Mung Bean Mooncake, Taiwan

Long time, no post. Well, I'm back. I have recently gotten back into Postcrossing and hope to update this blog more regularly!

To start with for today, here is a card showing mung bean mooncakes from Taiwan. This card was from RachelDing for the November alternate RR. Rachel writes that mooncakes are usually popular during Middle Autumn Festival, but are eaten all year round.




According to Wikipedia, the mid-autumn festival is for lunar appreciation and moon viewing. Moon cakes typically contain salted whole egg yolks inside, to represent the moon. Mung bean is the most common filling in Taiwan (accompanied by the egg yolks). However, "modern" mooncakes can be filled with a wide variety of ingredients such as ice cream, durian, coffee, even tiramisu!

This card came with two lovely stamps.



The one on the right is from a 2017 issue of four stamps depicting marine life, with this particular one showing  Culcita novaeguineae, or cushion star, common in Taiwanese reefs. The one on the left is from a non-denominated set of 2 issued in 2017.

Welsh Countryside

Getting well immersed in the countryside...

I got this card from my brother when he was on a bike trip in the U.K. He wrote that this was him one night wild camping in a Welsh forest.

The stamp is from a 2011 set of ten and features Daisy from the children's cartoon Thomas the Tank Engine.



This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth. Click on the icon to visit her blog and join in.

Christian de Lanbodère

CA-189591
The sender of this card states that she found it at a French art show in Shanghai, China. As such, I'm not sure how to classify the nationality of the card!

However, it was mailed from Canada.

The stamp is from February 2011. It's a painting by Canadian Aboriginal artist Daphne Odjig entitled "Spiritual Renewal."

Sensoji Temple, Tokyo

The 100 Views of Edo: Sensoji Temple at Asakusa
by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

This postcard shows a famous woodblock-print by one of Japan's most famous ukiyo-e artists. Hiroshige was born the son of a samurai in Tokyo (then called Edo). He followed in his father's footsteps to become a firefighter, dedicated to protecting Edo Castle from fire. However, his salary was small and he took to art to supplement his income. The series of 100 views of Edo was produced over a three year period from 1856-1859, and was completed by Hiroshige's pupil after his death. This painting is number 99 in the series (there are actually more than 100 of them).

I've been to Sensoji several times, but it seems I don't have any pictures of it. It's one of the best places in Tokyo to buy souvenirs, as they have different types all in one place. And you can buy a candle or incense to make an offering, or buy a luck charm. I've never seen it covered in snow like this, though.

The stamp is from the series "Anime Heroes and Heroines," issued in October 2009. This one is Sai from Naruto.

Delft Blue

From Peggy for the surprise me RR. She writes that Delft Blue is a typically Dutch form of art, and that these are traditional costumes not often seen anymore except to amuse tourists. Thanks Peggy for the card and for these old, awesome stamps:

 A stamp from 1996, and one from 1991 showing Pieter Zeeman, nobel-prize winning Dutch physicist.

This one is from 1995 and shows the World Scout Jamboree, which was held in the Netherlands in that year.

Watercolor Watermelon

あしたはあしたの風がふくのだ。
Tomorrow, tomorrow's wind will blow.

I got this postcard from my dear friend Lara nearly a year ago. It seems like a good day for watermelon (summer weather!) and a good day to post this card. The artwork is by Miki Yuuseki.

The stamp is the great tit definitive seen here.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth. Click the logo to visit and join in.

"The 13th Woman" by Lydia Davis

In a town of twelve women there was a thirteenth. No one admitted she lived there, no mail came for her, no one spoke of her, no one asked after her, no one sold bread to her, no one bought anything from her, no one returned her glance, no one knocked on her door; the rain did not fall on her, the sun never shone on her, the day never dawned on her, the night never fell for her; for her the weeks did not pass, the years did not roll by; her house was unnumbered, her garden untended, her path not trod upon, her bed not slept in, her food not eaten, her clothes not worn; and yet in spite of all this she continued to live in the town without resenting what it did to her.

This is an ad card for a reading by Lydia Davis, which I got when I did an internship at the place which sponsored the reading, in 2003.

