Old and New Cities

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is visiting the cities of Asia

AI tells me this is Qiwang Hall in Jingshan Park a scenic area near the Forbidden city. It sits at the bottom of Jingshan Hill (also called Longevity Hill), the highest part of Beijing and from where one can have extensive views of the Forbidden City. Sent, as can be seen, on the 7th December 1908 to Belgium (via Siberia) arriving on the 26th December in Brussels with its Happy Christmas message.

I've used this view of Singapore before when we doing aerial views but needs must, I couldn't find anything else.

Light Dazzles

See It On A Postcard's  Thursday Postcard Hunt looking for light, or bright, colours

Venice, the Bridge of Sighs - exhibited 1840

JMW Turner working his magic with water, sky and light in a dreamlike view of Venice. A place he visited three times.

Pottery by Patrick Caulfield 1969

The paintings of  Patrick Caulfield (1936-2005) from the 1960s are characterised by flat areas of colour with objects defined by outlines. 'Pottery' is probably his most famous painting from that decade. His style would change permanently in the 1970s with highly complex paintings that play with definitions of reality and artifice.  From static colourful pots

"Fashionable Irish Sheep"

to sheep bringing a splash of colour to an island that has 40 shades of green.

Zambian Birds

 

1968: Decimal Currency definitive

The Grey Crowned Crane, the 'grey' refers to its body plumage but as can be seen, its crown is a wonderful golden yellow. It is the national bird of Uganda and appears on their flag.

1975: Helmeted Guinea-fowl 

I used to walk past a smallholding that had a few of these round spotted birds. Delightful.

African Fish Eagle, the national bird of Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Sudan. Their call is sometimes called the sound of Africa.

Lady Ross's Turaco whose tails are used for balance, useful for foraging for fruit in trees. Their outer toes can rotate backwards and forwards another useful attribute.

2007: Animals of Zambia

And for something completely different, a bat eared fox. Their ears have a role in regulating temperature by dissipating heat. As it mainly eats insects the ears and their exceptional hearing are very useful when burrowing underground for termites and beetles. Their ears can reach 5 inches (13cm) and are able to rotate independently.

Sunday Stamps A-Z  for Zambia - See It On A Postcard 

Window Light

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Lights in Windows

Christmas Day - "Waiting" by Heikki Laaksonen

He will have finished waiting by now

Duke Street After Rain by John Duffin

Warm lights, cold rain. Duffin has made the town hall clock a mini moon. I think you would want me to point out the postbox on the near left.

2016: Agatha Christie (Illustrator - Neil Webb)

There are hidden clues in this illustration of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. The red figure fleeing the scene is a red herring. If  heat is applied to the black curtain of the second window the murderer appears. If only it was that easy for Hercule Poirot.  The suspects are written along the bottom of the stamp in micro text. The steam from the engine forms Poirot's profile.

Train windows make quite a few appearances in fiction whether spotting something from a window or seeing something in a window on a passing train, as imagined here by Neil Webb. Since Murder on the Orient Express was first published in 1933 there have been 3 film versions of the story. Screen Rant reprises and asks the question - which actor was the best Poirot? 

Yemen Yellow

 

1970: World Cup, Mexico

The yellow stripe of the Belgium flag shows up on this stamp and a photo of Paul Van Himst, one of the greats of Belgium football, who played in the Mexico world cup

1990: World Cup, Italy

The Belgium flag also makes an appearance and features a match from the very first world cup in Uruguay 1930. All the games were played in Montevideo, 16 teams were planned to attend but only13 competed due to withdrawals.

1969: History of Outer Space Exploration

Now one might see the moon dust as grey but Yemen has decided yellow is a cheerier colour and gives us a sunny day on the moon.

Sunday Stamps A-Z  and Y here is for - Yellow and Yemen - See It On A Postcard

  

Winter Light

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Looking for light in Snowy Scenes

Light in the forest

Lighting up the night

"Manor Class No 7812 'Erlestoke Manor' departs on a very wintery morning"

A Santa Special train steams away in morning light on the Severn Valley Railway. The trains are asleep during January but will make an entrance after sunset in February with the Boogie Lights Express , a moving sound and light show.

X

 

1977: Birds

This woodpecker is so unique it decided that it would rather appear at X than W. It is the only species within the genus Xiphidiopicus.  The bird's full Latin name is Xiphidiopicus percussus or Cuban Green Woodpecker. The most widespread and common woodpecker in Cuba, endemic to the island.

1990: 25th Anniversary of the Oceanological  Institute

Cuba is fond of Roman Numerals on their stamps

1930: King Christian X -  60th Birthday

and monarchs like them too.

1970: Bulgarian History

Another king. Cyrillic has an X but with a sound as the ch in the Scottish loch. On the stamp Khan Asparerch and the 'Old Bulgars' are crossing the Danube. An x appears at at the beginning of his title XAH  (Khan) and the end of his name.

2012: United Kingdom  A-Z Part 2

The stand alone X of Station X, Bletchley Park home of the code-breakers who among other things broke the Nazi Enigma code, the result of which it is said cut the length of World War II by an estimated 2 years.

Sunday Stamps A-Z this week has reached X - See It On A Postcard