Lights in darkness

 "The Red Church", Minsk, Belarus

One of the themes that I collect is night views. Things look different in the night. I love lights in the middle of darkness, so this is perfect theme to collect. Here you can see some of my recently arrived night view postcards.

Las Vegas, USA

Statue of Catherine II, Russia

Big Ben, London, England

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II in her Coronation robes. The year was 1953 and she was only 27 years old.

 This postcard was official Postcrossing postcard GB-185475, sent from England.

Paleontological postcard

Archeology is quite particular theme to collect. I notice that it's not clear to everyone what archeology is. I've received for example a paleontological postcard under the name of archeology. But who cares, it's interesting as well!

This postcard was sent to me from Australia. In the picture there's a skull of the largest known marsupial that roamed in Australia. I wonder how large it was? It may have become extinct as recently as 20,000 years ago. The skull was found in Tambar Springs, near Coonabarabran, N.S.W., Australia.

Choosing postcards to others

I love choosing postcards to people who tell what they like to receive. It's the best part of the exchange, really.

Here you can see one of my sent postcards in another postcard blog.

Old traditional clothings

I received a couple of traditional clothing postcards. One of them was written and sent from Greenland to California, USA, in 1963. Others were unwritten.

Greenlandic woman in ceremonial costume

Quite thought-awakening was the postcard with a year 1880 photo of a North African woman wearing her costume.

Crown Princess Wedding

Finally, finally I have them!

The wedding postcards of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden. Their fairytale wedding was celebrated on 19th of June, 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden. One of the best memories of this year even though I just watched it from TV.

Wulingyuan quartzite sandstone pillars

Wulingyuan is a scenic and historic district situated in Hunan province in China. It's famous for its tall quartzite sandstone pillars, some over 800 meters in height. It's also an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Amazing postcard to my pure nature collection.

All the postcards in my pure nature collection are so far from Asia, which is actually widening my view about Asia. Asia isn't all crowded continent after all. There's also places where human being is not.

This was official Postcrossing postcard CN-280083.

Space Shuttle Columbia

I got three new postcards to my space collection from USA. This was a private trade in which I had seen the postcards beforehand and chosen them among others. So, I knew exactly what I would get.

Space Shuttle Columbia was one of the unlucky space shuttles of NASA. It was the first spaceworthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet and it completed 27 missions before being destroyed in explosion on February 1, 2003. All seven crew members were killed.

Ukrainian traditional clothings

I've received coincidentally three different postcards showing Ukrainian traditional clothings. Two of the postcards also had marvellous stamps of the same theme.

Dancing children

Young girl and adult woman, traditional costumes

Ukrainian grandmothers

 

Traditional wedding hat

The Roman Forum with cats

Today arrived a lot of postcards, both from official Postcrossing and private swaps. One of the most interesting one was sent from Italy. Now it belongs to my archeology collection. It's a picture of The Roman Forum, Forum Romanum, in Rome, Italy, with an addition of two beautiful cats - a common view in the streets of Rome.

His Royal Highness, Miffy

Simplicity is something that I adore.  Dick Bruna has been drawing Nijntje, also known as Miffy, for several decades, with his simple style that lets everybody's imagination fly free. The first version of Miffy was drawn in 1955.

Recently I received a Miffy postcard via official Postcrossing that combines two of my postcard collecting interests - royals and Dick Bruna illustrations.

NL-486579

Cute and simple. One of my favourite Miffys so far.

Prince of Monaco

Royals is my main interest in collecting postcards. I have altogether 80 royalty postcards. Recently I received a very interesting postcard of Prince Rainier III of Monaco. He died five years ago. Rainier was probably best known of being married with Hollywood star Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco.

The Sea of the Cloud

One of the new themes I have started to collect is "pure nature". With this I mean nature without any signs of human being. I prefer landscapes and single views. The first postcard of this theme I received from Taiwan, amazing picture from Yangmingshan National Park.

It's a phenomenon called "the sea of the cloud". The best moment to admire it is at the sunrise, as it will disappear when the temperature goes up.