Merry Ginger Xmas!

I had to dig deep into my scan archives to find a postcard relating to Christmas holidays! And voila - here is a joyous (and dancing?) Gingerbread Man, all the way from Nova Scotia. A curious fact (for me at least!) is that the Gingerbread Man cookies pre-date the Gingerbread Man fairy tale, and that by centuries..! The cookies could even have been found at the court of Elizabeth I of England. I don't know why I always assumed it was vice versa...Baking GB men (ha!) was never a tradition in my region, ours was much more modest in a way. The special cancellation is awesome, and who else to thank for it but dear Byron :) Another lesson today, that there is a Christmas Island in Canada, just east of Nova Scotia peninsula. Merry Xmas everyone!

Wine Country, Bavaria

This could have been aptly posted more than a month ago, when new wine was being tested and tried..! Still, being one of my favourite liquids of life, wine is pretty much always a subject to talk about, no? :)

As the sender wrote: in any town in Lower Franconia you can find a wine store, purchase a glass of local wine and enjoy sipping on it while overlooking the river Main. Now doesn't that just sound marvellous? Vielen Dank Svenja :)

Kitty Flower Power

I am not myself the greatest hippy fan, but I do like the series with kitty illustrations by Verkerke, one of which is this - the main reason, because they were one of the first non-view postcards I've ever bought! That was some 25 years ago, when I was studying in Zadar, and there was a great newsstand with such a vast choice of all sorts of postcards, a place I remember fondly, but also with a certain melancholy, as any true postcrosser I am sure can understand...in my country at least. I've decided to give this one a new life by posting it to my sister's address in Germany, with a special postmark...which reminds me...should check if there's anything interesting in that field these days. I find most of the special postmarks by our Post rather dull, I have to admit.

And yes, I have received some mail, after a month's hiatus, due to one of the mailmen quitting while the other one was on annual leave...! I think it was the last of it, as I haven't done any swaps in the last few months. I think I'll have plenty of time this winter writing posts on this year's mail...it's time, even if noone reads it lol

Lou Paper Coffee Postcard

Tagged for in the Especially Special Tag, I was happy that my first received Lou Paper postcard is coffee-themed; and what made it even more special, the donkey and lizard stamps..! I wouldn't want to start collecting these as there are simply too many of them out there, but as I've said I like having one example of every postcard series. As I progress ever so slowly, there are probably three new series to my every received example card lol. I haven't found anything in my mailbox for weeks...that said, I've read somewhere that our postmen tend to have annual leave about this time, and there's noone to replace them...prices going up, but still a lack of work force because paying decent wages seems to be the scariest thing for the mighty capitalists. Oh well. This is a great postcard, so let's focus on that - thank you so much Adrienne :))

Hygge

Hygge is a word describing the Danish way of life, or rather a concept of escaping the daily rush to relax and enjoy life's quieter pleasures. Various definitions of the word exist, and can be traced even to the Middle Ages, where a similar Old Norse word meant 'protected from the outside world'. The term hygge was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.

I particularly like the image at the bottom left :) The stamps, which I have found at the local 7/11-type-of corner shop, seem to depict familiar sayings; the 2nd and the 3rd one I think are international - when the cats are away, the mice play :) - burnt children shun the fire. The first one seems to say: every bird sings with it's beak? It should mean that different people express themselves in different ways i.e. to the best of their abilities. It's interesting, and I am now trying to think of a Croatian saying with a similar meaning...

Nyhavn In Copenhagen

Nyhavn in Copenhagen is the city's most recognisable feature - ok, perhaps together with the Little Mermaid..! On my way back from Oslo (going to Hamburg and then further to the Frisian island of Amrum) I have (finally!) spent a day in this beautiful place, in between night buses. Nyhavn is a waterfront district lined with brightly coloured town houses from the 17th/18th centuries, as well as with historical wooden ships. It is the entertainment heart of the city with its many bars, cafes and restaurants. Now it would be nice to experience that next time around..!

Two Giants By Ivar Rodningen

'I am sitting at Evita's Espresso Bar, across the road is the Oslo Spektrum, where I have seen, and listened to, and MET Röyksopp last night...' This happened in February; and a few weeks ago, in October, I have seen them in Amsterdam and London as well...I am still a bit on a high, so I am posting this postcard/image from Rodningen's popular Norwegian Trolls series that I have sent from Oslo. While there, I met some other fellow Röyksoppians, and discovered new parts of the city that somehow eluded me during my two-month Xmas market stint the previous year. It was a great weekend overall! I will be living off such memories for a while now, I think.

Linz An Der Donau, Austria

As I have been applying for winter season jobs in Austria (so far no luck) (and the best jobs are probably taken by now) here is a card of a pretty town of Linz - the capital of Upper Austria and the third largest in the country. I have to say this is one of my favourite official postcards received this year, as it is complete with a lovely stamp and cancellation, and an interesting message on the back - vielen Dank Alexandra :)

Winter Bunny

As I will be away for a few weeks I thought I'd better do a quick post, something striking and which doesn't need an introduction (as I really should be packing!), so here is a supercute bunny which travelled all the way from a Postcrossing meeting in Moscow - thank you Svetlana, and everyone who 'signed' the card (I just love all the different stamp designs; still haven't come around to making my own) 🐰🐾

Happy World Postcard Day!

So did you write any postcards today?

