This time it was a wonderful drawing by Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, known by his mathematically inspired impossible creations. Two hands drawing each other, but -- which hand is the 'real one' and which hand is being drawn?

This breathtaking sunset view is Kyōōgokoku-ji, the five storied pagoda of Kyoto, also known as Tō-ji ("East temple"). It is one of the historic monuments of ancient Kyoto that were declared World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. They are part of the Japanese history from the times when Kyoto was the capital of the country. The temple is located in the ward of Minami.

As a note side, I love Japanese Western handwriting. It has an unique air! I would show it here if it weren't so unpolite towards the sender.

I am about to die of cuteness. Before joining Postcrossing, I have never heard of Jetoy cats before. Once there, I noticed these postcards were very popular and no wonder they are. These illustrations are superb. Jetoy is a Korean company and this character is called 츄츄캣 (literally, Choo Choo Cat). On this card, white and black kitties are enjoying a trip in the hot air red balloon. ♥

My first Choo Choo card! ♪

The stamps, however, aren't related to the postcard (how cool would be to have Choo Choo stamps?!). I recall one of Limner's Dutch readers once complaining about these stamps. The funny thing is the came uncancelled. There isn't a single scratch on this card. Did the postofficers respect Choo Choo cats and protect them devotely? Who knows.

A water & ink Chinese painting from a series of postcards called "Appreciation of Famous Chinese Paintings". I love it. This one, although similar to another one I received before, was painted by artist Wang Jian (ca. 1598-1677). Sadly I don't know the title of this work. I can't read Chinese characters!

This beautiful red & gold stamp is a greeting stamp for New Year issued in 2007.

And what do you think about the red ink cancellation? So cool.

Marcelina is a student and sent me this card of the Collegium Maius, the oldest part of the main University in Krakow.

At first, in 1400, it was a building with lecture halls, later a library, and now this is also a museum of Jagiellan University. There are beautiful historic rooms with original furnitures, collection of the European art or science instruments. Three times a day, the courtyard clock performs little show with wooden figures of kings and famous professors parading to solemn music.

I wish you could see her handwriting. Gorgeous! I had received cards from other postcrossers from Poland with a similar style. ♥

Watteau's Standing woman

The stamp is Watteau's 18th century Standing woman (Stojąca kobieta zwrócona tyłem pocz. XVIII w.) from a series of Lost works of art issued in 2011.

This is the kind of painting I would love to had hanging on my walls. The Romantic style was, in my opinion, the best of all. I loved receiving this postcard of IJsgezicht met houtsprokkelaars (Ice Scene with Wood Gatherers) by Andreas Schelfhout, 1849. I can't imagine how would I feel the moment someone sends me a postcard of any of Friedrich's works and I open my letterbox to find it. Especially if it's The Sea of Ice, which this card reminded me of. Will I die of happiness?

On the back of the card, this gorgeous stamp of the Skinny Bridge over the Amstel river in Amsterdam. Looks kinda melancholic with those lights and I think it matches the card Romantic's air nicely. I am glad to know the Netherlands have beautiful stamps besides the postcrossing commemoratives, which are proving hard to get.

First card from Canada! Yay! Now the USA and Mexico are no longer alone in the tab. ♪

The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were held in Munich, (then) West Germany, from August 26 to September 5 in 1972. Sadly these games were largely overshadowed by what later has been called the Munich massacre: eleven Israeli athletes and coaches, a West German police officer and five terrorists were killed. This is the official poster for the event and was designed by Otl Aicher as long other sports posters and pictograms. Such a nice and cool work of graphic design! He used a technique called "posterization", separating the tonal qualities from the images and using the official munich colours for these games. This had to be produced manually as photoshop did not exist at that time!

This is another travelling card: originally from Germany but sent from Canada. The sender is currently the 1st on most postcards sent from Canada on Postcrossing. He likes watching the Olympic games as I do although he missed this one because he was a little child at that time -- I wasn't even born!

The stamp, unlike last time, has a Canada theme too: one of the baby wildlife series stamp from 2012 where a couple of moose affectionately nuzzle each other. Lovely. Needless to say, we don't have moose in Spain. I like getting this kind of pictures of flora & fauna from all over the world.

