FinnBadger (4)

At first sight FinnBadger startled me by sending this 'envelope'. Well, first I didn't know who the sender was, which is not that frightening, but the thing that scared me was the idea that a bad odour of rotten Scandinavian fish would come out, into my nose, as soon as I would open this plastic bag envelope. So after hesitating for some time I had a try. Fortunately my worries had been in vain. A sweet smell proofed that these Scandinavian swimmers must have been born in a candy factory instead of a Swedish lake or Norwegian river.



Luckily for me there were no candies inside (I am not that fond of candies) but something far more beautiful: a nice letter and a great two-sided piece of colour test print (aka color bar) art.
The green side shows (sweet smelling) underwater life: a Jellyfish, Mermaids, Sea Horses, Molluscs (among them a Sea Snail) and various sea weeds. A clever piece of recycling art, and FinnBadger even recycled received stickers.



The back side (also sweet smelling) shows this intriguing colour test print (or: color bar) flower:



Thank you very much, FinnBadger (and indirectly Eva for the Mermaids and Molluscs :-) )!

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!

Kerosene (7)

Kerosene always knows to find special animal pictures. I thought I've received all of them throughout the years, but fortunately the source had not yet run out.
The Gerbil, Pinguin and Sea Horse. What to say... Weird and lovely, all of them!

She also sent some colourful artistamps...



...and something to prepare for the New Year!



Only ten days left for the Chinese New Year, which will start the 19th of February and will be the Year of the Sheep and the Goat!



Thank you very much, Kerosene!

Katerina, Angie and Matthew

Katerina from Greece met Angie and Matthew in the USA, and this collage is one of the results of their mail art collaboration. I am happy to have received it! And added it to this Real Weird Animals site, because there are several interesting animals in their mail art. Like this sea water horse above.



And an Octopus. In Dutch we call the Octopus 'Inktvis', which means 'Ink fish' (maybe this word exists in English, too?).
So I think it a nice coincidence that this amazing eight-legged animal has been printed thanks to an eraser stamp and... ink!



Katerina added stamp stickers of a wellknown character and her new friends: Alice, in Wonderland. Here meeting one of my other favourite animals, this time an alas extinct one: the Dodo.



Thank you very much, Angie, Matthew and Katerina!

Elena Gjorgjievska (1)

From Macedonia Elena Gjorgjievska sent beautiful color pencil drawings of real weird animals: the Sea Horse!

In fact the sea horse is a fish, though a vertical swimming one. The sea horse has some similarities with other weird animals: like a chameleon he/she can move the eyes independently; like the marsupials, he (!) has a pouch, in which the young sea horses can grow; and like swans, most male and female sea horses stay together for their entire life.



Blagodaram, Elena!