Boars of Belarus

My recent blogpost about the Boar connection with the Markwick family brought a lovely card from Belarus today! (From Maria, my  friend via Postcrossing! Thanks, Maria!).  She tells me that apparently there were 81,500 wild boars in Belarus a year ago, but now there are only 13,000 as they were said to have caused an epidemic of Swine flu in 2013 and hunters were issued cheap licences, resulting in the drastic reduction of the board population.

However, you can now see wild  boars in the Beloroczskaya puscha, which is an area of protected woodland near Brest, not far from the Polish border.

Closer to home, we've recently heard about the wild boars in the Forest of Dean, which have been causing devastation to gardens in various local villages. But there is a certain fondness for these creatures in spite of their activities.

The attractive stamps on the postcard are from the series, Zoos in Belarus:

Squirrels on Banknotes (or how easy it is to spend time surfing the net ..)

I've written a few items recently about my new found interest in Postcrossing: writing, receiving and sometimes establishing regular postal links with others all over the world. It's certainly a good way of broadening your knowledge of geography and history, and at the same time making new friends, and finding strange and beautiful postcards popping through your letter box  and leading you to interesting discoveries.

One of my new Postcard exchanging friends, Maria, in Belarus sends me the most beautiful cards showing the wonders of nature. She collects cards and stamps on this theme and I try to send her British stamps  and cards to add to her collection.

Postcards and stamps of Belarus

Watching   Fake or Fortune on  BBC1 on Sunday, the crew were investigating a painting signed by the famous artist Marc Chagall tryint to establish whether it was in fact a fake - which sadly it proved to be with disastrous results.  Research lead them to Vitebsk and Minsk, now in  Belarus.  Vitebsk is where Chagall was born and Minsk is where my friend lives! It certainly has some stunning architecture and beautiful countryside, and a rich artistic heritage.  I had to e mail Maria to tell her what I'd seen of her homeland and she in turn told me about her own favourite artist, who I must admit I had never heard of.  His name is Napoleon Orda .. and yes, you may have guessed, his work appears on banknotes of Belarus.

Birth bi-centenery of Napoleon Orda 1807-1883

Looking him up, and in turn trying to find the banknotes which carry his designs, I came across the squirrel banknote .. got to be one of my favourite banknotes of all time. So that's how you go on a voyage of discovery on the internet!