Architecture

1937: 1st Soviet Architectural Congress - Buildings of New Moscow (Designer - N Bobrov)

I have conflicting information about the stamp on the left it is either the TASS News Agency Building or the GPO. The current TASS building is a boxy 1970s number. The stamp on the right is called the theatre at Maykovsky Square but it isn't the Maykovsky Theatre for that was built in the 19th Century.  I wonder if these two buildings are actually just architectural designs, part of Stalin's Moscow building competitions of the 1930s which resulted in what is called today 'Stalinist Architecture'   Well I'm going with the idea of a GPO so I can move seamlessly on to

1991:Historic Postal Buildings (Design - Karin Blume-Zander; Typography - André Zander)

some rather nice German postal buildings .  On the left is a Post Station and on the right Lauscha Post

Old post office in Bonn, Münsterplatz

and what was the rather grand Bonn Post Office.  Having visited the post office now to some more civic buildings

1975: European Architectural Heritage (Design - Otto Rohse)

and the Town Hall and Market at Alsfeld.  The stamp on the right shows the medieval centre of Xanten but it is also famous for its large Archeological Park built on the site of the ancient Roman Xanten.

1987: Maximum Card No 8 (Photo - Markku Mattila) - Europa - Modern Architecture

The library of Tampere is located in a city park, at its entrance are trees and plants in big pots.  The combination of a library and a park has me in a heartbeat.  A design competition was held in 1978 to build a new library which was won by the architects Raili and Reima Pietila for their proposal 'Wood Grouse's Courting Images".  My first thought was what on earth does that mean.

1987: Europa: Modern Architecture (Design - Pirkko Vahtero)

Helpfully Tampere City Library explains that at first the idea was for "the building to coil like the shell of the snail but more and more the building came to resemble a bird, a capercaillie (wood grouse). Seen from above the building looks like a bird carrying a shield".  The design and its interior furnishing is influenced by Finnish nature

1987: Europa - Modern Architecture (Design - L F Anisdahl)

But what is more in tune with nature than a house made of wood and this stamp celebrates wooden architecture.

The old Birkenhead Post and Sorting Office

Sunday Stamp II theme this week is - architecture - more to See It On A Postcard

Signs of Spring

2006: Seasons (Design - Graf)

Frothy spring blossom is always a delight

2014: British Flora - Spring (Design - Kate Stephens)

but the humble celandine also brings joy and receives the name of  'spring messenger' for the traditional belief that it flowered on 21st February.  Wordsworth may be famous for his 'Daffodils' poem but he wrote three poems about the celandine.  A lover of damp places it will have enjoyed the recent weather although this week we have had a glorious run of sunny days showing spring in perfection.

2005: Signs of Spring (Design -Kerstin Olsson-Gronvik)

Sweden chose as their 'Signs of Spring' flowers - the pretty Lily of the Valley, the Yellow Star of Bethlehem and a Pasque Flower (sometimes called the Anemone of Passiontide).  Lastly is one of my favourites, the Wood Anemone which carpet the ground in ancient woodlands.

1973: Tulip Exports

Spring brings the joy of flowers but also

2017: Song Birds (Artist - Frederico Gemma; Design - Osborn Ross)

of bird song and I enjoyed my first skylark song of the season last week. My favourite time is the nesting season when they shoot up in the air and sing to distract but in fact enchant.  As a bonus I include the Goldcrest for the rather nice postmark.  Their notes are so high that sometimes older birders loose the ability to hear it but maybe they will be alerted to it by those in the spring of their lives.

Hedgerow Daffodils

Sunday Stamps II theme this week - Signs of Spring - enjoy more at See It On A Postcard 

 

Celebration

2007: Greeting Stamps (Designer - Victoria Leonard)

The stars combine and this stamp is celebrating success.  The others in the set (which I don't have) were passions and wishes all painted by Victoria Leonard.

2014: We Will Celebrate That (Design - Veronica Ballart Lilja)

I present another painter Veronica Ballart Lilja. This was the first time she designed images for stamps, but not her last.  The motifs relate to celebrations and different ways of sending a greeting

such as a message in a bottle.

Veronica said she was going to send a postcard with her stamps to her grandfather.

1981: Europa (Design - Regina Marxer)

Lets celebrate with some fireworks, this is the other stamp of the set I showed on Sunday Stamps last week and is Liechtenstein National Day 'Fireworks at Vaduz Castle'

2012: Memories of London 2012 (Design - The Chase, Manchester)

More fireworks but this time celebrating the joy of sport and the coming together of all nations at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

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

Flowers

2001: Cactus of Peru

These could be two little eyes popping up from the cactus and having a look around. The genus Cleistocactus live in the mountains so there will be fine Peruvian views.

1963: Flowers (Design - Pierrette Lambert)

Hibiscus always make me think of holidays in the sun. The artist is the prolific Pierette Lambert, a designer of over 1,300 stamps and many bank notes. Appropriately for this week's theme her first stamp designs for Saint Pierre et Miquelon in 1962 were also of flowers

1961: May Day (Design: Adam Cziegleny; Engraver; Melynyomat)

A red rose for May Day in Hungary.

1981: Europa - Folklaw (Designer - Regina Marxer)

Liechtenstein's national flower is the yellow lily but as their National Day is August 15th sunflowers take centre stage on this stamp design.  I believe there may be a flower pageant as part of the day.   For one of the smallest countries in the world and a population of 37,000 the day will also be filled with beer and wine, free buses, a large fair in Vaduz and fireworks at the castle which is the subject of the other stamp of this set.

The stamp artist, Regina Marxer, was in 1981 one of the instigators of the votes for women campaign - 'Action Sleeping Beauty'.  A male only referendum on the question of women's suffrage took place in 1984 and by a narrow margin women were given the vote.  Liechtenstein was the last European country to introduce female suffrage in national elections.  Being stunned by that date I can only say well "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom"  Happy National Women's Day.

Port Sunlight village, Merseyside in Summer.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - flowers - more are blooming on See It On A Postcard


  

Lion and Lambs

1989: Animals

Well March has certainly entered like a lion with Storm Jorge and snow on the hills so I am hoping it lives up the idiom and leaves like a lamb

2013: Mischievous Animal Babies (Design: Gustaf  Öhrnell; Engraver: Piotr Naszarkowski)

and we see mischievous little lambs in sunshine.

2005: Farmyard Animals (Design - Samuel Sakaria)

Meanwhile in New Zealand lambing time is months in the future.  This stamp was issued as part of the Year of the Rooster set with a farmyard theme which can be seen here.

Oh a little lamb has wandered out of the field and on to a FDC.

2006: 100th Anniversary of Sheepbreeding (Design: Naja Abelsen)

Famously the Vikings took sheep to Greenland in 985 but both people and livestock vanished from history 500 years later and no-one knows why.  It wasn't until 1906 when 12 sheep were brought in from the Faroe Islands by the Reverend Jens Chemnitz and some years later sheep were imported from Iceland.  The flocks today are their descendants.  Sheep in Greenland have to be kept indoors during winter and today they number about 20,000, there is enough pasture land for more but that is required for producing winter fodder and why the postmark features harvest time.  This inspired idea is from the artist Naja Abelsen whose Greenland stamps can be seen here
   

Feeding the Lambs at Old Hall Farm in April 2019

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Lions or Lambs - See It On A Postcard