Being a woman who loves to read I wonder why this is the only reading woman card I have. Probably because I have never seen any before meeting Danielle.  All the postcards I knew were the childish birthday ones (which I dislike), the Christmas ones (which I have stopped receiving because nobody sends old fashioned postcards anymore) and the touristic ones (which I love to buy when I am visiting any place). Luckily for me, she was willing to share one from her collection and recently I got a neat scan of the card to share. Some scratches from its trip across the ocean can be seen but doesn't it make it more lovable? If only I could spend my days calmly reading by the window!

Leisure

William Worcester Churchill, 1910.

Oil on canvas, 75.9 x 63.8 cm.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

She never disappoints me with her choice of stamps. Lucky girl! Along with my beloved coffeepot from America Toleware and banjo clock from American Clock series, two forever stamps: Cars from 2011 series of Disney-Pixar characters and Lunar New Year of the Dragon from 2012. Love them all! ♥

A card with a postbox from the Republic of Bashkortostan came to my own postbox. It is an old Russian box and the photo was taken by Denis Demkov. If you are interested in it, it is sold online at PostcardID.ru. The back side of the card is printed too: it has a coloured politic world map. Spain is cream coloured and Russia peach. Matvei is a 5 years old boy who sent this card with the help of his mom, but he didn't forget to sign the card! So sweet.

Two lovely stamps and a peek on the world map. On the left, the Moscow Kremlin, UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most famous of Russian Kremlins. On the right, the 2010 stamp for Europa series themed Children's books. Very happy to get both of them!

Easter

My second Easter postcard came from The Netherlands and it is a lovely illustration by Silke Leffler. I liked it very, very much!

Postcrossing

I am making a good collection of cards from St-Petersburg, both from official and private swaps. Suddenly it seems I have been there, as every view makes me feel at home. This time, I got to travel to the Palace Square and see the impressive Column of Alexander in front of the -not less impressive- Hermitage or Winter Palace. Not only I do like the building itself but thinking of how many pieces of art are inside makes my head go dizzy! Stendhal syndrome from a postcard, could that happen?

On the back of the card, a handful stamps representing Russian animals that I have received before: the fox (0.50), the bear (10 R) and the lynx (2.00) -- the lynx is a new addition I love because the Iberian lynx is an endangered species in Spain, and featuring them in stamps is a way as good as any to raise awareness. And they are cute wild cats.

The right stamp, however, depicts a painting of Zinaida Serebriakova, a Russian artist from the early 20th century, called The Shoots of Autumn Crops (1908). It belongs to a series issued to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the birth of the painter.

A mysterious free postcard came unsigned from Taiwan. As I don't understand Chinese characters, the pre-printed text doesn't make sense to me. A pity, because this seems an art project made of postcards from all over the world. What a nice card to send from the Postcrossing project, don't you think?

This beautiful flower comes from the araguaney tree and its name, Tabebuia Chrysantha, means "golden flower". It is the national tree of Venezuela. I wonder whether there are araguaneys in Taiwan too.

Cherry Blossom Viewing (detail)

This is a detail from a Japanese six-panel screen from the Edo period, circa 1700-1800, called Cherry Blossom Viewing. Ink, colours and gold on paper. The original piece is exhibited at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum / Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture, in California (USA). Danielle was kind enough to send me this postcard at the beginning of the spring. She bought this one so it would match the stamps!

I am glad she didn't have to split the stamps up! They look very beautiful together. Where I live we have almond trees. They blossom early, usually around February, and the sight of them is just breath-taking. Those ornamental cherry trees blooming and reflecting on the water must be just an amazing view!

水房清流

This is a traditional ink painting on paper by Chinese artist Chen Youhua, called "Water Garden and Clear Stream" (although 房 means house, so it would be "Water House"?). It was exhibited at the Shangai Art Fair in 2011. The ink technique is amazingly detailed. The kind of add card that I love to receive!

澳门运动场

Nebraska became the 37th state to be admitted to the Union on March 1, 1867. Today, Nebraska is one of the country's leading producers of feed crops and livestock.

This is the downtonwn area of Omaha: business disctrict to the right and commercial shopping district to the left.

Lincoln is the capitol city of Nebraska, about 45 min drive from Omaha. It is a small college town -- University of Nebraska. They have the country's only unicameral legislature.

