Where is Waldo? :O

My first “Where is Waldo” postcard received in early August 2013 via Postcrossing private swap. Thanks Annie! :)

I picked this card because of the books. xD

 

I think I did find him! :P

 

Lovely US stamps:

 

Choose to walk! :)

Map of the United States :)

My first map card of the US! :) Received in early August 2013 via Postcrossing private swap. Thanks Annie! :)

There are 50 states in the US and I hope to collect all the US map cards someday! :D

1. AL : Alabama
2. AK : Alaska
3. AZ : Arizona
4. AR : Arkansas
5. CA : California
6. CO : Colorado
7. CT : Connecticut
8. DE Delaware
9. FL : Florida
10. GA : Georgia
11. HI : Hawaii
12. ID : Idaho
13. IL : Illinois
14. IN : Indiana
15. IA : Iowa
16. KS : Kansas
17. KY : Kentucky
18. LA : Louisiana
19. ME : Maine
20. MD : Maryland
21. MA : Massachusetts
22. MI : Michigan
23. MN : Minnesota
24. MS : Mississippi
25. MO : Missouri
26. MT : Montana
27. NE : Nebraska
28. NV : Nevada
29. NH : New Hampshire
30. NJ : New Jersey
31. NM : New Mexico
32. NY : New York
33. NC : North Carolina
34. ND : North Dakota
35. OH : Ohio
36. OK : Oklahoma
37. OR : Oregon
38. PA : Pennsylvania
39. RI : Rhode Island
40. SC : South Carolina
41. SD : South Dakota
42. TN : Tennessee
43. TX : Texas
44. UT : Utah
45. VT : Vermont
46. VA : Virginia
47. WA : Washington
48. WV : West Virginia
49. WI : Wisconsin
50. WY : Wyoming

 

Lovely US stamps on the card:

Humpty Dumpty and Alice :D

Received in late July 2013 via Postcrossing private swap. Thanks Annie! :)

Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. Though not explicitly described, he is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott’s National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs. Its origins are obscure and several theories have been advanced to suggest original meanings.

The character of Humpty Dumpty was popularised in the United States by actor George L. Fox (1825–77). As a character and literary allusion he has appeared in, or been referred to in a large number of works of literature and popular culture, particularly in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass (1872). The rhyme is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No. 13026.

The rhyme is one of the best known and most popular in the English language. The most common modern text is:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

It is a single quatrain, with external rhymes that follow the pattern of AABB and with a trochaic metre, which is common in nursery rhymes.

The earliest known version was published in Samuel Arnold’s Juvenile Amusements in 1797, with the lyrics:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Four-score Men and Four-score more,

Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.

Humpty appears in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass (1872), where he discusses semantics and pragmatics with Alice.

    “I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ ” Alice said.

    Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’ ”

    “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.

    “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

    “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

    “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

    Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. “They’ve a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they’re the proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!”

(Thanks Wikipedia!)

Here’s Humpty Dumpty as illustrated by W.W. Denslow in 1904:

A US stamp of Lydia Mendoza:

Lydia Mendoza (May 21, 1916 – December 20, 2007) was an American guitarist and singer of Tejano, conjunto, and traditional Mexican-American music. She is known as “La Alondra de la Frontera” (or “The Lark of the Border” in English).

Mendoza was born on May 21, 1916, in Houston, Texas. She learned to sing and play stringed instruments from her mother and grandmother. In 1928, as part of the family group, Cuarteto Carta Blanca, she made her first recordings for the Okeh Records label in San Antonio, Texas.

(Thanks Wikipedia!)

Zion National Park (Utah, USA)

Received in late July 2013 via Postcrossing official swap. Thanks Irma! :)

 

Stamp of the Netherlands:

Ponte Vecchio, Firenze (Florence), Italy

Received in late July 2013 via Postcrossing official swap. :) Thanks Kate!

Painted view of Ponte Vecchio, Firenze (Florence), Italy. ^^

 

Colourful US stamps:

 

Cute Aloha stamps!

Aloha: 

Aloha in the Hawaiian language means affection, peace, compassion and mercy. Since the middle of the 19th century, it also has come to be used as an English greeting to say goodbye and hello. “Aloha” is also included in the state nickname of Hawaii, the “Aloha State”.

The word aloha derives from the Proto-Polynesian root *qarofa, and ultimately from Proto-Polynesian. It has cognates in other Polynesian languages, such as Samoan alofa and Māori aroha, also meaning “love”.

