John Edwards (5)

How pleased one can be when a Bird is named after her: the Devaana Heleena (Linnaeus), known in English as the Jolly Green Nutcracker. I was happy that John has made this detailed illustration of this colourful bird, because I was too late to catch my camera to take a photo of the bird when I spotted this bird on the 31st of July.



On the back side John drew this nice Bird of Pray. And inside this envelope a postcard with a kind message.

Thank you very much, John, I am happy to have received some birds from your personal Bird Encyclopedia!

Willemien Visser

This great collage, including a scary looking but in fact tiny cute animal was send to me by Willemien Visser from Germany. If you look close, you can see more animals on the front side.

On the back side a pretty Peacock and a rubberstamp showing Fishes. Even German Post has helped to complete this Animal mail art, by adding a postmark showing the Town Musicians of Bremen: a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster.



Check Willemien's website, she has a call for mail art, themed 'Fishes'.

Thank you very much, hartelijk dank, Willemien!

Tonipoet (4)

Parts of this mail art from Tonipoet I already posted on Leap Day (yes, 2016 is not only the Year of the Monkey but also a Leap Year!). Then I realized I never had posted the main image in this blog: the Chicken. Here she is!



Who knows what animals (Owls, Crows, Bats, Sparrows) are living in this old church tower (included in the great envelope):



We had hoped that USPS would cancel the stamp and provde it with the rare date '29 Feb 2016',



But instead they postmarked the 'do not open til leap day' message!



Detail:



Thank you very much, Toni!

FinnBadger (5)

This year is the Year of the Monkey, and, already at the start of this Chinese New Year, I received this cheerful Monkey from FinnBadger.

On the back there was this perfect matching postmark, along with a postage stamp themed 'Year of the Monkey':



It took me some time to find the Monkey on the stamp, but here she or he is:



The Monkeys came in this larger envelope. I am not sure if FinnBadger has surrounded the Monkeys by this envelope, or that USPS was so kind to protect the Monkey postmark against more ink. Anyway: thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Ehagaki Hana

This beautiful colour pencil drawing of a Warbler has been created by Hana Ehagaki from Japan.
The drawing arrived in this beautiful envelope:





With the animals came these interesting postmarks, among them a stamp print of the Kingdom of Amaooi.
And more Birds! A Shoe-billed stork, and a Gannet, so to see (?).





And beautiful train designs (besides animals, I love trains).



Thank you very much, Hana!