Zzzzz.....

This will be me, as soon as the month is over. I will be going away on holiday, so maybe I won't sleep all the time.

I find it interesting that all but one image has the sleeper on her right side.

Yellow

This must be self-explanatory.

Yachts might have made a nice collage, except that I have only one, or at least only one that I can find. I've discovered over the last few weeks that I need a better filing system. Young could have been another theme: young animals, young children.

I did consider "yesteryear" showing some of my vintage postcards but vintage cards don't really look great as a collage.  they are better viewed singly.

Xmas cards

Until recently, I had no idea there were such things as Christmas themed postcards. They aren't easy to find in the UK but other countries have an abundance of them. They come in many different themes, but probably the most common are:

Santa Claus/Father Christmas/Père Noel/all sorts of names

and snowmen/bonhomme de neige:

I don't know why, but I find the snowman at the centre above vaguely creepy.

Waterways

Waterways, I suppose, means a way of getting from one place to another by water, so I have excluded a few nice waterfalls. So here you have a mixture of canals and rivers.

Occasionally it's hard to tell one from another, though the canals in Venice are unlikely to be mistaken as rivers. They really do serve as a transportation system - even the rubbish is collected by boat.

Village scenes

The truth is, I don't collect Villages or Village scenes, but I do collect any building with a thatched roof.  T was taken by other topics so here we are with Villages.

A typical English village would, especially in the south of England, have had a large number of thatched cottages, but they are found in many other countries too. The card at the top left shows a house in Germany, and the centre bottom shows an Irish cottage.

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.

Trains, trams and topographical travels

I have no great and abiding interest in trains and yet I have somehow accumulated several postcards showing them. Many, but not all, are special trains for tourists rather than the average train taking commuters to work.

One, as you can see, is a vintage card showing the Royal Mail night mail train. At the bottom left is the only tram in this mix.

More to the point of postcard collecting are the cards which show specific places, known as topographical in specialist collecting circles. They are the sorts of cards generally sent home by tourists. The ones I show below are just a few of the many I have sent (to myself as well as to others) on my own travels.

Spices

When I first started collecting postcards, I concentrated on views of different countries. I had no idea at the time that so many other types might be available. I "discovered" spices very late in my collecting career, and I wish I had started much earlier..

I approached this spicy theme via food. It's often hard to separate one theme from another.

I was a bit short of ideas for the letter S, The seaside might have been nice, or ships, or snow.

Reflections

I could have chosen Rome, or ruins, or even Roman ruins - and on reflection perhaps I should - but it's too late now. I have gathered together a selection of reflections.

Questions and answers

The

is, is this a unique 

?

The

is

They come from a pack of postcards I was sent as a result of sending a donation to the postcard designer. Because he received more donations than expected, he sent out larger than expected packs to everyone who helped fund his project.

As you can see, they are all designed from broken up computer keyboards. They make a good card to send to anyone who wants something quirky or unusual.

Panoramas

Panorama postcards are a larger size, proportionally wider than average.  Generally they are about 3.5 by 8.5 inches (roughly 9 by 21.5 cm), though of course they do vary quite considerably.

I've always considered them a problem for storage because I couldn't find an album with inserts that were the right shape. Actually, philatelic First Day Cover albums would probably do the job, but finally I found the sleeves I needed. so now I collect panoramas.

Panorama size cards lend themselves to, surprise surprise, panoramic landscapes! But as you can see from the examples below, they aren't restricted to that.

Some I've recently seen have a perforated side panel which could be detached to make the card a more standard size.  It seems a pity to do that though. An example is the card on the right, centre.  It is a picture of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, and the side panel appears to be an explanation or description.  It is all in Chinese so it's only a guess!

Ornithology

Ornithology probably doesn't really describe a few postcards of birds, but the letter B went to bridges, so here we are with ornithology.

I am particularly fond of robins because of childhood memories of gardening with my father, when our semi-tame robin would come to oversee.

I've included the puffin and owls because they make me smile. I've never met a puffin in real life but an owl did once visit the house where we were staying for a holiday.  I don't know who was more surprised.

The egrets are there for their sheer beauty.

Nature and Night views

Both nature and night views are very popular collecting themes. I suppose there could be an overlap between these two but nature at night is rather hard to see.

In fact, when it came to picking out night views for the collage, even of cities, I had to be careful which ones to choose. Some combinations were very dark indeed so large amounts of floodlighting or other artificial lights were needed.

Markets

The letter M provides us with a fairly large number of popular collecting themes: variations on Military, or on Motor, Monuments, Music.

I have a large collection of Maps, but I may have done them to death so I'll stick to Markets.  I've recently started a collection of Medieval art, but it is a fledgling collection so far.

Here, then, are my markets:

Lighthouses and London

The letter L has left me spoilt for choice between the seaside and the city centre, lighthouses and London. I couldn't decide between them, so I'm showing both because they provide a nice contrast and hopefully will appeal to differing tastes.

Lighthouses are a very popular collection theme because, I assume, of their striking shape and often in dramatic settings.

The London postcards are ones I've sent to people in the past. I don't collect them myself because it feels like London is just up the road. However, they do make a good theme to collect.

Kaleidoscope of colour

K proved to be a bit tricky when I realised that I had used kitchens for Domestic scenes!  However, I hope you agree that many of my cards, and these in particular, are a kaleidoscope of colour! The multi-view in the top row, Namibian Light, is a stunning card.