Nebraska, where the West begins, has lots of cattle ranches and exports beef. You still can see some buffalos in the countryside -- along with loads of cows!

All five postcards came together in an envelope safe and sound. These stamps made my day and put a big smile on my face. I am a huge fan of everything green, including the colour itself! I try to go green everyday and am glad to say that I follow both advices on the stamps: days are mostly sunny where I live so I can let nature do the work. Also, I just walk or take the bus everyday and share rides when I need to go somewhere farther. ♪

On the top right, a stamp of the Wisdom mural of the Rockefeller Center in New York City with a facial value of $1, and below the gorgeous coffeepot painted by Lou Nolan from the American series (American Toleware).

I don't think I can have enough of these! This is the first time I see these colours in the northern lights -- it was also a first for the sender, who had taken this photo herself and got it printed at a print company. The card came with a little scratch on the bottom right corner, which bothered me a little because the image is breathtaking.

How wonderful must it be to live in the Norwegian countryside?

Another post horn! ♥ This one from Norway with green colours reminds me very badly of the label of a beer company. I wonder who got inspired by whom?

On the right side, an art stamp. The stampmotive is a section of Lyset ved pinsetider, 162 x 200cm. Commemorative Issue Norwegian art II issued in 2009. This is the info I found about the artist:

Irma Salo Jæger (b. 1928 in Finland) has been a major figure in Norwegian art since the 1960s. She studied art in Munich, Oslo and Florence after taking a degree in art history in Helsinki. She is regarded as one of the greatest exponents of abstract painting in Norway, and her debut coincided with the breakthrough of this form of expression around 1960. Her paintings are characterised by clearly demarcated areas of intense, bright colour, often blues, reds and oranges. Irma Salo Jaeger held a professorship at Statens Kunstakademi in Oslo from 1986 until 1992. Her work is presented in a book by art historian Erik Daehlin, which was published in 2002.

This little beauty came to my letter-box not long ago. Tiina is an 11 years-old girl who enjoys postcrossing thanks to her mum, who thinks this project is a great idea for her daughter to learn English -- agree. I was lucky enough to be sent this gorgeous greeting card with a matching stamp. Spring has sprung! ♪

We don't celebrate Easter in Spain* and I have never sent or received this kind of cards before. Needless to say, I love it.

* although we do celebrate Holy Week & Resurrection Sunday, those holidays have nothing to do with eggs, bunnies or spring, but they are a religious celebration.

The stamp also put a big smile on my face: bunny and chick painting the easter egg together! It is a design by illustrator Janne Harju released in March 2012. Ten points to the Finnish postal service!

This postcard's theme: Easter (obvious).

Today I was surprised by my postman with this wonderful postcard by Alfons Mucha. He made this litograph in 1911 for the Moravian Teachers' Choir (Pěvecké sdružení moravských učitelů). There is little information about this piece, which isn't as wide known as many of his other works. The Moravian Teachers' Choir performed many types of song, including folk music by Moravian composer Janáček. The girl in the poster wears a folk costume from Kyjov, Moravia (Czech Republic).

This is a design by Balenciaga -- the original belongs to the Fashion Museum in Madrid, Spain (Museo del Traje). It's part of a sheet of four stamps entitled Moda Española. The sheet is illustrated by clothes worn according to different hours of the day, and so the 0.39€ stamp reproduces a cocktail chantilly lace dress over transparent ivory taffeta, with tight waistline and full skirt. It was made in Paris between 1948-1950.

The other three stamps show a two-piece suit (0.42 €), a morning dress and matching coat (0.58 €) and a casual shirt dress (0.78 €).

Needless to say, I am mesmerized by this beautiful little piece of art. ♪

I have noticed many users from Postcrossing don't like free or ad cards. Perhaps because they are free and they feel cheated. But I don't mind because many of them are little pieces of art or design. I had this one among my favourites and Betty was so kind to send me one! She is a Dane living in Italy and sent me this Spanish card written in English. That made this swap a very international one. She is currently in the top 5 on most sent from Italy.

Afinet (Ágora de Filatelia en Internet) is a Spanish philately association. They released this postcard for their 5th anniversary. In the old days, postmen used to wish their customers a Merry Christmas with cards similar to this one. I am glad Afinet people recovered this tradition with this endearing postcard.