2015, center one is from 'Wonderful World of Fashion Postcards' by Nina Chakrabarti, 2011, both published by Laurence King Publishing] which you can ecologically-conscious send after use instead of throwing away?

left - TW-2203747, from sorryrock, Taiwan; center - received from hedgehog_neff, Germany (direct swap); right - received from anastasiabo, Russia (direct swap, it was blank as a part of tea envelope)

     I think I prefer coloured because then it has a little bit of feeling of a handmade, and it would feel very weird for me to colour something received, especially when they have a cancellation on the front picture like left one. On left one sender writes that it's her way to fight autumn depression, postcard is from 'Creative colouring for adults' set, then sender was so relaxed that got confused and send a postcard with wrong tariff [stamp is with printed value from machine, the T-part tells to pay more - I think it's because the oversized postcard rather than internal/external].

left - DE-5730757, from PollyKlaus, Germany; center - received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap); right - RU-5109649, from <account closed>, Russia (name on the postcard is Alina from Smolensk, she writes that she works with children and likes to colour such anti-stress colouring pictures, published by content-publish, craftclub-shop)

stamps of DE-5730757, from PollyKlaus, Germany