Postcrossing Blog

Hi guys! While Paulo and Ana (the big ones) are busy setting up their new home, we’re here to tell you all about the adventures we had in Canada last fall!

Calgary is a large city of 1.2 million people, in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. It is a beautiful city in Southern Alberta and we came at the perfect time — the splashes of color can be spectacular this time of the year!

The first thing we noticed was this big pile or rocks on CDNLib's front yard. She explained to us that they were called Inuksuks, and were possibly used as symbols of direction, navigation or to mark a food cache by the Inuit of Canada’s North. In recent years they have become an international symbol of Canada — and were even featured on the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics, which took place in Vancouver!

A trip to Canada had to include some French-Canadian poutine—hot french fries topped with fresh cheese curd and hot gravy… so yummy! And we also had some amazingly fresh-made truffles from a local chocolatier… the pumpkin one was especially scrumptious and perfect for autumn.

And naturally, we had to try a “Double Double” (coffee, or in this case steeped tea, with two cream and two sugar) from world famous Tim Hortons!

We were lucky enough to be in Calgary for the first ever Postcrossing meet-up and we attended with CDNLib. While we were there we chatted with other postcrossers, exchanged some postcards, admired cards that others had received, heard some great Postcrossing stories, signed and wrote out some cards…

… and then posed for a group photo with everyone! Here is the whole group: die-dusche, Stormarela, CDNLib, herchelle, Angelamermaid, ButtonsandTins, salamadzer and Fracula. The meeting went so well, there are plans to do again in 6 months! Check out the meetups posts in the forum and join us if you are in the area!

Below is Calgary’s Public Library — with 18 locations across the city, it is a wonderful place to get together with friends, find some books and be entertained and informed. We were lucky enough to be there during a very special event.

The event is called “A Taste of Cultures” and participants celebrate the different cultures of the world, dressing up and performing in their traditional costumes and serving ethnic food.

It was great! We met these lovely ladies from Pakistan, Mexico and Cameroon.

CDNLib works at a school and one of the best parts of her job is reading stories to the children. The children LOVE to come to their school library and hear the stories and we were invited to listen to a few of them. What a great way to spend the day…visiting with children and hearing stories all day long!

As Halloween was fast approaching pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns were popping up all over the place.

CDNLib even made us costumes so that we could participate in the celebrations and have some more fun with the children! :)

But while we were in Canada, the country suffered two tragedies, as two Canadian soldiers were killed on home soil. The first was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Montreal, Quebec and the second was a reservist who was killed while acting as a Ceremonial Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, Ontario. The entire country mourned these two men and you could see the signs of the emotion and loss everywhere.

On Remembrance Day, poppies were worn on people’s lapels. Calgary has its own Field of Crosses Memorial Project that serves as a tribute to those who have served and died for our country from Southern Alberta, dating back to WWI. To date there are over 3000 crosses.

This year they included crosses for the two soldiers killed on Canadian soil in the previous weeks.

The day before we were going to leave, we were out enjoying the sunshine, with some clouds and a temperature of 17°C (62°F), when, within minutes, a change occurred and we could see the storm coming in from the Rocky Mountains—the wind picked up and the temperature dropped more than ten degrees…

… and the next morning, there was snow! Wow! Temperatures can surely change quickly in Southern Alberta!

Ok — time we get back inside our cozy envelope and fly to our next adventure!

Thanks for the great visit, CDNLib — that was a lot of fun!

Did you know that the oldest (unofficial) post box in South Africa is not an actual box… but a tree?

It’s true! In 1500, Pêro de Ataíde, captain of a Portuguese ship returning from the East, left a letter under a tree in Mossel Bay. The letter detailed the loss of some of the ships on their fleet and warned of troubles in the eastern seas. It was customary for passing ships to stop on the bay to take on food and fresh water, and so some years later, the letter was discovered and delivered to Portugal by another sea captain.

This was the start of the South African postal service, as seamen often left correspondence there, in the hopes of it being delivered by passing ships.

The impressive milkwood tree is said to be over 600 years old, and still stands there overlooking the bay. It has been declared a national monument, and a postbox was set up under it with its own special cancellation mark and everything! The postbox sits on what is now the Bartolomeu Dias Museum complex.

A big thank you to Cathy, the South African member who pointed out this tree for us and took the nice photos above. That is her auntie Chris on the left, mailing a postcard home!

Have you ever thanked your mail carrier for bringing you all those postcards to your doorstep, day after day, rain or shine? Now is your opportunity: February 4th is Thank a Mailman Day! :)

Leave your mail carrier a note, a treat, or just open the door and say thank you if you’re around… I’m sure they’ll appreciate the gesture!

And if you’re planning to do something special, do share — we’d love to hear about it!

February is just around the corner… which means it’s time for another Month of Letters challenge! Are you in? :)

On September 2011, Mary Robinette Kowal decided it was time for a break. She spent the entire month offline, and asked her friends to communicate with her through letters. The results of this personal challenge were a revelation:

When I write back, I find that I slow down and write differently than I do with an email. Email is all about the now. Letters are different, because whatever I write needs to be something that will be relevant a week later to the person to whom I am writing. In some ways it forces me to think about time more because postal mail is slower. “By the time you get this…” It is relaxing. It is intimate. It is both lasting and ephemeral.

How so? I find that I will often read the letters that I receive twice. Once when I get them and again as I write back. So, that makes it more lasting. It is more ephemeral because I don’t have copies of the letters that I write and I am the only one who has copies of the letters that my correspondents write. So, more ephemeral.

I know a lot of postcrossers share these feelings – this is part of the reason why Postcrossing exists!

Mary’s decided to turn February into a Month of Letters, in which she challenges herself and everyone who decides do join to write and send at least a piece of postal mail every day. Here are the rules:

• Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
• Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

We can’t help but feeling postcrossers have their work cut out for them in this challenge… :) Nevertheless, we wanted to dare you all to do it! Write postcards, letters or aerogrammes or surprise a friend with an unexpected package. Maybe even pick a Facebook/Twitter friend and send them with an offline “hello!”.

Are you up to Mary’s challenge? Grab your stationery and stamps and start writing!

It’s out! We’re happy to confirm that the Russian Postcrossing-themed stamp is now a reality!

Launching ceremonies were held in different cities throughout Russia, and groups of postcrossers came together to send their postcards with the special first day cancellation mark. Olga (aka Kelpie) attended a couple of these, and sent us some photos from the ceremony in Tomsk, where local postcrosser Anna (aka december_anne) did the honors and stamped the first postcard!

Despite the freezing –20°C, there were so many people in attendance that the post office ran out of stamps in one hour! :) Can’t blame the postcrossers though — it’s a really cute stamp, and we can’t wait to see one in real life!

Keep an eye on your mailbox… your next postcard from Russia might feature this special stamp!