A Postcard A Day - Friday 13 August 2021 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

I have three postcards for you today. All three are ballerinas and all three cards come from Russia.

This is a painting by Anastasia Vostrezova and it is called Blooming Garden. Anastasia is originally from Moscow but now lives in St Petersburg. 

Her favorite topic is the theatre and ballet. She is often found back stage with the actors or ballerinas.

The stamps are pretty. The one on the right is a new one for me. It was issued in January 2021 but I have not been able to find out anything more about it. The stamp on the left is a sort of 'Forever' stamp.

The second card is another ballerina. The photo is entitled Flag Of Red by Bonita Suraputra

Bonita is a free-lance photographer from Indonesia. She studied law in Newcastle (UK) and works a a legal council, and doing photography in her spare time.

The postcard was sent to me by Ekaterina who lives in Krasnodar (southern Russia).

The stamps are stunning. 

The animal in the left stamp is a Gulo gulo, also called a wolverine or a glutton. I admit I had never heard of this animal. So I went to Wikipedia:

 

The wolverine is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The wolverine has a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size, with the documented ability to kill prey many times larger than itself.

The wolverine is found primarily in remote reaches of the Northern boreal forests and subarctic and alpine tundra of the Northern Hemisphere, with the greatest numbers in Northern Canada, the U.S. state of Alaska, the mainland Nordic countries of Europe, and throughout western Russia and Siberia. Its population has steadily declined since the 19th century owing to trapping, range reduction and habitat fragmentation. The wolverine is now essentially absent from the southern end of its European range.

The size is that of a dog.

The stamp on the right shows a Narwal (Monodon Monoceros).

As you can see, it is not very large for a whale. Also interesting to know the females don't have a tusk, but still thrive and live longer than males.

The last postcard is a photo of a ballerina without much info (It reads Photographer Sindre 2016). 

It was sent to me by Natalia in Moscow and Natalia wrote that the stamp shows the famous self portrait of Russian artist Zinaide Serebryakova (1884-1967)

She has had a fascinating life. Do have a read if you're interested (Otherwise just skip it)

Wikipedia says this:

Zinaida Serebriakova was born on the estate of Neskuchnoye near Kharkov (now Kharkiv, Ukraine) into one of the most refined and artistic families in the Russian Empire.

She belonged to the artistic Benois family. Her grandfather, Nicholas Benois, was a famous architect, chairman of the Society of Architects and member of the Russian Academy of Science. Her uncle, Alexandre Benois, was a famous painter, founder of the Mir iskusstva art group. Her father, Yevgeny Nikolayevich Lanceray, was a well-known sculptor, and her mother, who was Alexandre Benois' sister, had a talent for drawing. One of Zinaida's brothers, Nikolay Lanceray, was a talented architect, and her other brother, Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Lanceray, had an important place in Russian and Soviet art as a master of monumental painting and graphic art. The Russian-English actor and writer Peter Ustinov was also related to her.

In 1905, she married her first cousin, Boris Serebriakov, the son of Evgenyi's sister, and took his surname. Boris went on to become a railroad engineer.

At the outbreak of the October Revolution in 1917, Serebriakova was at her family estate of Neskuchnoye, and suddenly her whole life changed. In 1919, her husband Boris died of typhus. She was left without any income, responsible for her four children and her sick mother. All the reserves of Neskuchnoye had been plundered, so the family suffered from hunger. She had to give up oil painting in favour of the less expensive techniques of charcoal and pencil. This was the time of her most tragic painting, House of Cards, which depicts their four fatherless children.

In the autumn of 1924, Serebriakova went to Paris, having received a commission for a large decorative mural. On finishing this work, she intended to return to the Soviet Union, where her mother and the four children remained. However, she was not able to return, and although she was able to bring her younger children, Alexandre and Catherine, to Paris in 1926 and 1928 respectively, she could not do the same for her two older children, Evgenyi and Tatiana, and did not see them again for many years.

In 1947, Serebriakova at last took French citizenship, and it was not until Khruschev's Thaw that the Soviet Government allowed her to resume contact with her family in the Soviet Union. In 1960, after 36 years of forced separation, her older daughter, Tatiana (Tata), was finally allowed to visit her. At this time, Tatiana was also working as an artist, painting scenery for the Moscow Art Theatre.

Serebriakova's works were finally exhibited in the Soviet Union in 1966, in Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev, to great acclaim. Her albums sold by the millions, and she was compared to Botticelli and Renoir. Serebriakova rejoiced at success in her homeland. However, although she sent about 200 of her works to be shown in the Soviet Union, the bulk of her work remains in France today.

Serebriakova died after a brain hemorrhage in Paris on 19 September 1967, at the age of 82. She is buried in Paris, at the Russian cemetery at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.

Now for my collages:

We bought an apple tree! It is a Granny Smith and it had one apple on it. Hubby is holding a small fig tree, which we also bought.

Our neighbor's dog died of old age, but it was sad nevertheless.

I made cheese and onion pàsties on Sunday as a treat.

Monday was my d-i-l's birthday and it also was the last day that  my friend and I went walking. As on Tuesday they left in the car for Denmark ( a three day journey).

We really liked the trees and as they were on special offer, we went back and bought twelve more! We went to see our friends on the way to the garden centre. They gave us lots of herbs from their garden (see Wednesday collage). The weather was awful, hot and sticky, so I stayed indoors and spent some time baking.

Wednesday hubby went to the hospital for blood tests, and as he had to be nil-by-mouth we went for breakfast at a local cafe. After that i had a hair appointment.

Yesterday we spent the morning in the hospital for hubby's oncology appointment. His platelets haven't changed. They are still low so he continues with the oral chemo. Then yesterday afternoon I sat down to write this. So no photos (no collage, sorry).

That is it from me today. I apologize for writing such a lengthy post again. But as this is a post about smiles and silver linings, I know you all want to get to the end where I will post some funnies. 

So I'm off to Annie's (A Stitch In Time) and Virginia (Rocking Your World Friday).

Have a lovely weekend,

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca