POSTCARD N.197 - CANADA

Postcrossing Postcard sent on the 27th October; received in November 2025.

Postcard image: The wallflower fairy

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Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973) was a British illustrator whose most celebrated work are the art noveau Flower Fairies which went on to populate several books for which I do believe she also wrote the accompanying poems.

One of those books is "A Flower Fairy Alphabet", first published in 1934, which, as the name suggests, contains illustrations for all the letters in the alphabet.

Wielinga, from Canada, sent me a postcard with the illustration pertaining to the letter.... well,  W, of course.  Thanks a lot, Wielinga!

Wielinga used a stamp from the 2025 issue of "From far and wide" self-adhesive definitive series initiated in 2018, which showcase many of Canada's scenic wonders. The  2025 edition re-issues four stamps of the 2024 edition (the ones firstly issued with nominal face values) which was the fourth in the series, albeit with new denominations. As such, the stamp on the postcard  with a face value of 3.65 Canadian dollars, featuring the Qarlinngua Sea Arch, in Arctic bay, in the Nunavut Territory, was firstly issues with a value of 2.92 Dollars.

As much as I understand the need to keep costs controlled, the decision to print stamps in a size that makes the images almost undecipherable, (the printed area measures 2 x 1.6 cm or 1.4 cm if we exclude the CANADA legend) when, furthermore, including a legend which is totally unreadable, is out of justification, in my humble opinion. I hope Canada Post would rethink this policy.

Unfortunately, there was no postmark on the stamp, what may be a consequence of the tribulations Canada Post has gone through recently.