Netherlands Horses

This card came as an official from Gerrie last September. I get a lot of horse cards from the Netherlands - it seems horse cards are almost as plentiful as cityviews there (and I like horses a lot more than cityviews :).

Normal stamp on this card, so I won't post it.

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

This came as an official from Carole in Ontario. According to the back of the card, "Hamilton, Ontario has over 100 local waterfalls, making it the undisputed waterfall capital of the world." I was skeptical at first, but a preliminary Google search indicates that this honor is indeed undisputed.

The particular falls pictured on this card is Sherman Falls, which, also according to the back of the card, "is named after the family of Clifton Sherman, who established the Dominion Foundries and Steel Co. in 1912. Located on the Bruce Trail near Old Dundas Road, this beautiful waterfall is also known as Angel Falls and Fairy Falls." Should you want to visit Sherman Falls for yourself, driving directions are available here.

Two stamps that escaped cancellation, both from 2008. The one on the top is from a set of two on Anne of Green Gables, and the one on the bottom is a peony, also from a set of 2.

Happy Easter from Poland

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating this holiday. When I was a kid, Easter meant waking up to an Easter basket full of candy and goodies, and then hunting for easter eggs later on. Now it just means that tomorrow, candy will be on sale! I got this card last year as an official from Marta.

These stamps are from the set of manor houses, the middle one issued in 2001 and the two on either side (identical) issued in 2000.

Taiwan Flip-Flops

This was a private swap from shui in Taiwan. I sent her a card from the Tokyo Postcrossing Meeting. She says this card shows a scene from a store in Kenting, in the southeast part of Taiwan.

I've been busting out my Chaco sandals the past couple of weeks... every time the temperature hits 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I am definitely ready for spring to begin showing its face.

Awesome stamp. It's from a November 2011 set of 5 on branch railways. This is the Pingxi Branch Line between Sandiaoling and Jingtong. I actually have a card showing the Jingtong station, which I should post sometime.

Canberra, Australia

Canberra, Capital of Australia
1. Blundell's Cottage - 1858
2. Old Parliament House - 1927
3. National Carillion
4. National Museum of Australia

This card came as an official in an envelope with several other cards. This particular one I don't really care for, not because there's anything wrong with it per se, just because I'm not really a fan of multiviews. (Of the four views, the bottom left is most appealing to me.) The sender writes, "It is called the bush capital because we have retained a lot of natural bushland throughout the city."

Right now I'm reading In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson, a travel book about Australia. It took me a while to get into it (I started it on my trip to Asia in December), but now I am quite enjoying it. Bryson visited Canberra in his travels, and had this to say:

My one tip if you ever go to Canberra is don't leave your hotel without a good map, a compass, several days' provisions, and a cell phone with the number of a rescue service. I walked for two hours through green, pleasant, endlessly identical neighborhoods... from time to time I would come to a leafy rotary with spoked roads radiating off in various directions, each presenting an identical vista of antipodean suburban heaven, and I would venture down the one that looked most likely to take me to civilization only to emerge ten minutes later at another identical rotary. I never saw another soul on foot... Eventually, and abruptly, I turned a corner and was downtown. Here at last were stores and restaurants and all the other commercial amenities of a city, but all were closed.

Saana Hill, Finland

This card is from Merja for the Surprise Me round robin. "Saana hill is the highest one in Finland. We have no mountains," she writes. The summit is 3,376 feet above sea level.

There are a number of similar hills in Finland and in the rest of Scandinavia as well. This story involves the hills Saana, Malla, Big Malla, Pältsä, Paras, and the lake Kilpisjärvi which surrounds Saana.

THE SAGA OF HOW KILPISJÄRVI LAKE CAME TO BE
According to a legend - long ago Kilpisjärvi area was lived by giants. Sullen Saana got had a crush on lovely Malla. On the wedding day Pältsä wanted to have the procession stopped. He was also infatuated with Malla. The wedding ceremony would have been held by Paras, the magician. But Pältsä had called the evil elderly women of Lapland to come to the scene. All of a sudden fierce northern wind wiped all of the celebrants with cold wind. Very soon the whole area became filled with ice. At the last moment, Saana rushed the lovely Malla to her mother, Big Malla. Then the freezing cold took away all life. From the tears of lovely Malla was formed Kilpisjärvi - the lake.

The stamp, from 2009, shows the Pallas-Yllastunturi National Park. It has raised dots on it that appear to be Braille, but I'm not sure.

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!