Saudi Arabia

One more card for today.. and it's from a new country! It doesn't seem to be too easy to get postcards from Saudi Arabia. I suppose it's at least partly due to the fact that it's difficult for Westerners (or non-Muslims) to visit the country, or that's the impression I've got anyway.



Here you can see terraced slopes in Asir Region of Saudi Arabia. Asir is a province located in the southwest of the country, named after the confederation of clans of the same name. It has an area of 81,000 km² and an estimated population of 1,563,000. It shares a short border with Yemen. Its capital is Abha. Other towns include Khamis Mushayt and Qal'at Bishah.

Geographically, the Asir region is situated on a high plateau that receives more rainfall than the rest of the country and contains the country's highest peaks, which rise to almost 3,000 metres at Jebel Sawdah near Abha. Temperatures are very extreme, with diurnal temperature ranges in the highlands the greatest in the world. It is common for afternoon temperatures to be over 30 °C (85 °F) yet mornings can be extremely frosty and fog can cut visibility to near zero percent. As a result, there is much more natural vegetation in Asir than in any other part of Saudi Arabia, with sheltered areas even containing areas of dense coniferous forests, though more exposed ridges still are very dry. Asir is home to many farmers who chiefly grow wheat and fruit crops, though irrigation has greatly expanded production in modern times.



The stamps are from a set of 16 stamps issued in 2003, depicting Mosques of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

Flowers of Norfolk Island

The 'All About Nature' RR really is great, I've received so many beautiful cards from the group I joined. This one is from it as well, isn't it lovely and colourful?!



The following info can be found on the back of this card:

An array of beautiful flowers decorate Norfolk Island. Left to Right to row: Papillio (Hippeastrum), Yellow Frangi Pani (Plumeria), Skeleton Hibiscus, Marjory Brown Hibiscus. Left to right bottom row: Norfolk Island Dendrobium (orchid, endemic to Norfolk Island), Elaine's Pride Hibiscus, Rose of Sharon Hibiscus, Philip Island Hibiscus (endemic to Philip Island).

You don't see too many flowers around in England at the moment.. although it's getting a bit more colourful again with all the autumn leaves. Which reminds me, I really need to go to West Park in Wolverhampton at some point to take photos.



The flower stamp on the right is from a set of 10 stamps issued in 2004, showing Hippeastrums. The one next to it is from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2009, showing Norfolk Island Bush Birds, this one here being the Grey Fantail. The stamp next to that one is from a set of 10 stamps issued in 2005, depicting Seabirds of Norfolk Island, this one here being the Red-tailed Tropic Bird. The flower stamp on the far left, then, is from a set of 2 stamps issued in 1995. The dog stamp is from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2006, showing Dogs of Norfolk Island, and the last stamp was issued in 2009 and comes from a set of 4 stamps depicting Norfolk Island Mosaics.

Hội An, Vietnam

Vietnamese postcards really fascinate me, I love it how so many of them seem to depict people going about their daily lives, instead of just showing famous landmarks or cities. It's really refreshing and I wish more places were like that. This card is a pretty good example, I think. It still shows a historical part of Hoi An (a Unesco site unless I'm very much mistaken) but you concentrate more on the colours and the person in the middle.



Hội An is a city on the coast of the South China Sea in the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is located in Quảng Nam province and is home to approximately 120,000 inhabitants. In 1999, the old town was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a unique blend of local and foreign influences.

Hội An attracts a fair number of tourists, also being a well-established place on the backpacker trail. Many visit for the numerous art and craft shops. The town is also famed for its unique lanterns, as shown on this card.



The stamp is from a set of 2 flower stamps issued in 2010.

Philippines

I already had this postcard in my collection but I don't mind receiving duplicates, particularly when the card in question is this pretty. This is also one of my first cards from the 'Themed Messages' RR. I love the concept of that RR and hope to join more groups in the future. I'm not usually too impressed when I receive a card saying just "Happy Postcrossing", or something along those lines.



I hadn't realised that the Philippines comprised of THAT many islands. I had to check the number, according to Wikipedia it is 7,107. Just a few, then.. ;) This is such a lovely map card, too, so colourful and pretty.



The stamps are from a set of 19 stamps issued in 2010, depicting Marine Life.

