Piering Back in Time

This week's Sepia Saturday's prompt is a steamer on the water in the southern hemisphere and a photo with writing on it

"Going for a Sail, Morecambe"

 so I take you sailing in the northern hemisphere.  From the flags on Central Pier, the well wrapped spectators and the run of the tide I would guess you could get up a good few knots up skimming across Morecambe Bay on the day of the photograph.

As you see I liked this view so much I bought it twice however this looks like a beautiful summer's day, warm enough to encourage paddling. The Central Pier was opened in 1869 and enlarged in the 1870s which made it  ideal for steamers to call in (this part of the coast was a popular with people sailing on pleasure steamers calling in at various destinations).  The pavilion shown was added in 1897/8 and its ornate nature gained it the nickname "the Taj Mahal of the North", it would be destroyed by fire on 31st July 1933 and even that was quite a draw - the crowds came to watch its demise. A new 2000 seat pavilion was built, a café and an open air roller skating park. All those things that seaside resorts were popular for, ballroom dancing, music, classical concerts and comedy were offered here at the new pavilion . The pier was closed in 1986 after decking collapsed at the seaward end and a fire in 1987 damaged the shore end.  The owner was told to upgrade in 1989 but the council condemned and demolished it in 1992.  All this would be long in the future when the card was sent

 on 27th July 1908 saying "The weather is lovely send Annie and Fred by the next train".  The weather that July was especially warm so I imagine that Annie and Fred would enjoy receiving the message. The addressee Mrs Hilton's husband Samuel's  job is registered as 'Herald Varnisher', I have no idea what that is but is sounds a niche occupation. The Annie mentioned in the postcard would become a cotton weaver and marry in 1921.

[Update thanks to  Scriptor Senex's information in the comments.  The job is not varnishing a passing herald as he carries his message but a Heald Varnisher an occupation of the textile mills.  It is part of a weaving loom, after knitting the healds were varnished and put in a special oven.  See here ]

I have a soft spot for Morecambe because I spent some happy times at the seaside there as a child and I too arrived by train.  I don't remember the piers, either this central one or the West End Pier which was washed away after a storm in 1978 but a vividly remember the donkeys and riding them up and down the beach.  There is one water structure that survives which probably enforces that biblical admonition to build upon rock

The Stone Jetty with the paddle steamer TSS Minden departing for Blackpool in the mid 1930s.  The Minden was operated for five seasons starting in 1933 by the newly formed Blackpool Pleasure Steamers,  in 1938 she was sold for breaking up in Preston, the golden era of pleasure steamers on the Lancashire coast was at an end.

The Stone Jetty is the remains of the original harbour that was built around 1853 the reason for the original goods railway line being built which later that century would eventually bring the pleasure seekers..  I think boating pools are quite rare today although I did spend a happy time licking my ice cream and watching small yachts being sailed on one in Suffolk last year.  Today the Stone Jetty is still popular, there is a café by the lighthouse and of course it is THE place to lean against the railings at the end and gaze at the Lakeland hills across the water. Instead of the boating pool and an anchor there are a series of artist inspired pavement games, a inset compass and stone cormorants sitting on the railings.    

Legends of Island Names

Lets go to the Pacific islands of the Gilbert and Ellice as they were in at the time of this stamp issue in 1973.  Three years later they would be divided into two independent nations, the island of Funafuti would become the capital of Tuvalu.  Its Polynesian name as can be seen is "land of bananas" although a visiting American soldier during World War 2 thought there were more bananas in his fridge, although what he was doing keeping bananas in a fridge I don't know.  Funafuti consists of 30 islands or 'motu' surrounding a lagoon.  Legend has it that the people originated from Samoa, arriving by canoe 

The rest of the islands on the stamps are the Gilbert Islands which became Kiribati.  One atoll,  Butaritari has an abundance of rain and is a lush tropical island which exports bananas and pumpkins from its harbour opening into a deep lagoon.

