Send a postcard - brighten someone's day!

As a stamp collector and traveller,  I appreciate very much receiving postcards,  but it doesn't happen so much these days and when it does, it's a real treat.  Internet, social media, whatsapp,  have provided instant ways to communicate, from almost everywhere that has wi-fi.  I do this too,  but I always try to find a few interesting postcards to send, provided I can locate a post office. On a 10 day trip around the Baltic capital cities of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia I was lucky  to find cards, stamps and post offices!

In Vilnius, I purchased two rather lovely woollen jumpers at bargain prices but soon realised they would be too heavy and bulky to included in our luggage, so had to find a Post office in order to send them home. It had interesting Commemorative stamps on sale, but sadly I wasn't able to put these on my parcel, having to make do with a rather boring label and customs declaration!  The jumpers arrived  home long before we did though! The postcards were sent a few day later, from a  post box near the main bus depot, but  took much longer to arrive at their various destinations.

The historic post office in Tallinn, opposite the Cathedral, was a beautiful building, and also had a wonderful selection of postcards and a wide range of beautiful Estonian stamps, and  this proved to be a very efficient postal service!

Art History through stamps .. via Postcrossing.

Postcrossing card received from Audra in  Lithuania

A card from a Postcrossing friend in Lithuania arrived today and the great thing about it is that she included information about the stamps.
On the left are "national whistles made of clay" - I  would not  have worked this out for myself!  On the right is the sacred icon  from Siluva, the place where Mary  is said to have appeared in 1608, and where a church was subsequently built, and has become a place of  annual pilgrimage. Stamp issued in 2008.
The image itself was painted at the beginning of the 17th Century in the iconic style of the "old Byzantine Hodegetria" . The figures of Mary and Jesus are covered by a casing made from a collection of votive offerings by the goldsmith Lawrence Hoffman of Koenigsberg. It was restored in 2002-3.

The 40ct stamp in the centre has lead me to the discovery of yet another great artist I'd never heard of until now -. Mikalojus Konstantinas  Ciurlionis (1875-1911), the most  famous artist  in Lithuania.There is a museum in Kaunas dedicated to his work. Educated in both music and the visual arts,  he was prolific in both fields and in his short lifetime he wrote  almost 400 musical compositions. From 1904-6 he attended the Warsaw School of Fine Arts.  He felt he was a synesthete: perceiving colours and music simultaneously. Many of his paintings have the names of musical pieces. as shown here in a set of stamps from 2005 depicting  Sonata of the sea 1908 : Allegro, Andante, Finale.

As my friend said, "Stamps talk a lot, don't they?"  She is so right!!  Thanks Audra - I've really enjoyed finding out more about the work of this wonderful artist!!

Sonata of the Sea by Mikalojus  Konstantinas Ciurlionis