Pulau Redang, Malaysia

Another card from Malaysia.. this one is an official card, and it actually arrived on the same day as the cottage card! It's also interesting how on some days I get a huge bunch of mail and on others hardly anything. Does the postman do that deliberately or can it really be a coincidence?


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Anyway. Isn't it a gorgeous view?! Once again I wish I could Apparate and Disapparate - travelling would be so much cheaper and easier that way. :P

This is Pulau Redang (Redang Island) in Terengganu. It is one of the largest islands off the east coast of Malaysia. It is one of nine islands, which form a marine park, and which offer snorkeling and diving opportunities. The island is also an important conservation site for sea turtles.

The waters around Pulau Redang also contain two historic shipwrecks: HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. The ships were sunk here at the start of World War II, setting the stage for the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

The sender, Lim, tells me that not long ago, Malaysian government announced that some islands/beaches had to be 'closed' because the amount of coral reefs is decreasing at an alarming rate. Pulau Redang is one of these islands.



I couldn't find any information about the stamp.. it's very pretty and the mountain is printed in a way that makes it come up a bit.

Beserah, Pahang, Malaysia

This very cute card is from the 'UK & Ireland to the rest of the world' RR that I sometimes join. Probably won't be joining any new groups for a while, though, at least not until the one I've already joined will be complete and I actually receive some cards from it :p Anyway. The theme for the group this card is from is 'cottages and country houses'. I love it how this is so different from what I would've expected!



The card shows a village house in Beserah, Pahang (Pahang is the third largest state in Malaysia, after Sarawak and Sabah). Nurulhuda, who sent me this card, tells me that often houses in villages around Malaysia look like this. They are made out of wood and are built on stilts (to avoid floods).



The stamp on the left is from a set of 8 stamps issued in 2005, depicting Birds of Malaysia. This one here is the Spotted Dove. The other stamp is from a set of 6 stamps issued in 2009, with the theme "One Malaysia".

Kakadu National Park, Australia

Mmmmm, I've got a big cup of peppermint tea to warm me up (as well as the always trusty heater :p). Hopefully my fingers will start feeling a little less stiff in a moment. :p It's so quiet at home at the moment, perfect time to update this blog. :) I wanted to post the following postcard here as I don't have too many postcards of Australia's Northern Territory, apart from Ayers Rock, and this shows something else!



Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It covers an area of 1,980,400 ha extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres from east to west. It is the size of Slovenia, about one-third the size of Tasmania, or nearly half the size of Switzerland. The Ranger Uranium Mine, one of the most productive Uranium mines in the world, is contained within the park. It is also a Unesco World Heritage site.

This unique archaeological and ethnological reserve has been inhabited continuously for more than 40,000 years. The cave paintings, rock carvings and archaeological sites record the skills and way of life of the region’s inhabitants, from the hunter-gatherers of prehistoric times to the Aboriginal people still living there. It is a unique example of a complex of ecosystems, including tidal flats, floodplains, lowlands and plateaux, and provides a habitat for a wide range of rare or endemic species of plants and animals.



The card came in an envelope with a few other postcards. The stamp is from a set of 5 stamps issued earlier this year, commemorating the Centenary of Powered Flight. This one here is John Duigan.

Grand Anse Beach, Grenada

One more card for today.. it's actually about two minutes to midnight here so this will be posted tomorrow. :P This card is definitely a pearl in my collection - I never thought I'd ever receive a written and stamped postcard directly from Grenada!



Grand Anse Beach is apparently one of the world's most beautiful beaches, or at least that's what this card claims :p I can't really give my opinion on that but it does look very beautiful. The sender says that he goes to this beach after exams with his friends. I'm so jealous! It would seem SO much nicer to celebrate on a sunny beach than in a dark, noisy pub. The sender tells me that there are a lot of English students in Grenada; they couldn't get to study medicine in England so they went to study it in Grenada. I can see why Grenada might be more tempting than England, and the climate would probably not be the least important of reasons :p Funny thought, if English kids go to study in Grenada - I've heard of so many Finnish kids moving to study in England because it's easier to get into uni there than back in Finland. ...and a family friend of my parents' moved to France years ago to study medicine because he couldn't get into uni in Finland. The only problem was, he didn't know any French when he first moved there so he had to learn the language first. He's a doctor (or possibly something even higher) now...!