The use of the word as a greeting has been reconstructed to Proto-Polynesian.  Before contact with the West, other words used for greeting included welina and anoai. Today, “aloha kakahiaka” is the phrase for “good morning.” “Aloha ʻauinalā” means “good afternoon” and “aloha ahiahi” means “good evening.” “Aloha kākou” is a common form of “welcome/goodbye to all.”

In modern Hawaiʻi, numerous businesses have aloha in their names, with more than 3 pages of listings in the Oʻahu phone book alone.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Watership Down :D

Received in mid July 2013 via Postcrossing official swap. A lovely postcard of Watership Down, one of my favourite novels. :D Thanks Lori! ^^

 

The book:

About Watership Down:

Watership Down is a classic adventure novel, written by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in south-central England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel is the Aeneid of the rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way.

Watership Down was Richard Adams’ first novel and it is by far his most successful to date. Although it was rejected by several publishers before Collings accepted it, it won the annual Carnegie Medal, annual Guardian Prize, and other book awards. It has been adapted as a 1978 animated film that is now a classic and as a 1999 to 2001 television series.

(Thanks Wikipedia! xD)

I really like the front cover of the first edition! >_<

 

I found some other book covers online too! They all look nice. :D Which one is your favourite? (Pictures in random order)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love rabbits! >_< My favourite character’s Hazel – he’s not the most competent rabbit there but he’s a good leader. :)

 

Great horned owls :O 大雕鴞

Received in early July via Postcrossing official swap. :D Funny & cute!

 

From Wiki:

The Great Horned Owl, (Bubo virginianus,大雕鴞), also known as the Tiger Owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas.

The Great Horned Owl is the heaviest extant owl in Central and South America and is the second heaviest owl in North America, after the closely related but very different looking Snowy Owl (B. scandiacus). It ranges in length from 43–64 cm (17–25 in) and has a wingspan of 91–153 cm (36–60 in). Females are invariably somewhat larger than males. An average adult is around 55 cm (22 in) long with a 124 cm (49 in) wingspan and weighing about 1.4 kg (3.1 lb).

 

(can’t help searching for photos of great horned owls online…>_<)

 

Flying….@@

 

Haha, I love their funny facial expression…xDDD

 

Too bad they eat rabbits and other cute animals! >_<…..

Prey can vary greatly based on opportunity. According to one author, “Almost any living creature that walks, crawls, flies, or swims, except the large mammals, is the great horned owl’s legitimate prey”.The predominant prey group are small to medium-sized mammals such as hares and rabbits, which are statistically the most regular prey, as well as any small to moderately sized rodent such as rats, squirrels, flying squirrels, mice, lemmings and voles. Other mammals eaten regularly can include shrews, bats, armadillos, muskrats, martens and weasels. Studies have unsurprisingly indicated that mammals that are primarily nocturnal in activity, such as rabbits, shrews or muroid rodents, are generally preferred.

(From Wiki)

My 3rd flower fairy & Kahlil Gibran :>

Received in late June via Postcrossing “Quotations RR” – Kahlil Gibran group. It’s sent by the very nice host of this RR!! :D Thanks for the lovely card and quote Michelle!

I didn’t know Kahlil Gibran before joining this RR! >_< Here’s a bit about him:

Khalil Gibran (full Arabic name Gibran Khalil Gibran, sometimes spelled Kahlil;[a] Arabic: جبران خليل جبران‎ / ALA-LC: Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān or Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān) (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) was a Lebanese artist, poet, and writer.

Born in the town of Bsharri in the north of modern-day Lebanon (then part of Ottoman Mount Lebanon), as a young man he immigrated with his family to the United States, where he studied art and began his literary career, writing in both English and Arabic. In the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose poetry, breaking away from the classical school. In Lebanon, he is still celebrated as a literary hero.

He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical reception, gaining popularity in the 1930s and again especially in the 1960s counterculture. Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu.

(Thanks Mr. Wiki! >_<)

I guess…I’m supposed to know him if I consider myself a bookworm and a literature lover?! >_<

Sticker stamp:

Sticker stamps show us beauty and convenience cannot coexist. >_< I’ve never been a fan of sticker stamps….

Here’s the Kahlil Gibran quote chosen by Michelle:

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.”

Very nice, isn’t it? :)

An old Pixar postcard

Received on 1June via Postcrossing RR. An old Pixar postcard of bees! :)

 

US stamps:

Victorian houses in San Francisco, USA

My 29th official Postcrossing postcard, received on 1 June. Nice painting! :)

 

A very creative way of putting stamps on the card! :D