Flying In

1986: Europa - Nature Conservation (Design - F Matheson)

Where once the airplanes and roaring trucks would drown out a birds song now in these lockdown days their songs fill the air.  The stamp has the not so snappy title of  - 'Prudence in the urbanisation and fight against litter dumping' but of course the picture says it all.

Greenland Post Maximum Card 25/90

Taking to the seas and the Long-tailed skuas which are the smallest of the skua family and always on the move. 

1990: Birds IV (Design - Jens Rosing)

The stamp is postmarked Ammassalik, an island off the south east coast of Greenland, it is where the much celebrated Greenlandic stamp designer Jens Rosing (1925-2008) grew up.  The transport links on and off the island are by boat or helicopter.  I wonder which mode of transport

1958: Air - International Correspondence Week (Design - J Vertel)

the post takes.

1996: Norway Post 350th Anniversary. NORWEB 97 (Design - S Morken)

It would be nice to land in a fjord in a seaplane and in keeping with my vaguely avian theme it is called The Tern.  As post bags are moved onto the wing past the propeller then

1986-87: The Post - Past and Present (Design - K Oberli)

we arrive at the jet age in Switzerland but still with postbags on a trolley.

2013: Europa - Postal Vehicles (Design - Colleen Corlett)

In the 21st Century these large aluminum aircraft 'pods' on trailers are pulled by specialist Jersey Post vehicles.  Once the mail has been security scanned it is loaded directly onto Atlantic Airlines Lockheed Electra aircraft.  Bulk mail is sent by sea.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week - Things that fly - swoop over to See It On A Postcard

Blue

1962: Child Welfare - Butterflies (Design - Carl Oskar Blase)

In the 1960s Germany produced a series of wildlife stamps with block coloured backgrounds so here are the blue ones starting with this 'Scarce swallowtail'.  A curious name as it is indeed scarce in the UK and Scandinavia but commonly seen all over Europe with the exception of Portugal and Spain who have their own slightly different Scarce swallowtail.

1963: Child Welfare (Design - Schiller)

A kingfisher ready to dive into the blue water

1965: Child Welfare - Birds (Design - Froitscheim)

and a Western Capercaillie with its mating display.  An extraordinary noise will be coming out of the open beak which sounds a bit like like horses hooves and the popping of a champagne cork.

1999: Europa - Parks and Gardens (Design - Silvia Runge)

For wildlife watching visit the Berchtesgaden National Park. Annually a million visitors will arrive in the National Park but the wildlife will have it all to themselves this year.

Haverigg Kite Festival

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is Blue - See It On A Postcard.

Happy Easter

1978: Easter - Paintings by Giotto

I start the Easter journey with Christ entering into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with all his travails before him.  The fresco is in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Giotto's masterpiece, no space left unpainted and vaulted over by a blue starry sky.  Sensory overload.

1971: Easter - Flowers

Easter has lots of symbolic flowers and trees but apart from the fact it flowers in Spring I don't know about the Yellow Trumpet Tree, perhaps it is the palm shaped leaves or even the thought of the trumpets of heaven.

1999: Easter (Design - Maglena Konstaninova)

No problem with the meaning of this exuberant painting of flowers and decorated eggs, pure joy. Happy Easter to you all.

Traditional Bulgarian Easter Eggs from Wiki

Sunday Stamps II this week is celebrating - Easter - See It On A Postcard

What Lies Beneath

1977: The Rheumatism Year (Design - F Geirsdottir)

Relax into a thermal spring to take away those aches and pains.  The stamp combines the rheumatism treatment with a view of the geothermal heating of water in the earth's mantel.

1972: Earth Sciences - 24th Int Geological Congress (Design - Fritz Gottschalk)

Here different layers of materials in the earth's crust seem to have been put under a lot of strain. 

1973-84 Definitives - Gemstones (Design - John Mason)

But what about some wearable geology.  The beautiful agate and opal gemstones

and the mesmerising star sapphire of which the dark blue colour is the most coveted.

'Wonders of Geology' (1839)

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Geology; Rocks - See It On A Postcard