Postcards for the weekend 73: Happiness/Joy

Private Swap, Sent from Morges, Switzerland
Sent 3 Oct 2016, Traveled 10,451 km

On top of this perfectly joyous picture of little girls enjoying fondue, what made me pick this postcard for this weekend's theme was the message at the back. The sender wrote, "The Swiss national dish: fondue (cheese + white wine). I am not the father of these lovely girls!" -- I chuckled!

On a side note, I'm really happy as I'm here in the Philippines since Tuesday. It's so good to be back home!

~maria

Birds on stamps

The theme for this week for Sunday Stamps is birds.

It was tough deciding which birds to post. So I think to make this easier, I created two posts. One was dedicated for birds from the desserts that I got from my boss last month. There were 6 of them so I thought they deserve an entry of their own.

Twenty days ago, I posted Oriental Birds. This time, I'm featuring stamps with birds that are not from my part of the globe.

This is from the series Birds of the Garden from Belarus, released 16 June 2006. The bird is called hawfinch. It's from the same genus Fringilla as the chaffinch from my Friday post. I'm happy to have two finches perched on my blog this week.

From Switzerland, issued on 6 September 2007, Domestic Birds series. This bird with open wings is Tichodroma muraria or wallcreeper. I just love its crimson wings.

These two birds from Belgium were issued 21 January 2008 and 11 November 2011, respectively. The one on the left is the Spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes).  I must say I have a strong liking with the one on the right, the Long-eared Owl (Asio otus), its erect ear-tufts make it interesting. If I'm a witch, like in Harry Potter, I'll pick this for my owl.

RU-717104, Sender: Olga
Sent: 28 Dec 2011 from Moscow, Russia
Received: 24 Jan 2012, Traveled 8,260 km in 27 days

Technically, this is a postcard but I am happy to share it for the theme, obviously for the reason that it's a collage of birds on stamps -- and really lovely ones! I really find it nice that for most stamps on the foreground, the birds are featured perched on a fruit-bearing plant or on a flower. On a closer look, these stamps are from 20 August 1981. The birds starting from 1 o'clock:

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) - chat with black plumage and dark-orange breast

Rufous-backed Bunting (Emberiza jankovskii) - very rare "Little Brown Job" bird

Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) - passerine bird with elongated tail feathers

Parrotbill (Sinosuthora webbiana) - 

Siberian tit (Poecile cinctus) - also called grey-headed chickadee, another passerine bird 

I really had a great time researching about all these birds. I have a penchant for the freedom of flying but afraid of heights myself. At least I get to appreciate this freedom with these birds on stamps.

~maria

Sunny heart

CH-149695, Sender: Vre
Sent: 22 May 2013, Sent from Lucerne, Switzerland
Received: 5 June 2013, Traveled 10,458 km in 14 days

This is one of my most 'spirit-uplifting; smile-inducing' heart cards, officially received from postcrossing.com. I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts that when it's summer in the other part of the globe, it's rainy and typhoon season for us. Hence, the choice of a sunflower heart card for today ... I miss the sun ... I miss my sunshine ... and eating sunflower seeds.

I'll keep this short, I got a terrible headache. It's a holiday tomorrow so I'm really drawn into my bed right now, thinking of a long sleep ahead.

Blessed and joyful celebrations of Eid Mubarak!

I'm sharing this post with Clytie's Guest Heart Thursday. Check out her page for more heart photos ;-) I'm honored that she featured on her page today the heart card I posted last week, I'm even more honored with the kind words she has for me. Thank you so much!! 

~maria

A Pup from Switzerland

Since it has been raining cats and dogs here in Manila, I decided to post a postcard of a pup today. :) The card is also one of the nicest that I've got so far. It's from Switzerland sent by a food engineer. I know the profession of the sender isn't related to the card but it's the first time I've read/known about it. I had to google it up.

Anyways, here's the card. The description at the back gives an address for Tierschutzbund which according to my research is the counterpart of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS).

And this quote I found about puppies really made me chuckle!

The best way to get a puppy is to beg for a baby brother -- and they'll settle for a puppy every time. -Winston Pendelton