Sorry, no postcards sent from Guatemala

I found a post office while I was in Antigua,  Guatemala, but there were no stamps for sale, and  no way to send postcards, due to a long dispute between the Government and the Postal Service. I had heard about this from a friend in Guatemala, but wanted to double check that nothing had changed, which sadly, it hadn't. There are private couriers and methods of sending mail, but I'm not sure how reliable these are. There was  only one member of staff in this reasonably sized Post Office, and I was the only customer.  I was told the only place to  buy stamps is Guatemala City but we weren't able to go there this time.
I do have some  beautiful old Guatemalan stamps from a collection which was my dad's and these seem  even more precious now that we've visited this wonderful country!  More about the stamps  and locations  we visited coming soo

This  Guatemalan postbox  hasn't been used for a while!

Robins and Robinabilia!

Is there such a word as Robinabilia?  That is collecting anything to do with the little red breasted garden bird we know and love and which adorns so many Christmas cards not just here in the UK but  all over the world.

My mother, Marion, had a small collection kept in a simple ring binder, of stamps, cigarette cards, tea cards and postcards, together with Christmas cards and a few random articles about Robins.

Cigarette and cigar packets, tea packets and other packaged food items often contained cards making up sets on various subjects, including birds!  You could buy albums in which to keep these and there was of course an incentive to buy more products to try and complete your set!

  Together with a handful of little ornaments, these form a rather charming little collection. Although I'm certain other collectors of ornamental china birds may have far grander displays, this is for me a  fine example of a small selection of items put together by someone who always loved to watch the birds from her window!
A robin was the subject of my Christmas card design made in 2014 and shown on the Seasonal page of my website, together with other Christmas card designs.  I used a variety of suitably coloured stamps to created the robin in the centre and British and US stamps  to make the borders! Cards are available direct from my studio - you can contact me via e mail : markwickrachel@gmail.com for full details.