beauty

Mayakovskaya Station, built in the Stalinist style in 1938, is considered one of the most beautiful of the Moscow Metro Stations

Novoslobodskaya Station, which like the one above, had Alexey Dushkin as its architect, was opened in 1952.

Although it is a bit disconcerting to see a station devoid of people, it is also a little unnerving to see a massive concourse with only a scattering of people wandering aimlessly as in this view of Chicago's Union Station, built in the 1920s for what would be $1B in today's dollars ($75 million)

houses

Tchaikovsky Memorial House

Japan

tenement houses

some different styles of houses for Thursday Postcard Hunt

serenade

 Kalinka-Malinka   this fast paced song is a playful plea for a beautiful girl to fall in love with the singer

how do we feel about the accordian?

CATURDAY

hermitage cat

 

CATURDAY

blue

 non threatening seashells...

MOPE means 'sea' in Russian

the typical Dutch song for your birthday is Lang zal je leven (long shall you live)

My first large letter card from Japan and it is BEAUTIFUL.  The sender really enjoyed her trip to this World Heritage area with some of Japan's most spectacular mountains and waterways as per a tourist website I found

kazan cat

 

Received from Russia with an interesting story.  The sender picked this up while on vacation in Kazan City where the Kazan cat has been the city mascot since at least since the 19th C.  A large part of Kazan's tourist souvenirs depicts cats they wrote.

After some sleuthing on my own, I read that there is a three metre high sculpture of a cat lounging on a couch with a mouse nearby.  Seems, back in 1745, while the Winter Palace was being built in St Petersburg, there was a problem with mice.  The Russian Empress learned about the Kazan cats that had remarkable strength and impressive mouse catching abilities.  30 of  them were soon sent to deal with the mouse infestation and some of their descendants are in the Hermitage even now, still ridding the place of pesky mice.

CATURDAY

russian cheshire

 

CATURDAY

samara

Samara, in this case, is a city in Russia that used to be known as Kuybyshev, at the confluence of the Volga and Samara rivers.  I can't quite figure out if this is a view of the Volga or Samara.

tchochtkes

anyone else remember that time when garden gnomes were being 'kidnapped' and taken on trips with their photos in front of famous landmarks before being returned?

matryoshka

klompen

some tourist souvenirs for Thursday Postcard Hunt

(I will admit to having all of these! the gnomes were my mother's, which I thought were tacky, and a little creepy looking.  but I took a couple after she died and they stand like sentries on my balcony.  they have not been taken on any trips.  the matryoshka dolls collection increased when I was given several from a friend who thought her mother's collection was a little creepy.  I love them)

Next month, we'll move on to some travelling ideas of our own.

seats

Mr Woodhouse sinks into an floral patterned chair

Inside the Hermitage though, admittedly, the furniture is shown on the souvenir sheet rather than the stamp itself.

lines of a city

 

 and because this isn't all about subways

orange moments

 

"funny moments are meant to be shared"

a 'ladybug' resting on a dewy orange petal

It seems Highland cattle can be found in Westphalia Germany. (the text reads: loyal, soft, not overly delicate, that's really Westphalian style)

This cool cat is enjoying his saucer of tea

green eggs and ...

One of the thematic postcards I collect is EASTER

 

I like that this Ukrainian card shows an early spring with the tree's leaves

 

these green eggs are much more subdued than the other brightly painted Ukrainian eggs, but the colours remind me of the varying shades of green on the newly budding leaves

and they blend in well with the colours of some bird's eggs

pussy willows are an important tradition in Slavic Easter celebrations as the first blooms of spring

this little girl with her pussy willows and  painted red cheeks will perhaps be painting her basket of eggs next

this little girl looks rather wistful

maybe she needs

a little special delivery to cheer her up

 

 

 

 

 

a little bit of spring and Easter for a seasonal Thursday Postcard Hunt

beauty

 

"Russian Beauty"

bunny eggs

best bird's eye view

The Akhun Observation Tower

Built in 1936 of limestone, the top is 700 metres above sea level.

trees

This thick, aged yew has a rugged beauty to it.

Some slender birch trees bathed in an autumnal glow

and cows resting under some very tall trees in Australia

some trees for Sunday Stamps

snow and ice

From speed skating (dominated in 1964 by Russia and Norway) to slalom skiing (dominated by France and Austria)

 

to curling (dominated in 2014 by Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden)

It was challenging to find anything not related to the Olympics, but then I remembered the World's, which is dominated by Sweden, Canada, and Finland (though it was won by Russia that year)

I can safely say that I have never participated in any of these sports.

For Sunday Stamps - winter sports

movement

 Cycling in Munich 1972

Cross Country Skiing in Sarajevo 1984

Figure Skating in Nagano 1998

I wonder how many countries issued stamps for Tokyo 2020?

I'm going to miss watching sports that I never think about except every four years. But, we get to do it all again in 7 months for the winter games, which seems insane. But, of course it's not all over as there's still the Paralympics in  a couple of weeks. I have no stamps for those.

For Sunday Stamps - Olympics or Japan