Postcrossing Blog

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Right now, we know that most postcrossers are stuck at home, and postcards are helping everyone travel during quarantine restrictions and lockdown… so this month, we thought it might be nice to chat about our dream holidays—whether that involves traveling or not! This topic was suggested by canchita on the forum.

I’m a little bit of a homebody. My longest journeys are all fictional: to Fairyland, Middle-Earth, Mars, Eorzea, the past and the future. When I do travel, my first thought is to look up whether our destination has a good bookshop. There are a few locations on my holiday list solely because I’ve heard good things about a bookshop or two, like St. Georges in Berlin, and the Globe Bookstore and Café in Prague.

That said, I can also go for a good museum, and I’ve been recommended the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin: I’m curious about their mounted Brachiosaurus skeleton, and they actually house the first ever Archaeopterix fossil as well! Maybe we’ve got our answer here: it’s starting to sound like my ideal holiday is to Berlin, someday, when everything’s safe.

We’d love to hear more about your ideal holiday, whether it involves soaking up some sun or climbing a tricky mountain… or just figuring out how many books you can fit in your suitcase on the way home. You can share in the comments here, and on the cards you send this month!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Do you remember the books that you read when you were a child? For many people, these are the books that have stuck with them their whole lives—or books which still raise a smile now when you see the artwork or spot the books in a shop. They can be very specific to your country, or books which cross borders… so we thought it would be nice to prompt everyone to talk about those childhood books.

I’ve always been a big fan of reading, from the days when my parents would have to read me to sleep, to reading The Hobbit by torchlight so my parents wouldn’t catch me reading at night, to my endless quest through all kinds of books now. One of the very first books I remember is one no one else seems to remember: There’s A Hippopotamus On Our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards! I always loved hippos, and this book is part of why. The hippo eats cake when he likes and nobody tells him what to do—hmm, I wonder what appealed to me as a child!

As I learned to read myself, I loved reading the classic childhood choices like Enid Blyton, Edith Nesbit and Roald Dahl, and though I was very quick to move onto my mum’s bookshelves (where I found Isaac Asimov and David Eddings and started a lifelong love of fantasy and sci-fi), I also remember being keen on grabbing the next Animorphs book each time one came out!

How about you? Do you have any strong memories of the books you read as a child? Maybe you can even get postcards with the characters on, if you were a fan of characters like Nijntje (Miffy), Winnie-the-Pooh and the Moomins… This month, why don’t you share about about those childhood favourites with the people you write to on Postcrossing? We’d love to hear about them in comments, as well, especially the ones unique to your country!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just  suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

March’s writing prompt is about bridges… big or small, sturdy or wobbly, they keep us connected over rivers, valleys or other obstacles. Do you have bridges that are special to you, or which you’d like to visit?

Personally, a couple of bridges come to mind. I don’t really have a favourite bridge for architectural reasons, or because they’re particularly beautiful or in beautiful places. For me, as soon as you say “bridge” I think about the bridge over the Taff in Cardiff, which you cross immediately after passing Cardiff Castle and the Animal Wall (pictured! Image is by Keith Edkins) on the left. It’s really close to where my nan lived, so it’s familiar from years and years of visiting my grandparents. Cross that bridge in the other direction, and I’m walking to a second-hand bookshop, Waterstones, the library… It’s home, even though I haven’t lived in Cardiff for a while now.

I can’t really think of any bridges up here in South Yorkshire, but there are quite a few bridges in Cardiff, where my family are from, that I have nostalgic feelings about. Most of them are small bridges in a park, over streams which my grandad would have to (try to) stop me jumping into…

How about you? In your postcards this month, you can write about your favourite bridges, bridges you want to see, famous bridges in your country… and you can let us know here in the comments, too!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Here in Britain, in February we’re starting to see hints of spring: there are snowdrops poking up all over the place in my garden, even though there was snow on the ground only a week ago, and I can see the daffodils poking through the earth already. Which makes this topic feel very timely!

One of my favourite flowers is actually the national flower of Wales: the humble daffodil, or narcissus. In the UK, the Wales Country Definitive stamp for International Standard mail actually has a daffodil on it, and it’s the stamp I often use for postcards.

The stamp doesn’t really do them justice: traditional yellow daffodils are such a cheerful colour, and they mostly take care of themselves — even without a green thumb, I’ve managed to grow daffodils in my garden. Which is a good thing, because it doesn’t feel like spring until I’ve seen narcissi in flower… and I actually love daffodils so much that I had a bouquet of them for my wedding. They were out of season, since we had a summer wedding, so my wife-to-be made my whole bouquet out of paper for me!

In February, I’ll make sure to write a little about daffodils when I’m sending my postcards — will you join me and write about the flowers and plants that are special to where you live? We’d love to hear more here in the comments, as well as on your postcards.

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

January is often a time for resolutions and figuring out what we want to focus on in the year ahead, so this month we decided to prompt you all to write about a skill you plan to learn!

I’m one of those people who really enjoy learning, so I’m fired up about this prompt! I’m studying pretty intensively at the moment, so my main commitment is learning to apply and interpret statistical tests… I know, I know, I’m yawning too about this idea! But it’s really important for complex biological systems, so I’m going to give it 100%.

I do enjoy doing crafts in my spare time, so I might try my hand at designing really small cross-stitch patterns! I’ve already done a few small ones, like the one pictured… but that one is 1.5 inches (less than 4 cm) in diameter, and I have a couple of even smaller frames that are just 1 inch (3 cm) wide. I’d love to design something tiny but recognisable, and make it into a necklace!

So now it’s your turns! What skills are you hoping to learn or improve on in the year ahead? We’d love to hear from you in the comments to this post, but you can also turn to this prompt if you’re stuck for what to write on a postcard!