Sunday Stamps - Christmas

See in on a Postcard sets the Sunday Stamps theme, and today's is Christmas. I hope you've all had a pleasant 25th December.

We didn't put up a Christmas tree this year, although did have a little festive decoration up. I have a USB string of lights attached to my computer, and we have other festive lights up on the dining table. I do still quite like illuminations, cheering up a corner or a street or a square, whether with patterns or shapes*. Long gone are the days I'd be taken to Oxford Street or Regent Street in London and gaze up at the lights or look in the shop windows at their displays. I could spend hours and hours in Hamleys. I think at least one of my string puppets came from there, but hasn't been played with much in over 40 years.

*The lights can be mesmerizing.

Christmas can be full of characters. I haven't read this particular Little Miss, but have read some of the others in the series. I like Mr Messy, which can sum up Christmas Day and neighbouring days, what with food preparation (I remember the first time I cooked Christmas dinner...) and with wrapping/unwrapping...

2021 round up.

 

Well, the year started much like the end of the year before. Quiet, and with Covid here to stay for a while. Socialising in person limited, however as a letter writer, I was socialising as usual on paper. 

Sunday Stamps - Winter

See in on a Postcard sets the Sunday Stamps theme, and today's is Winter. I've had a quick search through my image files and found some.

I like this  Löwenburg Kassel stamp from Germany. Pretty winter view.

Royal Mail issued some postbox scenes on Christmas stamps. I love a nice postbox stamp or three!

I really do like these Christmas 2018 postage stamps from Royal Mail. 

Sunday Stamps - Mountains.

 Using the weekly theme set by See it on a Postcard we come to mountains. 

Just the one stamp I'd like to showcase.... a stamp featuring Snowdonia National Park. The national park is quite big, but I just live a few miles outside the perimeter. This mountain in the stamp is Tryfan, and the lake is Llyn Ogwen. Snowdonia is gorgeous but it is a shame many tourists treat it as a rubbish dump :( 

Sunday Stamps

Well, for this week's Sunday Stamps, the theme is my choice, so I thought I would go back through my blog's picture archive and dig out some of my favourite stamps.

This sheet for Gerry Anderson/Thunderbirds is lenticular. 4, 3, 2, 1!  I'm not afraid to use stamps individually from a miniature sheet. I had the 41p stamp in my purse for ages and ages, before I decided to use it to send something to a fellow stamp blogger! 

I haven't sent many Postcrossing postcards recently, but when I did send, of course I needed to affix some stamps. I tried to use first class if I had room to add the Machin stamps to make the postage up.

Most of my outgoing post is letters, and there's usually a bit more room for the stamps on an envelope. I also try to choose stamps I think the recipient would like (a theme they are interested in, outside of stamps). 

The stamps themselves can be talked about in letters. I probably mentioned films, or Peter Cushing in at least one of the letters above. 

Portmeirion is "The Village" in the 1960s cult, The Prisoner. We went for a walk around Portmeirion recently. The "Green Dome" is not so green these days. There's a postbox in The Village as well, so I fed that with a letter. 

I love Terry Pratchett. I didn't picture Nanny Ogg in my mind the way she is in the stamp above. I love the Discworld books (but still haven't read them all). Going Postal must be one of my favourite books in the series... the start of a postal service!

This was probably a Christmas mailing from a little while ago. I haven't bought any of this year's Christmas stamps. 

 

Sunday Stamps - Cartoons or Illustrations

Am I lucky to live in the United Kingdom and can use the stamps Royal Mail produce on letters & postcards I send?  

This year saw Royal Mail issue stamps celebrating DC Comics. I haven't been much of a comic reader, and haven't followed super hero movies.

Roayl Mail has also previously issued stamps about the Great Fire of London. I think I have only a couple of stamps from this issue left.

Then, there are book illustrations. I love Roald Dahl (Tales of the Unexpected, and the letters, Love from Boy, a collection of letters sent to his mother), but have not read many of his children's stories. 

Also illustrations for more grown-up books, but I haven't finished any of these books. I struggled to get half way through David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, way back in school (but no one from my class managed to finish it either back then). 

Sunday Stamps - Trees

Running a little late with today's blog post due to being out and about in Snowdonia, wandering through some woods. Perfect excuse considering today's Sunday Stamps theme set by See it on a Postcard.

The other day, ventured into Coed y Brenin, around one of the trails. Will want to revisit.

Westonbirt is one of my favourite places in the UK, especially in autumn for looking at the fungi.

There are plenty of well landscaped places, and trees stand proud. I have been only to Alnwick Castle in the 4 stamps above.

Well, not long now until Christmas, but we won't have a tree this year. However, can make up for it !! with a stamp or two.

Sunday Stamps - Music

Been through some of my old snail mail photos for stamps associated with music... The first instalment in this post is a stamp from a miniature sheet. I do like the music of Pink Floyd, and also enjoyed the video of Roger Waters The Wall on Netflix.

I also like a bit of Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells...

However, not a huge fan of hip-hop, but it looks OK on a stamp.

Not a stamp but part of a page in a Simon Drew address book I have! 

Stamps on Sunday

Decided to look through my blog's picture archive for some thematic stamps. We have bridges, and we have train tracks.

Here is a bit of extreme philately. Menai Bridge, pictured from the Isle of Anglesey, across the straits from the mainland.

