OFFICIAL Card - Latvia

Valerija lives outside of Riga and sent me this card her friend picked up last year while travelling to Rome. Nice card, however I did have to chuckle. My second official card from Latvia and neither show me anything of the country. Oh well, live to dream, maybe one day I'll receive sights from that country!

OFFICIAL Card - USA

Bob lives "under the Orca Whale" and sent this fun nautical chart of Kingston, Washington which is very much like a map. He wrote how they do not have different seasons just different temperatures of rain. Had to laugh at that! One of the main reasons I could never live on the West Coast.

OFFICIAL Card - China

This card was a nice surprise when it came to me. Kind of thought that cards featuring Beijing 2008 would be few and far between, luckily for me Huaming sent this to me. The stamps he chose are beautiful. I included more of the back than I normally like to as I wanted to show them all.

OFFICIAL Cards - Netherlands

Ida sent this great card of her national flag - something about seeing a flag in the wind always make it seem so strong!

OFFICIAL Card - Taiwan

Penny is Malaysian and married and moved to Taiwan. She sent me this card from the series "Wildbirds in light and shade". This particular card shows the Spot-billed Duck. The single word "Once..." leaves you wondering - how would you fill in the blank?

OFFICIAL Card - Finland

I love learning new things. I find it helps keep me in a positive mental state. As a stay at home Mom, it is kind of easy to lose yourself in all things kid oriented or in running the household. So the little bits that I pick up through the cards I receive help to ignite the spark and keep me on my toes.

This card is one that taught something I never knew. Raisa-Hannele lives in a city outside of Helsinki called Espoo. The card she chose to send me shows a reproduction of a vintage travel poster advertising the Olympic Games of 1940. Games that were cancelled due to World War II. To be honest that was something I never knew and never really thought of and it did surprise me when I saw this as I know Helsinki hosted in 1952. You can read a bit more about the situation here. Raisa-Hannele also wrote to say that it was a "big thing" then and it was also the first time she tasted Coca-Cola. Love little details like that!

OFFICIAL Card - China

Ming sent me this card of Customs House, in her hometown of Shaghai, China. She used a lovely fountain pen and not only has beautiful handwriting but also drew me a picture of the peach blossoms she wrote about coming into bloom. The card on one corner got quite smudged (although still totally able to read it). She then wrote apologising for the raindrops that got on it - sweet!

OFFICIAL Card - Netherlands

They are calling for highs in the 38-40C range with humidity for the next few days. What better way to cool off than to look at this little bird on a snowy branch. If I have identified correctly I believe this is a Blue Tit.

OFFICIAL Card - Ukraine

Zoya from Kiev sent this card showing young boys in traditional Cossack dress fighting. In her own words she describes this a very Ukranian card. Love the stamps too!

Random Act of Smiliness - Alida from Canada

Happy first day of Summer!!!!

This is the perfect card to celebrate the longest day of the year! I met Alida at the Ingersoll Postcrossing Meet-up last July. We have exchanged cards and messages a few times over the year. It was such a wonderful surprise to receive this card from her a few weeks ago. She had gone to Port Stanley and picked up this card for me. I have cousins who live there and while less than 2 hours from my place I have never been. It has a real beach culture, or as much as you can get given that you are in Ontario! A great Olympic stamp from the 2010 Vancouver Games and a cancellation from Courtland, Ontario. Alida - I too can't wait to we all meet up again in a few weeks time!

OFFICIAL Card - England

Keith lives right in London, England and wrote how much he enjoyed having the Olympics in his city last year. The card he sent shows the Olympic Rings during the 1936 Berlin Games. Super card!

Thank You Card - Christina from Greece

In April I sent Christina a card and wrote to her about which office towers I used to work in amongst other things. She really liked the card when she received it and asked for my address to send a thank you. It is hard sometimes to handle a request like that. I know I would love to send out more cards than I do to brighten peoples days but time and budget have to keep me focused. I figure if someone asks they are initiating it and while very nice I never expect it.

This card shows the Temple of Olympian Zeus in her hometown of Athens. This is exactly the type of image that comes to mind when I think of Greece. Beautiful card - thank you for the thank you!!!

OFFICIAL Card - Russia

Sergey is from Tyumen, Russia. To be honest, it was a Russian city I had never heard of before his card arrived. He wrote telling it is an oil capital and educational centre of Western Siberia. This cards depicts the Administrative building or Oblast of Tyumen Region. Sergey also used some stamps that were new to me.

Thank You Card - Aliessia from China

Aliessia and I swapped cards awhile back. She liked the view card I sent her so much she followed up with a thank you card for me. Very sweet of her! She wrote telling me she was able to volunteer for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That would have been a fun experience!

