Year of the Snake

I have had lots of new things shifting my focus from blogging over the past few weeks (in a good way - hello Jake! hello turkish lessons! hello ridiculous notion of training for fun runs!), but on this sweltering hot night in Melbourne, I thought I would get back into it and participate in this week's Sunday Stamps. The theme this Sunday is related to the Chinese New Year, which on Feb 10 ticked over to being the year of the Snake. I've got a sneaking suspicion the Year of the Snake is going to be awesome.

I haven't picked up my 2013 Chinese zodiac "year of the snake" stamps as yet, but I do have the 2012 version, which marked the year of the Dragon. I think in a way the Christmas Island Chinese zodiac stamps, which are a regular issue for Australia Post, are quite similar to the Chinese series of stamps which I have previously blogged about here (and are shown below):

The scans didn't work so well, but the Christmas Island stamps feature gold embossing; the characters aren't black as they look in the picture.

The 2010 version for the year of the tiger is also pretty cool:

I think it is pretty clever typography to turn the Chinese symbol into the character, with the tail swish in the 2012 Dragon stamp, and the hairy claw in the 2010 tiger stamp. I am definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the Year of the Snake stamps at some stage soon.

Year of the Blog

Hello friends and welcome to the 50th edition of I heart post!! Can you believe it? Thank you all so much for your continued support and readership - I have so much fun putting this little blog of mine together.

For this milestone edition of I heart post, I am showcasing some of my all-time, number-one, absolute-favourite stamps. Yes, I know strictly speaking I am not allowed to have multiple all-time, number-one absolute favourite stamps... but you know how it is - how could I possibly restrict myself to just one favourite?

This stunning set of stamps represent the twelve year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, with two stamps issued each year between 1992 and 2003. I purchased from a market stall in Beijing in 2004 and I love them. I have always wanted to somehow frame or display them, but I haven't worked out how yet. And I love looking at them as a whole collection so here they all are, together:

Aren't they beautiful? All reds and greens and blacks, with striking calligraphy and stylised creatures? I love how individually they are all very different, yet together they all work in harmony. Each year one stamp featured the Chinese character for the relevant zodiac sign, and the other stamp featured a graphic depiction of the relevant zodiac animal.  Unfortunately my scanner does not do them justice.

So, it may take me a decade to get these beautiful stamps into a frame and onto my wall... but at least I have now shared them all with you, so that they can be properly appreciated! And after all, that is what I set out to do with this blog in the first place - share my collection.

Thanks so much for tuning into another edition of I heart post. I didn't know how best to celebrate notching up 50 blog-entries, but I hope that these Chinese zodiac stamps have done the trick.

I would love to hear any feedback that casual readers and avid observers (Hi Mum and Dad!) may have about how I could make this blog better. I am planning a redesign soon, but would love to hear any suggestions relating to content that you, my lovely readers, may have (Too much archaeology? Not enough pretty pictures? Too many FDCs? Not enough history?).

I am also posting this blog entry as part of Viridian's Sunday Stamps, which I always enjoy participating in: thanks Viridian!  Happy Sunday everyone!