Christmas

 

2011: Christmas

It is nearly time for Christmas and everything seems ready in Switzerland

2013: Christmas in the Forest

but I think our forest friends have simpler fun and the bear family are just going to snooze through it all

2013: Christmas Night

The reindeer will be busy

2013: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

especially Rudolph with his ♪nose so bright♪ leading Santa's sleigh.

2009: Christmas - Angel by William Morris

Have a Blessed Christmas

Sunday Stamps is looking forward to -  Christmas - See It On A Postcard

Putting on the Style

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is Keeping Warm this winter -

It is forecast for the temperature to dip this weekend, A card from the last century when the winters were colder and furs were the warm clothing of choice, with and without heads . The card sends "A Kindly Wish. - Fortune favour you that so you may /Have all that gladdens life this Christmas Day" Postcard sent on 24 December 1920

The aunties are keeping warm inside.

Glowing Red

 

1998: Birds

Its that time of the year, enter the robin

1965: Songbirds

or maybe a bullfinch

and a rock thrush.  I wonder where they live?

2011: The Happiness Tree

In a Happiness Tree of course.

1973: Copernicus

For more happiness look to the skies and December's colourful Geminid shooting stars.

Sunday Stamps theme this week - Red - See It On A Postcard

Animals in Snow

 See It on a Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt featuring Animals in Snow

 Battling the storm - "Rescuing a calf, Pitchfork Rance Wyoming, 1936". Lucky day for the calf, it gets a ride home.

Grey Wolves have a whole pack to look after each other.

Some Christmas elves from Inge Löök and a friendly fox.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glass

 

1987: Sir Isak Newton

A flask of water refracting light

1993: Christmas

St Aubin on the Hill church whose light shines through the stained glass windows.

These musical angels were created by Henry Bosdet. There are three of his windows in the church.

Sunday Stamps theme -glass - See It On A Postcard

Let It Snow

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is looking out for snow

Japanese artists are fond of snowy scenes and here the card shows a detail of a  Utagawa Kunisada woodcut showing 'Kabuki actors on a bridge in winter' (1854).

Makrinitsa,Thessaly,Greece

The village of Makrinitsa is built on the slopes Mount Pelion above the port city of Velos so there will be great views of Volos and the Pagasetic Gulf from here.  As can be imagined the area is a popular skiing destination. A beautiful area of Greece in both winter and summer

so which would you choose?

City Scenes

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is taking a look at multi-views

After the city's millennium the slogan "Wroclaw - The Meeting Place" started to be used in all sorts of promotional material, and of course postcards.  I think the invention of the slogan must derive from the reason the city was founded here by the Oder River, it was the meeting point of two trade routes.

The card shows Top - The City Hall, The Centennial Hall and the tenements Hansel and Gretel the bottom photos The Market Square, the Raclawice Panorama which houses the cycloramic painting of the Battle of Raclawice and for some relaxing downtime The Japanese Garden

The oldest town in Finland and once its capital - Turku. Located on the south west corner of Finland by the Aura River which makes its way through Turku and out into the Baltic Sea.

As a contrast a small place in the northern England formed on farming and making woolen garments.  Today it is popular for walkers of the Howgill Fells and book lovers (it is England's official Book Town).

The car shows Weavers Yard, Main Street, and the 12th century Parish Church of St Andrews

Small Animals

 

1998: Endangered Species

It has  turned cold so little dormice will be curled up and fast asleep. Due to an active reintroduction scheme locally there are many more snoozing in the woods.

2014: Amphibians

A tiny yellow bellied toad, it displays its yellowness when under threat.  If that fails then the toxins it can expel are a useful addition to its defence.

2011: Europa - Amazon Alive

The Poison Dart frog also has colourful warning signals. The species range in size from 1.5cm (0.59inch) to 6cm (2.4inch). Not as small as the tiniest frog ever discovered found in Brazil this year which could sit on a stamp or as this article says it is smaller than a pencil eraser.

2013: Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Innerrhoden

Lets go up a size, small animals high mountains. A stamp marking the 500th anniversary of the Appenzell region's membership of the Swiss Federation.  It is a largely pastoral area so one of the big occasions of the year is in autumn when the farmers return their herds of cows, sheep and goats from the high altitude pastures.

