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. ♥

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

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.

My first postcard from Lithuania! This is the standard Lithuanian postbox. I like them to be yellow, as our Spanish pillar boxes. Very post-like. And another post horn to add to my collection! (1) (2)

This stamp is commemorative of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Zalgiris, considered to be one of the most important historical events of Lithuania and one of the largest battles which took place in the Medieval Europe. In Poland they know it as Battle of Grunwald and other countries name it Battle of Tannenberg.

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 is the Moorish Revival southern façade of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka (Crimea, Ukraine). Built from 1828 through 1848 -- which you can tell by its Romantic architecture: remember Lednice's Minaret? -- for Prince Vorontsov for use as his personal summer residence. This Romantic palace was designed in the English Tudor style, although it encompass elements of Scottish Baronial, Moorish Revival and Gothic Revival styles. It still manages to incorporate Classical style architectural elements. There are a total of 150 rooms.

The Vorontsov Palace is part of a national historical preserve along with the 40 hectares park, including the Massandra Palace in neighbouring townlet Massandra.

The stamp doesn't match the card (you cannot have it always). But for a penmanship lover like me, it couldn't be more valuable. An old inkpot! ♪

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.

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.