Water and Air

 An entry to See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Sculptures or Statues

Cormorant sculptures on Morecambe Promenade near the Stone Jetty. The real ones can make an appearance too but do not join their inanimate simulacra. The sculptures were part of the TERN Project which installed seabirds on sea-railings and roundabout representing the rich bird life of the Morecambe Bay.

On a much larger scale (9 meters) in Songkhla, Thailand is the head of the Naga, a mythical sea serpent whose three part triptych of head, middle, and tail are split across the city. The stream of water from the Naga's mouth spills out into the estuary of Songkhla Lake. The city's container port can be seen in the background.

Island Birds

 

1975: Jersey Island Birds (Designer - Jennifer Toombs)

Riding the waves of Jersey - the graceful Tern; a Storm Petrel just clear of the water 'pattering' with lowered feet; Brent Geese who winter on Jersey's milder coast ; Shag, perched on a rock with wings outstretched to dry after prolonged diving for fish.

1970: Birds Definites 

The ½c stamp identifies a House Wren but time has passed and it is now reclassified as a subspecies and recognised as the St Vincent Wren (Troglodytes musicus) endemic to the island.  4c The forest dwelling Rufous-throated Solitaire which I believe has a haunting melodic song and is "the dominant forest sound at dusk".

5c Scaly-naped Pigeon, widespread throughout the Caribbean 10c Mangrove Cuckoo, one can tell by the name where to find this bird $2.50  a flycatcher, the Yellow Bellied Elaenia.  South of St Vincent

1976: Flora and Fauna (Designer - Gordon Drummond)

is the southernmost of the Windward Islands - Grenada. Here we find the Bananaquit, named for its bright yellow underside and yes they also like eating ripe bananas. A 'quit' is a West Indian word used to describe tiny chirping birds.

1978: Birds of Grenada (Deign - Gordon Drummond)

I started with sea birds so I'll finish with one. The stamp identifies this as a Black Headed Gull, a bird of the Palearctic region. The knowledgeable  Birds on Stamps site identifies it as a Laughing Gull, which is indeed very similar, especially in summer plumage. The Laughing Gull is a subspecies and permanent resident of the West Indies and Caribbean islands.

An entry to Sunday Stamps theme of - Birds - See It On A Postcard

 

Echoes of History

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - in search of UNECO sites

The Grand Palace of Knossos was built around 1900 BC, rebuilt after an earthquake in about 1700 BC and finally destroyed around 1375-1400 BC.  It was the cultural and political centre of the Minoan civilization on Crete. The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list of 'Minoan Palatial Centres' in 2005.

The card shows the watch room or guardhouse of the Palace, an entry area to the west wing complex. 

Roman Wall at Housesteads Mile Castle. (Northumberland)

 Hadrian's Wall stretches across the narrowest part of northern Britain, spanning 73 modern miles (80 Roman miles). Built on the orders of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD122 as the northernmost limit of the Roman Empire and to control border crossings. The guard posts or mile castles were about 55 square feet and garrisoned by 50 men. They were built at mile intervals, with larger forts for 1000 infantrymen occurring at intervals of 3 to 7 miles.

Inscribed by UNESCO in 1987 as a standalone site and then extended in 2005 and 2008 into the transnational 'Frontiers of the Roman Empire' (which includes the Antonine Wall in Scotland and the German Limes (Limes Germanicus) fortifications.

Invention

 

2007: Swedish Innovations (Illustrations - Sara Lund)

Two very useful inventions probably in your tool box. The always useful adjustable spanner,  A wall plug, usually referred to as a rawlplug in the UK, a brand name that became a generic term. The Swedes call them a Thorsmanpluggen, invented in Sweden in 1964 by Oswald Thorsman together with their colour coding, red being a medium size general purpose plug.

2007: World of Invention (Illustrations - Peter Till)

Bridge Building in Thomas Telford's imagination.                        Railway locomotion

Communications.                 Television

 E Mail, Internet and the World Wide Web.            Still to come - Space Tourism to the moon 

Sunday Stamps theme - Celebrating Inventions - See It On A Postcard 

Moveable Bridges

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is watching moveable bridges

opening up in Saint Petersburg 

Closed down in Oudewater.The town has both a rope and a witch weighing house museum. Witches were supposed to be very light to be able to fly, they wouldn't have needed to use bridges unless they were travelling incognito.

One of my snaps showing a Dutch bridge open, the traffic lights are at green.

 

Island History

 

1981: Discovery of Madeira

Portuguese explorers were blown off course while sailing along the West African coast, after many days adrift they found a small island harbour which they named Porto Santo. Much later the sailors noticed a heavy dark bank of clouds to the south west of this small isle and sailed towards it in 1419 and found a densely forested island they named Madeira (meaning 'wood' in Portuguese).

1993: The Red Cross and Scout Movement

70 years of the Red Cross in 1992. The stamp shows the Greenland flag, a rising sun. Also 50 Years of the Scout Movement in 1993 with two scouts gazing out of their tent. Musk Ox also make an appearance on this sheet, perfectly clothed for the Greenlandic climate, they are known there as Umimmak - the long-bearded one.

1986: Bicentenary of Reykjavik

The first official seal of Reykjavik, introduced in 1815, featured a fisherman, a boat and a flatfish. It was replaced in 1957 by the current logo, a blue shield design

Sunday Stamp theme - Historical Events - See It On A Postcard 

Railway Bridges

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is in search of railway bridges

Knaresborough, Yorkshire. Railway Poster by Jack Merriot (1954)

A train crosses Knaresborough Viaduct over the River Nidd. The artist, Jack Merriot (1901-68) created both railway and GPO posters, today highly collectable (ie expensive). Painter, illustrator, writer and teacher, his style was described as being "characterised by a breezy freshness, crisp with well-controlled colour". His posters certainly suggest that one was about to arrive by train to a rarefied idyll. 

Settle-Carlisle Line Postcard No 64

The Duchess of Sutherland hauling a chartered passenger train travelling from Carlisle to York crossing the small Bongate Bridge near Appleby. The railway station at Appleby has a water tower where steam trains have the opportunity to take on water.

As a contrast to countryside scenery here was an opportunity to view the docks of Liverpool  as well as the ocean liners and shipping traffic on the River Mersey. The railway opened in 1893 and closed in 1956 when it was demolished.