Four postcard sent outside of Europe

Last week I got lot of addresses outside of Europe. I like to send postcards to remote countries. This birthday card was sent to the USA on 22th January. "Boldog születésnapot!"

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To Indonesia I sent a beautiful card with a picture of Alfons Mucha on the same day. I like his painting very much! It is from the series "The Precious Stones"; title is “Rubin”. I will write soon a note about sent and received Mucha cards.

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Two days later to a new Chinese postcrosser was sent a card with the entrance of “Móra Ferenc Museum", Szeged. The photo was taken by Béla Duscha, a photographer living in Szeged. I will write a note about his photos too. He makes not simple tourist cards. All his pictures are masterpieces.

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There are not a lot of Postcrossers from Arabic countries. This multiview card a sent to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It had a very short travel time: 5 days. There are some important sights of Szeged on it.
1. Rectorate of University of Szeged
2. Dom square with the Roman Catholic Votive Church, the symbol of Szeged
3. Reök Palace, a building in Art Nuevo style for artistic exhibitions
4. Water-slides of "Bath Sunshine"
5. The City Hall
6. The oldest water tower
7. Festival on the bridge over the Tisza River

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This card was sent with a new stamp. There is the Synagogue in Baja. Baja is a pleasant small South Hungarian town near the Danube. The Synagogue was built between 1842 and 1845. Jewish people from Baja and the surrounding area were deported during the second World War in May 1944. Only a few of them returned, the chapel wasn't used and the ownerless building’s condition was getting worse. The building was purchased by the city in 1985 and was renovated and remade for the needs of a library.

Flower Feries

On 26th January I received my 5th flower fairy card. He is Ragged Robin Fairy from the book A Flower Fairy Alphabet, 1934. He came from Portland, Oregon (USA). The sender is the 15th on most postcards sent from USA but she is not a Postcrossing machine. Flower fairies are so lovely and I would like to collect all.

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There are nice stamps on this card. With the first one the U.S. Postal Service celebrates the bobcat (Lynx rufus), a member of the feline family found across the United States. In this bold, graphic depiction, the bobcat's golden eyes and pink nose make a striking contrast with its fur, rendered in shades of brown.

Flower fairies were painted by Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973). She was an English illustrator. Her first book, Flower Fairies of the Spring, was published in 1923. Similar books (Flower Fairies of the Summer, 1925; Flower Fairies of the Autumn, 1926; The Book of the Flower Fairies, 1927; A Flower Fairy Alphabet, 1934; Flower Fairies of the Trees, 1940; Flower Fairies of the Garden, 1944; Flower Fairies of the Wayside, 1948) were published in the following decades. Flower Fairies of the Winter was published posthumously (1985). Her sister conducted a kindergarten. The children in the kindergarten modelled for the flower fairies. Flower fairies are tiny creatures that live in the tree tops, marshes, forest floor, wayside and gardens. Wherever and whenever a seed sprouts, a flower fairy baby is born. Each flower fairy lives and sleeps in their chosen flower, plant or tree, and as this grows the fairy grows too. Each and every flower fairy is in charge of looking after their flower or plant; keeping it strong and healthy by making sure it has plenty of sunshine and water to drink, sweeping away dead leaves, and polishing flowers and stems. Flower fairies are nature sprites. Each fairy looks and behaves like an extra dimension of the plant it lives within and cares for. The evocative 'song' each flower fairy sings, helps convey the 'spirit' of her flower. The plants were painted from life, and if a specimen was not readily at hand, Kew Gardens staff would provide her the specimens needed. Barker designed and built the flower fairy costumes, and based each on the flowers and leaves of the particular plant to be illustrated.

My first flower fairy was the Winter Jasmine Fairy. He came from the UK in August 2011. I read the blog of nyassa, an English postcrosser and gave her information about a Hungarian postcard. She send me this lovely card as a thank.

This card was sent also with three stamps. The most interesting is the Mini, a British icon of the 1960s. This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis.

The second flower fairy came from Finland in January 2012. She is the Lavender Fairy. It is lovely!

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One month later I received a new fairy: the Rose-Bay Willow-Herb Fairy. It was also a "thank you card" from Cleootje from the Netherlands.Sheliked my card (HU-44156) so much so she sent me this nice thank you. Nyassa and Cleootje are good examples for postcrossers who send and receives a lot of cards but they are not Postcrossing machines.

This card has a nice Postcrossing stamp on it.

I have one more flower fairy. She is the Snowdrop Fairy. It is a beautiful glittering card from Finland.

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It has a lucky  ice-hockey stamp.

Who is a Postcrossing machine?

