Sunday Stamps - Blue

The theme for Sunday Stamps is set by See it on a Postcard, and this time, the theme is blue.

A Postcrossing friend wanted to thank me for some information and had this postcard sent to me with a special postmark cancellation.

Also via Postcrossing, I received many postcards from Thailand, and on this one, was a stamp made with Thai Silk. Other nations have issued fabric stamps. 
 

Postboxes and a postmark slogan.

For quite a while, I  lost my letter (and blog) writing mojo. I didn't feel like writing anything here or on paper. A malaise at the general state of things at present. However, the last couple of months have found me more optimistic, getting out and about. There is so much to do and so much to see, can barely touch the surface. 

I miss spoken connections, but I do prefer the medium of letters. You can be more thoughtful, less saying something without thinking. I love this postmark slogan from the Australian postal service. Supporting connections.

With the better weather, have been enjoying walking, photographing the world around me, and objects of interest to me. I have been photographing postboxes on & off since about autumn 2009. This one above is one of my more recent boxes, but sadly, I didn't have any letters to feed it with. 

Still writing

Snail mail life still continues. I can write to penpals around the world, postal services permitting. The lovely people at Postcrossing have come up with a Postal Monitor to keep track of service disruptions, and links to service updates on the various postal websites.

Some mail has been delayed, sailing across the oceans. For a while, I was sending most letters to the US via the international economy (surface mail) rate. Mail for continental Europe still had to go by Air Mail.

I haven't been able to buy any of the new issue stamps. The last issue I bought was the James Bond issue, but I wasn't able to get many. Years of buying stamps meant I didn't really need to buy stamps. I might try for the next issue celebrating the music group, Queen.

I have been receiving post. Some has come with slogan postmarks. This one, Let's Talk Loneliness is from this month.

Others have been able to buy the new stamps out in the US. I quite like the new global forever stamp, but it does look a little like something else, unintended.

I also like some of the stamps out of Germany. I wasn't a huge fan of Sesame Street but I did learn things from it.

I think I like most stamps. Look how small the stamp is from Canada!

However, it doesn't have the magic in some of the stamps Royal Mail has produced. There were a few issues for Star Wars but only 1 issue had the magic revealed via UV.

Stamps not only can take letters/parcels through the post, they can take people on a journey of knowledge. I really should read more about John Archer, a mayor in London. Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on him.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I have been away a couple of times helping my mother. I came across a few things while there. The town I live in had a charity shop for Tenovus but I had never heard of it before then. I didn't realise that it was a well established charity, even featuring as a slogan postmark in 1968. 

My mother was a letter writer to friends and family, in the UK as well as overseas (mainly Australia). The letters have been mostly shredded but she kept the stamps on paper. I brought back this many with me. 

My dad liked covers, including first day covers. This is one I have of his - the inauguration of the car ferry between Southampton and Le Havre - 19th July 1964. I don't think I have taken this particular crossing across the Channel, but haven been sailings from Folkestone, Dover and Ramsgate, arriving at Oostende, Zeebrugge, Calais and Boulogne (not respectively). 

He also had penpals (like father like daughter, eh!). I don't know what happened to the letter inside (shredded, perhaps). I looked up the sender's name and discovered an online obituary. This person's special interests had included corresponding with pen pals all over the world!! That sounds like me! I think I would like that in my obituary! 

 So, what have I been doing recently? I have been buying even more stationery. I bought quite a few earlier this year from Paperchase in the sale. I like the jolly and cheerful designs. The main complaint though is that the paper allows you to only write on one side of the sheet, but sometimes that is a good thing as the designs will hide your writing and it won't show through cheap white envelopes. 

This was bought at Birmingham New Street station's Paperchase last month (I was travelling by train - and yes, I did take the opportunity to get some letters written on the train). However, I wouldn't be able to use scented stickers on letters to every penpal (some have allergies & intolerances I wouldn't want to exacerbate).

Some March post

I have still been receiving letters, some through InCoWriMo. I just love the range of stamps used.

Germany has some poignant designs as well as the pretty flowers. Thepenfriend sent this also sent

cute Easter stamps on a letter last year. 

The USA also produces some nice postage stamps. Notice the one US stamp celebrates the Magna Carta.

There are also some nice cancellation / postmarks. I loved the outdoors today as it was sunny and was able to potter about in the garden.

Even Royal Mail has some postmarks. I didn't know today is the end of British Science Week before reading the postmark.

Stamps

With the quiet August on the postal front, I have been thinking about the stamps I have, the used ones I collected as a child, plus the ones I have received as a consequence of Postcrossing, from penfriends, and other postal niceties.

I haven't gotten round to organising them... Or, what I want to collect now. I think I'll want to concentrate on the themes generally of interest to me.... post boxes, maybe this year's Europa issue of mail "transport", letterwriting, and other hobbies/interests I have.

Maybe also, I should leave some of the stamps on the item on which they were mailed... Look at that gorgeous postmark... I think I'll keep some as covers (but not neccesarily first day covers), especially those containing letters from current correspondents, and those with nice postmarks....

 

I have found a nice little stamp community Stamp Bears where I have been welcomed even though I am not a "serious" stamp collector (yet).

Star!

Last week, Royal Mail issued some stamps celebrating Space Science. I bought some, as I do.

The stamps feature the Sun, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Lutetia (an asteroid) and Titan (Saturn's largest moon)

A friend sent a postcard to be postmarked with a special cancellation mark from Royal Mail

on the first day of issue with the Star (a village on the Isle of Anglesey) postmark. This was then sent to me in an envelope...

although the postmark on the envelope did not have as much care taken on stamping it.

Other special postmarks are available. Up and coming postmarks can be seen in Royal Mail's Postmark Bulletin, and a non-Royal Mail website where there is news and information about British stamps is http://www.norvic-philatelics.co.uk/ - well worth checking out, and Norvic's blog (link on that website, and in my blog list).

6-7 June post

I have decided to show pictures of outgoing mail, of the stamps. No addresses (mine or the recipient's) will be shown.

Yesterday, I posted just two letters, eager to travel after the long Diamond Jubilee and Spring Bank Holidays.

But today, I posted some Postcrossing postcards. I posted more than are shown in the picture. 

These are the stamps I received on incoming mail, a postcard from Denmark, letters from The Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, ( but the London postcard was enclosed in a letter), and a very special Postcrossing postcard.

It has a special Postcrossing postmark cancellation. Woo hoo!