It's safe to say I'm addicted. I love sending them. I love receiving them. I have belonged to
Postcrossing for 2 years and have several accounts on there. On Postcrossing my IDs are
Mama_Bear,
Mama-Bear, and
Banapple. I also manage an account called
HoneyBears for my youngest daughters who are ages 4 and 5 and also adore getting postcards. I did also have one for my mother who was very ill this past year and before she passed away in November Postcrossing brought her smiles from around the world. I have many postcard pen-friends who I exchange cards with too!
I started this blog here because I was locked out of my Flickr account due to my email being hacked and taken over. Yahoo can kiss my big ass because they will not help me restore this Flickr account that I paid good money to upgrade and had downloaded nearly 900 cards to. I am very, very upset, angry, disappointed, and outraged at Yahoo and Flickr for not protecting my accounts better and, furthermore, not restoring control of them to me. I have been around and around with them over it. I've jumped through hoops and all to no avail. Let this be a warning to all - beware of Yahoo and Flickr. If your email account is compromised it is impossible to get it back.
So Google and Blogger, please have me, hold me, cherish me, and love me for all the days of postcards to come! Shall I open a Picasa site? Is that what it's called? The Google version of Flickr? Maybe. But for now, let me settle in here and see what I can accomplish. :o)
I'm going to post the cards I've received since Flickr locked me out last week. I'm going to post the stamps too since they are often so very beautiful and interesting as well!
The first one is from Belarus (Postcrossing ID: BY-128550). I had never even heard of the country before I joined Postcrossing! It's a country between Russia and Poland. This area of north-eastern Europe is very much into Postcrossing. I exchange a LOT of cards with countries from this region.
The writer of this card says this illustration depicts the historical center of Minsk, the capital of Belarus. All the original historical buildings were destroyed during World War II and rebuilt. In the middle is the most popular Orthodox Church in Minsk, to the right is the city hall and in the bottom left corner is a part of the Nemiga Channel, which was built instead of the Nemiga River since the river was blocked with ruins in WWII and now is flowing underground. How very interesting! Great stamps too!
This is a private swap card from Luxor, Egypt! Yay! I love it! It's the first pylon of Philae Temple in Aswan, constructed during the reign of Ptolemy XII in the first century BC. The temple is dedicated to Isis and enlarged during the Roman Era. Very cool, with King Tut stamps too!
Here is Jerzi, of course, a sweet Welsh Corgi from Massachusetts! Love the special heart postmark that the United States adopted in honor of Valentines Day! That's a forever stamp. Boring. I must admit, the cards I send to other Americans have equally boring 28 cent postcard stamps on them of the polar bears. There just is no variety - though some people do get rather creative. When I send cards overseas though I always put 2 different first class stamps and a 10 cent stamp on the card so they are always cool looking and people love that. I love it too!
Cute cute cute from Estonia! The artist is Navitrolla, popular in Estonia. The sender wrote that Navitrolla loves animals and lives in a farmhouse with lots of them. Animals are on almost all of his artwork. Read the title of this card along the side of the stamps!
Sent from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio (GO BUCKS!) Postcrossing ID: US-996076
Gee, I wish I had the money to build a full-size ornamental lighthouse in my yard! Mama loves lighthouses!
Beautiful scenery from Switzerland! My goodness! It's so flat where I live, I can't imagine the glorious views they see each day! (CH-72041)
US-797039 - A 2nd attempt at sending a card that was lost in the mail! Thank you dear sender for having faith in me enough to resend your expired card! The caption on the back of this card says, "The Top Hat Drive-In, Spokane, Washington. Fast, tasty food escorted to your car by our ever ready, uniformed Auto-Maids. Please, no honking. :o) Very cool.
An albino grizzly bear? Wow! I collect bear cards so I get a lot of them. I love the more unusual ones. This one is from the Netherlands (NL-553970)
Another one from Belarus (BY-111290) St. Peter and Paul Church, built in 1611-1613 in Minsk. Beautiful! The postmark is so strong it indented the front of the card. I wonder if you can see it by clicking and enlarging the picture?
Dear beloved polar bears from Russia (RU-324985). The stamps are phenomenal! Wowee! I love them! They cover the whole top of the card and I'm so glad I could share them here. I might make this photo my new Mama_Bear profile pic since it's a lovely Mama Bear with her 3 adorable cubs!
This is a regular greeting card I received from Riga, the capital city of Latvia. I don't mind receiving cards instead of postcards. I am not a picky person at all. This is a private swap for my Audrey Hepburn card. The sender was very charming and sent me a bookmark! I'd scan it and include it in the blog but it's being put to good use in my latest Jude Deveraux book back beside my bed. :o) And I love that cute bunny stamp!! He wants to eat that lettuce!! CUTE!
From Belarus (BY-136807) Read the description below - very interesting!
The beautiful church Bourg-En-Bresse located in a little town between Lyon and Geneva. Thank you France! (FR-132377)
That's it for today! I'll be spending the weekend writing postcards and catching up with all my swaps! I have quite a few to send out. The United States recently hit the million mark of official postcards sent through Postcrossing. Incredible. Finland has us beat though, which I'm happy for because I love, love cards from Finland! The people are just lovely and they have the BEST stamps! You rarely will see the same one twice!
Have fun,
Angie the Mama Bear
