All White

 

The Secret of Life (50th Anniversary of Discovery of DNA)

Completing the genome jigsaw

1995: Europa - Peace and Freedom

Peace Dove and the Phoenician princess Europa with Zeus disguised as a bull.

2006: Animal Tales (Favourite Children's Book Animals)

The White Rabbit, follow him and find Wonderland.

1996: Children's Drawing Contest

A postal pigeon. The year 2000 cancel celebrates both Basel Stamp Day and 150 years of the Federal Trademark Office.

China '99 World Philatelic Exhibition and UPU Anniversary

Two stamps were issued for the UPU Anniversary and in addition this special issue with logos for China '99

\Sunday Stamps theme - The Colour White - See It On A Postcard

Song Birds

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt  is looking for Song Birds

 

A warm sunny day and to see skylarks soaring to sing is bliss indeed. Valentine's published a popular series of postcards featuring Winifred Austen's bird paintings. This card was sent to a Mrs Roxby Hall languishing in  Leeds Infirmary hospital in the 1950s wishing her a speedy recovery and to soon rise from her bed and be singing like the skylark. Austin (1876-1964) was an illustrator, painter, etcher and aquatint engraver known for her detailed depictions of small mammals and birds portrayed in their day to day life. 

Bringing happiness, a birds chorus.

Spring Flowers

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Spring flowers

Sigriswil, Thunersee mit Niesen, Switzerland

The coming of spring in the Bernese Alps,  snowy flowers and peaks; a view of Lake Thun and Niesen, a draw for the artist and photographer. The mountain (7,749 ft; 2362m) may be dwarfed by the Eiger and Jungfrau but they don't have a funicular that can take one to the top and the longest staircase in the world, all 11,674 steps of it.

Furness Abbey, Cumbria

At sea level the daffodils are in bloom in the ruins of a 12th Century Cistercian  Abbey in the Valley of the Deadly Nightshade, once a remote place now on the outskirts of my town.

Hold April by Jesse Stuart

Hold on to April; never let her pass!/Another year before she comes again/To bring us wind as clean as polished glass/And apple blossoms in soft, silver rain./Hold April when there's music in the air,/When life is resurrected like a dream,/When wild birds sing up flights of windy stair/And bees love alder blossoms by the steam./Hold April's face close yours and look afar,/Hold April in your arms in dear romance;/While holding her look to the sun and star/And with her in her faerie dreamland dance./ Do not let April go but hold her tight,/ Month of external beauty and delight.

Military Siege

 

1993: 350th Anniversary of the Siege of Castle Cornet (Design - Clive Abbott)

Scenes from the English Civil War. Castle Cornet was a Royalist stronghold however the population of Guernsey were for the Parliamentarians, they called on the Lieutenant Governor to surrender but he fired on them.  The population were not equipped to storm the castle as they discovered after one abortive attempt. The defensive batteries around St Peters Port originally built to protect Guernsey from the French directed their fire at Castle Cornet.  The guns on the castle fired back. Today archaeological excavations regularly find musket and canon balls fired from the castle.  Cornet was supplied by ships throughout the Civil War which were sent by the Lieutenant General of Jersey.  I liked the story portrayed on the 28p stamp of the three local officials who were tricked aboard one of the enemy ships thinking it was one of their own but the captain had switched sides. Imprisoned for 43 days they managed to escape by making a hole in the wooden floor to the room below where they found a supply of flax which they made into ropes and escaped.

The FDC shows the three shields of Castle Cornet's commanders, Osborn was disliked by both the population and his own side however on surrender Burgess, the last Governor, and his men, were allowed to march out bearing arms and leave the island at the end of the siege in recognition of their humane treatment of prisoners. Here is the story from the FDC insert...

taking us to the present day...

 Sunday Stamps theme - Military - See It On A Postcard

Famous Women

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt in search of famous women..

Bridget Riley, part of the zeitgeist of the 1960s, born in 1931 and still painting. Her mesmerising optical illusions in black and white were part of the Op Art movement. She became the first female winner of the International paintings prize at the 1968 Venice Biennale. 

Her long fascination with Seurat's 'Bathers at  Asnieres' and a visit to Egypt in 1979 where she experienced its light and contrast  of colours  together with the use of colour in Egyptian hieroglyphs inspired her to use colour in her paintings which she found less predictable than black and white.

The photo is one of series taken by Ida Kar in 1963, who was known for her many black and white portraits of artists and writers.

Maggie Gripenberg (1881-1976) well wrapped up  the against the coastal breeze and although seen here painting she was a dancer, choreographer and teacher. A pioneer of modern dance she also introduced eurhythmics to Finland.

Lighthouses

 

1996: Lighthouses (Artist - David Swinton)

Point of Ayre, on the west coast, the oldest operational lighthouse on the Isle of Man, designed and built by Robert Stevenson the grandfather of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson.

(36) Calf of Man Lighthouse, an island south of the Isle of Man and a nature reserve. (42) Maughold Head is on the easternmost part of the Isle of Man and the nearest to England 30 miles from St Bees Head.

(20) The lighthouse on the Langness peninsula is automated on this, the most south easterly peninsula of the island; the cottages are now holiday lets. (30) Chicken Rock Lighthouse, where stormy weather once meant that lighthouse keepers were cut off from their Christmas Dinner, no turkey for them in 1960 and indeed no relief boat until the New Year  (41) Douglas Head Lighthouse, another one designed by Robert Stevenson.

The Great Lighthouse Extravaganza a tour by enthusiasts of some of the Isle of Man's lighthouses, including Chicken Rock with views from all angles.

Sunday Stamps theme - Lighthouses - follow the light to  See It On A Postcard

Reading

See It On A Postcard's  Thursday Postcard Hunt is concentrating on reading or handwork..

Girl Reading - Harold Knight (1931)

Reading, a pastime for all seasons. Winter or

The Beach at Trouville - Claude Monet (1870)

 

Summer.  In terms of comfort I'd plump for the well appointed chaise longue

Cool Views

 

1991: Mountain Lakes

The Alpine Lakes of (80) Melchsee in Central Switzerland and (50) Moesola by the San Bernardino Pass near the Swiss/Italian border.  Postbuses travel over the pass several times a day when it opens from June to October, the helpful advice from the postbus website is get off at the Ospizio stop for Lake Moesola. The site has a scenic shot of a bus travelling the route, although not on one of its many hairpin bends.

2013: Christmas (Design - Magnus Rakeng)

A snowy view and no doubt an excellent house from which

1996: 100th Anniversary of the Modern Olympic Games

to go skiing,

2004: Europa - Holidays

with a few friends.

For Sunday Stamps theme - Cold Vacation Locations - visit See It On A Postcard

Relax its a blast

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is looking for women relaxing

Hula hooping, stairs optional, but what better way to make an entrance.

Nana Téte de Fleurs by Niki de Saint Phille (1971)

Dancing.  The feminist artist Niki de Saint Phille (1930-2002) produced a lot of large scale Nana papier mache sculptures mostly representing the modern women enjoying herself. Nana (French slang for girl) also appeared in two dimensional media, in this instance on wallpaper.  In the early 1970s one of the oldest wallpaper manufacturers in Europe, Marburger Tapetenfabrik, approached a diverse group of international artists to reflect the times. They wanted the wallpaper to be ornamental not just as a background for other objects. They got their wish from Niki de Saint Phille.  The series was called XArt Walls.

Islands in the Sun

 

2007: Island Jewels

Head for the sunny beaches of Rottnest Island.  It is also the place to see lots of cute quokka.

Maria Island, Tasmania, not only long sandy beaches, mountains and wildlife it is a World Heritage Australian Convict Site. Deported as punishment and wake up in paradise, eventually. Kangaroo Island off the south coast of Australia, I wonder what we will find there😀

Green Island a coral cay at the heart of the Great Barrier Reef.

1980: International Conference for Tourism, Manila

The subtropical island of Madeira, "the pearl of the Atlantic", as the card suggests it has an abundance and variety of fruit, something it shares in common with

1955: Landscapes

the Caribbean island of Martinique. This island however has an active volcano, it and the surrounding forests are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Heading away from the islands to France where the 'Race to the Sun'  begins today, a classic cycling stage race from Paris through France's mountainous centre and which will eventually arrive on to the sunlit riviera of Nice on the 16th March.

2015: Extreme Sports

A cooling activity for the heat of high summer in Portugal, white water rafting.

Sunday Stamps theme - Warm Location Vacations - soak up the sun at  See It On A Postcard

Women Mostly Sitting

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Woman at Work

2013: Europa - The Postman's Van

Postie at work in Ilulissat, West Greenland, some lucky person is getting a parcel.  This article on covers from Greenland's philatelic postal centres has a photo taken from where the post van is parked.

