Eva (36) Reading bird

Where would we be without books? This great bird totally agrees with the importance of reading books (and her book has a cover of my favourite colour :-) .
So I am happy to receive a picture of the reading bird, created by Eva. Thank you very much!

Eva (35) - Happy New Year of the Dragon!

The lunar Year of the Dragon is soon to come, but dragons-in-mail-art are welcomed here every time of the year!
Eva made me happy by sending this friendly Dragon, which was so large that it filled both the front and back side of the envelope:

And I learned that Dragons can fly kites, too (even better than I can :-) )

Thank you very much, Eva!
And to all who celebrate: Happy New Year of the Dragon!

Eva (32)

Who would ever have thought that turtles can be puzzled by lighthouses?
Wonderful drawing by Eva, and look how the colourpencil colours match with the stamps!
Thank you very much, Eva, moltes gràcies!

Eva (30)

It has been one year and one-day-and-half since I posted my most recent blog post here at 'Real Weird Animals'... Meanwhile I have received so many beautiful matching mail art!
I apologize for being this late, and I guess my huge backlog (in sharing my received mail with you) will keep on being huge.
Hopefully, and step by step I'll show you the gems. To start with this Squirrel, named Francis, which I received today:

I wish the squirrel would have been baking pancakes for me, but fact is, he is baking for his BF, Peris Little-Dormouse :-) Made and sent (and accompanied by a matching story) by Eva. Thank you very much!

Laura Urbano

This considerate Penguin arrived as a big suprise to me, and has been created and sent from the USA by Laura Urbano.



On the back side pretty typography.

Thank you very much, Laura!

Eva (27)

Where there are Smurfs (see previous post), there is Eva and there is me. Where there is Eva and me, there is Mail. Where there is Mail... there is the Mail Monster!

A cute animal, I think when seeing this lovely portrait by Eva. But maybe appearances are deceptive.
Anyway, more about the Mail Monster and his/her life and mail habits, we will learn in future, thanks to Eva's Mail Monster project.



Thank you very much, Eva!
I'll reply as soon as I know more about this nn MM !

Eva (26)

What would there be in this semi-transparent envelope?

This wonderful fish, of course!
Made and sent by Eva from Spain.



Take a look at the stamps, above, too! An awesome origami elephant is joining, as are Don Quixote, his helper and horse.



Eva added coffee to the outside of the envelope (yummy!), and inside a postcard by German artist Harald Geisler:



Thank you very much, Eva, moltes gracies!

Antonia Mayol (6)

'Vuela', 'Flight', beautiful fine pen drawing or print by Antonia Mayol from Spain.



Thank you very much, muchas gracias, Antonia!

Eva (25)

This pretty illustrated envelope I received from Eva. A cute Cow, and see what this Mail Bird holds in the beak!

On the front side Eva created a wonderful typography.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Antonia Mayol (5)

Also best wishes for this New Year I received from Antonia Mayol Castelló from Spain.

The animal - besides Humans - which gives me an alibi to post her great mixed media mail art is this Rooster:



I used to create origami chicken like this (and when I folded the legs inwards, it became a Duck).

This Rooster isn't alone, together with Bella Lola he shows up in this composition:





See more art by Antonia on her blog.



Muchas gracias, Antonia!

Eva (24)

In the time of the year that birds tend to fly from north to south (that is, in the northern hemisphere), this cool Crane came all the way from Morocco to the Netherlands. Maybe fueled by the Fish stamp (poor Fish..), but the Crane did arrive!

Created and sent by Eva, who added a matching postcard inside of the envelope.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eva (23)

Usually I don't post regular postcards here, but this time the received card shows a little history, and the postage stamp on the back is interesting enough to be posted here, too.

Sent from Spain by Eva, this postcard came from the Belgian museum Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. This card shows the permanent exhibition 'Gallery of Humankind'.

The stamp shows the Myotis capaccinii, in English known as long-fingered bat, in Spanish the long-legged (patudo) bat (murciélago), in German the long-foot (Langfuß) bat (Fledermaus) and in Dutch just Capaccini's bat (Capaccinni's vleermuis).



It is the first shaped Spanish stamp I've ever seen.
Thank you very much, Eva!

