Lines

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Lines

The old half-timbered houses of Vannes, Brittany

Lines in the sand.   On the reverse of the card - "The mysterious and eternal sand dunes of Lake Michigan reflect and shadow the light of the afternoon sun. Ever constant, ever changing in form and beauty, the dunes provide a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere."

 

In contrast the hard lines of a railway crossing at Darley Dale (Church Lane Crossing) near Matlock, Derbyshire. The card shows the  Flying Scotsman visiting the heritage railway, Peak Rail, in August 2000.

Curves

See It On A Postcard's  Thursday Postcard Hunt for shapes - Curves

2021: Lockdown Birds

A curvaceous bird. During Jersey's first Covid Lockdown in 2020 Berni Martin set herself a project to paint a bird every day. Using a box of paints girted to her by a friend she painted on 100 consecutive days sharing these cute little characters on social media. A selection appeared on Jersey Post's stamps in 2021.

It was especially glorious weather in the British Isles for the first lockdown. The traffic stilled and the birds sang their songs into the air.

The Domes of the Eden Project in Cornwall. The site was an old clay pit. It opened in 2000 and fully opened in 2001.. The largest biome houses a rain-forest and the other is a Mediterranean environment. Botanical gardens with plants for temperate climates are outside, the paths curving amongst them. Cornwall has a mild maritime climate influenced by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and has  micro-climates ranging from tropical-like gardens to misty moorlands.

The Grace of Swans

 

1971: Definitive - Mute Swan

A serene swan

1956: Nordic Day

Whooper swans on the wing,  The five swans symbolise the five Nordic nations.

1986: Water Birds

 A Tundra or Whistling swan who use Mongolia's lakes and wetlands as a temporary resting and feeding place during their spring and autumn migrations.

1987: Swans

Mute swan on land deciding on its next move. A preening Bewick's swan (a subspecies of the Tundra Swan).

Sunday Stamps A-Z for Swans and Sweden - See It On A Postcard 

Send a Letter

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Shapes in the form of Letters

The Irish alphabet has 18 letters. It uses the Latin alphabet but omits eight letters used in English J K Q V W X Y and Z which are only used in loan words.

Oh no some letters are not going to make it onto the train

but these are on board and as the train speeds through the night to Scotland  the traveling post office's workers are sorting them ready for the morning delivery. The full Auden poem with the night train steaming through the countryside in 1936 can be seen here 

Robots

 

1989: Europa - Games and Toys (Design  - Dan Fern)

A toy robot 

2017: Star Wars - Droids and Aliens (Illustrator: Malcolm Tween)

 The 'real' things in the Star Wars franchise

Artist Malcolm Tween discusses his "mini masterpieces"

2011-2013 Definitive - Canadian Flag

Robotic arm or the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS)  on the Space Shuttle - Canadarm. First tested in orbit 1981, eventually after 90 missions, its last to the International Space Station in July 2011 Canadarm eventually took up its retirement home at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum

Sunday Stamps A-Z - Robots and Robotics - See It On A Postcard 

Forest

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is in a Forest

The aunties welcoming the spring and enjoying the sun as much as the wood anemones in a woodland clearing. In old Scots this would be called a spinkie-den which is a woodland clearing full of flowers. I am sure the Finns have a name for it too.

 An early morning mist rising from a forest in North Kerala where I have been told there are bears.

 Moors and mist come together on Rievaulx Moor, North Yorkshire. It will be blue skies everywhere at the moment as we are in the middle of a heat wave.  The Forestry Commission car parking area serves as a start point for walks or just head up on the easy access track to reach the the whitewashed trig point which marks the 328m top and a reward of its 360 degree panoramic view.

Queen

1990: Greeting Stamps - Smiles

Queen of Hearts by Colin Elgie.

1991: Europa - Europe in Space

In August 1846 Queen Victoria was the first monarch to visit Guernsey. The attention of European astronomers, and no doubt Price Albert, was on the hunt for a previously unknown eighth planet, in fact this planet, later named Neptune, was seen twice in August but mistaken for a star and was not identified as a planet until September 1846.

2020: Queen

Queen Live - Freddy Mercury at Wembley Stadium, 1986; Roger Taylor at Queen's free London concert, 1976; The full band photographed at Primrose Hill, 1974; John Deacon at the Hammersmith Odeon, 1975 and Brian May at Nepstadion,Budapest, 1986

Sunday Stamps A-Z and here at Q for Queen - See It On A Postcard