Underground

If you lived in London you would call it the Underground, but the underground system in Moscow is called the Metro as it is in Paris. However you would never mistake the Moscow metro stations for those in any other part of the world. They are magnificent!

I have never had the good fortune to see them for myself but I can enjoy them through postcards, and maybe one day I really will be able to see them with my own eyes.

Robins

Robins are among my favourite birds, the European robin, that is.  I have not met an American robin even though I believe a few have made it to these shores when migrating.

The robins found in Britain are not very afraid of humans and can easily be tamed to take food from your hand.  They are less tame on mainland Europe where they were once hunted, but even there they will turn up to check for unexpected delicacies while you are gardening.

These cards are from France, Germany, Russia and the Netherlands.

A new year, a new start

 The caption in English is "Month kidnaps Dawn" which I thought might be a good start to a new year, especially as I feel the last few of my months were kidnapped by various means.

The illustration, by Svetlana Boyka, is of a Slavic myth, though I'm finding it hard to find out which.  According to one source, Hors, Khors, or Hurs is the god of the winter sun and his spouse is Dawn-Zarenitsy.

It became extremely complicated when I tried to find out more, so I'll leave it at that for now. A Dawn and a new start are all I need, along with a winter sun.

Autumn already?

This is a painting by a young Russian artist, Vlad Krachuk, who lives and works in Moscow.  This particular card was chosen because today it felt as though autumn had already started. My fingers are crossed for an Indian summer.

Russian Market

An oil painting by the Russian artist, Sergey Sochivko (1959-).  Although the card says it's a detail of the original, in fact there is very little missing.

Sergey Sochivko is from Omsk and well known for his love of the old, and the spirit of the Omsk Siberian Cossacks. His paintings are views of the city of Omsk with its historic buildings and street scenes as a backdrop for fantastical stories.

Holidays

I have, some may have noticed, been away. Part of it was holidays when I did a lot of this:

...But in a place more like this:

The weather was wonderful and I feel very much the better for it.

The girl reading, apparently propped up against a bicycle (though I suspect some PhotoShopping), comes from Russia, the Mediterranean doorway comes from the Netherlands.

I is for Irkutsk

I chose this card for two reasons.  The first is that it's a building of a style that I've never seen before. On the back of the card it tells me that it's the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren.  It took quite a bit of research to find out more.

It was originally a mansion built in 1897 by Alexander Fedorovich Vtorov, but nowadays it is used for what I suppose you would call extra-curricular activities for children.  Here they can enjoy woodwork, electronics, photography, play sports, sing in choirs, drama, music, painting, and other crafts. It is one of the more striking buildings in Irkutsk.

The second reason I chose it was for the Cyrillic script "Иркутск", Irkutsk.  The script interests me to the extent that I started a very basic course of Russian last year.  It takes me several seconds to spell out a word but it's very satisfying when I can.

Irkutsk is one of the largest cities in Siberia, which makes up 77% of the landmass of Russia. It is very near Lake Baikal, the deepest and largest lake in the world.

Lake Baikal

Two postcards from Lake Baikal (near Irkutsk in Russia) which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It is an ancient rift valley, thought to be the oldest in the world.  It is the deepest in the world and because of that, it also contains the largest amount of freshwater in the world.  To give a comparison, it contains more water than all the Great Lakes combined.

It is because of its unique ecosystem that it has been declared a World Heritage Site.  It contains an exceptional diversity of flora and fauna, with many endangered (IUCN Red List) species.

Neuschwanstein Castle - winter

Neuschwantstein Castle must be one of the most unmistakeable and most photographed castles in the world. they must do a roaring trade in postcards because it doesn't look like anyone could take a casual snapshot very easily.  The airways around it must be buzzing with helicopters.

Although the castle is of course in Germany, the card came from Russia and was published in Russia.  I like this dramatic winter view.  Six years ago (so long!!) I posted another card showing it with autumn colours on the trees.