Such a nice stamp, too! It's from a set of 7 butterfly stamps issued in 2006.

Sri Lanka

I decided to pick a theme for the cards I'm posting about today - they are all from island countries. Something nice to cheer me up as this week hasn't been very good overall.



This card was actually mailed from Italy instead of Sri Lanka, but it's still a gem in my collection. I love tea so everything related to this lovely drink is most welcome in my home. :) Here you can see tea pluckers in Sri Lanka.

Tea production in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, is of high importance to the Sri Lankan economy and the world market. The country is the world's fourth largest producer of tea and the industry is one of the country's main sources of foreign exchange and a significant source of income for laborers, with tea accounting for 15% of the GDP, generating roughly $700 million annually. In 1995 Sri Lanka was the world's leading exporter of tea, (rather than producer) with 23% of the total world export, but it has since been surpassed by Kenya. The tea sector employs, directly or indirectly over 1 million people in Sri Lanka, and in 1995 directly employed 215,338 on tea plantations and estates. The humidity, cool temperatures, and rainfall in the country's central highlands provide a climate that favors the production of high quality tea. The industry was introduced to the country in 1867 by James Taylor, the British planter who arrived in 1852.

Mauritius

Another card from a swap with Tasneem in Mauritius. This one came in an envelope with a bunch of other great postcards, but I chose this one to post here as I really like map cards. :)



Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres east of Madagascar. Uninhabited by humans until the 17th century, the island was ruled first by the Dutch and then by the French after the former abandoned it. The British took control during the Napoleonic Wars and Mauritius became independent from the UK in 1968. Mauritius's area is 2040 km2 with Port Louis for capital.

The main languages spoken in Mauritius are Mauritian Creole, French and English. English is the only official language but the lingua franca is Mauritian Creole and the newspapers and television programmes are usually in French. Ethnically, the majority of the estimated 1,300,000 people are of Indian descent but there are also many people of African descent on the island. There are also European and Chinese minorities. It is the only African nation where the majority religion is Hinduism although Christianity and Islam also have significant populations. The island of Mauritius is renowned for having been the only known home of the dodo.

Le Morne, Mauritius

It's only mid-October and I've already had to use the little heater in my bedroom a few times this autumn. :( Cold weather in the UK is evil, different from Finland. It gets to your bones here. I've been dreaming of being somewhere warm but at the moment I can only "travel" by looking at postcards. Mauritius is one such warm place I wouldn't mind being in at the moment.



This card actually shows a Unesco site! Le Morne Cultural Landscape, a rugged mountain that juts into the Indian Ocean in the southwest of Mauritius was used as a shelter by runaway slaves, maroons, through the 18th and early years of the 19th centuries. Protected by the mountain’s isolated, wooded and almost inaccessible cliffs, the escaped slaves formed small settlements in the caves and on the summit of Le Morne. The oral traditions associated with the maroons, have made Le Morne a symbol of the slaves’ fight for freedom, their suffering, and their sacrifice, all of which have relevance to the countries from which the slaves came - the African mainland, Madagascar, India, and South-east Asia. Indeed, Mauritius, an important stopover in the eastern slave trade, also came to be known as the “Maroon republic” because of the large number of escaped slaves who lived on Le Morne Mountain.




I couldn't find any info on the stamp so all I know is what it already says on it...

New Zealand

One more card for today. This lovely official arrived today. I love receiving postcards from New Zealand, they are always a treat and this one is no exception.


NZ-42522

It's an all round lovely card - it has a map on it, sheep, waterfall, mountains and other beautiful sceneries.. New Zealand seems like something out of this world, I think it's quite appropriate that the Lord of the Rings was filmed there ;)

Tanya, the sender of this card lives in Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area. The city was in the news last month when a major 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck it, causing an estimated total cost of NZ$4 billion in damage. Tanya told me that everyone is fine, so thankfully it looks like the earthquake didn't kill anyone.



The stamp is from a set of 7 stamps called 'Scenic Definitives' from 2009. This one here shows Russell.

Bled, Slovenia

More beautiful sceneries, this time from Slovenia. This postcard was sent to me by the lovely Nives, who visited the area recently. I'm jealous! Slovenia is one the most beautiful countries in Europe, and some of the pictures I've seen from there make me think of New Zealand!



