Wooden

2019: SEPAC - Old Residential Houses (Photograph - Ólavur Frederiksen)

The turf roofed house in Kirkjubøur dates to the 11th Century and is one of the oldest still inhabited wooden houses in the world.  A home to bishops in the middle ages until the reformation and since then 17 generations of the Paturssons have lived here.  The medieval parts of the building are open to the public.  The church on the postcard is St Olav, the oldest church in the Faroes dating to 1111.  This southernmost village on Stremoy was once the ecclesiastical and cultural centre of the Faroes.  Legend has it that the wood for the farmhouse came as driftwood from Norway (there are no forests in the Faroes).  Norway has lots of wooden building

1987: Centenary of the Sadvig Collection (Designer and Engraver - S Morken)

including those at Mainhaugen near Lillehammer home to the Sadvig open air museum.  There are 200 building from different eras including traditional 18th and 19th Century wooden buildings and a Stave church.  The collection was started by Anders Sadvig and the stamp shows a horse and rider cut into wood by Kristen Erland Listad (1726-1802) a carver known for his wooden figures, the toy horse is in the Maihaugen Museum

1966: Greek Folk Art

For something both practical and  beautiful these wooden knitting needle boxes would take some beating

1984: World Heritage

and  for pure decoration who could resist a spotted leopard from the coast of Guinea.

Detail of Carved Chinese Wooden Chest, Lever Art Gallery

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Things Made from Wood - carve out a path to See It On A Postcard
  

Food

1985: Centenary Swiss Master Bakers and Confectioners Federation (Design - Andre Bovey)

One of my food loves is bread, a crusty loaf is my idea of eating heaven. I have never been to Switzerland but on the bread front it looks as though I have missed a treat and could spend my time eating bread and walking off the calories in the mountains.

2010: Tasteful (coil stamps)  - (Designer and Engraver - Marin Mörck)

A nice big chunk of cheese might be something else to put in my rucksack.  This however is not just any cheese but one the Swedes call the 'Emperor of Cheese', Vasterbottenost.  On the stamp it is accompanied by a rye crispbread (Knäckebröd).  Before the era of airtight containers the hole in the middle  of the crispbread was so they could be hung over the oven to keep dry (and crisp)

For sweet goodness then of course it has to be a waffle with that most Scandinavian of fruits, the cloudberry.   Yes I am drooling now.

2010: Tasteful (booklet stamps) (Design - Stina Wirsén)

The rest of this flavourful set features a candy stick most often seen here in seaside towns, although in Sweden this version is Polkagris and is peppermint flavoured. Its inventor Lena Lervik even has her own statue in Granna, Sweden.  Yes you knew it wouldn't be long before a fish appeared on a Swedish stamp about food and it is cured Salmon (Gravad lax /Gravlax).  The stamp below is fermented tinned herring (Surströmming), of which a Japanese study found that a newly opened can has one of the most putrid food smells in the world.  Swedes usually consume it after the third Thursday in August called Surströmming Day which because of the strong smell is held outdoors.   What a relief now I finish with something I would eat, an enormous cake, Spettekaka which I think is meringue like and cooked on a spit.  These cakes can be several feet high and a hacksaw blade is carefully used to saw into serving pieces for if a knife is used it will crumble and shatter so you can see the artist, Stina Wirsen, is having a bit of fun showing a man about to cut it with a knife.

2010: 'Tasteful' Stamp Booklet Cover

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Food - grubs up at See It On A Postcard
  


 

Flowers in Bloom

1963: Flora and Philately Exhibition (Design - Otto Rhose)

Two flower stamps that give the impression of the texture of embroidery.   On the left Columbine (Aquilegia) sometimes called Granny's Bonnet and on the right a Lady's Slipper Orchid, so combined, apart from the dress, almost a full outfit.  Both flower in May and June so it will be warm enough to frolic without the dress.  In another coincidence the Romans associated aquilegia with Venus and the Lady's Slipper is named in Latin after Aphrodite. Both ladies who liked a frolic.   The stamps were issued for the Flora and Philately Exhibition held as part of the International Garden Show in Hamburg in 1963. Just the place to pick up

1982: Airmail - Nicaraguan Paintings

a bunch of flowers.  The Vase of Flowers is a painting by Rodrigo Penalba (1908-1979)

2015: Magnolia (Design - Helene Schmitz)

My scanner does not usually pick up the security markings on Swedish stamps but now discover it does with pastel shades.  I always consider the magnolia tree exotic with its waxy flowers. I never cease to be amazed that it grows and thrives here but then this ancient flora has had millions of years of experience and evolved before bees,

 being pollinated by beetles

as the Pollinator blog explains.  From the subtle colours of magnolia to the pizazz of

2011: Water Lilies (Design - Inga-Karin Eriksson)

colour on this set and the start of summer in June.  I'm guessing the dragonfly is a Baltic Hawker with its love of shallow lakes in Sweden and the perfect perch would be a water lily leaf,  The yellow water lily has smaller and more oval leaves than the white.

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

Child

December 1946: Winter Relief

As the cheery buntings are out here for 75th Anniversary VE Day here is post war Europe.  I could not find anything out about winter relief but the stamps show a destitute mother and child and a child begging for food. I seem to have only the grim stamps of this set for others show happy children receiving parcels.  They would need aid for the winter of 1946/7 was brutally cold with food shortages. From these grey times things got better, for all things pass

1965: International Children's Day

and here we are planting trees and going to the beach because

1996: Child Welfare Week (Design - Takashi Yanase)

the sun is out.

2014: Save the Children (Design - Jakob Monefeldt)

Charity is still required and this stamp supports Save the Children (Red Barnet).  The crisscrossing words in different colours tell a child's story for Jakob Monefeldt always likes to tell a story through his stamps.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Mothers/Children - See It On A Postcard  

Water

2013: Greeting Stamp (Design - Jenny Burman)

Looking out to the horizon and 'the offing' the distant sea which can be seen from shore and which we dream to be off towards.  Time to

2013: Measure Time and Space (Design - Kristian Möller; Engraver Lars Sjööblom)

set the compass and set sail for the

2010: Shanghai Expo - Souvenir Flora and Fauna Issue

South Pacific and the Cook Islands.  In my mind I can hear the soft lap of waves and a gentle breeze.  The Shanghai Expo's theme was 'Better City - Better Life' however the small island nations in the Pacific Pavilion took a more sustainable approach and the theme ' Pacific Ocean - Spring of Inspiration' showcasing the beauty of the Pacific countries, their unique culture and sustainable lifestyle.  Yes I would like to linger here and whale watch but for

1982: Landscapes and Animals

novelty perhaps visit an inland sea in Mongolia. Uvs Lake is the largest in Mongolia and the remnant of what was a huge saline sea thousands of years ago.

Poolbeg Lighthouse

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Water - paddle over to See It On A Postcard