The Happy Wanderer

2013: "Moomin Favourites"

Here is Snufkin doing a happy dance. Best friend of Moomintroll he stays in Moomin Valley in the Spring and Summer but in November heads south for warmer weather.  He is a free spirit who never asks the names of places when he travels because he just enjoys the journey.  I've kept the self-adhesive stamp on a piece with its cute Moomin airmail sticker. Another reason to be envious of Finland Posti is they produce stamp booklets with airmail stickers included.  Way to go Posti.

2013: 150 Years of the Swiss Alpine Club

For my large stamp I've chosen what I consider to be a perfect miniature sheet consisting of four stamps which bleed to the edge and are a complete picture. At first I thought the climber to the left (100) was the largest stamp but the group wandering through the Alpine meadow on the bottom (140) just pips it by a few millimetres 77.5 x 28 mm (3" x 1"). The miniature sheet was designed by Fredy Trümpi and he has provided details to the Mountain Stamp website of the mountain's names, the hut has been placed there by his imagination.

With 140,000 members the Swiss Alpine Club is one of the largest Swiss sports club, the motto chosen for its 150th anniversary is "More than a Mountain Sport". Formed 15 years after the birth of the modern Federal Swiss state one of the first things it did was to improve the topographical maps of the Alps to make them more accurate and readable.  They also place panorama maps and observation towers in many areas to inform and intrigue both the citizen, walker or climber.  They also actively try to protect the landscape. The 111 Alpine Club sections manage 152 mountain huts (which make the Alps more accessible) containing 9,200 beds.  In 2012 this counted up to 310,000 overnight stays.   Things have altered a lot from 1863 but not the love of mountains. The black and white 19th Century photographs in the corners of the stamps are from the Swiss Alpine Club museum in Bern.

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of - unusually shaped or oversize stamps.