Into the Woods

1980: The Forest in Four Seasons (Design - Walter Wachter; Engraver - Wolfgang Seidel)

The zing of fresh green has arrived (in stamps) - "Beeches on Matrula in Spring", Liechtenstein.

1976: Centenary of Swiss Federal Forest Law - 'Conserve the Forest'

I like seeing the intricate shapes of trees in winter so this artists view lets me see both the green and those amazing branches.

2011: Europa - Forests (Design Christian Broutin and Barbara Kekus-Slizowska)

One could perhaps visit a wood with this stamp in hand to identify all that could be found there.

1968: Birds (Design - Walter Wehinger)

A flash of colour in a branch above is a Northern Bullfinch.  Sit very quietly and perhaps a

1967: Animals (Design - Celestino Piatti)

a roe deer will observe you from a distance

1953: Air - Forest Animals

or a magnificent fallow deer

1953: Air - Forest Animals

and a red fox trot by.

2019: Forests (Design - Up Creative Consultants)

The full forest view can be seen in the Snowdonia National Park in Wales but a picnic is best taken sitting by water and in Northern Ireland's Glenariff Forest the sound of water falling would be very restful 

1951: 1st Anniversary of 5 Year Plan (Design - S Legrady)

unless someone had brought an accordion.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - The Colour Green - See It On A Postcard

Sea Rescue

The 150th Anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was celebrated on this FDC, although Guernsey had actually maintained an earlier lifeboat and station since 1803 at St Sampson which is a few miles from the hazardous Casquet Rocks, a major shipping hazard.  This lifeboat position was eventually taken over by the RNLI in 1861 and a new lifeboat, the John Locket arrived in 1875.

1978: 150th Anniversary of the RNLI

The stamps show how things have advanced over the years. The rowers on the 2½p stamp are in the 1874 'John Lockett', a gift of Mrs Lockett and her daughters of Liverpool.  Rowing in a storm must have been horrendous.  The next stamp is the last pulling/sailing lifeboat 'Arthur Lionel' which served the islands for 17 years from 1912.  This one was a gift of Sir Thomas Robbin of County Cork.  The first motorised vessel arrived in 1929 but the one shown on the 8p stamp is the1954 Barnett-type boat 'Euphrosyne Kendal', named after the women whose generous legacy enabled the craft to be purchased.  As a charity the RNLI are dependent on donations and as vessels increase in sophistication their cost goes up, the lifeboat shown on the 10p stamp cost £78,000 (today an all-weather lifeboat costs over £2 Million).  The 'RNLB Arun' was financed by gifts from Birds Eye Foods, Miss A M Johnson and four legacies. Launched in 1971 she arrived in Guernsey in 1972. It was the first prototype of the successful Arun class which the RNLI would use around the coasts of the UK and Ireland for over 30 years.

1977: Centenary of St John Ambulance (Design - P Slade and M Horder)

Also in the seas surrounding Guernsey is the marine equivalent of an emergency ambulance the 'Flying Christine II' (the present marine ambulance is Flying Christine III).

1987: New Size Definitive - Views

But relax no emergencies at the moment just a beautiful day on the water near Havelet Bay.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Watercraft - sail away for more at See It On A Postcard.
  

Swedish Seasons

2011: Blue and Yellow (Design - H Karlsson)

The Swedish flag flies this week for Sunday Stamps

1990: Maximum Card 59 'Autocumulus lenticularia'

and it is winter when

1990: Clouds and Weather (Photo - L-G Nilsson; Engraver - Martin Morck)

wave clouds have formed downwind of the hills and mountains.  I must admit our weather has been more like the postmark than the stamp -

2001: Dogs (Design - Ingemar Jacobsen)

rain-wear essential.  Not necessary if you are a Golden Retriever with a beautifully dense and water repellent coat. The days turn into months with flowers appearing so surely spring  cannot be far away

2007: Spring Feelings (Design - Lars Melander)

exploding with colour and making one dance with joy.  Lars Melander has named his 'Spring Feeling' stamps -Birds Greeting, Brighter Times, Spring Dizzy and Tweet.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - A country not your own - explore more at See It On A Postcard
 

Earth Science

2006: FDC 11- 'Science - Series II"

This FDC shows the Arctic Station on Disko Island run by the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Science and founded by the Danish botanist Morten Pedersen Porsild in 1906. Persild lived and worked in Greenland for most of his life.  The Arctic Station website says it is not too late to book in for 2020 but it will be closed for renovation in September and reopen in Spring 2021.

2006: Science II (Design - Naja Abelsen; Engraver - L Sjööblom)

The stamp shows the oldest bedrock on planet earth (3800 million years) although I think there has been another discovery on one of Greenland's islands of something earlier after this stamp was issued.  The stamp catalogue makes no such claim and just calls it 'Oldest Mountains'.