Chinese Fish

Paintings of Various Subjects
Album Leaves by Xu Gu
the Qing Dynasty

This is one of the oldest postcards in my collection, and definitely the first card I ever received from China. It predates my joining Postcrossing by a fair margin. This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth. Her theme this week is fish/April Fool's Day. I thought about posting a generic spring card (I have a lot of Japanese cherry blossoms, for example), but I thought a fish would be more appropriate. I chose this one because it was sent by a friend rather than a Postcrossing stranger. (Same friend who sent this one.)

After I chose it I noticed that it was postmarked March 31, which is tomorrow (except in 2009). The top two characters on the postmark are the name of the city, Xi'an 西安. The same characters occur in Japanese, where they would be pronounced sei-an, and mean "west peace." The bottom four characters are nearly illegible, but the first two are "Wild Goose Tower" which is a building in Xi'an. I am guessing that together this is the name/location of the post office from which the card was sent. You know, since that is generally what is printed on postmarks.


I love it when people draw artwork on the backs of cards.

Not sure about the stamp. I think it's a definitive. I've gotten it several times. If the characters mean something similar to what they do in Japanese, the theme of the stamp is protecting diverse species.


A post for Postcard Friendship Friday. Click on the icon to go to the page and participate!

北京欢迎你

These are the mascots ("fuwa") of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Beibei the fish, Jingjing the panda, Huanhuan the Olympic flame, Yingying the Tibetan antelope, and Nini the swallow.

According to the official website, "Fuwa embody both the landscape and the dreams and aspirations of people from every part of the vast country of China. In their origins and their headpieces, you can see the five elements of nature -- the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky -- all stylistically rendered in ways that represent the deep traditional influences of Chinese folk art and ornamentation."

If you un-reduplicate the names and put them all together - Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni - it apparently means "welcome to Beijing." Cute.

I got the card from the favorites tag, and it was sent unwritten in an envelope. Sad! However, the sender said she was afraid that it would be stolen in the mail, and she didn't have any more copies of this card. I am not sure what the red circular stamps are from. The "stamp" in the top right corner is preprinted.

New Mexico Roadrunner

I got this card from my friend Avi who lives in New Mexico. According to the back of the card, "The comical roadrunner, New Mexico's state bird, prefers running to flying and have been clocked at speeds of 15 miles per hour. They are approximately 22 inches in length, and their diet consists of insects, lizards, centipedes, mice and snakes." Yum!

Someone who is collecting state bird, state tree, and state flower postcards messaged me asking for a swap a couple of weeks ago. I found a couple of rhododendron cards but no western hemlock or willow goldfinch cards... All I found was a map card that had those listed but not pictured. Lame. Actually I think it even had a picture of a tree, but it was a Doug fir, not a hemlock! Super lame.

My favorite part of this postcard may have been the mountains hand-drawn on the bottom. :)



This stamp is from 1998, depicting the yellow poplar (Luriodendron tulipifera), also known as the tulip tree. Avi said he steamed it off an old envelope and re-used it. Very cool.

Queensland, Australia

Chinchilla is a town in Queensland, famous for its delicious watermelons. In fact, this tiny town (pop. 3,681) produces 25% of Australia's melons! Every other year they host the Chinchilla Melon Festival. "If you've never tried skiing with watermelons on your feet, you should come to our Melon Festival," writes the sender of the card. Mark your calendars - the next one is in February 2013.

The image is art by French-born Australian artist Francois Corneloup titled "Chinchilla Melons."

The stamp is the same as the one here.

Taipei International Flora Expo 2010

I don't have a lot to say about this card. It came as an official, obviously bought and sent from the Flora Expo. Apparently this "2010" expo lasted several months before coming to a close in April 2011, which is when this card was postmarked. The expo looked pretty cool - check out the website to see for yourself.

Speaking of postmarked... check this out. "Taipei International Flora Exposition - Taipei Temporary Post Office." They actually set up a special post office at the expo. How cool is that?? The stamp doesn't have a visible date of issue, but the flower is a vanda orchid.

Polish Cats

Another one from the favorites tag. I've gotten so many nice cards from these tags. However, lately I've stopped doing tags and have been sending a lot more official cards. It's still soooo addictive to draw an address and pick a card for the person you get. I actually got the same person twice in a row this morning - once on each of his accounts! It's crazy that that happens despite there being nearly 250,000 accounts.

