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.

"Hurray! Your postcard HU-52297 to U.S.A. arrived!"

I like the messages with the subject cited in the title. Today morning I have turned up my PC and found a message with this pleased text. The recipient send me only a short "Thank you!". The travel time of the card was 20 days because of the . The card was an serigraph made by Erté. Erté, known by the pseudonym Erté, the French pronunciation of his initials, was a diversely-talented Russian-born French artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor. The "Black Rose" was made in 1975. It is a beautiful Art Deco style picture.

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As soon as I copied the message in the file of written postcards I have requested a new address. My next addressee is a Thai Postcrosser. She or he(?) like several themes on postcards. I have chosen a train card. It is a Stadler electric railcar (No. 5341 018-9) of MÁV-START in Szőny on June 5th 2010. Spring of  2010 was an over-flood of Danube River. This picture was taken during this emergency period. The people on the picture are repairing the damaged dike/bank with sandbags to save the railway. It is a perfect photo. The whole long train, the river, the dike and an the defender can be seen on this aerial view.

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I picked up two beautiful stamps for this card. I sent the two right stamps of the miniature sheet about porcelains of "Herend Porcelain Manufacture". This porcelain manufacture is the most famouse one in Hungary. Also my mom has some small decorative objects with the best-known décor "Victoria" made in Herend. I'm sorry, that I couldn't put the border of the miniature sheet on the card.

  

Beginning my Blog

I'm member of Postcrossing for 529 days. It is a great hobby. Sending a postcard is really amusing pastime. I'm so excited when I'm clicking "Send a postcard" button to get a new address. I read more than once the profile of the receiver to choice the most suitable postcard for him or her. Writing the text is also an enjoyable task. The best moment is to get a message about the receiving my card after a long travel. Receiving a postcard is also a great feeling of course! Every workday I open my postbox expecting for postcards.

Today I have received three cards!

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I put the Mucha card from USA to my favourites. I like Art Nuoveau style so much! I would like to visit the Mucha Museum in Prague someday. The two Christmas stamps are also great.

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The Persian cat in the gift box is cute but I like the painted or drowned cats more better. I like the stamps of this card.

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I'm sorry but I didn't found the title of the third card painted by the Dutch mouth and foot painter Pieter de Leur (1923-2010). (Ow, it was not easy to insert pictures in the blog! Now they are OK!)

Since July 2011 I have received 198 postcards and send 201. I would like to write about postcards obtained and posted earlier too.
Yesterday I sent a card to Czech Republic. The user is a Japan-fan, so I picked up this card for her:

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It is a beautiful Japanese painting made by Kano Tanyu. He was one of the foremost Japanese painters of the Kano school. Kano painters often worked on a large scale, painting nature scenes of birds, plants, water, or other animals on sliding doors or screens, covering the background with gold leaf. This card is one of the 12 postcards of an UNICEF calendar. There are pictures of two Japanese painter: Kano Tanyu (1602-1674) and Yamamoto Soken (1683-1706).

One of the stamps is specific the others the common "chair-stamps". The colouful one is an altarpiece from the collection of the 50 years old Hungarian National Gallery. Title: "The Mystical Betrothal of St. Catherine" (from the Batthyány Collection of Németújvár). It was painted by tempera on wood about 1490.

My first card sending by Postcrossing was "Wild flowers" painted by Hungarian mouth painter  Erzsébet Czibolya. It is a popular card favourited by 15 Postcrossers. I like the colours of this card. Poppy is one of  my favourite plants.

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All my sent cards are scanned. To the picture I note the ID, the address and also the text of my card. It is useful when a card lost and I want to send a new one. A note in the file looks like this: