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