Austria via Great Britain

February 12, 2020

This card came with a long note on the back about when and why this card was bought. I loved it.  Poppy sent it from the UK recently.

She wrote,

"Dear Helen,
Greetings from West Wales. I love to travel and recently visited Austria. I stayed in Salzburg. It is one of the best cities I have visited. Very easy to get around if you purchase a travel card for the trams and buses. I was there for New Years Eve.

I would love to visit Japan!

Have a great day!
XX Poppy"

Hohensalzburg Fortress, Nonnberg Abbey

Great Britain

September 17, 2019

This lovely card arrived in my mail slot with a friendly note on the back. It came from Iago in Britain.

He wrote:

"8th September 2019
Hi Helen!

I hope you are well. I am a Spanish medical writer living in London. I have recently visited the Cotswolds, an area of outstanding beauty in Oxfordshire.

I will visit Japan in December, so any recommendations around your area would be very welcome!

Best regards, Iago"

Cottage garden in Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

An interesting stamp...

Great Britain

July 30, 2019

Emma sent this card to me and it was a bit of a puzzle.  There was a sticker on the front that says she didn't pay enough postage so it was sent by another service.  Now then, the slogan on the card is about frugality, so my question is...did she mean to sent it by a slow service or was it a happy accident?  I have no idea!

She wrote a short and friendly note on the back;
"Helen,
I hope that you are well!
I am a student in the UK. I live by the beach with my boyfriend & our 2 rabbits.

~Emma

This is the card with the sticker.

This is the card without the sticker

The offending stamp. Oops!

I think I like the postcard more with the sticker than without!  What about you?

United Kingdom via Germany - Food

July 1, 2019

Marion sent this card from Germany, but she actually bought it in the UK.  I'm not a big fan of that, I prefer to receive cards from the country that they are sent from, but it is a great card!

She wrote,

Hello Helen,

greetings from Hamburg. My name is Marion. I am 50 years old. In my spare time I love to travel and visit places I haven't been to before. My current project is to visit all European capitals. 😀 Hope you like the card. I brought it from my last summer holiday to Cornwall. Best wishes Marion

Cornish Cream Tea

Black & White Bond-Movie Card

May 2, 2018

This fabulous postcard came from Helen in Britain.  She wrote a great message on the back and the front of the card was terrific too, so I loved this Postcrossing!

She started out in the middle of speaking, so to speak!

OK we have a lot in common:- our names, our love of Daniel Craig as Bond (Thank God he's doing one more!), our language!
I've been saving this card for just the right person & it looks like that's you!
Strictly Ballroom is in my all-time Top 10, plus Apollo 13 or any Tom Hanks film (well, most)
Happy Postcrossing
Helen

Bond looking appropriately Bondish!

An interesting grouping of stamps.  Love them!

The big stamp says,
St. Abb's Head
Scottish Borders

Great Britain

August 8, 2017

This interesting card came from Great Britain and was sent by Amy.  She dashed off a friendly note on the back of the card too.

She wrote,

"Hi Helen

I'm from Grimsby but love to visit London -  although I could never stand living there.  I have favourite paintings, but no specific favourite artist. I love the Pre-Raphaelites.

With love and best wishes,
Amy from Grimsby"

The Barry Rooms, 1872-1876
Architect: E.M. Barry 1830-1880

Great Britain - Recipe Card

February 10, 2017

Andy sent this card from Wales to me.  He used an envelope in hopes that the card would arrive safely without being damaged, but the post office had other ideas.  It is still a nice card though.

Andy wrote,

"Bore Da! Helen,
That's good morning in Welsh.

My name is Andy, and I live in Wrexham, North Wales.

I like to read, cook, listen to music, watch movies, photography, hike swim, travel, visit places of historical interest and postcrossing.

I hope you will like this recipe card for BARA BRITH (Fruit Bread)
Best served warm, buttered with a nice cup of tea and the Welsh national flag sticker.

Happy Postcrossing!
Andy"

This is the stamp that Andy used on the envelope.  It's quite beautiful and I think I had one a few months ago from the same series.

Great Britain - Writer

October 31, 2016

This is a fabulous card from Britain that arrived in my mailbox with a great stamp and a friendly message on the back.  I'm not sure that David, the sender, knew that Jane Austen is my favourite novelist but this card made me very happy!

He wrote on the back,
"22nd October 2016
Hello Helen,

     Bath is only 10 miles from my home town of Trowbridge. It is one of my favourite cities.  My wife and I love to go there on a train, wander round aimlessly, mingle with the tourists, have a coffee, visit some delicious cake shops.  There are some wonderful buskers and street artists too.  We have two grand daughters aged 7 and 9 years, growing up very quickly.

Best Wishes, David"

Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath's many famous
residents and visitors.  She lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806 and the social life
 of the city is vividly portrayed in some of her novels.