Anyway. These cats are an illustration by K. Majewska and A. Tylkowski, if I am not mistaken.

These stamps are a nice contrast to the stamps I normally get from Poland. First, on the left, is a stamp featuring mountain bike riding in a 1999 set of four on youth sports. Graffiti stamps: how awesome is that? On the right is a 2008 stamp depicting "drifting sand" (zamieć piaskowa) from a set of four on weather phenomena. On the bottom is a stamp of two species of rosella: crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans - the red and blue one) and eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius - the multicolored one). This is from a 2004 set of four exotic birds.




How do they pick what themes to make stamps out of, I wonder?

Western Highway

I am a driver on a western highway



from the mountains



and to the sea



And there's a song on the western highway saying I will be free.

The sky is fading to the color of the valley
Dust of angels and dust of dreams



Your city lights will shine until tomorrow



but I will not be here.

Your light is brighter than anything I've ever seen.
I hear your voice on every station, singing out of your dream.

By the roadside, the trees are shivering, black and silver in the cool night air



and under the moonlight I hear a song you're singing
saying I will meet you there.



Here I am on the road again



The song begins
and in the end
I'll be standing by the sea.



I am a driver on a western highway
from the mountains and to the sea
and there's a song on the western highway
saying I will be free.

Eindhoven, Netherlands

For some reason, I decided I should post a card I don't like. Normally I only post cards that, if I don't love, there is at least something interesting about it. Is it too negative to say why I don't like this card? First of all, it is a multiview, and neither picture is that attractive, plus the way they are put together isn't at all artistic. If it were even symmetrical or the color scheme were matched, I think it would look nicer. I have a number of other cards that I don't like for the same reasons... maybe some people really like this type of card? Otherwise I don't even know why a company would print it. I can't discount the possibility that in some towns there are no nicer cards, and of course I still appreciate the sender's effort to write a nice message and send me a card. She writes that the top is the soccer stadium of Eindhoven, and the bottom is the market square, where she likes to sit in the market square and have a drink in the summer. It does look like a good place for that. :)

According to wikipedia, Eindhoven is unique in the number of modern art pieces in parks and around the city, including this one:

And a google image search shows many attractive pictures of the city that would also make good postcards.

Maybe I should go into the postcard design business. Actually I did design one postcard myself, and had it printed through Vistaprint (mainly because there are no commercial postcards of Sogenji and I wanted one). It must be nice enough because a lot of people on Postcrossing have put it on their favorites wall.

OK, now I am getting off my soapbox.

Monsters

There is nothing on this card to indicate what it actually is of/from. But I love the colors and the expressions on the characters' faces. :)

Netherlands Kiddie Art

NL-286196 from a primary school class in Steenwijk, the Netherlands. "This year we laern how to speak Englisch. We hope you like our card! We made it ourselvis." Cute! :)

Normal stamp, so I won't post it.

Night Train

From exmellie for the June 2010 RR. I got to choose this from her offers album and I really like it. She says the piece is called "Night Train," but didn't say who the artist is. Anyone?

Two copies of a racoon from a 2008 issue on wild animals, plus two from a set of garden flowers: tulip and lily.

Sofia, Bulgaria

This is a combined historic/contemporary cityview of Sofia, the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. The bottom part is a watercolor by Josef Oberbauer called "Sofia in 1907."

This is my only card from Bulgaria. Since it doesn't have an ID I think it must be from a private swap, but I don't remember it!

The Bulgaria post website has no stamp information in English. The stamp is dated 2006. Bulgaria is an International Postal Union member, but the 2006 issuing program isn't available on their website. So - another mystery!

Dutch Horses

From Annerie for my vacation RR group from last month's trip to Portland. That was the trip where I ended up wandering around downtown Portland in the evening looking for some dinner, and trying not to cry in public. I passed a homeless person sitting in a doorway. Instead of asking me for money, he said "Take care. You look like you have a lot on your mind."

Well, something good came of that weekend, because I like this card a lot. The horses look so peaceful in their field in the sun.

She used great stamps. Two (left and middle) from 1988, and one from 1990 (right). The middle one says "200 Jaar Australie" and on the map of Australia "Nova Hollandia." The one on the right says "Hoofdkantoor Koninklijke PTT Nederland NV Groningen." Can anyone explain them?