Two Unique cards

I received two unique cards today,

both of them from Finland.

This stamp was on Virpi's card.

She said she has three sons and a daughter,

and also a 3 month old puppy--a 'papillon',

a breed which I was unfamiliar with,

so I 'googled' it and found

a lot of pictures of them. When they raise their ears, they do look

like a 'papillon' (butterfly)!

Virpi said the dog on this stamp is a King Charles Cavalier spaniel.

I had thought maybe it was a papillon, as it looked much like

the ones I 'googles'.

This card comes from Virpi, who loves to travel

and take photographs. She says she always

takes her camera with her when she travels, and

she takes pictures of things that she sees.

In fact, she said this is one of her photos.

It looks like a wooden statue, and it is

at Stundars, Mustasaari.

Thank you ver much, Virpi. You are an excellent

photographer!

Update: I received a message from Virpi and she tells me that

the wooden man is from a museaum. However, during old times, this

kind of wooden statue was sometimes standing in front of churches,

mostly in the western part of Finland. They are usually life-size, and

were some kind of 'saving bank' where people would put money in to help

poor people and beggars. This was a long time ago, before the modern

welfare system was established.

This card comes from an American woman, Sabrina, who has lived in Finland

for the past eight years. She says she misses the Pacific (she is from

San Francisco, CA) but she doesn't plan to ever return to the USA.

She has a set of six-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.

The picture on this card is of some rock paintings above

a lake where her family has a summer cottage.

The ancient rock paintings are from Ristiina, Finland.

I think my son, John, will be very interested in this card

because he is really into rock paintings. He even plans his vacations

around places where he can see this type of prehistoric art!

I really like the card, Sabrina.

Thank you very much!