PL-159168

This is the last postcard, received in 2010, and the first one from Poland. It shows Polish town Lochow. It is a small town, I could not find a lot about it in Wikipedia, just this.

Łochów is a town in the Mazowieckie voivodship, in the Węgrowskim district, the seat of the urban-rural gmina Łochów. In the years 1975-1998 the city administratively belonged to the Siedlce Voivodeship. According to data from 31 December 2005, the city had 6,654 inhabitants. Łochów is located in the Valley of the Lower Western Bug on Liwiec, adjacent to the large Łochowskie forest.

And a stamp shows one of Polish manor houses. This one is called "Dwor w Janowcu k. Pulaw" (Manor in Janowiec near Puławy).

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Map of New York State

Yesterday I received a postcard which I marked as favourite on the Postcrossing site. So a good addition to my just started collection of American states - New York.

Some facts about it.
New York: Empire State
Capital: Albany
Area: 49,576 sq.mi.
Motto: Excelsior, Ever Upward
Flower: Rose
Tree: Sugar Maple
11th of the Original 13 States

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 A card from Inga from Germany. She said it looked almost the same in Germany the day she sent this card (2 weeks before Christmas). Very nice winter landscape, I always liked winters like that - snowy, frosty and with sun.

I wish you happy holidays! :)

Hummingbird

 It's an unofficial card, second one from Melissa,  from Arizona desert. It's a beautiiful hummingbird, the smallest bird, which looks like a bee, so small it is.

And stamps with American flag.

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Maryland

This card came after a long period of 'silence'. It is from Peggy, from Frederick (it is on this map near the 'apple').

Some facts from the card. Maryland. Nickname: Old Line State. Area in Square Miles: 12,327. Entered in Union: April 28, 1788.

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Leroy Smith's Orchestra

A black-and-white postcard from Sarah from the USA. Beginning of the 20th century, Detroit, Ragtime and the Jazz Age.

Leroy Smith and his Orchestra were an African-American band that obviously modeled itself after the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and his symphonic Jazz.

This studio portrait of the Leroy Smith Orchestra dates from a session in 1914. Pictured from left to right are (first row) Harold Henson, Harry Brooks, and Leroy Smith; (second row) Stanley Peters, Ed Beeler, Fred Peters, and Emerson "Geechie" Harper.

And stamps - white bears and Bart Simpson :)

TW-215491 & Thank you card

In one day I received two postcards from Taiwan. The first one - official Postcrossing card. It seems to be made from the photo of a person who sent it to me.

And the second one was like a "Thank you" for my card. And it is a very beautiful scenery, nice colours, I like it very much. And that way it is interesting to see difference even in one same place.

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A nice postcard from China. Almost nothing written on it, that is why I don't know what it is and where it is situated. Unfortunately...

But - there are two big and beautiful stamps. They are from the series China Stamps 2007-6 Selected Works of Li Keran, 2007

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Barnaul

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House with roots by Jerry N. Uelsmann

Another 'birthday' postcard came from the USA. It is a photo of a house with roots, very stylish.
The author of this photo is Jerry N. Uelsmann, an American photographer. He was born on June 1934 in Detroit, Michigan. The house on the postcard was created in 1982. I wonder how could it be done without help of Photoshop!

His official site is http://www.uelsmann.net/ There you can faind some more of his works.

And three stamps - an American clock, Celebrate! and - a cat from Animal Rescue.

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Yesterday I received this postcard. It is from the USA, but shows Montreal. Craig, who sent it to me, wrote, that he saw in my profile that my favourite singer is a singer from Quebec, and decided to send me such view of Montreal. It was quite a surprise! :)

So, it is St-Joseph Oratory and downtown of Montreal. It is a Roman Catholic basilica on the west slope of Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1904 by St Andre Bessette as a small church, which grew with time into such a big building. The Oratory's dome is the third-largest of its kind in the world after the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Coast and Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, and the church is the largest in Canada.

In 2005, the Oratory was added to the List of National Historic Sites of Canada on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.

And what is interesting - it is the second stamp with Mother Teresa, that I received lately, from different countries.It was her 100th birthday in 2010.
And two other stamps - an American clock, and Scouting.

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The second card, taken out of my postal box on Friday, was this one. It is Marc Chagall's 'Ascending angel'. Christina, who sent it to me, went to Hamburg to see the exibition of Chagall's paintings, and bought this card there.

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Sneek, Netherlands

A card from Sneek, Netherlands, arrived last Friday, just before my birthday.

Sneek is a city southwest of Leeuwarden and the seat of the Municipality Sneek in the province of Friesland (Netherlands). The city has approximately 33.000 inhabitants.
Sneek is situated in Southwest-Friesland, close to the Sneekermeer and is well known for its canals, the Waterpoort (Watergate, the symbol of the city), and watersport (Sneekweek). Sneek is one of the Friese elf steden (Eleven cities). The city is very important for the southwest area of Friesland (the "Zuidwesthoek").

Sneek received several city rights in the 13th century, which became official in 1456. Sneek was now one of the eleven Frisian cities. This was also the beginning of a blooming trading city that would last until the year 1550. In 1492 they began building a ditch and wall around the city. In those days Sneek was the only city in Friesland that had a wall. Only the waterpoort and the bolwerk are remaining today.

Sneek has its own dialect that dates back to the Dutch language in 1600. Snekers is part of the city Frisian dialects.