Bled is a municipality in northwestern Slovenia in the region of Upper Carniola. The area within the Julian Alps is a popular tourist destination. Bled is known for the glacial Lake Bled, which makes it a major tourist attraction. Perched on a rock overlooking the lake is the iconic Bled Castle. The town is also known in Slovenia for its vanilla-and-cream pastry called kremna rezina or kremšnita.

A small island in the middle of the lake is home to the Assumption of Mary Pilgrimage Church; visitors frequently ring its bell for good luck. Human traces from prehistory have been found on the island. Before the church was built, there was a temple consecrated to Živa, the Slavic goddess of love and fertility. One can get to the island on a traditional wooden row barge called Pletna. The island on Lake Bled has 99 steps. A local tradition at weddings is for the husband to carry his new bride up these steps, during which the bride must remain silent.

Bled Castle is a picturesque white and red castle enclosed by a Romanesque wall with parapets, ramparts, and towers. The current incarnation of the castle dates from the 17th century and was restored in the 1950s.



The card was mailed from Croatia. The stamp was issued in 2005, under the title Croatian cities, this one here being the city of Rijeka.

Rocky Mountain National Park, USA

This is another postcard from the "All About Nature" RR, from a "flowers" group to be specific. I've received such lovely cards in this group, I'm thinking of joining another one some time soon-ish :) Isn't this a gorgeous view?!



Rocky Mountain National Park is a national park located in the north-central region of the U.S. state of Colorado. It features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra—and easy access to back-country trails and campsites. The park is located northwest of Boulder, Colorado, in the Rockies, and includes the Continental Divide and the headwaters of the Colorado River.

The formation of Rocky Mountain National Park occurred over a billion years. Its rocks are among the oldest in the country, exposed from an ancient seabed and the constant forces of uplift and erosions. Recent glaciers carved the grand landscape of rugged peaks, deep valleys, and pristine lakes.

The sender, Heidi, actually lives pretty close to this place! She says it's a wonderful resource for hiking, photo taking, wildlife viewing and an all around peaceful nature experience. That's easy to imagine! I would probably take tons of photos there. :D



The bigger stamps were issued earlier this year and pay tribute to the all–black professional baseball leagues that operated from 1920 to about 1960. Considered the “father” of Negro leagues baseball, Andrew “Rube” Foster (1879–1930) established the Negro National League in 1920, the first successful league of African–American baseball teams. The small stamp is a definitive stamp from 2003, showing the American Clock.

Biloxi, Mississippi, USA

Another lighthouse postcard! This one came as a thank you card from a woman in the USA I sent an official to recently. Such a cool card, thank you very much, Mimi!



There was some very helpful info on the back of the card:

Of all the lighthouses that once stood in Mississippi, Biloxi Lighthouse is the only one still standing. Named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, the white, colonical tower was built in 1848, making it one of the first cast-iron lighthouses in the South.



The "stamp" on the right is not actually a real stamp - it's printed straight on the postcard. Very nice, though! The stamp in the middle was issued earlier this year and shows Katharine Hepburn (I remember her from a translation assignment I had to do early on in uni :D). I'm not sure about the polar bear stamp, except that it's a definitive stamp.

Pärnu, Estonia

This card is from the same RR as the Switzerland card I just posted. I seem to be receiving quite a lot of lighthouse postcards from Estonia nowadays. Not that I mind - they are all lovely!



Pärnu is the summer capital of Estonia and the main city of the Pärnumaa region. There are two breakwaters in the mouth of Pärnu River. The one on the left bank (Pärnu Mole) has become the symbol of Pärnu.



Have I mentioned that I really like Estonian stamps? Well, I do. :) The one on the right was issued in 2007 and shows St John's of Kanepi Church. I couldn't find any info on the second stamp but it's pretty old - issued in 1996! It shows Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor best known for his development of a radio telegraph system.

Zürich, Switzerland

Here's a slightly different postcard from Switzerland. ..and by 'different' I mean that it doesn't feature mountains or cute little houses, or chocolate. Don't get me wrong, I like all those things, but it's nice to see something else occasionally as well.



This card shows the Paradeplatz, a square at the Bahnhofstrasse in downtown Zürich. It is one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in Switzerland and has become synonymous with wealth and the Swiss banks, being the location of the headquarters of both UBS and Credit Suisse.