Antonia Mayol (4)

This Bear has been created by Antonia Mayol from Spain.



Besides collages she creates paintings, of which you can see this small version.

It arrived some time ago already at my place, and meanwhile we're just before the next summer:



Thnk you very much, Antonia, and Happy Summer to tyou, too!

Eva (22)

A belated blog post as you can see: it's the 15th of June today, so not before four months after sending, this friendly Dragon finally landed into this online gallery.

Created by Eva who has sent him/her from Spain.



I always love Eva's drawings, and I think you'll enjoy these as much as I do!



The Dragons arrived in this envelope (note the Doves/Pigeons on the stamp!). And while we are sure that Dragons are real, existing weird animals, I am not that sure about the Aliens, also appearing (a bit hidden in their homes and transport means) on the cover.

Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eva (21)

Eva drew great beetles and other useful tiny creatures and thus made this a wonderful envelope.

Inside a postcard from the 'There's nuffin like a Puffin' book illustration postcards serie. The Water Flea and his friend Water Mite show up on the cover of a book issued in 1964, named 'Pond life'. The illustration was made by Paxton Chadwick.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eva (20)

Eva sent me great mail: not a letter on an A4 piece of paper, but a letter bound as a booklet. A real pageturner, thank you, Eva!!
Inside the book she drew me this Polar Bear, so I had a good excuse to post at least this part of her wonderful mail here.
And on the outside of the envelope there was this amazing Umbrella Man. And Fish stamps!



Moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eva (19)

Thanks to Eva I now know that there's a Hummingbird named after... me!
The Bee Hummingbird, or better: Mellisuga Helenae and Colibrí de Helen.
The only difference is that this Hummingbird is the smallest bird, weighing less than 2 grams, while I am not the smallest human (weighing a lot more than this bird and, regarding my BMI, a lot more than I ought to do :-) ), and of course I can't fly.

In real this awesome picture is even more beautiful, you can see the white wings as if they're moving like Hummingbirds' wings do!
The beautiful drawing, created by Eva, came in a great envelope with on the back side nice colours, and a sticker which at first sight reminded me of the Mandarin Duck - in my childhood my favourite kind of Duck - but by the internet I learned it is the Wood Duck or Carolina Duck.



And much more nice presents, among them this cup of tea with rose-petals, as a part of the poem 'Apologia of the 50-ers' by Lucebert, who as a poet was the frontman of the 'Vijftigers' (1950s) movement:



And interesting information about calendars all-over the world. For instance the year 1965 as we know it in Europe, did you know it is totally different in other places of the world?


Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

HO,OWL (2)

Season's greetings by HO,OWL!

You might have seen this friendly Owlet before: some months ago I received this lovely Owlet, who I of course couldn't resist to draw, too.

Thank you very much, HO,OWL, and best wishes to you, too!

Eva (18)

The most wonderful Animal I have ever seen, I saw today for the very first time in real!
The Fishus Globetrottus, also known as the Globetrotter Fish, was sent to me by Eva.

I think it is an Animal to whom I feel very familiar with, even though I don't have gills anymore.

In case you didn't hear of the Globetrotter Fish before, Eva was so kind to provide us with some scientific information:



The Globetrotter Fish arrived in a colourful envelope, showing aquatic Fish and other Sea Animals.



Fortunately (for me) the envelope first had been returned to sender, and fortunately (also for me) Eva did a second try to send it to the Netherlands. Fortunately for the two of us this time it arrived well, and by it's extra journey, oh fortune, I got an extra Moroccan Fish stamp!



Thank you very much, Eva, moltes gràcies, I love it!

HO,OWL

I was expecting a parcel from Spain. After many days, the waiting time turned into weeks. Within Europe, so much time? I was amazed...
Also the sender started to wonder where it would be.

Finally the parcel arrived, and the stamp on the box gave me the clue:



Sent to my country from Spain: via Canada!

Inside the box there was the most lovely Owlet: ho,owl!
He immediately joined me to enjoy my morning meal.



We know little ho,owl by his stories. Check the ho,owl website to learn more about this friendly Owl! And see ho,owl's instagram account for more adventures.

By the way, he had been sent to me because I had drawn him my favourite breakfast:



Thank you very much, ho,owl and Piter!