Australia Day

 A is for Australia Day -

1990: Australia Day (Illustrator - Celia Rosser)

The Golden Wattle acacia was pronounced Australia's floral emblem in 1988. The adoption of the wattle dates back to 1899 and indeed there is a National Wattle Day on the 1st September when acacia of all species are in flower. Australia Day on the other hand is celebrated on the 17th January.

1982: Australia Day (Design and Engraving - Brian Clinton)

Brian Clinton has been a prolific designer of Australian stamps since 1977 but has a passion for portrait painting so he would have enjoyed this postage stamp commission.

1966: Famous Navigators (Design - Walter Jardine)

Adventurers - Two famous seafarers exploring the southern oceans, Captain James Cook and Abel Tasman. The cancel extols the virtues of  Australian food products - "Australian Food Produces Champions".

1953: Food Production (Design - George Lissenden)

Agriculture - Australia's biggest grain crop is Wheat.

1982: Reptiles and Frogs (Design - Beverley Bruen)

Amphibians - Corroboree Frog found in New South Wales. Pretty but poisonous. The poison is secreted from their skin to protect against predators, useful as they are ground dwelling

2003: Nature of Australia - Rainforests (Design - Wayne Rankin)

 

Sometimes it is safer in a tree. The orange-thighed tree frog in the wet tropical rainforest of North Queensland - Daintree National Park

1982: Tourism - Surf Boat

Aerogrammes -  One can fit a lot of correspondence, indeed a whole life, in this inexpensive, thin, lightweight folded piece of postal paper. The UK discontinued their use in 2012 but having checked on the Australia Post site they still issue them. The current one features flora and fauna of Australia.

Sunday Stamps is starting on a journey through the alphabet - See It On A Postcard 

Happy

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is in A Happy Place - here are some of mine...

Many of my happy times have been on the fells and

in the valleys. Seeing sheep also always makes me happy, silly things.

Wild flower meadows, although I can be just as happy meandering on a footpath through arable fields

Sunrise, East Anglia

A beach of any kind, rocky, sandy, shingle, a calm morning or

a windy day with a  mesmerising sea swell.

Quentin Blake on the roof of  the Harris (2004) as imagined by himself

For indoors enjoyment, the cornucopia of a museum and art gallery combination. This one also has a library which contains the anticipated happiness of a good read. The Harris has been closed since 2022 for refurbishment and reopens in September, hopefully. Always a moment of trepidation visiting a revamp.  On the up side it opens with local boy made good Nick Park's special exhibition "Wallace and Gromit. A Case At The Museum" a celebration of Aardman's animated duo. I'm sure Shaun the Sheep will make an appearance too. Happy Days.

Xmas in July

 

1981: Europa - Folklore (Design - Fritz Wegner)

Mummers' plays were performed seasonally usually at Christmas, Easter or Plough Monday and could be described as early pantomime with rhyming couplets. A popular play in England would be George and the Dragon with a twist that George is also eventually killed by a knight called Slasher but George is brought back to life by The Doctor and his magic potion. The plays are stories of birth and re-birth, good over evil enacted by masked or disguised actors. Modern mummers don't often wear elaborate masks.  I imagine the mummers glory years were the Middle Ages.

1993: 150th Anniversary of A Christmas Carol (Design - Quentin Blake)

Whatever the time of year everyone needs a jovial Mr and Mrs Fezzywig who Dickens portrays as symbols of joy and community, kindness and generosity and not only for Christmas. What else is not only for Christmas?  Well there is

2004: Christmas (Illustrator - Bjorn Berg)

receiving and sending mail and

2024: Christmas (Artist - Judy Joel)

churches, or this case cathedrals. Not forgetting the well known plea that when buying puppies as presents

 

1991: Dogs - Paintings by George Stubbs

"Dogs are not only for Christmas'. 

Sunday Stamps theme - Christmas in July - See It On A Postcard 

City Break

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt theme of Travel - Getting Around

One Hour To Departure by Wiktor Najbor

Boarding for take off, maybe they are off for a city break, or maybe not, one passenger has a life belt and  another a spade. The crew seem to be doing some running repairs and just the small matter of a wheel needing to be attached.

The Lure of the Underground by Alfred Leete (1927)

It is probably quicker by underground than bus in London although the open top buses are a popular option for sightseers.  In the early 1900s buses with no roofs were the norm rather than a tourist attraction.

 If visiting Lisbon it is said a tram ride is a must and the nostalgic traveller wanting to see 'old Lisbon' from their windows should board one of the historic 'Remodelado' that travel through the cities narrow streets and up steep inclines.  The modern trams carry more people but are confined to the flat sections of the city.

Millennium Blue

1999: Millennium - The Traveller's Tale (Design - George Hardie)

 Into the blue with Millennium stamps - Jetting around the world

2000: Millennium - Water and Coast

Take the maritime route at Portsmouth Harbour

2000: Millennium - People and Place

Cross over the Gateshead Millennium Bridge spanning the River Tyne

2000: Millennium - Art and Crafts

Visit Tate Modern, 20th Century art and beyond, housed in what was the Bankside Power Station

1999: Millennium - The Patient's Tale (Design - Susan Macfarlane)

Sometimes unexpected things happen, lets hope it does not involve nurses and stretchers.

2002: Peter Pan (Illustrator - Colin Shearing)

or pirates.

Sunday Stamps theme - Blue - See It On A Postcard 

Not Here

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is asking what place you would not like to visit

I have been to Russia and enjoyed it but a country I would avoid today, I would not wish to support a war criminal. The card is of Uljanousk located on the Volga River. The birthplace of Lenin

Mortar Platoon

The Middle East is off my list too, not only for their treatment of women but who knows when one might be bombed by Israel. The card shows the British 1st Battalion King's Own Royal Border Regiment in Jordan, October 2001. The Middle East is also in the mess it is with the meddling of too many countries in the past from outside the region. Jordan from the outside seems to be one of the more progressive and stable countries and I would like to see the rose red city of Petra so might make an exception for visiting.

I have never felt the urge to visit the seaside resort of  Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast in summer.  Looks like standing room only.

Tall Tales

 

2002: Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories  - Centenary of Publication (Artist - Izhar Cohen)

 

How the Camel Got His Hump - How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin. 

The Beginning of the Armadillos - The Crab That Played With the Sea

Kipling was a prolific writer and poet and one could spend some time on the Kipling Society website where all his short stories appear both by theme and date.

1979: International Year of the Child (Design - Kass Janos)

Tom Thumb, no bigger than a thumb, seems to spend his adventurous life being swallowed by various animals, here he has encountered the hungry wolf.  But Tom has a plan and talks to the wolf from its stomach and tricks him to take him home,  All is well in the end.

The Fisher and the Goldfish but this fish is not golden in Hungary's colour scheme but is provided with a golden crown. Alexander Pushkin told the story in verse.

Sunday Stamps theme - Stories, Folk Tales - See It On A Postcard