This looks like a production line for the popular Dinky toys, made by Meccano, today highly collectable.  The company also  produced mechanical construction and Hornby train sets.  After numerous take overs the Liverpool factory closed in 1979.  Today different kinds of Meccano sets are made in France and China.

Female workers using comptometers, Vickers Armstong, 1950s

A human computer, workers using comptometers, the first key driven machine for adding and calculations. High speeds were attained by skilled operators.  Vickers Armstrong, an engineering, shipbuilding and armaments company, after many changes today operates as BAE Systems, the UK's largest manufacturer.

Imaginative Women

 

1980:Europa - Victorian Novelists (Design - Barbara Brown)

The 1980 Europa theme was famous people and GB featured two Bronte sisters. Charlotte gets the CEPT logo and the  12p first class letter rate

Emily gets the versatile 15p for heaver letters both first and second class.  I don't have the other two writers featured on the set who were George Elliot (Mill on the Floss) and Elisabeth Gaskell (North and South).

2011: Magical Realms

The versatile Tilda Swinton,as the White Witch/Queen in the film 'Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. If you want other worldly she's your woman.   From flights of the imagination to

2003: Extreme Endeavors (Design - H Brown)

a record breaking aviator, the FDC shows  Amy Johnson's solo flight from London to Darwin, Australia in 1930. She  hoped to set  a record flight time but missed it by three days however her adventure propelled her into the press and public's imagination. She went on to set records for Siberia to Tokyo and London to Cape Town. In 1940 she joined the RAF Air Transport Auxiliary but while on a mission disappeared over the Thames Estuary in January1941. The cancel is from her home town of Kingston Upon Hull. Her flights however were from, at the time, the only international airport in the country Croydon Aerodrome (a large part of aviation history). Croydon's Aerodrome Hotel celebrated their 75th Anniversary with this FDC.

The hotel makes an appearance on the reverse of the envelope as it would have looked in the 1930s.

Sunday Stamps theme - Famous Women - join one at See It On A Postcard

State and County Maps

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt in search of states, counties or provinces...

Head for the beach in the 'sunshine state' or  spot a flamingo flying over the Everglades.

The bucolic delights of Suffolk and relax while imagining the sound on its coast of the backwash of sea waves on shingle as they move and turn the pebbles in a gentle rhythm.

Alphabet Soup

 

1964: 2500 Years of Bulgarian Art

A head from the 2nd Century and a 19th Century jug, one predating the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and the other many centuries later.

1980: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Percy Bysshe Kelly once said  "We are all Greeks"  Western civilization has it roots in Greece and Hungary remembers their glory. Once the the huge seated figure of Zeus (435BC) stood in his temple at Olympia,  The Hungarians have romanized the famous names of Greece on the map and

1935: Air - Mythologies (Daedalus and Icarus)

it was the Romans who first called the country Greece but to the Greeks it is  Hellas. As can be seen the word written starts with the Greek letter epsilon (originally adopted from the Phoenician letter He -)

1995: Fish - Queen Angelfish

For something different, Cambodian letters or  Khmer script,. In this script words run together in a sentence. Similar to other colonial powers one can see where the French have been in the past on stamps.

1942: Free French Issue

New Caledonia's unique flightless bird, the Kagu. This 'Free French' stamp was issued to show solidarity with the French resistance and De Gaulle's campaign from London in WW2. There were 14 values and colours produced showing the bird, not in flight, but in a jump display showing off its underwing pattern. 

Sunday Stamps is exploring stamps featuring no English words - See It On A Postcard
 

Pictorial Maps

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is in search of pictorial maps

A postcard map for a literary pilgrimage to Bronte Country

and to find your way a larger map may be needed although the Pennine Way, on the spine of England, bypasses the sisters home, Haworth Parsonage so no tea shop stop there if walking the route.

Alternatively relax into a scenic railway journey through Yorkshire. The 19th Century Ribblehead Viaduct at the bottom is the most impressive of them all on the Settle to Carlisle Line and beloved by photographers, especially if there is a steam train crossing.

Perhaps as it is winter take a city break in Antwerp, the railway station will impress and a cornucopia of postcards are for sale at the Plantin-Moretus printing museum.