From Kongwak to Vanuatu via Hawaii: Volcanoes and other eruptions

There are things in the universe that are rumbling tonight in 'I heart post' headquarters; ominous 'things' are occurring... the tectonic plates of my little world are creaking just a little. The volcanoes are not exactly erupting, but I think the hot springs are beginning to boil.

The feeling of things being afoot came this afternoon when Ferret (my sister) told me a bushfire was dangerously close to my hometown. Turns out that things on that front should be just fine for my parents (touch wood), but the fire is dancing around other little hamlets in the bush near my parent's place. I hope that everyone is okay.

The other major thing that happened tonight (on a much less dramatic, and more insular Helen-scale) is that it looks like I  need to find a new housemate. My sister Elspeth has gotten an amazing opportunity to work in Vanuatu! Wow! Congratulations Elspeth. But oh no... what am I to do? No sister to go jogging with :( No sister to have coffee with in the morning. This is bad for Helen. Great for Elspeth though, so I will try not to be too selfish about the whole thing. And besides, now I get to plan a holiday to Vanuatu! Hooray! Everyone's a winner!

Now these postcards I am sharing with you are not of Vanuatu. They are from Hawaii... but Vanuatu has volcanoes too - and Elspeth is going to be living right near one. Scary! But exciting. I love climbing volcanoes - I have climbed one in Indonesia (Kawah Ijen, with an amazing sulfur lake in its crater) and one in New Zealand (Mount Tongariro... it erupted last year!). But I am yet to see lava. Although the thought of molten lava makes me a tremble a little - I totally want to see some! (But no bushfires. I definitely do not want to see bushfires).

Anyhow, my volcano postcards come from an album that contains not only postcards from Hawaii, but postcards from Hollywood and Disneyland too. They are a collection of postcards that I bought from the Kongwak market, that are in an old-school photo album collated lovingly by someone after a trip to the US in the 70s. It is possibly my favourite market buy of all time.

I love how 70s the images are, and the colours. I mean - doesn't the picture above look like a villan's lair from a classic Bond film? I love it. I have been meaning to share this wicked collection of postcards ever since I started this blog, so please savour all the retro-goodness:

So as I wind up this post, just before I head off to bed, it seems that a quick check of the Country Fire Authority website indicates that the status of the bushfire warnings have all been downgraded, and things are under control. Now for me to stay under control while I come to grips with the prospect of no Elspie for 12 months. Thoughts of visiting Vanuatuan volcanoes are helping.

Postcards from the Past: Archaeology and Family

In my last blog post on Sunday I mentioned that I had a massive week last week. As it turns out the above postcard represents a synergy of all that massive week contained! Let me explain...

My working week was massive, because I was taking part in another fieldwork session out past Ballarat on an old gold-rush era site (I blogged about it back in July here). It was our very last week of fieldwork last week, and we all felt like we were the stars of 'Time Team', with Tony Robinson in voice over saying something  along the lines of

"with only five days before this site is bull-dozed to make way for a new freeway, the archaeologists are working against the clock to find out what they can of this fascinating microcosm of life on the road to the goldfields in the 1860s..." 

There is a little bit of dramatic-license in there, but you get the drift. We were on a schedule. A road is being built. We worked like maniacs. Tony Robinson may or may not have been there. Here are some happy snaps:

It was a very fun week, and the archaeology was pretty interesting. Will found a coin from 1835, a pocket knife and a jet earring. Rach found an ink well. Ben found a bottle of some magical ointment that was a cure-all for gout, rheumatism and sore breasts! And I found some broken ceramics. Oh, and a sewing pin, when it pricked me in the finger. Dang! But what a fun week we had. Massively exhausting, but great fun.

Then, on Saturday, I turned around and drove back from whence I came, to Ballarat, in order to trawl through my Grandparents possessions, as they have just sold the family home. That was a massive day for all sorts of reasons. It is so sad to see the house go, as it has been in the family for generations. I loved spending all my school holidays there as a kid, playing in the garden with my cousins and sisters. My sister Emily got married in that garden a couple of years ago, and so the house holds all sorts of special memories. Here are some happy snaps of the house and garden "Glenholme":

My Grandma gave me her stamp collection, but I also took another special item of 'post' from the house... Great-Great-Great Aunty Mabel's postcard collection. There will be many more blog posts about Mabel's postcards, because they are so wonderful. She collected her postcards are from such exotic places as Ceylon, Zimbabwe, Norway and Hong Kong. The lady knew how to travel.

But as I was reading through them last night, I was super delighted to find the postcard from much closer to home, which I began this blog post with. This is a postcard Mabel received in 1905 from a party taking a picnic in an old 'Cobb and Co' coach right near the archaeological site I had spent my week digging up. So past and present, archaeology and memory, work and family life all meld together in the image on the front of the postcard, and the message scrawled to Mrs Cuthbert of Glenholme on the back. How absolutely lovely, and how absolutely thrilled I am.