Tarawa is the capital of Kiribati and almost 50% of the population live there, it is also one of the few atolls that can accommodate a runway and scheduled airline service, most island are only reachable by a small ship.  I would guess the stamp portrays a creation myth

Lastly a remote island on a blue lagoon with pristine beaches, for a brief time the home of Robert Louis Stevenson and which he wrote about in his posthumously published book "In the South Seas"

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps - this week is the free and easy "anything you like"

Lift Off to the Red Planet

Cuba celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Cuban Postal Rocket Experiment with various rockets and satellites stamp sheets in 1964. These are four stamps which originally would have made up a corner of the sheet, as you see these are franked so no longer part of a sheet. I think they portray different versions of Sputnik.  I know the one on the top left is Sputnik 3 because there is a Sputnik 3 enthusiast out there in cyberspace who has listed all the stamps featuring it.   The one on the top right is the distinctive shape of  Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite in history launched in 1957 by the USSR, it was polished to a high sheen to enable it to be tracked by telescope and was enthusiastically tracked by both radio and visual amateur astronomers around the world.

I show these stamps because they depict  our home planet with the satellites beeping their way around it, oh and it has a red background. Wondering about the Postal Rocket?  It was an experiment by the Cuban constructor Antonio Funes and Dr Tomas A Terry, president of the Cuban National Philatelic Club in 1939.  The latter was the driving force and the rockets carried first day covers but being propelled by gunpowder and also being unstable they did not produce practical results.  What a shame, just think of all the traffic that would have been kept off the road, I can just imagine giant rockets flying from post office to post office however

Inauguration ceremony of Cuban Postal Rocket

perhaps this rocket is just a little smaller than I imagined. There is one of the original rockets on display in the Cuban Postal Museum.

Oh yes lets show a proper NASA rocket with the space shuttle attached ready to launch. This Maxi card stamp shows a launch site on Mars with the space shuttle taking off while in the foreground a surveyor works with his robot assistant. The stamp is part of the miniature sheet "Exploration of Mars" for Australia's Stamp Collecting Month in October 2000.

Illustrator: Otto Schmidinger Designer; Beth McKinlay

 What else could they publicise this with but "Stamp Collecting is Out of This World".  I'll agree with that as we visit the red planet.  The sheet shows a colony situated inside Olympus Mons, a 24 km high volcano, the rim of which is in the background as well as Mars' two moons Phobos and Deimos.

The stamps starting on the left show 1) an astronaut making a free fall entry from a cruise ship above her. She controls her descent using a personal thruster. 2) Skimmer craft leaving the cruise-ship 3) Flight crew are escorting two remote controlled cargo skimmer vessels 4) launch site as the maxi card 5) Terrain stamp shows two domed cities with a reservoir between with water being piped from Mars north pole and lastly on the far right 6) robots cleaning the kelp rods. The rods are filled with kelp and algae which is adding oxygen to the atmosphere. The rods are flexible so they can withstand the high winds on Mars.

I like the concept of this sheet showing what can be imagined and known at this point in time. Mars is not a very hospitable place, besides the cold (an average of  -65 degrees Celsius or -85 Fahrenheit) the surface receives high levels of radiation.  It is imagined colonist would either use caves or the geodesic domes shown on the stamp sheet.  In the long term Mars could be terraformed to become an Earth like planet perhaps by releasing carbon dioxide locked under the polar caps by heating it with orbital mirrors.  This would liberate water to fall as rain and raise the atmospheric pressure, eventually allowing microbes and plants to grow.

"Mars is there, waiting to be reached" Buzz Aldrin (astronaut)

“The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!" Larry Niven (author)

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps.  This week's theme - Space, Exploration and Planets

Reindeer

I always love the muffled sound of snow in the forest and can just imagine these reindeer padding through it, looks like they are eating their winter diet of lichen.  It is a very atmospheric postcard.  If you like snow apparently the best time to go to here (Finland) is late February or early March when there is much sunshine, its not so cold and snow is guaranteed.  Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) are called in Finnish Poro.  It is thought that they are the only mammal that can see ultraviolet light which helps them survive in the winter by being able to see objects in sharp contrast.

Year of the Snake

Take a trip back in time to 2001 when it too was the Year of the Snake (I haven't got anything for 2013, yet).  The Isle of Man combined its issue of this miniature sheet with the Hong Kong Stamp Exhibition (its logo is shown on the right). The theme is of St Patrick  banishing snakes and venomous reptiles from Ireland, apparently he did  the same for the Isle of Man, what a busy time he had.