Some Postcrossers do like a Postcrossing machine. What that means? For these Postcrossers collection of postcards is more important than receiving or writing postcards. Most of them has a specific wish list and send/receive more than 100 postcards per month. They buy dozens of a cheep postcard or make postcard from a self made photo and send the same picture several times. They write on the card only a short greeting and the ID. I think this card was sent by a Postcrossing machine. It was sent without any information about the sender or the picture. If you see the sent postcards of the sender you see the same cards several times. Same card with ID FI-1652571 was sent to Portugal. The recipient wrote: "Nice Tram! If any one knows where it is exactly located feel free to add a description." Because of the card came from Helsinki I think the photo was taken in the Finish capital. I searched with the words "Helsinki" "tram" an "museum" on the web, and I found a picture about the same tram. I founded it! The photo was taken in the Tram Musem in Helsinki. I sent the link to the Portugal girl. She was thankful for it.

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The stamp with Aurora borealis I have received before. It is nice.

Pharmacy on postcards

One of my favourite postcard themes is pharmacy. I'm sorry that not so much postcard are issued with pharmaceutical objects, famouse pharmacists, or drug stores. On 17th January I received a splendid card from Italy. There is a picture with pharmacists' patron  San Giovanni Leonardi (English: Saint John Leonardi; Hungarian: Leonardi Szent János) on it. I never have heard about him before. He lived between 1541 and 1609 in Italy. He became a pharmacist's assistant at Lucca, studied for the priesthood, and was ordained in 1572. He was was founder of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God (Hungarian: Isten Anyjának Reguláris Klerikusai) in 1621. He was venerated for his miracles and religious fervor. He was was beatified in 1861 and canonized in 1938 by Pope Pius XI. His feast day is October 9th.

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The card was sent with three stamps. One of them is a specific stamp with the same picture as the card. The two others are very similar.

My first pharmacy card is from Finland. It's great! There is the herb room of Pharmacy Museum, Turku, Finland. I would like a lot of similar cards!

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There were a nice stamp with typical Finish country building and a cross-shaped stamp on the card.

Turku and Szeged are sister towns since 1971. There is a tram running on the streets of Szeged with the name “Turku”.

Five card in my mail-box

On Monday I founded five card in my post-box! It is my record! By registering the cards I try to read the post stamps and I register them in chronological order of sending. The first card is from China. I'm sorry because of the sender didn't write me about him. I read his profile, therefore I know he is a 18 years old boy. On the card are all words in Chinese. I don't know where this beautiful cave can be found.

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There are three stamps on the card. Two bird species of China and a lotus (Nelumbo).

From the Netherlands I received an Atelier Nouvelles card. I like this multiple style card. On of my friends learn France and she translated the text. There are delicatessen and accessories of a Butcher’s Shop on the card. Some picture are funny!

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Also the stamp is interesting on this card. It is a long description on it about Maarten van der Weijden (born  1981), a Dutch long distance and marathon swimmer. He won the gold medal in the 10 km open water marathon race at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. 

This great Art Nouveau card came from the United Kingdom. The sender bought it in Riga, Latvia. It must be a window of the building in Alberta iela 2a, Riga. I like it!

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A great stamp is on this card. Mrs. Gamp (Sarah or Sairey Gamp) was a nurse in the novel "The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit", written by Charles Dickens and first published as a serial in 1843-1844. She was dissolute and drunk and became a notorious stereotype of the bad secular nurse in the early Victorian era, before the reforms of campaigners like Florence Nightingale. I didn't read this novel but I like the stamp!

The two last card s are from Germany. On the both are figures of the Harry Potter movies. On the first one is one of my favourites, Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Michael Gambon played Dumbledore in the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2. This scene is in the movie "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".

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The stamp was issued on the 50 anniversary of "Élysée Treaty". Treaty of Friendship, was concluded by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer on January 22, 1963. It set the seal on reconciliation between France and Germany. With it, Germany and France established a new foundation for relations that ended centuries of rivalry between them.

The other Harry Potter card is a picture of  Draco Lucius Melfoy (Tom Felton) and his friends, Vincent Crabbe  (Jamie Waylett) and Gregory Goyle (Josh Herdman). 

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On the stamp is medieval centre of Regensburg (Germany), a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Season greetings

In December and January I got more season greetings. The last one arrived on 17th January from the Netherlands. It is a folded old style card.

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The stamp was known for me.

On 14th December I received this black and white card from Austria.

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On the stamp is the "Museum der Moderne Salzburg". This museum hastwo buildings at two truly spectacular locations. On the stamp is the building of the "Museum on the Mönchsberg". In this is modern art in a contemporary setting.

Two Christmas greetings came from Finland. The both are nice. This bouquet with poinsettia and Hungarian tricolour around was sent from Lahti. The poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is member of the Euphorbiaceae plant family. This plant family is in the focus of my phytochemical research, because these plants contain specific chemical constituents.

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I think there is an anemone on the stamp. It looks like to Anemone nemorosa. Anemone is a genus of about 120 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, native to the temperate zones.

