Sunday, 16 February 2025

Flags Ahoy

2021: Tall Ships Race

A sailing ship at the port of Mariehamn ready for the 2021 Tall Ships Race and a stamp issued for the event.  That was the plan. Covid had other ideas and restrictions at the time meant it had to be cancelled. Undaunted the Åland islanders pivoted to a substitute and created a Maritime Folk Festival with food, drinks and entertainment.  They would have to wait until 2024 to welcome the fleet of sail ships to Mariehamn, and gain another stamp.

1989: 10th Anniversary of Home Rule in Greenland
The Greenland flag flying over land and sea

1981: 125th Anniversary of  Danube Commission
For fans of stamp on stamps these feature the Danube commission stamps from 1967 with the paddle steamers Franz I (1830) and the Arpad (1834) sailing underneath.  The latter named after a Hungarian hero, head of the confederation of Magyar tribes
1981: Historic Hungarian Flags
The 40f stamp shows the House of Arpad flag(11th Century). 60f Hunyadi Family flag (15th Century) at the time they were the most powerful nobles in the Kingdom of Hungary.
1979: OCAM Summit Meeting, Cotonou
Changing continents and a group of nations - OCAM (Organization Commune Africaine et Malgache), Founded in 1961 it was disbanded in 1985. The stamp shows the members flags at the time

Thursday, 13 February 2025

Imagine

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Maps of city transportation or metros.

Centre of the Universe by Graeme Currie

I introduce you to the Merseyrail network although here the names of the stations have been replaced by famous and honorary liverpudlians, or as they are more commonly know, scousers (which is the Liverpool accent/dialect).  Often the people will have a connection with the station's area or like Ken Dodd (comedian) at Lime Street and Billy Fury (singer) have a statue nearby.  Created in 2008 for the City of Culture biennial Graeme Currie's map continues to be used on tea towels, bags and postcards.  Most of these names will not be known to the non Brit but there might be a few you recognise. 

The Merseyside livery is yellow

Mersey Rail's Superpenguin at Lime Street underground (part of the Go Penguin tribe)


Sunday, 9 February 2025

Precious Stones

 

1995: Semi-Precious Stones Industry (Design - Sue Passmore)
Somewhere in the White Cliffs opal fields, NSW, someone looks for treasure.  (The stamp's 'opal' is a lenticular printing)
1981: Gold Rush Era (Design and engraving - Bruce Weatherhead)
The lure of gold
1973: Gemstones
agate and opals
2012:Gems

Once out of the ground and for sale rubies are judged by the quality of their cut, colour and clarity.

Sunday Stamps theme - Gems, Minerals -See It On A Postcard

Thursday, 6 February 2025

On the Map

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is looking at Country Maps...

When heading towards the Arctic Circle and Greenland, the aeroplane will land in the capital Nuuk, home of a huge Santa Claus postbox. More practical postal information is on the card, the red dots indicate all the post offices.


For the tourist to Belgium a handy postcard guide to some of the attractions of this small country.
The reverse of this card extols virtues of a country starting with the sentence  "Scotland contains a variety of scenery and interest unsurpassed anywhere in the British Isles"  I though I would enlarge

the map for a better view of the puffin and Nessie. Where Nessie's nose points and the piper pipes it is surprising to only see only fish as the Moray Firth  is one of the best places in the UK to see bottlenose dolphins who come in with the tide to feed and play.

Sunday, 2 February 2025

Year of the Snake

 

2025:Year of the Snake (Artist - Jo Davies)
This year's Lunar New Year is one of the Wood Snake. The snake is perceived as having a dual nature representing danger but also good fortune, light and dark. Because snakes shed their skins it is also associated with transformation and rebirth.  Wood adds the elements of nurturing and growth.  The Isle of Man's FDC insert gives us Jo Davies' inspiration of the elements contained in the stamps.
Moving from the ethereal to the natural world
1989: Endangered Reptiles
and a grass snake (I'm guessing the endangered designation refers to Hungary). On the other hand Orsini's Viper are a rare species (also called Meadow Adders) which are found in France, Italy and much of Eastern Europe.  Although snakes are fascinating to me

these lizards are more endearing  - Sand Lizard and Green Lizard 

Sunday Stamps theme - Snakes and Reptiles - See It On A Postcard



Thursday, 30 January 2025

Red Alert

See It On Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is looking for the colour red...

Chocks away for Snoopy and Woodstock

2013: Europa - The Postman's Van

Fairy tale houses in Madeira known as casinhas de Santana.  An island that looks like the perfect place to ride on a post bike.
Fungarium - Illustrator Katy Scott
A postcard of one of the images from Kew Garden's 'Welcome to the Museum' series of books.  The Fungarium illustrations are by Katy Scott in collaboration with Esta Gaya, a senior researcher at Kew Botanical Gardens who is especially fascinated by lichen.  Guess what, the image is of a lichen - Umbrella basidiolichen.  The basidiolichens are a genius of lichen that are poorly researched according to wikipedia

Sunday, 26 January 2025

The Write Stuff

 

2008: Nobel Prize Diploma
Dario Fo was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 which was welcomed by some in Italy but condemned by others, such is the hazard of satirizing and pointing the finger at politics, religion and inequality. He said he spent his life whipping up jolly storms through "freedom of opinion and happiness of expression through rage and laughter".
1951: 15th Anniversary of the Death of Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)

Another politically active writer but who could also win a best mustache contest. Clear eyed he said

"Politics is the soil in which the nettle of poisonous enmity, evil suspicions, shameless lies, slander, morbid ambitions, and disrespect for the individual grows rapidly and luxuriantly. Name anything bad in man and it is precisely in the soil of political struggle that it grows with particular liveliness and abundance".

1998: 900th Anniversary of the Birth of Hildegard of Bingen, Prioress  (Vision of Life Cycle)
The woman who was, as the Bible encourages us to be, in the world but not of it. Hildegard, abbess and polymath. Writer, composer and mystic. The stamp shows an illuminations from 'Scivias', a book of her religious visions It is unknown if she painted them herself or oversaw their creation. 

Sunday Stamps - Authors, Poets of Composers - See It On A Postcard