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Yes I saw a postcard like that and I though it looks fun and pretty, gonna do that now 
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I also write my address in black. And I underline the name of the country with a highlighter.
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I went to a stamp shop to buy the new July release stamp with the training ship Mir (four stamps at the bottom). There are also two very similar in design ship stamps that have been released earlier and I absolutely love them all. All real ships.
I also bought these bird stamps again because they are animated stamps. I never knew animated stamps existed and the idea keeps making me happy. Are there animated stamps in your countries?
The stamp shop sells postcards
And envelopes. I was especially happy to find envelopes with Ivan Bilibin’s illustration for a Pushkin fairy tale (two lower ones). Why so many postcrossers dislike envelopes?
One of my very first cards arrived in a handmade envelope with all kinds of random stuff and it made me ridiculously happy. I love sending a happy-mail envelope to other postcrossers from time to time.
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Wow, these sail ship stamps are really nice. I love those martime motives. I think, our german
SSS Gorck Fock was on a stamp in 1980 oder so. Long time ago.
p.s. of course, and she was on the 10DM-banknote.
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I agree. They are all training ships. The one on a blue stamp “Sedov” is actually a German ship. You can read about it here
STS Sedov - Wikipedia
The others are newly built. I have been lucky to see Khersones in real life.
It’s a beautiful sight under full sails. On the stamps it is the one with the red sails. The scarlet sails are a tribute to the writer Alexander Green who wrote a very romantic short story “The Scarlet Sails” at the beginning of the last century. It’s about love and has a Cinderella theme. A very poor girl, whose father is an outcast in a sea village, meets an old man in a forest. At the time she was playing with a toy ship in a brook (her father is an ex-seaman, whose wife died and he is now making toys to bring up his daughter and who grieves for his wife). The old man predicts that one day a beautiful big ship under scarlet sails will come for the little girl and there will be a beautiful young man on it who will take her and her father away from the cruel and narrow-minded world of the local people. The girl grows up and is teased mercilessly by the local children for her belief in this magical story but one day the ship really comes into the harbour and it has scarlet sails.
So, there’s a custom in Saint Petersburg that on school graduation day there is “The Scarlet Sails” festival. The colour of the sails is a symbol of the strong belief in the future and what it can bring. You can get a card like this from St. Petersburg.
Khersones (ship) - Wikipedia
The newest stamp is of the training ship Mir
STS Mir - Wikipedia
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I read about the Gorck Fock ship and guess what! It was used in many Soviet adventure films when it still belonged to Russia and one of them is “The Scarlet Sails” film (1961).
Here it is in the film
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Oh, yeah, the Gorch Fock I, Tovarishch, is now in Stralsund at the baltic sea as a museal ship. “Our” Gorch Fock was build in 1958 with the old blueprints and there are quite a lot of school ships still at sea from this type of ships. The Eagle in the US, the Mircea in Romania, Sagres in Portugal.
Thanks for introducing into the story beyond this scarlet sails. I have seen pictures of this but didn’t know the reasons or the tale by A. Green.
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I just started with the few I picked up on my vacations.Today I ordered these on Amazon:
And I found these on my walk earlier to build up a little variety in my stash.
I’m really liking this new hobby.
It’s adding some variety to my walks while looking for different cards and stamps.
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Yesterday I bought a photo album for 200 postcards. I like its malachite binding. I’ve already filled half of the album with postcards. I like the result. I also bought postage stamps yesterday. Some of them are quite rare, I haven’t been able to buy them before. These are cats and Arctic animals in my last photo. It’s a pity that the store had everything for 1 piece of these postage stamps.
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I recently purchased this postcard book with illustrations by Benjamin Lacombe, I love his art. I hope the people I send the cards to will like them too.
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Apologies if someone already mentioned this, but did anyone get a scanner? If so, any recommendations on what type/brand?
I often use my EPSON v19 and its scan is very clear.
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Love the username stamp! Now i want one 
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Loooooooove!
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I have a Brother 3 in 1 that isa at least 10 years old and still functioning. 
The quality isn’t pristine these days, but it gets the job done and I’m not complaining about that!
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