The other Finish greetings came from Savonlinna. It is a lovely vintage card. The Finish sentence means: "The school is filled with warm thoughts." The picture was painted by Mabel Lucie Attwell (1879-1964). She was a British illustrator. She was known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children, based on her daughter, Peggy.

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 There are three different cross-shaped stamps and a lovely one on the card.

On 19th January I received a card fro a Finish little girl. It was painted also by a children's book illustrator, by Elsa Beskow (1874–1953). She was a Swedish author and illustrator. Many of her books became classics and are continually reprinted. Beskow also illustrated ABC books and songbooks for Swedish schools. On this card is "January" from the book "Årets saga" was published in 1927.

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Finish stamps are so beautiful! On this card is also a flower. I seems to be a sunflower (Helianthus annuus).

Five sent cards

Now about my last five sent cards. This multiview was sent to Finland. The addressee is a gardener and she likes nature (trees, flowers, animals, mushrooms, etc.). On this card are typical mushrooms of a small forest near of Szeged: 1. Common morel (Morchella esculenta) 2. Common puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum) 3. Shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus) 4. Parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera) 5. Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) 6. Earthstar species (Astraeus sp.).  This small forest belong to the Forestry School "Albert Bedő" in Ásotthalom. This school issued some similar postcards. All there are nice!

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Earlier I sent a similar card  to Canada. On this you can see the most common animals to hunt living in the School Forest, Ásotthalom: 1. Red deer (Cervus elaphus), 2. European hare (Lepus europaeus), 3. European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), 4. Common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), 5. Wild boar (Sus scrofa), 6. Red fox (Vulpes vulpes). The card traveled 15 days and liked only by two postcrossers.

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On the mushroom card I pasted a stamp from the National Gallery miniature sheet. There is a painting made by Károly Ferenczy. Title is "October". Ferenczy (1862-1917) was a Hungarian painter. He studied in Rome, Munich and Paris. He was a member of an artists’ colony in Nagybánya, in what is now Rumania, from 1896 to 1906. Ferenczy was one of the leading Hungarian landscape painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works, noted for their highly ornamental color schemes and composition, include genre scenes, as well as landscapes and numerous compositions depicting scenes from the Gospels and other books of the Bible.

On 13th January I sent not only the mushroom card. The second one is a beautiful art card. I bought it in Vienna in May, 2012. Title: "Stars for Two". I like painted cats very much. These two are particularly among my favourites, because there are two black cats. There are similar to my cats. My cats are about 17 months old. For one year ago they lived with on the street and they suffered from hunger and cold. In November of 2011 I made a home for them. The start of our "family life" didn't go smoothly, because they were afraid of humans and  didn't know toilet etc. Now they are totally domesticated. All the lovely naive pictures of the Austrian artist Rosina Wachtmeister are beautiful. I would like to receive some similar cards! I sent this glittering postcard to a 27 year old Taiwanese artist. The half of the miniature sheet Porcelain Manufacture Herend was sent as stamps with the two black cats.

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On 15th January I have written two cards. One of them is an old card, printed in the 1970s. There is the Castle of Somoskő. It was built in North Hungary in the 14th century and destroyed in time of Turkish regime in the 17th century. Now the Hungarian-Slovakian border is between the village Somoskő and the castle, therefore the ruins belong to Slovakia.

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I send it to the Netherlands. The addressee collects stamps, therefore I picked out three great stamps. On the big stamp is a colourful hand-made embroidery typical of region of Kalocsa, a town in South Hungary. White-tailed Eagle is an endangered bird species of Hungary. On the third stamp is a Mayan sculpture. It was issued in 1992, on the 500th anniversary of discovery of America.

The other card written on 15th was sent to Canada. It is a typical tourist card from Szeged. There is the Roman Catholic Votive Church dedicated to “Our Lady of Hungary” by night. This building is the symbol of Szeged. It is the 4th biggest cathedral of Hungary. It was built between 1913 and 1930 to give thanks for survival the great flood of Tisza River in 1879.

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The 5th card was sent to a 10 years old girl. She lives in Ukraine and she speaks Russian and English. Her parents are sure to help her to write and read English cards. I wrote my message in Russian. It was a hard work, because I have forgotten what I learned in school. I like to write Cyrillic letters particularly characters differing from our letters, e.g. ж, я, ю, ы, ч, ш, л. I think children are not postcrossing-machines and they are really happy to received cards. The little girl like painted cats therefore I picked out a lovely cat card issued by UNICEF.

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The cute cat fly to Donetsk with these three stamps. The middle one is a well known Hungarian painting and part of the National Gallery miniature sheet. "Picnic in May" painted by Pál Szinyei Merse is a beautiful picture.This Painting was on my postcard HU-43409 sent to Belarus one year ago.

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On 15th January one of my sent card (HU-52612) arrived in Thailand. I have written about it on 4th January, 2013.