The site of the square lay without the medieval city walls, and was incorporated into the town with the construction of the new ramparts in 1642. During the 17th century, it served as a lifestock market, known as Säumärt ("pig market"), renamed to Neumarkt "new market" in 1819 and finally to its current name following the construction of Bahnhofstrasse (1865). The hotel Baur en Ville on the eastern end of the square opened in 1838. The Paradeplatz was the scene of clashes between insurgents and cantonal troops during the 1839 Züriputsch.

Sounds like a pretty freaky place - an area with nothing but banks! O_o The trams look really nice, and I like the flowers (or trees?) at the front, I think they add a nice touch to the card and make it less "business-like", if you can say so.



So many stamps! The one on the right is a commemorative one, issued earlier this year to mark the 250th birth (?) anniversary of Johann Peter Hebel. The stamps next to it are from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2008, representing Cereals. The one in the middle is barley, and the two others are rye.

99.9.9-9

It's been a very busy week. Several training days, aikido, aikido club meeting... and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to relax this weekend, either :( Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's birthday party, though, that should be fun!

I've received lots of very nice postcards in the past two weeks and there are so many I want to post about here. I thought I'd start with this very cool card from Taiwan, I won it in a lottery on the postcrossing forum (and yes, I'll organise my own lottery when I have more time).



This is what the sender, Shu-i, explained about the card and the cancellations:

2010 is the 99th year of the Republic of China Era. As it is September, 9th today, we will get a postmark dated as 99.9.9-9. The last 9 refers to postmark made around 9:00 a.m. In Chinese, 9 pronounced the same as (jiou) which means "lasting for a long time." In this way, people here think it's quite a good number to express their love (some people choose to get married today !) or see it as a lucky number for healthy, friendship, happiness..etc.

The words on the front side mean "Happy Teacher's Day!" The Teacher's Day is on September 28th in Taiwan, which is also Confucius' (a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period) birthday.



..and here's the special cancellation. :)

North Korea

A couple more postcards that Stanley sent me of North Korea.



I have no idea what the places on these cards are, although the upper one could possibly be Pyongyang? I know it's pretty naive of me, but I thought all of North Korea was like that; I didn't even think there could be places like the latter card there. :p Being a tourist in North Korea must be one of the weirdest experiences you could possibly have. I mean, when you are going to be accompanied by someone at all times and are only allowed to communicate with carefully selected people and see what they deem suitable. I think even George Orwell would've been creeped out... :P





..another miniature sheet I received. Pretty!

North Korea

Something very different now.. I received a bunch of postcards of North Korea from a kind postcrosser earlier this week. They are beautiful, but I can't help thinking about the actual country..



I've always wondered why the official name of the country is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) when it's not democratic AT ALL. Does anyone know? It's pretty freaky anyway, a country where everything is so totally and completely state-controlled. How do you live in a place like that? Due to the government's secretive nature and its reluctance to allow in foreigners, North Korea is today considered the world's most isolated country. North Korea is a self-described Juche (self-reliant) state, described by some observers as a "hereditary dictatorship" with a pronounced cult of personality organized around Kim Il-sung (the founder of North Korea and the country's only president) and his son and heir, Kim Jong-il. It made me wonder during the latest football World Cup, how closely guarded and watched the North Korean players must be. It's scary to think how screwed you must be if you don't agree with the system...





These cards were sent in an envelope from China, but the sender, Stanley, included some stamp sheets. It was such a surprise, I didn't expec them at all! They are great, though, certainly something you don't come across everyday.

Bahrain

More swap cards... This is my first received written and stamped postcard from Bahrain. :) Thank you, Saleh!



I don't really know too much about Bahrain... except that it's a pretty tiny country. It's actually an island country, in the Persian Gulf, ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. While Bahrain is an archipelago of thirty-three islands, the largest (Bahrain Island) is 55 km long by 18 km wide.

In 2008, Bahrain's population stood at 1.05 million, out of which more than 517,000 were non-nationals. Though majority of the population is ethnically Arab, a sizable number of people from South Asia live in the country.

On this card you can see a replica of an Arabian well at High Way of Adhari Park, an amusement park in Bahrain.