Queen Nefertiti and the Brunswick Lion: Sunday Stamps

The week before last I had a very lovely surprise waiting for me in my postbox; a postcard from Budapest, written twenty years ago that my lovely friend Johanna found for me in an antique store. She sent it to me not so much for the card (which itself is cool), but for the very awesome Deutsche Bundespost stamps.

The stamp that especially caught Joh's eye was the one depicting Nefertiti's bust. The bust portraying the Egyptian Queen dates to around 1340BC. It was uncovered in 1912 by a German archaeological team and now resides in Berlin.

I love the Nefertiti bust - it exemplifies all the glamour and mystery and artistry of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation. I would love to see it for real one day. Berlin is definitely on my wanderlust list.

I also really liked the stamp beneath Nefertiti on the postcard, but I didn't know what it depicted and so had to turn to google. It turns out that the Braunschweiger Löwe is the Brunswick Lion, which dates to around 1166, from the reign of Henry the Lion. There you go. Thanks Wikipedia.

I don't know what the technical term is, but I really love the simple block prints of these designs, using only two (or three on the 100 stamp) colours. They are just such bold, striking designs. I have decided I am officially a big fan of Deutsche Bundespost. Another reason to go to Germany, I suppose!!

Thanks so much for the postcard Johanna!

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This has been my entry into Viridian's Sunday stamps, which this week was a free theme. 

Check out other entries here:

Nerd alert: I was a teenage stamp collector

Okay... it is possible that this blog is helping to turn me into an even bigger nerd than the guy in this clip.



That is all I am going to say on the matter this week. I am tired after a few days in the field, and the prospect of moving house next weekend is making me want to scrunch into the foetal position. So, basically all I am capable of doing is listening to strangely compelling 80s pop about stamp nerds. (You would never have guessed, but I have a soft spot for teenage stamp collectors). I can't believe this song even exists, but, my lord it makes me happy. So wrong, yet so right.

With thanks to this guy for putting me onto the song. And meanwhile, if you are looking for some techni-colour escapism, check out his other blog, which is super cool, all  about awesome postcards like the two below, that, well...  totally float my boat.

Happy Wednesday folks. Have a great week. 

Plura Scriptum Epistola

Hello Friends!
I am feeling the love at the moment, or more precisely my mailbox is feeling the love, and I just wanted to say thank-you to all the wonderful people who have sent me mail lately.

Postcard from Rohan, my semi-retired jungle-explorer friend (for real!)

This blog is not really supposed to be about the mail I receive, but the thing of it is, stamps and mail go hand in hand.

I love stamps, and I love post. Part of what makes stamps so special though, is that they adorn envelopes, which in turn promise to hold gems of  correspondence. Hand-written personal notes. Ah, the warm and fuzzy feelings I get when I receive hand-written personal notes in my mailbox!

And I certainly felt very warm and fuzzy the other night, when I went to my special "I heart post" post box and found the following amazing card waiting for me, from Carla at 365 Letters; not least of all because this was my first piece of post directly from the blogosphere.

There are so many things that I love about the card, that I feel it warrants a list:

1) Check out the awesome vintage-ness of the colours, the rounded corners and the image. BRILLIANT.

2) This came from Carla's holiday in June 1980... and she labellled the back of the card with that information when she bought it. Swoon. I love a bit of historical record-keeping.

3) THE STAMPS ARE AMAZING (and worthy of an exclamation in capitals). Click on the image above to check them out properly. They are worth it.

4) Did I mention it was the first piece of mail from a random fellow blogger?? 

Yep, I am feeling all warm and fuzzy just looking over it again. Thank-you Carla, you made my day (slash week)!

My parents are travelling at the moment, and they sent me the above lovely postcard from Austria featuring a Gustav Klimt painting... and the Wiener Werkstätte logo on the reverse, with a very nice stamp indeed. And they also sent me a Swedish map postcard. Thank-you parents! Three of my favourite things!

The thing is, with this blog, I have been thinking alot about why I like post so much. The correspondence part is definitely an element. And with that in mind, I recently joined the Letter Writers Alliance, because, I feel like with all this banging on about post that I do, I really should be sending some!

 

And my membership card arrived in the mail last week... and the envelope was enough to make me happy (I am a girl of simple pleasures, it is true).

I can tell you that I do plan on using my "Letter Writers Alliance" membership/superpower for good and not evil. And they have a Latin motto: Plura Scriptum Epistola. I did a Latin major at university, and the only thing I really remember is "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus". Yep. That is the Hogwarts motto. Never disturb a sleeping dragon. In muggle idiom that would be, "let sleeping dogs lie".