OFFICIAL Card - Ukraine

While I prefer my cards sent without an envelope I must say this card arrived in one of the prettiest envelopes I've ever seen. I wasn't able to scan it easily to show the design with both my and the senders address removed. It has a really elaborate and cute Easter basket with paska bread, eggs and flowers. Anastasia sent me this view of "House with Atlantes". I can find many different photos when I Google search but this was the only link I could find with any text. She wrote me about her hobbies, travels and school.

OFFICIAL Card - China

Meng sent me this card in late March. I believe it is an ad card for this shop. She didn't have too much to say on the back other than "greetings from..." and hope I like the card. Looks like it could be a funky place to shop.

OFFICIAL Card - Scotland

Oh how this card put a smile on my face! Mairi from Glasgow, Scotland sent this very funny card on May 3rd. She used some really fun stamp stickers with all my "favourite initials", different coloured markers and types of text and drew an equally funny picture of sheep on the back and described them as a cloud with legs. unbeknownst to her I was going to see The Bay City Rollers the next night for my anniversary. The first thing I think of when I think of  Scotland is Les McKeown! Yes, I may be dating myself but it is a band I've crushed on for 37 years. Her card arrived in a speedy week and just helped to remind me of the high I was still on. Even her return note to my acknowledgement was fun. Absolutely love everything about this card.

OFFICIAL Card - USA

When sending a card on Postcrossing you are given the option of uploading the image. I do this for all the cards I send. I find about half the cards I receive have been uploaded which is great, however sometimes I do change the image to show the travel lines of the card. I just had to do it with this one.  Shelby from California sent this card of Barack Obama as she states "...because he is the royalty of our country! LOL!" For some reason the white smudge that appears as a moustache on this card just cracks me up. Couldn't have done that better with liquid paper if you tried! Shelby also told me about the supper she was making which sounded delish, her workout for the day plus the fact she has lost 141 lbs - WTG!!!!

OFFICIAL Card - Taiwan

Chang lives in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and has been a Postcrosser for over 4 years. She is an elementary teacher working with students with learning disabilities. The view on the card she wrote is a school of special education. While the stamps are lovely they cover the name of the place and the way her text is worded it is not clear if this is the school she works at. To me it looks more like an office complex or apartments more than what is a typical Canadian school.

OFFICIAL Card - Germany

While I know many Postcrossers may not care for your typical touristy card this particular one ticks all the boxes for me. I like multi views as I think you kind of get more bang for your buck. Add in my more of my favourites - map and a flag and I don't think you could get a better picture of things.  May not be for everyone but certainly is for me. Andreas lives in Celle, Germany and was the sender of this fabulous card.

OFFICIAL Card - Germany

When a card this adorable show up in my mailbox it makes me feel bad that I ever thought sheep weren't cute. Honestly, how hilarious is that pom-pom hat? Love it! Thank you to Sonia from Flensburg, Germany.

St. Thomas from Michael

Michael and I used to work together what feels like forever ago some days. Let's put it this way I was still living at home when we first met. Even though he lives on the other side of the country we are still in touch via email every few weeks and try to get together when he is flying through Toronto which is almost once a year.

He is one of the first friends I ever told about Postcrossing and over the years he has sent me many postcard books and singles - lucky me! Earlier in the year he and his husband took a cruise to Bahamas and then spent the day on the beach in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Absolutely beautiful sunset. Wish I was anywhere with Michael watching the sunset, our time together while infrequent is always so wonderful.

Random Act of Smiliness - J.J. from USA

J.J. celebrated her birthday back in February. I put together a little parcel for her which I believe was well received. In March (yes, this was another card lost on my desk) she sent me this card of Lady Diana. Hands down this is one of my favourite dresses. Below, I have included a picture I took of it from when I last saw her dress collection. J.J. used wonderful Lady Bird Johnson stamps as well as including a quote from her "For the environment after all is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is one thing that all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become."

OFFICIAL Card - Finland

Henriikka has the most perfectly neat small handwriting. I loved getting this card as she was able to fit so much in her message to me. The card shows a Bohemian Waxwing which she says are amongst the easiest for her to recognize. She sees a lot from her kitchen window in the winter in the rowan trees. I had never heard of this type of tree and learnt in Canada they are called mountain ash which I do know. Henriikka wrote me about her morning activities which I always like to read about - chocolate for breakfast sounds like my kind of meal - always gives you a little peak into someones world.

OFFICIAL Card - Germany

Another of the "lost on my desk" cards that I received back at the beginning of April. Here I thought I was slowly getting myself up to date with getting all my cards on my blog but finding another dozen tucked away has just made that number balloon!

Michael lives near Bremen, Germany and sent me this card showing the Reichstag in Berlin. The interior view looks so modern when compared to the outside of the building as shown in the link. A very interesting building.