For train tracks, we have the Thomas the Tank Engine miniature sheet, and a miniature sheet below in the classic locos series. 

I do occasionally use the individual stamps from miniature sheets on outgoing mail, well, because after all, they are postage stamps, but it can be psychologically difficult to crack into a sheet for the first stamp. 

Stationery on Sunday. Sympathy cards

We suffered a bereavement earlier this month and this got me thinking about sympathy/condolence cards. I went into a local card shop and had a look at their selection. While the front of the cards were mostly tactful, I didn't like some of the fluff written inside.  

The card below was sent to me, and had a great sentiment inside - "Sometimes in life there are no words, so sorry for your loss"

Another card I received had on the front, "We all grieve in our own way. We all heal in our own time." and the printed message inside was, "Sending caring thoughts to comfort you today."

The very last bit of a poem, When Great Trees Fall, by Maya Angelou:

They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.

At the moment, I am at a loss for words, unable to pick up a fountain pen and write, be it a diary/journal or a letter. The person I lost was a letter writer for most of her life. Towards the end, she was unable to even pick up a pen, having arthritis.... she had such beautiful handwriting, much neater than mine...

Stamps on Sunday #3

Earlier this month, Royal Mail issued some stamps commemorating 150 years of the Rugby Football Union. I bought some 2nd class and some 1st class stamps, plus one £2.55 stamp. I didn't bother with the £1.70 value. 

They aren't the most exciting of stamps, and I still have a few of the James Bond issue from 2020. I recently went to see the new film, No Time to Die. I like Hugh Dennis! 

On the foreign stamp front, I still get a lot of the chrysanthemum global forever stamps on incoming mail. I do like the postmark the USPS applied - it came out quite tidily. 

As I sent out some postcards on World Postcard Day through Postcrossing and they have mostly all arrived at their destinations, my address has been given out to Postcrossers. This stamp, one from Hungary fascinates me... There is a hole, the bit scrubbed out by the Hungarian resistance when Russia invaded and put a symbol in the flag. Timing was quite poignant because on a television programme, The Repair Shop, I watched just before one I wanted to view, there was a woman who brought in a teddy bear in need of some tender loving care, one that had been given to her as a refugee child from Hungary in an Austrian camp. 

Stationery Sunday #3

I write almost all of my letters these days with fountain pen ink. I regularly look at the various fountain pen/ink online stores to see if there is anything I would like. The answer is generally yes, but I refrain and restrain myself. 

However, I am seriously considering the red inkvent calendar from Diamine. I have seen short reviews of the inks in it and I am rather impressed & taken by the colours. But, as you can see from the picture above, I bought the blue inkvent calendar in 2019 and still haven't tried out all the inks. Should I take the plunge? I cannot risk running out of ink, what would I use to write letters with then?

Stamps on Sunday #2

The next issue of stamps from Royal Mail will be depicting rugby, the sport. Perhaps I should look for more of these postcards!

The set of 8 stamps will feature 4 women's and 4 men's games, with England not doing so great! I will take a picture of the stamps after I have bought them. 

Today is World Mental Health Day, so I'm resharing this slogan postmark from last year on an envelope, and one depicted below is a more recent one. 

Stationery Sunday #2

Autumn has arrived in Wales. A perfect time to use some seasonal stickers, such as these fungi. I do also have some autumnal washi tapes I can use as well. Do you like to decorate your letters with seasonal stickers/tape/drawings/ephemera?

I think I will use one sticker in the corner of this plain paper later tonight, when I write a letter. 

Fungi are very much in season. October 2nd was UK Fungus Day. We didn't make it to an organised fungal foray, but have recently been out and about the countryside. 

Stamps on Sunday #1

 I seem to be a sucker for many of the Royal Mail stamp issues. I don't need to buy more stamps yet the new issues generally tempt me. I buy the stamps to use, eventually. I am not going to admit how many stamps I have available for use, but I don't fear running out of stamps.

The only good thing, perhaps, about the current international airmail postage rate is that it is just 2 first class stamps for most of my overseas mail. This means I have a ton of choice when it comes to stamps. Dare I use a DC Comics stamp next to a Marvel stamp?

Or, I could just use the £1.70 postage stamps, but there isn't as much variety as there is in first class stamps.

Stationery Sunday #1

 I am a bona fide stationery addict. I love fountain pens, and inks for them; I love paper, both jolly designs and plain papers for me to decorate.

I still love stickers, but is it too early to use Halloween stickers? Maybe, maybe not!

Extreme Letter Writing

 

Well, for some reason, I bought this book a while back in a charity shop. Extreme Ironing! What a concept. People ironing out and about, be it up a mountain, coming down one (rock climbing or abseiling perhaps), cycling, dangling from a zipwire, in a tree, underwater!!! 

So.... well, why not write letters out and about? 

It can be good to pause along a walk, so why not grab a few minutes or so to start a postcard, or letter? 

Sometimes, there are benches/tables to rest, admire the view and, well, for me, to pen a letter. 

Sometimes, no bench, so have to park myself on the grass. I had a gilet I could sit on.

I made use of slate to sit on and to use as a table. This site now has UNESCO World Heritage status.

Not so extreme is sitting at a table in a beer garden with a nice drink to hit the spot! 

I have had some people comment when they see me writing letters in cafes... I like to show people letter writing is still alive.