As for the stamp, it looks like it shows the King of Bahrain, Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa.

Budva, Montenegro

One more card from the swap with Ana, this one here shows Budva in Montenegro.



Budva is a coastal town in Montenegro. It has around 15,000 inhabitants, and is a centre of Budva Municipality. The coastal area around Budva, called the Budvanska rivijera, is the centre of Montenegro's tourism, and is well known for its sandy beaches, diverse nightlife, and beautiful examples of Mediterranean architecture.

Budva is 2,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic sea coast.

There's some interesting trivia about Budva in Wikipedia (Yeah, I know, most of my references are from Wikipedia and it's not always the most correct of sources but it is still the most convenient, so.. sorry if there's incorrect info in this blog.):

Locally, Budva is referred to as the Montenegrin Kuwait, because of its immense number of millionaires, compared to its small population. Following a real estate boom in 2000s, many native families sold their properties in and around Budva to foreign buyers, mostly Russians, Austrians and Italians. Once barren and undeveloped fields of steep hillsides are being sold for hundreds euros per square meter. This resulted in a once poor fisherman's village to become a town with the most millionaires per capita in Europe, about 500 for the population of around 22 000 in whole municipality.

Budva has the distinction of being the smallest town to host a concert of The Rolling Stones. The group held a concert on 9 July 2007, at Jaz Beach, as a part of their A Bigger Bang Tour. The show saw an attendance of some 35,000 spectators, twice the population of Budva town itself. (I used to be a huge fan of the Rolling Stones and I still like them, although I prefer their songs from the 60s and 70s.)

Serbia

Another card from the swap with Ana, this one is just as great as the previous one.



What you can see on this card:
Up and down: Fallow Deer in Vratna and Natural Gates in Vratna River Gorge
Right: The Waterfall "Prskalo" in Juzni Kucaj Mountain

Eastern Serbia is known for beautiful mountains and caves, and rich folklore. In the bottom left corner you can see one of the arches in the gorge of the small river Vratna. It's the only place in Serbia where such rock formations can be seen. There's also a tiny monastery in the canyon. In this area there is a beautiful national park "Djerdap", on the banks of the Danube river.

Serbia

More swap cards... This one comes from Serbia, from Ana. Receiving postcards from her is always a joy - she comes across as such a lovely, friendly person and she always writes a lot on her cards. :)



It's great to get to see some other places in Serbia apart from Belgrade, too. Not that I don't like receiving cards of Belgrade as well, but I'm curious about the rest of the country, too. On this card you can see:
Up: Tara Mountain - Mitrovac
Down: Jadovnik Mountain - Sopotnica and Zlatibor Mountain
Right: Tara Mountain - Lake Zaovine

Tara Mountain is a national park in the western Serbia. The river Drina runs through the park and in the last photo you can see one of the lakes in its canyon. The trees there are Serbian spruces. This is the only place in the world where this species can be seen. Zlatibor ("golden pine") is another beautiful mountain in this area and a popular tourist centre. Ana tells me that in one of its villages there's an interesting open-air museum of traditional architecture.



Isn't the stamp adorable?! It's from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2009, depicting Protected Animal Species. This one here is the Southern Birch Mouse.

Texas wildflowers

I recently discovered "All About Nature" RR on the postcrossing forum. I joined the 'flowers' group some time ago but am hoping to join some others later. This card is from the 'flowers' group, and so pretty, too!



I love it when flowers grow like this - like a colourful blanket. This spring I witnessed something similar here when I went to walk around in bluebell woods. It was breathtaking! I've seen some yellow flower fields here, too, I wish I could've taken some photos but I was on a bus at the time. *sigh*

Reykjavik, Iceland

I haven't been too active on the official postcrossing site recently. I do still like it, but I've been concentrating on swaps more lately. Might send some more officials next week, hmmm..?



This is one of the swap cards I've received recently. Iceland has always fascinated me - so remote and beautiful, and such a small country too. Just to think that the country's CAPITAL is smaller than the town where I live now... On the back of this card it says that Reykjavik is Europe's most unpolluted city. That's easy to believe!

Aren't the houses cute, too? I adore the colourful rooftops! :)



SUCH a lovely stamp, too! It's from this year's Europa stamps series, one of the two stamps Iceland issued in it.