Slowly, all members of the European Royal families are making their ways here! Meet Paola, Queen of the Belgians, posing for her official portrait and wearing family jewels.

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This is entry number 100. Happy anniversary to the blog!

U.S. parcel post · 50 cents

Stamp-themed postcards! Aren't they pretty? This was a 50 cents old stamp from the USA featuring a dairy farm. It came from Wisconsin and was sent by a Postcrosser who is on 10 top senders from this country (which, in my opinion, given the large number of users, is quite impressive).

Legends of Baseball 2000 (top) & birds (bottom)

On the flip side, these amazing sets of stamps: Legends of Baseball issued in 2000 on the top (Eddie Collins and Jackie Robinson), facial value 33 cts, and birds from the Wildlife from Canadian-United States Border sheet on the bottom (mallard, Canada goose and blue jay), 13 cts each, issued in 1978 for the Canadian International Philatelic Exhibition. Wow! I feel lucky today
As a 1978 girl, I am touched. ♥

Three bullfinches in a bird shelter in the cold, cold Siberian winter. I usually show my postcards from Russia to my Russian classmate and she offers her help to identify locations or stamps, or sometimes a quick translation. She told me this is called the winter Russian bird, which appears in the cold season when other species migrate. Of course, it is my first time hearing from it. Another beautiful trip to the even more beautiful Mother Russia. ♪

On the back side, nine stamps cover half of the card! From left to right:

♪ Novgorod Kremlin from the Sixth Definitives series - RussianKremlins issue, 2009

♪ The Hare

♪ The Fox (six of them)

♪ Pyotr A. Stolypin 150th birth anniversary

This is a commemorative stamp for the 150th birth anniversary of the Prime Minister and agrarian reformer Pyotr Stolypin (1862-1911), later assasinated in the opera. On the background, the Russian flag and the Palace Square in St-Petersburg. For only one year, this stamp could have been also commemorative of his 100th death anniversary.

Postcard from: Tomsk, Siberian region, Russia.

Received: May 2012.

Language: English.

Envelope: no.

Stamps: nine!

Thank you very much, Andrey!

{RU-944045}

This week's theme is anything you wish

Left: Queen Elizabeth II in Coronation Robes © V&A Images / Right: © Getty Images

The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II is a multinational celebration throughout 2012 marking the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the thrones of seven countries upon the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. She is today queen regnant of 16 sovereign states, 12 of which were British colonies or Dominions at the start of her reign.

Garter Ceremony 1997

Every June, a procession and service take place at Windsor Castle for the Order of the Garter. Founded by Edward III in 1348, the Order is the senior, and the oldest, British Order of Chivalry. In the service The Queen formally invests new Companions of the Order of the Garter in the Throne Room of Windsor Castle.

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Featuring images taken from Britain’s stamps, banknotes and coins, the Miniature Sheet takes us from Dorothy Wilding’s lovely 1952 portrait, to a special Diamond Jubilee Machin printed with iridescent ink. All six stamps have been issued at First Class inland letter rate.

Her Majesty's Definitive stamps

Queen Victoria is the only other monarch in the histories of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other Commonwealth realms to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee, which she did in in 1897.

I received another travelling card. Lately it seems my cards like to take a good tour around Europe before arriving in Spain. Jiri bought this one when he was living in London and, reading that I like nightviews, kindly sent it to me from his home in the Czech Republic. It was his last English card and he tells me he bought it because he never had the chance to see the bridge up like this. Isn't it a great view of the London Tower Bridge? I love it! ♥

Impressed? Ha! Then look at the stamp on the flip side. An amazing illustration by Marina Richterová of an expressively conducting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an original copy of the Don Giovanni score and the Prague's Estates Theatre in the background. It is 5.5 x 3.5 cm.

♪ England + Austria + Czech Republic ♪

Guess what my favourite animal is? ♥

Hint: is furry and brown. Note: sometimes it can be white or black-patched. Answer: you can see it above.

Bear cubs are really cute! I love bears above all animals, they have appealled to me since I was a little child. My best friend was a (teddy) white bear cub that I still have. In Spain, brown bears are endangered species and nowadays can be only found in National Parks in the Cantabrian Mountains. This little one however lives freely and happily in the Estonian forests.

Now the stamps. Plenty of them and variegated!

♪ On the left there is Estonian writer and playwright Oskar Luts (1887-1953), a 0.45€ stamp issued in 2012, Luts' 125th birth anniversary. At just 25 years old Oskar Luts, who had earlier penned only a few lines of poetry, authored Spring, a book that made him famous all over the country overnight.

* More info about this stamp can be found on the Eesti Post website.

♪ The little green one is a silhouette of a post horn, which seems to be the symbol of the postal service worldwide -- I like that!

♪ And last, another fauna beauty: a watercolour of a roe deer (capreolus capreolus).

This week theme is poets and poetry.

Not long after H.M. Queen Elizabeth II I had another royal visit, this time from the Netherlands: the Dutch Royal couple at the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria & Daniel Westling in Stockholm, June 19th 2010. I don't really like the gown she was wearing that day (she looks so stuffed in it that reminds me of a sausage!) but I am delighted at their visit because of their bright smiles. Now that the Dutch Royal family is having such a hard time looking at them so happy brings me a hint of hope.

I received this card on their 10th wedding anniversary. I still remember that day clearly -- I coulnd't attend their wedding on TV because a classmate was getting married on that day too. It was sunny and warm, spring just around the corner. May you live happily for another 100 years!

Postcard from: The Hague, the Netherlands.

Received: February 2012.

Language: English.

Envelope: no.

Stamps: one Europa 1. Geeft groen. Licht stamp from 2011.

Thank you, Chantal!
{NL-1021452}

I never thought I would have a royal as a guest in my house but yesterday H. M. Queen Elizabeth II came to my letterbox and of course I couldn't ask her please to go. On the contrary, she graciously accepted my invite and we had tea in my room. Now she hangs on my cork board above my computer so we can share niceties while I am typing. She is my first Royal postcard. Congratulations on your 60th anniversary, Your Majesty!