Sunday Stamps theme - small animals - See It On A Postcard

Docks

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for - harbour and port views...

Sailing ship being towed by Edwin Beattie (1845-1917)

Preston Docks, painted in 1894 with a tug boat towing a three masted sailing ship into port. Preston Docks were located on the banks of the River Ribble 15 miles from the Irish Sea. It closed in 1981 and the whole area was redeveloped so little remains. Today there is a marina here and the heritage Ribble Steam Railway still uses the dockside tracks.

The port of Brest is very much still in business however in 1941 the Germans based their formidable fleet of ships and submarines here so it was almost entirely destroyed when liberated in  1944. Only photos remain of the past.  The Richelieu battleship shown was commissioned just days before the Germans won the Battle of France, it fled to French West Africa and would eventually be part of the force that liberated Singapore. You might think the yacht or schooner Notre-Dame d'Etel was from simpler times but despite being built in 1913 she ended up being a patrol boat for the Free French Naval Forces.

South Bay, Scarborough, North Yorkshire

Time to head to the peaceful harbour of the seaside town of Scarborough for a summer walk along the harbour walls or a laze on the beach.  It is a beautifully sunny day today but one would need to wrap up warm for these two activities especially on the North Sea coast.

Postal Heads

 

1990: 150th Anniversary of the Penny Black Stamp

Roland Hill's idea of a uniform postage rate no matter what the distance introduced the penny stamp and opened the world of written communication to everyone

1974: 100 Years of the UPU

The story continued with the founding of the Universal Postal Union in Bern. Eugene Borel (who was head of the Swiss postal department) chaired a congress of 22 countries. As thanks he was gifted a silver tea set by the conference participants. The silver platter was engraved with the ideals of the new organisation. (The tea tray and other UPU history here). Borel visited

1997: Founder of the UPU - Heinrich Von Stephan

the well regarded German postal official Heinrich Von Stephan (general postal director for the German Empire) in Berlin ahead of the congress.  Stephan  is now considered the father of the UPU but had begun his illustrious career as a postal clerk in the Kingdom of Prussia, what a journey. He also introduced the postcard to Germany and the telephone.

1988: 300th Anniversary of the Postal Service

Here is a happy postal scene. The UPU turned 150 this years, Finland became a member in 1918 soon after they became an independent country in 1917.  

Sunday Stamps theme is - Headshots - See It On A Postcard

Streets

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is walking down urban streets

Charing Cross, Glasgow

and a pleasant day for a walk to the post office on the corner.

Eastgate, Lincolnshire

Early morning in Louth, Lincolnshire.  I had a look online and nothing much has changed here, the Pack Horse Hotel and bar is still there although not the Coffee Tavern but there is no doubt there will be a coffee shop on the street somewhere. Somehow the word 'tavern' does sound more fun.  The lower shop fronts and signage of course are now boringly modern and cars park on the left, yellow lines and no parking on the right.  The church spire is St James and the tallest medieval church spire in the country.

York Street, Albany, Western Australia

A clear blue sky in Australia, just like where I am today, except of course with summer rather than winter temperatures.  The card says - "York Street is Albany's main commercial area and overlooks the beautiful Princess Royal Harbour".  Pity we can't see it. I could have used it for next week's theme.

Rememberance Sunday

 

2008: The 90 Years of Remembrance - Lest We Forget

The mini sheet shows the wreaths on the Cenotaph in London which, the national point of remembrance. The stamp shows the Isle of Man's National War Memorial in the village of St John's whose wreath laying ceremony is this afternoon followed by a service of remembrance at the Royal Chapel.

2015: Stories from the Great War (Design - Charlotte Barnes)

The confident "Home by Christmas" was said of the troops at the outbreak of World War One in 1914.  Philip Carré the postman on the island of Sark joined the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry and would return in 1919 when the regiment was demobilized. He would send more than one Christmas card.

The bottom stamp shows the postmen from the Bailiwick of Guernsey who joined the Post Office Rifles, originally a volunteer territorial unit.  That changed at the outbreak of the World War in 1914 when they were called up to serve abroad.  Lawrence Burridge was killed in May 1916, age 23 and Albert Smith died from gunshot wounds in December 1917, age 25. The other three, Privates JG Fowler, AW Smith and HF Taylor's fate is unknown, lets hope they made it home.  I think the reason for the uncertainty is that half the British army's service records were destroyed in 1940 when a German bombing raid struck the War Office in London.

