From the Sea

 

1991: For A Better Environment

The Mediterranean coastline and its wildlife

2006: Norwegian Marine Life IV

Meanwhile in the Atlantic - a sea urchin with a name that seems to use a good portion of the alphabet Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, Green Sea Urchin (found in northern waters around the world).

1980: Animals

Ocean perch

1981: Painting

'Hauling the Line' by Gunnlaugur Scheving who painted life in Iceland, many of whose works featured the sea, as can be seen here

A seal hauling out from the sea at low tide. Our local haul out has a seal cam so one can take an interest in the seal and pup numbers when it is the winter breeding season from the comfort of a couch.

Sunday Stamps theme - From the Sea - See It On A Postcard

 

Cool Views

 

1991: Mountain Lakes

The Alpine Lakes of (80) Melchsee in Central Switzerland and (50) Moesola by the San Bernardino Pass near the Swiss/Italian border.  Postbuses travel over the pass several times a day when it opens from June to October, the helpful advice from the postbus website is get off at the Ospizio stop for Lake Moesola. The site has a scenic shot of a bus travelling the route, although not on one of its many hairpin bends.

2013: Christmas (Design - Magnus Rakeng)

A snowy view and no doubt an excellent house from which

1996: 100th Anniversary of the Modern Olympic Games

to go skiing,

2004: Europa - Holidays

with a few friends.

For Sunday Stamps theme - Cold Vacation Locations - visit See It On A Postcard

Sail

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for boats or ferries takes me to the days of sail...

The Norwegian Training Ship 'Christian Radich

It says on the back "one of the last square three-masted sailing ships still crossing the oceans".  That statement is still true since this card was sent from Philex France in 1982.  The stamp shows sailors setting the sail on the Christian Radich.

In more testing conditions here we have "Making the sail fast near Cape Horn swaying on the footrope". Photographed by Alan Villiers in 1929 who first went to sea aged 15, described as writer, adventurer photographer and mariner he said  "There is little man has made that approaches anything in nature, but a sailing ship does."

The 'Iquique' by Herbert Barnard John Everett

Another lover of the sea, John Everett,  his first sea journey was working his passage on the Inquique bound for Australia in 1898, a prolific artist of seascapes.

1983: Old Ships on the Faroe Run

 From sail to steam here is the steamship Laura used as a post boat between Denmark, the Faroes and Iceland

London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) Railway Poster

To the calmer waters of Morecambe Bay a steamer heads to the port of Heysham from Northern Island painted by Norman Wilkinson in 1932.  This is the 'other side' of the bay to me.

Health Service

Today is COP28's Health Day to discuss how climate change is impacting human health and what can be done about it but I look back to simpler times in stamps

First Anniversary of People's Communes

A Chinese health worker with her first aid kit and

1987: St John Ambulance Centenary (Design - Debbie Cook)

something more elaborate for volunteers of  St John Ambulance Service.  One can depend on the Victorians for robust design.  St John Ambulance volunteers are a familiar sight at sporting occasions on hand to provide first aid.  They do many other things and during the pandemic they helped to screen donors for the blood transfusion service

1972: 20th Anniversary of the Post Office Employees Blood Donor Association

I assumed this stamp was for France's national blood donation service but on closer examination found it was celebrating  a non-profit organisation that encourages blood donors among employees of the French Post Office

1983: The Red Cross (Design - E Krag; Engraver Cz Slania)

The more famous Red Cross

2003: Public Health 400 Years (Design - Sverre Morken)

The small beginnings of public health in Norway from July 1603 when royal patent was awarded to the physician Villads Nielson and a lifelong annual income from the public purse to provide medical services to Bergen, the largest town in Norway at the time. In 1703 the first doctor was appointed as a public servant but not until the early 18th Century were there 5 physicians in the entire country. A single qualified midwife was not in service until 1740.  Things have grown since then with a transition from a social assistance state to welfare state after World War II.

1988: Health for All in 2000

Worldwide "Health for All" was a global strategy by the World Health Organisation launched in 1978 for extending health care coverage as a basic human right.  There has progress since then but still lots to do so now we have "Health for All in the 21st Century", things were a lot more optimistic in 1978.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Health or Medicine - hosted by the date prescient See It On A Postcard

Mail Transport

 

1980: Norwex 80 (Design - F Matheson)

This mini sheet fits the Sunday Stamps theme of 'planes, trains and automobiles' with the added bonus of a paddle-steamer, the 'Bergen'.  All modes of transport carrying mail with the Norwegian stamps of their era.

1949: 7th Anniversary Opening of the Communist PO in Sha Tung

On another continent a post runner goes to meet a train.  An East China stamp, one of liberated areas who issued their own stamps until the formation of the Republic of China replaced all the regional issues.

1979: Europa: Post and Telecommunications

A busy postal hub on the FDC with a 1.70 stamps showing Boule de Moulins which were floating containers used to carry mail during the Siege of Paris.  They were not a success unlike the balloons which were used in the siege which successfully got to their destinations.  The 1.20 stamp shows a monoplane, the Caudron Simoun, used in the 1930s as a mail plane by Air Bleu,  The address of the Bushbury on the FDC has a tenuous aeronautical link for in the 1920s aircraft factories were established in this area.  Who knows Mr Jones might even have worked in one.

2013: Europa - Postman's Van (Design - Alexandra Ubukata)

 Lastly a jolly Polish postman sets off in his van ready to deliver mail

Sunday Stamps theme this week - Trains, planes and automobiles - See It On A Postcard

Insects

 

2020: Brilliant Bugs (Illustrator - Richard Lewington

They are all around us, brilliant bugs.  The stamps are designed by Richard Lewington, illustrator of many insect guides, never wonder what that bug might be with a field guide to hand.

