Stripygoose (15)

Already received in December 2023, accompanied with festive greetings,
finally posted here, this elegant Thimble Bird!

Created and sent by Stripygoose. thank you very much!

Eva (33)

After the Turtle, cousin Crocodile arrived! (Via water or via air?!) Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

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!

Mail Monster!

One and half year ago I promised to reply to Eva's mail. But it appeared that the to-reply-to mail had disappeared.

Thanks to Eva's new mail I now know why!



See more Mail Monsters on Eva's Mail Monsters Postal Project website!



On the backside of the card there is this beautiful bridge stamp... Without bridge! Another Mail Monster's act?

FinnBadger (15)

I love this Polar Bear, drawn by FinnBadger. While I always draw too many details, this illustration shows that 'less is more'.
The Polar Bear traveled from the USA to, yes, to where? To obtain a great and matching United Nations stamp.

And inside the envelope a matching card, which in real is shining bright:



Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

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!

Rachel

From Rachel from the Netherlands these great drawings arrived, with greetings from Purmerend thanks to this friendly turtle.

And a Jellyfish:



some Octopus tentacles?



And a funny bird and sunny quotes on the envelope:



Thank you very much, hartelijk dank, Rachel, ben er heel blij mee!

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 !

Karalie

Such a nice piece of surprise mail, this "Hello!" by friendly chicken, created by Karalie Vest and sent from the USA.



On the back side matchin Bird stamps, showing a Penguin and two Songbirds: the Redbird or Northern Cardinal and two Golden-crowned Kinglets (the latter's name I learned from the USPS site).

Thank you very much, Karelie!

Pufflingspaintings

"Sqoxes are surprisingly good at snorkeling. They hide their best nuts in ziplock bags under rocks as no one ever finds them there (often this includes themselves as they are terribly forgetful)."

I am a big fan of Pufflingspaintings' paintings. I learned to know the painter via Instagram. You can find her also on Twitter and Etsy. Every time her illustrations of the adventures of Sqox and Unicorn succeed to cause a big smile on my face.


"Just having a little lunch."

Some time ago, after a conversation we had on instagram about nuts, I decided to send her my version of Sqox, accompanied by some delicious chestnuts.
And some time later she surprised me with these great illustrations.



Some summer views of Unicorn.



Thank you very much, Pufflingspaintings!

Minneapolis Gnome

Wow, such wonderful drawings!
Created by Minneapolis Gnome from Minneapolis (well, the Rhinoceros and Tortoise originally are from Tucson, Arizona).



Along these animals and gnome the staring lady returned, with an inspiring new surrounding: the Gnome's studio.



All arrived in this great envelope:



Thank you very much, Minneapolis Gnome!

Richard Baudet (4,5,6,7,8,9)

Richard Baudet added a lot of great findings to my 'add and return' project named "What or whom is she staring at?".
In some of the returned mail art Animals play an important role. Those of course belong here, although I'll post them on the IUOMA site, too.

I've showed one here before. Meanwhile Richard has caused more than once more smiles on my face,by, among them, the added-to-and-returns you can see here.











Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Richard!

Louiza

Gisteren kwam ik de jonge kunstenares Louiza tegen. Zij tekende voor mij dit bijzondere dier. Dat verzot is op wortels.
Mooi getekend! Dankjewel, Louiza!

Yesterday I happened to meet the young artist Louiza. She is seven years old and she drew me this beautiful wonderful animal. An 'eenvarwor', and as you can see this animal is fond of carrots.

Otto Sherman

Otto Sherman from the USA created a lot of great artistamps showing famous or notorious people.
I was happy to also receive these cow and rat artistamps and cockroach rubber stamp prints, because I love more to post lovely and useful animals (yes, real rats and cockroaches really are!) on this Real Weird Animals blog than not-so-friendly human 'beasts'.



Check Otto's website for more of his mail art.
Great drawing, too!



Thanks a lot, Otto!

Ciara Barsotti (2)

Beautiful pet Rat drawn by Ciara from the USA on her mail to me.
THank you very much, Ciara!

Annabel Magan

Awesome cat drawings by Annabel Magan from the Netherlands!

I felt even more honoured when I opened this envelope and saw this drawing of a famous rock singer Annabel had sent to me (guess who - I think it is clear for the 30+ among us, or for the 30-minors too, as this singer and her band are coming to the Netherlands for a concert this year, exactly in a month).



Annabel has created many great line drawings, which you can see on her IG account.
I did not know that she also designed other kinds of illustrations until I saw this 'Mik in West' design on this map which she included also. No need to say that I feel double, no, triple lucky, as I always like to see drawings of animals (including men) and love maps, too! Thanks a lot, super bedankt, Annabel!

Nancy Spanauf

This beautiful bird is very dear to me, and it has been created by someone who is very dear to me, too. Nancy is a talented woman, and I am very happy and feel honoured that she created this very first Bird to send to me.

To my opinion, history proofs that many talents in women have remained under-exposed, simply because taking care of all other tasks in life prevents them from developing their skills. Nancy started just now, after decades of taking care for many other people. I am happy with this original pen drawing, and I hope Nancy will create more, looking forward to it!



Love her great handwriting, too.
Thank you very much, dankjewel, Nancy!

Zahra

I am very pleased to have received this beautiful and original pen drawing by Zahra from the Netherlands. There are a lot of hidden treasures in this picture. The Butterfly and the heart are clear. But did you notice a snail (intended or not - I love it!)? And words, in different alphabets?

Zahra wrote that this is her first work of art, but I'm sure she has made many more art work in previous years, so this might be the first official one. I'm happy and feel honoured to have received this one, and am looking forward to seeing more of her drawings!

Thank you very much, hartstikke bedankt, Zahra, ben er heel blij mee!

Ti Ar Raden

Last week, 19th of February, the (lunar) Year of the Sheep / Ram / Goat has started. Exactly a month before I received this wonderful Ram, together with a Bull, Fish, a Cow and a bunch of other Farm Animals on the Cow's back. Created and sent by Ti Ar Raden.
The doodled/tangled Bull is a Pie Noir, the Ram is a Ouessant Ram.

On the other side some great stamps, among them a speedy Turtle and the Ermine (Stoat), the poor latter looses his/her tail to various coats of arms (among them coats from Brittany and the Netherlands) and royal cloaks (among them the Dutch one)... Fortunately the Ermine is alive and kicking in this beautiful artistamp.



Thank you very much, trugarez vras, Ti Ar!

Eva (11)

As a child I was fascinated by the Dodo, since I saw a picture in the Animal Encyclopedia my grandparents gave me when I was about ten years old. Later in childhood I had a board game about threatened wild life all-over the world, and every time we played it, I hoped to travel to Mauritius, where this interesting bird was living and I could pick up the Dodo fiche. Well, this weird bird alas had been extinct in those days already. But in our hearts he/she lives on.
And in the movie 'The Pirates'.
And thanks to Eva I got even a new, colourful picture of the Dodo!

She added a postcard of twittering budgerigars / parakeets. Thank you very much, Eva, for these cheerful pictures!