2000: Centenary of the Zugspitze Meteorological Station (Design - Kasslinger)

This weather station sits on top of Germany's highest mountain (2,962m, 9700ft) located in the Bavarian Alps on the border of Austria and Germany.  The stamp celebrates a hundred years since a weather tower made of tin and wood was installed, things have moved on since then. Don't think that this might be an isolated place as half a million people visit the top of the mountain each year by either cogwheel train, cable car or on foot.  Not only that but there is a restaurant and shop there too. A new cable car line was completed in 2018 and also the new Panorama Restaurant.

2009: Welfare Stanos - Celestial Phenomena (Design - Dieter Ziegenfeuter)

Perhaps a beautiful sunset will be seen.

 Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Science Related - See It On A Postcard

Swan of Finland

Suomen Joutsen by Santeri Salokivi (1928)

In bright blue light the sailing boat Swan of Finland looks like a ship from mythology. Its representation is typical of the artist Santeri Salokivi (1886-1940) paintings which are infused with a dazzling light.  He always spent summer with his family in the Finnish archipelago on the islands of Åland and Pellinge (also a favourite place of Tove Jannson), He thought the light and shadows of his home country were at their best at that time of year.  Salokivi was born in Torku which is also the place where the Suomen Joutsen (Swan of Finland)

Aura River, Turku with the sailing ship Suomen Joutsen

spends its sailing retirement as a museum ship. Built in 1902 in Saint Nazaire it sailed with cereals, coal and nitrates, eventually being sold to Finland as a fleet training vessel and in 1991 handed to the city of Turku.

Year of the Rat

2008: Year of the Rat (Design - Harvey Chan)

The artist Harvey Chan chose as his inspiration for the Year of the Rat a Chinese story about 'The Mouse Bride'. The Canadian domestic rate stamp shows her beautifully attired complete with parasol and little bag. (The rat loves opulence) The hidden date of the stamp can be found on the parasol pole, better seen here.  The stamp came to me with part of the stamp sheet selvedge which shows the animals of the Chinese zodiac, the two stamp Canadian miniature sheet featured both bride and groom with the animals bringing their gifts to the wedding surrounding them.

My only other Year of the Rat stamp is one from China but happily as I have the stamp booklet get more than one rat - one on the cover

1984: Year of the Rat (Design - Li Yinqing from a painting by Zhan Tong; Engraver - Hu Zhenyuan)

and three inside. I must say those fingers are more elegant than mine when I tried to recreate the sign.  2020 is the year of the metal rat and it brings a year of new beginnings and renewal, a good time to start a new project or direction in life but only if it is well planned.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week - Chinese New Year Animals - start the Lunar Year with See It On A Postcard

Country Roads

2016: Maximum Card 109 "Red barn"

Time to take a walk in the countryside

2016: Finnish Barns (Design - Satu Lusa)

 and there will be barns of all shapes and sizes.

1990: Centenary Rural Postal Service and Rural Address Reform (Design - P Huovinen)

Perhaps postie will pass by on his delivery round.  The stamp shows a rural postman on a country lane with the village of Larsmo and its church in the background.  The address and number sign are written according to the reformed system.

1990: Europa - Post Office Buildings (Design - Bardur Jakupsson)

Lets call into a post office, in particular the old post office at Gjógv in the Faroe Islands, which is a private home but opens as a post office 5 days a week for 30 minuets each morning and afternoon. You will be able to spot the road on this stamp however it is always pleasant to walk by water.

1996: Landscapes (Design - Heinz Schillinger)

The stamp on the left features the Saale River where one might also prefer to cycle beside it on part of the path from Bavaria to Saxony (400k/250 miles). The website eulogies it as passing through 'beautiful nature, majestic castles and enchanted forests'. In fact this German series of stamps could almost be called - 'are you wondering where to go on holiday'!  The stamp on the right is Spreewald Canal which is actually 200 small canals, part of a traditional irrigation system which has a UNESCO designation of a biosphere reserve.  

The Eifel National Park is described as a place of woods, water and wilderness. There are 240k of signposted paths and it is part of a much larger cross-border park with Belgium called the High Fens-Eifel National Park.  There is a serpent in this paradise because several parts of the park will not be open to the public for a long time because of mine fields from the second world war but perhaps because of that nature will remain undisturbed.

2016: Maximum Card 111 - "Barns at Twilight"

Our walk is over and the sun is setting, time to return home

with a glance back at the Finnish Barns which you can see from the postmark in Finnish are Ladot.

Old Barn, Suffolk, England

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Rural or Countryside - more bucolic views on See It On A Postcard