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  

Beaches

See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is at the beach

A choice of beaches at Carnac, the Grande Plage with its 2 kilometres of sand is the largest of the five but the Plage de Legenese, is said to be the most sheltered from the wind.

Heading for the west coast of Denmark famous for its sand dunes along the North Sea. It looks very peaceful

Bank Holiday crowds at Morecambe, Central Promenade early 20th century

Join the crowds at Morecambe. In the past the railway branch line would have terminated close to the sea front bringing day trippers and holiday makers to the seaside resort. A statutory public holiday (Bank Holidays are usually on a Monday) would be a peak time at seaside resorts. The crowds on the promenade will see the expanse of Morecambe Bay and the Lake District hills beyond.  Those on the beach have other things on their mind.

P for Penguins

 

1978: Antarctic Fauna

Emperor Penguin are the heaviest and  largest of the penguins

1991: Endangered Species - King Penguin

The King Penguin is smaller but unlike the Emperor Penguin it lives in the sub-arctic islands and rocky coastlines.

1999: Definitive - Birds (Design - Una Hurst)

It  is the largest and most colourful penguin on South Georgia. The artist Una Hurst specialises in the wildlife of the South Atlantic and has designed and painted nearly 50 postage stamps. Born on the Falkland Islands she now lives in Scotland with her family on a sheep farm in Orkney. 

1956: Penguins and Seals

The Rockhopper Penguin, one of the many species of crested penguins.

2002: Comic Strips and Movies

Rasmus Klump is a bear that always wears polka dot dungarees and goes on many adventures with his friends, Pingo the Penguin, Pelle (a pelican), Pildskadden (a turtle) and Skaeg (a seal) on his boat the Mary.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - here for Penguins and a Pelican - See It On A Postcard 

Gardens

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Public Gardens

Ballindalloch Castle, Banffshire, Scotland

A view of Ballindalloch Castle, visitors can enjoy its formal gardens, woodlands and riverside walks which are open to the public from Easter to the end of September. The first tower of the castle was built in 1546, much altered it still stands today.

Aberlour is located on the banks of the River Spey and famous for its whisky, and Walker's shortbread (the company is the UK's largest exporter of biscuits). The photos are of the Parish Church, the River Spey and the Alice Littler Park.

Travelling from the east coast of Scotland 

to the Isle of Man in sunshine and the Promenade Gardens of Douglas, the island's capital.

Orchids

 

1968: Flowers IV

O is for Orchid

1982: Wild Orchids

L-R = Early Purple Orchid or as the Swede's call it, St Peter's Keys: Marsh helleborine; Elder-flowered orchids the two grow together in different colours, purple and white, so I rather like the Swedish name of Adam and Eve; lastly a Lady's Slipper. 

The price of this stamp sheet included 1.60kr in aid of stamp collecting.

1993: Orchids -  issued for the 14th World Orchid Conference in Glasgow

We now head into the esoteric growing of orchids by enthusiasts 18p Dendrobium hellwigianum from the mountains in east New Guinea the next 24p has so many Latin names I'll just say it is a clone and cross from Asia and Borneo 

 Cymbidium owianum (Low's Boat Orchid)  introduced from Burma

33 another cross from the Himalayas and Thailand; 39  a variety of Dendribium vexillarius originally from the cloud forests of New Guinea 

Sunday Stamps A-Z - O for Orchid  - See It On A Postcard

Tree Time

 

See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Parks and Gardens visiting National Parks

SJ Lamorna Birch travelled the length of England and Scotland from his home in Cornwall to paint travel posters for LMS (London, Midlands and Scottish) Railways. This view of Loughrigg Tarn was painted c1925. One can walk around the tarn and is one of the 'Miles without Stiles' walks in the Lake District National Park.

 

Another 'Miles without Stiles' walk is around Tarn Hows and is a very popular walk with fine views. 

Lathkill Dale, Nr Bakewell

A sunny walk along the Lathkill River which lies at the heart of the Peak District National Park. 

Nature

 

Heart in Nature (Designer Jenny Burman)

The colours of nature

2003: New Zealand Landscapes

on land

and sea

1984: Flower

A  pink Mexican Creeper with its heart shaped leaves, also known as the Bee Bush 

1991 and 1988: Native Birds

Rock Wren - a songbird of the mountains where it stays even in winter. A kingfisher bringing colour to rivers and watery places.

Sunday Stamps A-Z today N for Nature, New Zealand and Nicaragua - See It On A Postcard 

Blue Yonder

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is enjoying spring and the colour Blue

Apollo 11 Launch - 16 July 1969

A perfect launch from Cape Kennedy to set foot on the moon

Decent of Soyuz TMA19M Decent Module, June 2016

A safe deployment of parachute and a decent to Earth after six months orbiting our planet on the International Space Station

Zennor Village with Church of St Sennara and the Tinners Arms

Back on terra firma on the tip of England in Cornwall. It is said if one wants to find a pub then look for a church tower. St Sennara is a Breton saint and shows the Celtic connection between Cornwall and Brittany.

.At the Postal Museum you can travel underground on Mail Rail, a postal railway which once traversed London through narrow tunnels (1927-2003),  today the experience is just for pleasure. The Postal Museum started life in the basement of  GPO Headquarters in 1969. It moved in 1998 to Mount Pleasant archives but this card brings us to the present day. A publicity/donation appeal card issued in 2016. The Museum and Mail Rail opened in its present building in 2017.

Majestic

 

1965: Birds

Its that time of year when ones mind turns to holidays. Perhaps a trip to Malaysia where the locals might point out a Murai Gajah (Asian Fairy Bluebird) on a tree.

 

1994: Malaysian Airlines inaugural flight cover

 Fly out of Malaysia to Buenos Aires to dance the tango under a moonlit Brazilian sky.  Where next? 

 

Travel back in time to the 1950s and the Hotel Majestic in Acapulco, Mexico

 

 

A sea view from their rooms

 

Definitive 1950s: Architecture and Archaeology 

 

Buy a Michoacan Mask as a memento although a lot of these dance masks look very scary.

 

 

Catch some sport at the Mexico City University Stadium. Built in 1952, at the time the largest stadium in Mexico. It is now called the Olympic Stadium after hosting the 1968 Summer Olympics

1969: Tourism

Enjoy visiting the Pyramids in the ancient city of Teotihuacan (place of the gods).  Not built by the Aztecs or Mayans but an ancient race, origins unknown.

  

Sunday Stamps A-Z for Mexico, Malaysia and Majestic - See It On A Postcard