It wasn't in any plans for me, as I am still hating the new postage prices...but still decided to ´jump on the wagon´in the last minute, and arranged a few nice swaps for WPD postcards :) I didn't think any of the cards will arrive on time for me to post them on my blog, but this one took mere three days to reach me! So I am happy to include it here to celebrate this day; vielen Dank Monika :)

Alderney

Alderney is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands - it is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. The island's  area is 3 square miles, and the population close to 2150; which are similar numbers to my island, in fact we might be bigger on both accounts..! Makes it that much more special to receive postcards from there, thank you Petr :)

Stargazing At Arizona Desert

Anyone had any luck with the Perseids? Traditionally I see hardly any when I set out to do it - this year I even saw a few when not planned, just not when I actually expected to see them because of a later hour and less light pollution lol. Weird. 

This postcard comes from a tag with possibly the longest name in the history of tags (or not?) - Tag the latest sender from a country other than the last five posts.!. Its goal is to avoid repeated countries at the end of the tag. So I received this great desert night sky view from Michael, thank you :)

Mr SnowFox

Amid the newest heat wave, a bit of refreshment coming from the north - well actually I sent this to myself this winter before the job fiasco lol and was very pleased that I have found new stamps in a tiny post office on the island. Foxes are the cutest, aren't they?! 

New Kitties On The Block

Just as I had to decide to pull a brake on my ever increasing postcrossing activities, I have discovered a new type of postcards while in Zadar, which I thought would normally be a very nice addition to my offers, darn it! As it is not so often that one comes across uniquely illustrated postcards around here. I have sent myself one example, to see how it would fare in transit. It is very sturdy, which makes the postmark even less visible than usual, but on the other hand it is more likely to arrive unharmed. In any case I think the kitties are cute!

Postcrossing Meeting Belgrade

My first, and so far the biggest postcrossing meeting, was all the way back in 2011 in Belgrade - we had the quite active forum group for the ex-yugoslavian countries, and 7 of us  met internationally - well it seemed like a big group at the time! lol. And now I receive this postcard from dear Ana, whom I also met in Belgrade, and am surprised at how many people gathered there..! Of course I am aware some international postcrossing meetings count dozens of postcrossers :) Hvala Anchi!

I Heart Sagittarius

A new addition to my Sagittarius collection - a very interesting take on the subject :D Received for 'Rescue a sinking tag - tag' from the USA, thank you Sarah!

The Wind Of Change (Again)

I was shocked to find out the other day the Croatian Post increased the postage by 50%...I just (barely) came to terms with the last increase of 90% some years ago, and decided it was worth it to venture into 'heftier' postcrossing, i.e. doing more swaps...and I did A LOT in comparison with the previous years..! As I can read in some other comments, a common story for many countries, sadly...This will definitely slow me down and I will have to pull a brake on tags and round robins - but I still have so many postcards to send (darn it, I just kept buying them during this last frenzy episode!) so I'm not planning to go off charts just yet...For the visual part of this post - here is the last larger batch that I've sent off, and the last stamps that I have bought. There were so many other stamps that I was looking forward to buying and combining, but now it becomes impractical because I would need so many of them..!

Just to give you a clearer picture: 2019: 0,60 to 1,14 EUR. 2023: 1,14 to 1,70 EUR. I don't need to tell you that the standard of living barely budged in the same number of years...The minimum net salary at the moment is ca 500 EUR. And how is it going with your Post? 

Vacances à Saint-Tropez

July has knocked on the door and let itself in - the peak tourist season is almost here..! Now wouldn't it be nice to chill in St Tropez, if only for a day...Love the matching theme stamps 💛 Merci beaucoup Laurene!

Cat Art By Hiroko Matsumoto

I can't get over just how cute this postcard i.e. art piece is 😻 Received thanks to the forum and offer tag - and Xia :)

Life Is Beautiful...

...is what I try to remind myself while I am facing a busy working summer..! Merci beaucoup Karine for this joyful card :) As always, I am jumping at a chance to tag for a postcard from France. Progressing really slowly with learning French on Duolingo...losing lives like strands of hair. One fine day I would love to watch all those excellent French movies without subtitles. That's the life goal! 

Wanderer Above The Fog

This painting from ca 1817, painted by Caspar David Friedrich, was spotted in Kunsthalle in Hamburg on a rainy day. I really enjoy visiting museums and galleries, especially when I unexpectedly come across a familiar work of art 💓 It is also familiar in a way that it's atmosphere often matches the one in my mind...

Cendrawasih, Indonesia

Cendrawasih is more commonly known as Bird-Of-Paradise, and is native to the island of New Guinea - western half of which is known as Papua and is part of the Republic of Indonesia. Birds are fascinating creatures and I am contemplating a new collection...native bird species. 

Thank you Arry for this card; great stamps too! I have noticed less people from Indonesia swapping postcards these days...possibly a remnant of the previous restrictions..?

Hiss and Maa and Hee-haw

Received for the Matching Stamp Tag - it was matching in a sense that all these animals are on my wishlist! Thanks so much Michael. I am STILL trying to sort out my collections...I have already started receiving doubles...but I have so little proactive time since I've started working. Writing postcards takes time too, I've been reminded lately! Still, the rewards are sweet :) It seems that my mailman likes to stop by once a week - and this tuesday I got a lot of 22, which probably isn't much for some people, but it's been a while since I've received such a bunch last. Yay 😊 

*deteriorated English, uhm*

Spring Donkeys From Menorca

I've opened this year's swapping 'season' in March when I was in Germany on island Amrum - I went there to work the season and had a contract until October. However, opposite from the previous year, I was met with conditions not matching the contract/agreement...and beside that totally ignored as a human being...So I ran away after three weeks. The thing is, thinking that I will stay for months, I've bought a considerable stash of postcards! Most I had to bring back home and will hopefully be able to swap them from Germany sometime in the future...

Anyways! From one of my march FB swaps, great Menorcan donkeys for my collection. Gracias Elena!