Jetsam

"Jetsam": unwanted material or goods purposely jettisoned to lighten the load.

Here I have some jetsam that I am about to cast, maybe not overboard, but to the uncertain fate of the various post offices in the world.

I have far, far, too many postcards waiting to be sent to people, so if anyone would like one of the 10 cards pictured, please leave a comment and send me your postal address via email. You can contact me via the contact tab at the top of this blog.

The black and white cards are from a box of 100 "Postcards from our Past" published by English Heritage.

The second set are from another box of 100, classic covers from Vanity Fair.

You can see them better if you click on the image to enlarge it.

Updated to add, I am very happy to send postcards anywhere in the world, either stamped and written or in an envelope.

Illustrations

I always, if asked, say that I enjoy postcards showing art of any type. As a result I've received art of almost every description and, of course I realise now there are some styles I like more than others. Great favourites of mine are book illustrations such as the ones above.

I don't know if I can describe this second group as illustration. They are reproductions of covers of books and magazines.  Now, is that cover art? Or could they be described as illustrations too?

Hanseatic cities

The Hanseatic League was formed in the 13th century by a group of merchants in northern Europe to protect their trading interests and rights, using their own laws and armies. It lasted about 300 years.

The League has been reformed in modern times, open to all former members, to promote cultural and social ties as well as economic.

It seemed a good topic for collection, either the modern or the old members, but up till now I have very few cards. Part of the reason may be that it seems quite difficult to find a definitive list of members.

Geography - from Germany to Guyana

I have more cards Germany than from any other country except possibly France, but the French cards have mainly been purchased while the German cards have been exchanged via Postcrossing. Above you can see just a few beautiful German castles.

Below, at the other end of the scale, are cards from countries where I have less than a handful: Gambia, Ghana and Guyana. In fact the map of Guyana is the only one I have from that country and also the only one resulting from an exchange.

Fruit and Flowers

What can I say about fruit and flowers?  While I was looking for the cards, I found that most of the fruit seems to come from Finland where they seem to have an abundance of berries, some of which I don't recognise at all.

I'm not sure where the Lipton Tea strawberry card came from. In the corner it says "Rub to release the delicious aroma".  It works.  Try it and see! :)

Something I've noticed, unless it's just my eyes, is that these larger images look blurred even though the originals are perfectly sharp. However, if you click on the image to see the original size, they are once again sharp. I don't know how to rectify that other than going back to the smaller image on the blog post. Any help would be welcome.

Endearing and Exotic animals

I realise, of course, that an animal I might consider exotic could be entirely commonplace for other people. It depends on your point of view. I have split the cards into my own personal view :)

My particular favourite of the endearing crowd is the one on the top left above.  The caption on the back reads "Which is the odd one out?"

It's not to say that exotic animals can't be endearing too. I love the snow monkeys from Japan, sitting in a thermal spring while the snow falls on their heads.

Top left and bottom right in this set are maxi-cards from Australia, with a corresponding stamp on the front of the card.

Domestic scenes

When I was writing a wishlist for Postcrossing, I added that I love to see traditional kitchens. Whenever I visit any castle, château, or mansion I make a point of visiting the kitchens so I thought there must be postcards of them out there, though not as many as I'd hoped. Later I added any traditional household interior.

As you can see, I'm collecting quite a few now.  At least one is an advertising postcard but that's fine by me. They are a good record of social history.

Citroen 2CV

Deciding on a more unusual theme to collect can come down to a very personal connection.  I used to drive a Citroen 2CV for many years, so, when its day was done, I thought it would be nice to collect them on postcards.

Most of these are very much more decorative than mine. I would have loved to have one with sunflowers all over it. A fun design to match the fun of driving one.

This is always going to be a relatively small collection but I hope it's still growing. I have 15 - 20 now, but not one matches either of the two I used to own.  The first was a plain yellow as seen in one of the James Bond films, and the second was a little more exciting: red with grey trims!

Bridges

B could have been for Birds or Butterflies or Babies or Boys, but I've chosen Bridges. Nobody sends me babies or butterflies. :)

I seem to have accumulated a considerable number of bridges over the years.  Many, of course, are points of interest in themselves. The one at the top right is Pont Alexandre III in Paris.  You can see Les Invalides ahead while the Eiffel Tower would be behind the photographer.  The dilemma is where to file it: with the other bridges or in my Paris album?

I realise, as I group these cards together, that there is undoubtedly a link between bridges and arches.

Arches

Many people, when they start collecting postcards, think they will collect as many places as possible. Before too long you realise that it's something of an impossible task. It's clearly impractical to have postcards from everywhere so where do you draw the line? Certain countries? While you may be happy, delighted even, to have a single card from Tuvalu (yes, I have and I am!), which card could possibly represent France, or Brazil?

So you may go down the route of collecting places that mean something to you, where you were born, or places you've lived or visited. Or you can choose an entirely different route and collect cards fitting themes that you like.

My postcard collection has grown so much that I've decided I should show collages of cards representing themes, rather than singling out individual cards.

The cards in this first A to Z post of 2016 all celebrate arches.  Sometimes the arch itself is the centrepiece of the postcard, sometimes it frames another feature, and sometimes it's the pattern made by multiple arches that caught the photographer's eye.

I'm not entirely sure if the series of doorways (bottom row, centre) really fits the theme of arches, but it has the same sort of pattern that attracts my eye, so it's included.