There were arguments as to who owned the Isle of Man, England or Ireland, a strong claim was made for Ireland based on the absence of snakes.  The counter claim was that if you brought a snake to the island it would not die therefore it must belong to England.  Today it is a self governing British Crown Dependency

As one of the six Celtic Nations the sheet design beautifully reflects that heritage. I like how the first day cancel echoes the snake design.
 
2013 is the year of the Black Snake, enigmatic and intuitive.  Black is the colour of space, night and the colour of deep water.

1969: 'Swamp Fauna'

And indeed the year is that of the Black Water Snake, here is the real thing a River Snake. The year will be full of unexpected changes and instability.  Having said that the year is considered lucky because it is thought the snake has some resemblance to a dragon. Speaking of which I always enjoyed the television series of 'The Water Margin'  that followed the adventures of outlaws in the Sung Dynasty.  It always began with  a philosophical adage, one of the most memorable was:

"Do not despise the snake for having no horns,for who is to say it will not become a dragon?""

2012: Year of the Dragon

 New Year Greetings -  萬事如意Wànshìrúyì - "May all your wishes be fulfilled"

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of - the lunar New Year

Genoa

The old harbour (Il porto antico) in Genoa. The old port was redeveloped, restoring historic buildings including the old cotton warehouses. It is a familiar story from all over the world bringing back to life areas that once were large trading ports, but time and trade changed with containerisation and different trading routes.  These old warehouses covert so well and who does not like a waterfront.  This is now a popular tourist centre where you can stroll along the harbour, visit museums, restaurants and bars. 

I tried to find out what the spiky thing was and from the little I found it appears that they are old cranes from ships, the base is in the water with a circular panoramic lift.

Clare and Al had been to the aquarium which is one of Europe's largest and also the Maritime Museum.  It would be like a home from home because they live near those two attraction in England too.  Genoa has been described as "decayed glory" which makes it so interesting and pretty. The port is described as having some funky avant-garde architecture.  Sounds the perfect mix of old and new, especially in that wonderful Italian sun.

The card came with

one of the Poste Italiane definitive stamps, the 0.75 being first issued in 2011.  I love the design of the envelope swooping into the air with the Italian colours in its wake. As can be seen the stamp designer is credited on the stamp and is Antonio Ciaburro (1951-)Italian artist and engraver who has designed and engraved over a 100 stamps for Italy, the Vatican and San Marino. 

Come Closer

2000: Millennium Projects: Mind and Matter

Giantiops Destructor is smiling for the camera. Even in real life and not under the microscope this ant has massive eyes. It can be found in the Amazon jungle along with another 1000 species of ant. If you are thinking of visiting;  here are some other species your may find. Despite its rather bold name this ant does not sting and is described as "skittish and timid".

The stamp celebrates the Wildscreen at Bristol, the museum to the BBC's Natural History Unit (whose films have been entertaining and amazing us for decades).  It has an IMAX screen, electronic zoo and a place where this little fellow would be at home, the tropical house.   With large digital and wildlife archives it has been called a "modern day Noah's Ark"

For many centuries the ant has been a symbol of thrift and industry. The Greek's have used it on this stamp

Carpenter Ants

to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Post Office Savings Bank.  The stamp was issued in 1965 so at the present time it has been going for over a hundred years, but with a name change -  TT Hellenic Postbank. It would seem that they have used the ant as a symbol for some times as this old poster shows one  rolling a drachma

Are you ready for another close up?

This first day cover stamp shows a blow fly (Caliphora erythiocephala) with their shiny metallic cases they are often called by their colour such as bluebottle.  Somehow I think that the other stamps in this set commemorating the Royal Microscopical Society such as a pretty snowflake may have more attraction.  On the other hand I do like the use of the Fruit Fly as the cover photo because scientists having been using this species for a hundred years to understand genetics and evolution. 

I think I'm ready for something prettier

I would love to see those wings under an electron microscope but am quite content  to anticipate the joy of seeing the first butterfly of the year.

2008 PHQ Card 310

Lastly England's rarest beetle, its decline is attributed to the the reduction of coppicing in woodland but the Hazel Pot Beetle is reported to be making a comeback. 

25% of all species in the world are beetles and 40% of insects are beetles, it is estimated that there are at least million different types, some have put it higher. One of my favourite stories is of the great biologist JBS Haldane (1892-1964) who when asked by some theologians what could be inferred about the mind of the Creator from the works of his creation replied "An inordinate fondness for beetles".

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of - INSECTS