Art Nouveau

Two beautiful examples of the style of art known in English as Art Nouveau which flourished between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.  It is known by different names in different languages: Jugendstil in Germany for instance.  Curiously in France it was given the name Modern Style.

The top card is one of Alfons Mucha's famous posters while the lower one is a perfume label from Russia.  Both were sent from Germany.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

A nice cup of tea

When it's cold outside, as it is here at the moment, there is nothing like a hot cup of tea (with maybe a biscuit or two).  This pen and ink drawing of a Russian couple enjoying the warmth is by Anatoly Kudravcev.  He was born in the village of Shanevo and this image is one of several he has drawn of village life.  I suspect village life is the same the world over.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

A cat at Christmas

By the look of him, I don't believe this cat is thrilled with his reindeer outfit but I think he looks really cute.  I'm just wondering whether I could find one for my cat...

Although it was sent from russia, it appears to be a card from a Chinese online publisher.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Christmas postcards and stamps

I bought several sets of these Royal Mail PHQ Christmas postcards a few years ago and now I'm down to one remaining set.  I'll use them up over the nest few weeks but I'll be sorry to see them go.  They show the images for the 1983 Christmas stamps:

12½p Christmas Post (pillar-box),
16p The Three Kings (chimneys )
20½ World at Peace (a dove and a blackbird)
28p Light of Christmas (street lamp)
31p Christmas Dove (topiary)

As I was looking up what the images represented, I discovered that someone is selling them on Zazzle. Surely that's a copyright issue?

That aside, I found plenty of other bird stamps:

Great Egret from Belarus

Long-eared owl on Belgian stamp

From the Netherlands 

Siberian Crane on stamp from Russia

and a cute little owl from Switzerland.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Apples and Books

When I chose this card I felt it had an autumnal atmosphere, the apple harvest having been good this year and I'm looking forward to reading by the fireside.  On closer inspection however the apples at the bottom left, and possibly the books on the right, seem to be partially buried in snow.  Oh well, it did come from Russia.

A post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Beth Niquette on her blog, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Smolensk

The card of Archangel Michel's (Svirskaya) Church in Smolensk was sent with the stamp commemorating the 1150th anniversary of Rostov in north west Russia. The stamp would have been on a mini sheet like this one.  Smolensk is also a very old city - the church on the postcard was built at the end of the 12th century.

I noticed  a few other stamps with a similar colour to the one above so I took that as a theme:

 From Bosnia Herzogovina, a donkey

 Some traditional houses from Croatia

A sand gazelle from the United Arab Emirates 

And from the USA, I suppose you could say another traditional dwelling, skyscraper apartments!

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Three Men in a Boat and other books

An attractive card of old books sent to me from Russia.

Too early for snow

Our summer is ending - you could almost say it ended at the beginning of August this year - but I haven't started to think of winter, or I hadn't until this card arrived.  A taste of things to come.

It is an oil painting, "Snow Cloudlet", by Belarusian artist Anna Silivonchik and sent to me from Russia.

A post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Beth Niquette on her blog, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Solovetsky Islands

This card of Solovetsky Monastery arrived recently with part of a mini-sheet of stamps showing points of interest on the Solovetsky Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The islands are in the White Sea to the north west of Russia.

The full sheet which is made to look as though the stamps were printed on a parchment map, can be seen here.  I can remember making maps of that sort when I was at school, maybe a history lesson or to illustrate Treasure Island.

There was another stamp too, this one showing Petropavlovskiy Sobor, the Peter and Paul Cathedral  in St Petersburg:

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

The Artist's Family

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was a French artist but this card was sent to me from Russia because this painting, The Artist's Family, is in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.  I really like the domestic image of the family relaxing together.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

The Vallard Atlas

The Vallard Atlas is an example of the Dieppe School of map making, meaning that it's based on compass directions.  There are six compass roses shown on this reproduction of part of the atlas, sent to me from Russia.

The image above is easily recognisable as Europe but all the place names and illustrations are the other way up.  The illustrations are typical of the atlas and show scenes of daily life.

A map for Monday