A little bit of Googling tells me that this stamp is likely featuring the garden at Stowe House, since the name on the stamp is Capability Brown.  He was a famous Landscape Artist who was famous for always telling his customers that he was able to improve their gardens!

Thank you so much David!  A lovely Postcrossing.

Authors

November 18, 2016

The theme for this week's Blog Linky Party is Books, Reading and Authors.  I wasn't able to find any Gotochi cards of books or of people reading, but I did find a couple of writers.  Adding in a few other cards I hope this will be an interesting look at literary themed postcards.

Many non-Japanese people may be unfamiliar with the person below.  However, people in Japan usually see him every day. He holds the place of honour on the 1000 yen note.  This is Hideyo Noguchi, a research scientist who was born in Fukushima. He had quite an interesting life and in Japan is highly regarded as a medical hero.  However, when I read the Wikipedia entry about his life I was quite shocked.  He supposedly experimented on orphaned children and was often accused of having research inaccuracies.

I am not sure if the Wikipedia article is correct, but it certainly does not make Noguchi seem like he should be a national hero for going to Africa to try to discover the origin of Yellow Fever.  He does belong on this page however for the many research articles that he published.

I have visited the Hideyo Noguchi museum in Fukushima. It was very interesting.  Also, I was surprised that the Wikipedia article made no mention of his wife.  Noguchi had an American wife, which would have been rather unusual at the time.

*     *     *     *

The rather large man below is a representation of Saigo Takamori, a samurai, poet and politician.  I don't know a lot about him, but his life is thought to be the basis of the character of Katsumoto, played by Ken Watanabe in the film The Last Samurai. Kagoshima is very far from the area of Japan that I live in, so I haven't done very much reading on Takamori.

*     *     *     *

This gentleman came in the mail one day this year from the United States.  He is quite a famous author, L. Frank Baum, the writer who gave us the Oz series, including of course, The Wizard of Oz. 

This is Tove Jannson, a Finnish author and artist, most famous for the Moomin series.

This is a portrait of Evelyn Waugh.  He was the author of Brideshead Revisited, amongst other novels.

I hope that you have enjoyed my quick look at some famous authors.  I have only recently begun to collect author cards on Postcrossing, but I have a few now.  If you would like to see more cards that fit the topics of books or writers, please select one of those tabs on the right side.

Thank you for visiting this Linky Blog Party.  I hope that you will visit some of the other members of the group and see what they have for your viewing pleasure!


SaveSave

Great Britain - Art

June 21, 2016

This great and chatty card came from Britain to me.  The sender, Bart, wrote a good message on the back too.

He wrote, "Hello!  My name is Bart and I love travelling and visiting some castles, parks, gardens and stately homes.  In one of them that is : Blickling Hall in Norfolk, England there's a picture by V. Prinsep depicting a scene from book: Decameron by Boccaccio in which Lisa falls hard for King Peter of Sicily after seeing him at a jousting tournament and....I won't tell you what has happened because maybe you want to read it :-)  Greetings from England"

Blickling Hall, Norfolk
Lisa, a scene from Boccaccio's Decameron, by Valentine Prinsep, 1867

Actress - Black and White Card

April 19, 2016

This card came from José in England.  He shared a little bit of his story with me which was great.

José wrote,"OLA' (Hi).  I'm a software developer working in London, but I am originally from Portugal.  I moved here almost 3 years ago and, so far, it has been a great experience.

Happy Postcrossing, José"

Great Britain

April 18, 2016

This great card came to me from Jack in Great Britain.  He wrote a lot of facts about Stonehenge on the back of the card.  At first I thought it was a tad odd, since I can read and have read a lot about Stonehenge over the years, but then I realized he might be a bit young. It is still a great card!

"Hello,

Greetings from England, UK.  Today we visited Stonehenge and I chose this card for you.  Once considered one of the 7 wonders of the world, it was built 5000 years ago.  However evidence shows that a wooden circle at the site predates even this. The large sarsen stones were dragged here across country by many men and shaped nearby before being raised into position.  They were shaped to slot together like Lego which is unique for stone circles.  The smaller stones came from Wales by boat and were believed to have healing powers.  

Kind regards, Jack"

Great Britain - Food

August 25, 2015

Mel sent me this card with yummy looking cup-cakes on it.  I like them because they don't have any calories!

She writes, "Hello, I hope you like this card.  Here in England we call these little cakes "Fairycakes".

I have four grown-up children - 2 boys and 2 girls.  I love crafts - esp. cross-stitch & paper crafts.  I enjoy travelling by train, reading & walking.  Sending warmest greetings from the U.K. Regards, Mel"

Cupcakes and Candles - Howard Shooter - 2006

Great Britain

August 25, 2015

This great card came from Wales via London.  Daniel sent it and wrote a friendly message on the back of the card.