1953: Beetles

Although as my eyesight is not what  it was so something that sits still on a leaf, branch or on the ground is good. A nice shiny Jewel Bug like this would be perfect. 

2018: Flora and Fauna (Design - Stiina Hovi)

The flash of red on a stem and time to count the spots on a ladybird before she flies away.

1997: Insects (Design - A Ysttri)

The full 7 spots can be seen here - Coccinella septempunctate, our most familiar ladybird, welcomed by gardeners and organic farmers for their voracious appetite for aphids. Even better the 7 spotted ladybird is considered lucky, although not for the aphid.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Insects - See It On A Postcard

Viking Voyage

 

2014: Tourism - Oslo Viking Museum (Design - Kristin Granli)

 A Viking ship setting sail

1990: Viking Life (Design - Svenolov Ehren)

Out to Sea

2002: Viking Voyages of the Atlantic (Design - Martin Morck)

 

and navigating.  Our Viking is using a sunboard. In the middle of the day the ship's course was corrected by measuring the height of the sun. If the angle of the sun had got bigger the ship had traveled too far south, less and it was sailing too far north. Thank goodness for GPS.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - At Sea - set sail at See It On A Postcard

Sport

 

1988: Sports Organisations (Design - J Sutton)

We are at a cusp today by saying goodbye to Wimbledon but looking forward to the Women's World Cup starting on Thursday

Meanwhile the Tour de France riders are going to tackle seven mountain climbs today, they will deserve their rest day on Monday

2017: UCI Road Championships (Design - Ragnar Aalbu)

but will be a long way from any beach huts

 

2014: Swedish Sports Classics (Design - Henrik Karlsson)

Here is a bike race for the enthusiast, the Vätternrundan, the world's largest recreational bike race 300km round Lake Vättern.  Prefer something a little more relaxing?

2003: Regions of France (Provence)

 

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - At Play/Sports - See It On A Postcard

Snow

 

2001: Aurora Borealis (Design - Bjarne Reisto)

Snow laden trees stand sentinel under swirling skies

2008: Christmas (Design: Jenny Burman)

Snowy winter fun sledging down hill. Making a snow lantern, ooh I thought what is that?  So for anyone like me wondering, here are two cute kids making one here

2004: Winter Birds (Design - T Niemi)

The birds, like us, are glad that winter is retreating. but on the stamps it is still winter - Great Tit and Yellowhammer. Then we have the Pine Grosbeak, common in Scandinavia but if one of these is spotted in the UK it would lead to a twitching frenzy the last one to make the watery crossing showed up in the Shetland Islands a few years ago. Striking birds, as indeed is the Bullfinch

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Winter Snow - See It On A Postcard

Anniversaries

2020: City Anniversaries (Design - Enzo Finger)

Bergen's 950th Anniversary and the much younger seaside resort of Moss comes in at 300 years. Moss installed a diving tower to mark the occasion which comes with a bath house and sauna.

1996: 1000th Anniversary of Freising's rights to Hold a Fair (Design - Blume-Zander)

Germany issues a lot of stamps marking cities anniversaries but for something different Freising, one of the oldest settlements in Bavaria, celebrated its right to hold a market.

1996: 300th Anniversary of the Berlin Academy of  Arts (Design - Peter Steiner)

The Berlin Academy's motto is enclosed between the 'A'

2002: First Danish Stamp 150 Years (Design and Engraver - Martin Morck)

Talking of the arts here is some stamp art showing  engraver Martinus William Ferslew whose company also printed the first stamp sheets which consisting of 100 pieces without perforations. Scissors required at the post office. The sheets were were issued to them 10 days before the law was passed so they could issue them on the day.

2013: 20th Anniversary of Postal Services

A shorter period of time but a postal service is always worth celebrating. The sheet shows a camel riding postman which featured on their Europa stamp the same year this mini sheet was issued.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Anniversaries - celebrate at See It On A Postcard

Sky High

 

1957: World Meteorological Organization

A weather balloon flying above the clouds

1973: Centenary of World Meteorological Organization (Design - T Ekstrom)

Finland celebrated the origins of the WMO, which was the 1873 Vienna International Meteorological Congress.

1958: Chinese Meteorology

 

China is a member of the WMO but can boast of 3000 years of records found in various historical records however their modern meteorological methods started in the 17th Century with continuous recording not happening until the mid 19th Century.

1993: Norden: Tourist Attractions

Today balloons, satellites and giant computers modelling the weather let us know what to expect when we venture to the great outdoors although Saturday here gave us three seasons in one day

2009: Pallas-Yllastunturi National Park

so maybe I'll just look up to the sky and hope for the best.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - The Sky - look up See It On A Postcard

Wildlife

 

1980: Animals (Design P Magnusson Engraver J Larriviere)

Spring has arrived here but not I think where the Arctic Fox roams

1991: Elephants

Too hot for the Arctic fox in Africa. It is said that the only thing elephants are frightened of is mice

 

1992: Threatened Species Series 1 Part 1 (Design Betina Ogden)

No worries they won't come across these mice in Africa although the Dunnart is actually a marsupial but happens to be the same size of a mouse.

1989: Nature II (Design - S Morken

No ermine in Africa either, although as it is spring this one is not wearing its winter coat.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Wildlife of any size- walk on the wild-side at See It On A Postcard.