Sunday Stamps theme - Military - See It On A Postcard 

On High

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is heading high for urban aerial views

Rheinau, Switzerland (1996)

On the bend of the Rhine River (which forms the Swiss-German border) is the small municipality of Rheinau most of which is forest (54.8%) or agricultural land (26.8%) but here is its perfectly placed village. Rheinau Abbey can be seen on an island, top right. One of Switzerland's many bright yellow postbuses runs a connection from Rheinau to the Marthalen railway station.

2014: Liechtenstein/Singapore Joint Issue - Modern Art

In contrast here are the bright lights of Singapore.  The stamp features a painting by Yens W Beyricht who creates inter-woven symmetries which he calls Hypersymmetrics. One of his themes is the City State.

Explorers

 

1934: Jacques Cartier - 400th Anniversary of 1st voyage to Canada

Jacques Cartier setting out to eventually arrive and explore the St Lawrence River and in the process name a country Canada.

1963: Martin Frobisher

 Martin Frobisher set out to find the North West Passage to the Orient. Like Cartier he would try to finance his expeditions by finding gold but both would have been wise to take a geologist with them to avoid disappointment when they arrived back with little of value.

1982: Birth Centenary of Sir Douglas Mawson

Jumping forward in time enter a geologist Douglas Mawson but his motivation was adventure and scientific knowledge however the famous 1911 Australian Antarctic expedition turned into a horror show, of which he was the only survivor. His book 'The Home of the Blizzard'  gives a vivid account of this experience.

1983: Explorers and Discoverers

The interior of Australia is unforgiving. The German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt successfully travelled there twice but he and his companions disappeared on his third expedition never to be found. He is remembered for his extensive natural history collection and notes.

Robert O'Hare Burke and William John Wallis became the first Europeans to cross Australia north to south in 1861 however it was not the most professional of expeditions and they died during their return but entered Australian mythology as "heroic failures".

Sunday Stamps theme this week - Mustaches for movember - explore more at See It On A Postcard

Market

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt in search of markets or cafes...

This week is another opportunity to show one of my London Transport Museum cards and this time we are 'Simply' heading for the markets, of which there are many in London.  The artist is Andrew Crocker who is an English landscape painter who also produces allegorical portraits. Another of his works commissioned by London Transport was 'Docklands' which can be seen here but it was never used.

I have always thought this was a postcard of a market but of course on closer inspection, despite the crowds, it is not and actually shopkeepers selling their wares inside as well as outside.  Could I claim this as cafe as it seems we have a couple enjoying the advertised Nettle Drink al fresco while smiling at the photographer.  The place is the coastal village of Heysham which also has a ferry port nearby which likes to call itself  'Gateway to the Irish Sea'.  I would date this postcard to the 1950s and has at least two postcard buying opportunities, a display stand on the left and a 'postcard shop' sign on the right. 

Public Buildigs

 

1970: Football World Championships

The impressive Stockholm City Hall, the tall tower is the one nearest the water (Lake Malaren) and is topped by the three crowns, Sweden's national symbol.

1980: 50th Anniversary of the National Hospital

If unlucky enough to be in hospital this looks to be a very pleasant place to stay. I think the building has been preserved but today there is a new National Hospital that dwarfs this one in size and no doubt equipment.

1988: Centenary of Urania Science Museum

This stamp shows both the old and new buildings of the Urania Science Museum in Berlin.

2000: Opening of Singapore Post Centre - History of the Central Post Office

The only way to end is with some post offices. The official launch in 2000 of the new Singapore Post Centre gave them the opportunity to celebrate their buildings from the

first in the 1800s when Singapore welcomed its first mail steamer but as volumes of post increased a new building was required and the General Post Office was built in 1897.

The GPO moved to the new Fullerton Buildings in 1928, which was also when the first airmail flight was dispatched from Singapore.  The mail sorting operation was eventually moved in 1998 to a new facility and then the shiny new SingPost Centre opened in 2000

Sunday Stamp theme - Public Buildings - visit  See It On A Postcard