"Hello!  My name is Daniel and I live in London.  This postcard is from the other side of the UK in northwest Wales, I hope you like it.  I enjoy travelling and visiting historical places, I also love nature and animals.  I like languages and postcards of course.  My favourite films are thrillers.  Regards, Daniel"

Llandecwyn Church
Eglwys Sant Tecwyn
Looking over the Dwryd Estuary

Really attractive stamp in the middle.  What an amazing bridge!

Great Britain

May 27, 2015

I received this cool card from Owen in the UK.  I think it is beautiful.

He writes," My name is Owen and I live in Dorset on the South Coast of England.  The coastline here is a World Heritage Site as part of the Jurassic coast.  Discoveries here include the Ichythyosaurus, and Plesiosaurus.  You can easily find ammonites like the one on this card just lying on the beaches.
Best Wishes, Owen"

Thanks Owen!

British Duo - Actress and Book

April 28, 2015

Two great cards from the UK arrived on the same day recently.  Have a look!

***

23 April 2015 St.  George's Day, England's Patron Saint

This is the 800th Postcrossing card that I have written.  I am happy to celebrate it with you on this auspicious day.  Leo

Reproduced from a stamp designed by Howard Brown, featuring an illustration of Mr. Pickwick from Character Sketches from Charles Dickens, c. 1890

Look at these cool stamps.  I've never seen the one with David Niven on it before, and The Holly and the Ivy stamp is very beautiful.  It must be quite old since it has a ½ pence on it too!  They seem to have been hand cancelled with a pen...I think it is strange, and I've not seen this one before.

***

My second card of the day came with a short message on the back.

"Hi, I am a teacher in a high school.  During the holidays I love to travel.  I was in Canada last summer (including Edmonton) and I will be visiting Japan this summer.  Julian

Brigitte Bardot

I love the Keats stamp, and the lighthouse stamp is very nice too!

Great Britain

April 25, 2015

This really interesting card came from Natalie.  She wrote me a lovely long message on the back of the card. I'll excerpt some of it for you.

She writes, " I hope this post card finds you well. Sorry it is late in reaching you.  Have been unwell ...".  She goes on to say, " The Grand Budapest Hotel is one of my favourite films too.  I also love all of the LOTR films and they're also my favourite books along with The Hobbit. "

"This card depicts Gas Street Basin in Birmingham City Centre, it's where most of the canals dock and the bridge now has lots of little padlocks on it.  Birmingham now has its very own love-lock bridge :)  Happy Postcrossing, Natalie"

Electric
by TIMMBURGESS

I thought I'd post this even though it isn't a "stamp" as it is quite interesting!

Great Britain - Movie

November 12, 2014

Scott sent this great card with a lot of chatty text, which I of course, love to receive.  I'll fill you in on some of it!

Hi there Helen and many postcrossing greetings from the UK! How are you?  Have you ever been here before? I have never been to Japan but my brother has, twice!  This set of Movie stamp cards has been sitting in my postcard drawer waiting to be sent to you especially! Have you seen "Bend it Like Beckham"? I think it's a great film.  I also like Strictly Ballroom, Tremors, and I like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert!  I am writing and sending this to you from London where I have lived for nearly 20 years, how did that happen? I am originally from Scotland so I go back there twice a year.  Best wishes from me to you, Scott.

He sent along his website address too.  It's all postcards and makes for some good reading too!

Great British Film (Bend it Like Beckham)

 I really like this stamp of the mailbox in the wall!

Thanks Scott!

Great Britain

October 6, 2014

Margaret writes that she hopes I will enjoy this view card of the Highlands, very beautiful with the right weather.  She has been retired for 8 years and she knits lots for charity.

She is not long back from BC and Alberta after visiting her daughter, who shares the my first name, and their 3 grandchildren.   She loves going to Canada.  She managed to take in the Calgary Stampede for the first time and loved it.

She closes with her best wishes from Scotland.

Glen Affric & Beinn Fhada, West Highlands

There was a very nice stamp on the card too, which I like a lot.

Scotland is one of my favourite places on the planet, so I really love this card.  Thanks so much for it!

Great Britain - Crafts

September 19, 2014

Rebecca writes that she hopes this card finds me happy and well. She lists her favourite movies as:

• Girl, Interrupted
• V for Vendetta
• Tank Girl
• The Labyrinth
• The King and I
• Black Swan
• Practical Magic

She says that one of her favourite things to do is watch a good movie.  She says it must be amazing to live in Japan.  She'd love to see it one day.  She closes with her best wishes.

Retro Days
From an original design by Martin Wiscombe

I did receive this card a few weeks ago from another postcrosser, but this is an official Postcrossing.

Thank you so much!