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Brussels in 50s

A nice black-and-white card arrived from Brussels, Belgium from David. This is how the central part of the city looked like in 50s of XX century. This is how the Boulevard Anspach looked like.

It is a major boulevard in the city centre of Brussels, connecting the Place de Brouckère to the Place Fontainas. It is named after Jules Anspach, a former mayor of Brussels. It is built over the covering of the Senne. Many places of interest lie along the Boulevard Anspach, for instance the Brussels Stock Exchange (which can be seen here), the Ancienne Belgique concert hall as well as many shops and restaurants. Prior to 1879, it was named Boulevard Central.

And a nice stamp - trees in bloom. As I understood it is a photo by Bart van Leuven.

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Arizona in bloom

A card, that I haven't shown here yet, came to me from Arizona Desert, from the USA, on Friday. These are cacti, that usually are plants with spines. But when they are in bloom, they look like it is shown in this picture. I think the desert looks really wonderful at this time.

And this time - three stamps, totally different :) 

 

ZA-13823

I've got a new postcard, this time from Lydia from South Africa. It is a painting made by her eldest son, who is actually a dentist. Mountains at the back and covered by flowers. A very bright picture, it's a pleasure to get it, when it is raining outside :) And you may think it's like handmade - no, not at all. It is a normal postcard, on good paper. And I liked this unusual stamp :)

CA-129656

On Saturday I went to Dnipropetrovsk to see a concert of Garou, Canadian singer, mostly singing in French. He is one of my favourites. When I came back home, I received a postcard from Canada, with this nice map.

TW-204004

A new card came from the southern Taiwan, from Ivy. She sent a painting by Michael Sowa called 'Irrlaufer der Evolution' (I guess, in English it is something like "Mistake of evolution'.

Michael Sowa (born 1945) is a German artist and illustrator known for his whimsical, surreal and stunning paintings often featuring animals. His works are titled in English and German. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin for seven years, spent a brief time as an art teacher and then became a painter.

He gained new fans for his work on the 2001 film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain where the art on the walls comes to life. He has done cover images for several well known magazines, most notably the November 2002 issue of The New Yorker. His art is readily available in poster, notecard/postcard and calendar format (published by Image Connection, USA).

 

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 It's a card from Nuremberg, that I received yesterday. It is situated in Bavaria, in Germany. I knew it only like a town where the Nuremberg Trials took place, after the WWII. But it is also an old town, founded in the Middle Ages. Here, on the picture, is the Imperial Castle, dated approximately 1040.

Nuremberg for many people is still associated with its traditional gingerbread (Lebkuchen) products, sausages, and handmade toys.

Such companies as Siemens and MAN are based here.

Albrecht Durer was born in Nuremberg.

Nuremberg is the twin town of Kharkiv.

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On Friday I received this card from San Diego, California. It's a nice picture by American painter Jonathan Green. It's called Mustard Greens. I like this peaceful scene, the colours. That's why I looked in the Internet who this painter is.

Painter and Printmaker Jonathan Green was born in 1955, and raised in the small Gullah* community of Gardens Corner, located near the Sea Islands of South Carolina. He was raised by his grandmother in a matriarchal society that relied heavily on oral traditions.

Green paints the scenes and the people he knew as a child, pictures of what may be a vanishing way of life. His colorful paintings in acrylic and oil have helped to preserve the Gullah culture. His work ranges from scenes of everyday life, such as a girl walking a dog, a woman hanging out laundry, and men picking oysters, to special occasions such as a wedding or a christening. While Green paints the world in which he lived as a youth, his work also focuses on the problems of living in a multi-racial society today. 


Green now lives in Naples, Florida, in an area that he says is very similar to the South Carolina Lowcountry**.

And some links about him
Book in Google
http://www.usca.edu/aasc/greenjon.htm
http://www.gallerychuma.com/jgreen_bio.html

* Some 250,000 African-Americans known as Gullahs in South Carolina and Geeches in Georgia are clustered along the Atlantic Coast--from Jacksonville, N.C., to Jacksonville, Fla. The word Gullah probably came from Angola, home of some of the Africans brought to the region during slavery.
**The Low Country is a place of broad flatlands, marshes, numerous inlets, rivers and islands bordering the Atlantic--romantically called Sea Islands.
*** Photo - from Naples News http://www.naplesnews.com/photos/2009/jul/18/112751/

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Yesterday I received the first card! It was from Aschersleben, Germany. It is the oldest town of Saxony-Anhalt, first mentioned in 753. The Latin name of the town's castle, Ascharia, provided the name of the House of Ascania, a dynasty of German rulers. During the WWII there was a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. The fuselages for Junkers were produced here, and by the end of war they produced Heinkel. In 1946 most installations were transferred to Kiev (!).

The old buildings are very nice. It should be great to walk along such old streets, taking photos.

Another postcard reached its destination several days ago. It was Germany. So now I have two new traveling cards - to Belarus and Finland.

Start

Ten days ago I read in one of my friends' blogs about Postcrossing, and decided to participate as well. I got 5 addresses - China, the USA, Croatia, Germany and Russia, and next evening all five postcards were sent. For a start I chose nice views of Kiev. And yesterday the first one arrived to Croatia. I liked it most, and here it is.
It shows Kiev in the evening. The grey building to the left is the Administration of the President of Ukraine, but I'd like to tel few words about the building to the right. It is called the House with Chimeras, built in the beginning of 20th century by an architect Gorodetsky. He liked hunting a lot, so there you could see real and fantastic creatures. There are frogs, giraffes and hippos, together with mermaids.