Anyhow, I am all for Latin mottos, and I am very happy to be part of an organisation that has one. So, Plura Scriptum Epistola. I am going to take this on as a personal motto forthwith; and I shall, I shall, write more letters. They probably won't be in Latin.

Thankyou Laura!

Thankyou Sandra - a postcard AND stamps. Yippee!

Oh yes, my friends do know that I love a bit of royal kitsch!

Thankyou Sandy

Thankyou to all the lovely people that have sent me things in the post recently. I do so love post. xx

And last but not least, just in, vintage-post Post from Jaz!  Yay!

Postcards from Egypt on ANZAC day

I have mentioned Grandma Nellie on this blog quite a lot, because she recently gave me her stamp collection. However, she gave me another gift several years ago, before I travelled to Egypt, which I treasure perhaps even more than the stamps. She gave me two souvenir postcard books her father sent back to his sister from Egypt during World War I, while he was serving in the Australian Light Horse Brigade.

As today is ANZAC day, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to showcase these beautiful postcard books. These postcards have been passed down to me because 98 years ago, a young man from rural Victoria went all the way across the world to spend four years of his life apart from his family and friends and the security of his home to fight a distant war.

Grandma Nellie speaks often and warmly of her kind father, 'Pa-sie' (as in Pa, but with an affectionate flourish of an added "sie/sey": I have no idea how to spell that) and so I cherish these little tokens I have from him.

I love that the Port Said book has a thumbnail image and a place to record to whom you sent the corresponding card!

I find the postcard books absolutely the most stunning items of ephemera, and I love the exotic images within the covers, and the texture of the pages, and the fact that there are sheets of fine tissue paper between each card.

These postcards conjure for me a romanticised past: I can't help it, but I see them and imagine men with bushy moustaches in nice white linen suits (and oh golly - I bet one or two wore a pith helmet and a safari suit!) exploring amazing places on the edges of the 'civilised world' -or beyond the British Empire. I love the fictional world I see in these postcard images, and wish that I could travel there.

The stark reality is, of course, that these postcards have come to me after being sent home from a war, and there is nothing romantic, exotic or beautiful about that. But I still love these postcard books, and have had them tucked away for several years, so it is really nice to get them out and truly appreciate them today. Thank you Pasie.

Lest we forget. 

Birthday Post

Last week it was my birthday, and not only did I receive post in my mailbox, I also received post as presents. It was a very lovely day. First of all, my gorgeous housemate Mel gave me a gorgeous little stamp album full of treasures that she picked up at the Camberwell Market. Thanks Mel!

We had fun leafing through and picking out our favourites over breakfast. Mel loved the German "Deutsche Bundespost" page of stamps. I agree that they are quite wonderful - the colours are so vibrant!

The pages of Canadian stamps were my pick of the bunch though. I love how higgeldy-piggeldy they are arranged, but together they just look beautiful. The colours are much more muted than the German stamps - but there is a stamp with a map on it - so the Canadian stamps win the race. There is also a stamp with mountain goats on it, and I can't go past that either.

The stamp album was my first tasty treat of the day. Then, when I arrived home from work, I had post in my mailbox! Yay! And my wonderful friend Sandy, who is living half a world away from me at the moment, sent me a parcel of post.

She found a random collection of postcards from c.1987 at an Edinburgh car boot sale for me! I love them. These two are my favourites:

They are all addressed to a Mr. Andrew Anderson, who apparently was known as "Nan" to his nearest and dearest, but as "Andy" to his boss. He lived on on Annandale Street on the "Top Flat Right" (is that a normal way of addressing something in Edinburgh? It is a bit quaint. I like it.) And in 1988 he had a girlfriend named Sarita. I love this little snapshot of a life.

Can anyone work out who signed this card? 

For my birthday I organised a casual get together at my favourite pub: the Post Office Hotel. I hadn't actually thought about the name until my sister noted that this current obsession I have with post is manifesting itself in all sorts of different ways! Everyone is noticing too - even my work friends made me a beautiful birthday card decorated with post.

So, whether it be because I am greedy after enjoying birthday post, or because I am becoming an obsessive, the latest addition to this blog is that I am moving back from the virtual into the real world and I have gained myself a mailing address.   You can contact I heart post at:

PO BOX 4102
GILBERTON VIC 3072
AUSTRALIA

Write to me and tell me about why you love David Bowie, what your superstitions are, your Mum's lasagne recipe or about the book you just read. You could even write to me about the weather. I don't mind. I just heart post, so I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from you. You would make a girl's day.

And to all the lovely people who made my day by sending me messages and post on my birthday: thanks a bunch. I heart you even more than I heart post.