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.

Flags Ahoy

2021: Tall Ships Race

A sailing ship at the port of Mariehamn ready for the 2021 Tall Ships Race and a stamp issued for the event.  That was the plan. Covid had other ideas and restrictions at the time meant it had to be cancelled. Undaunted the Åland islanders pivoted to a substitute and created a Maritime Folk Festival with food, drinks and entertainment.  They would have to wait until 2024 to welcome the fleet of sail ships to Mariehamn, and gain another stamp.

1989: 10th Anniversary of Home Rule in Greenland

The Greenland flag flying over land and sea

1981: 125th Anniversary of  Danube Commission

For fans of stamp on stamps these feature the Danube commission stamps from 1967 with the paddle steamers Franz I (1830) and the Arpad (1834) sailing underneath.  The latter named after a Hungarian hero, head of the confederation of Magyar tribes

1981: Historic Hungarian Flags

The 40f stamp shows the House of Arpad flag(11th Century). 60f Hunyadi Family flag (15th Century) at the time they were the most powerful nobles in the Kingdom of Hungary.

1979: OCAM Summit Meeting, Cotonou

Changing continents and a group of nations - OCAM (Organization Commune Africaine et Malgache), Founded in 1961 it was disbanded in 1985. The stamp shows the members flags at the time

Imagine

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Maps of city transportation or metros.

Centre of the Universe by Graeme Currie

I introduce you to the Merseyrail network although here the names of the stations have been replaced by famous and honorary liverpudlians, or as they are more commonly know, scousers (which is the Liverpool accent/dialect).  Often the people will have a connection with the station's area or like Ken Dodd (comedian) at Lime Street and Billy Fury (singer) have a statue nearby.  Created in 2008 for the City of Culture biennial Graeme Currie's map continues to be used on tea towels, bags and postcards.  Most of these names will not be known to the non Brit but there might be a few you recognise. 

The Merseyside livery is yellow

Mersey Rail's Superpenguin at Lime Street underground (part of the Go Penguin tribe)

Precious Stones

 

1995: Semi-Precious Stones Industry (Design - Sue Passmore)

Somewhere in the White Cliffs opal fields, NSW, someone looks for treasure.  (The stamp's 'opal' is a lenticular printing)

1981: Gold Rush Era (Design and engraving - Bruce Weatherhead)

The lure of gold

1973: Gemstones

agate and opals

2012:Gems

Once out of the ground and for sale rubies are judged by the quality of their cut, colour and clarity.

Sunday Stamps theme - Gems, Minerals -See It On A Postcard

On the Map

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is looking at Country Maps...

When heading towards the Arctic Circle and Greenland, the aeroplane will land in the capital Nuuk, home of a huge Santa Claus postbox. More practical postal information is on the card, the red dots indicate all the post offices.

For the tourist to Belgium a handy postcard guide to some of the attractions of this small country.

The reverse of this card extols virtues of a country starting with the sentence  "Scotland contains a variety of scenery and interest unsurpassed anywhere in the British Isles"  I though I would enlarge

the map for a better view of the puffin and Nessie. Where Nessie's nose points and the piper pipes it is surprising to only see only fish as the Moray Firth  is one of the best places in the UK to see bottlenose dolphins who come in with the tide to feed and play.

Year of the Snake

 

2025:Year of the Snake (Artist - Jo Davies)

This year's Lunar New Year is one of the Wood Snake. The snake is perceived as having a dual nature representing danger but also good fortune, light and dark. Because snakes shed their skins it is also associated with transformation and rebirth.  Wood adds the elements of nurturing and growth.  The Isle of Man's FDC insert gives us Jo Davies' inspiration of the elements contained in the stamps.

Moving from the ethereal to the natural world

1989: Endangered Reptiles

and a grass snake (I'm guessing the endangered designation refers to Hungary). On the other hand Orsini's Viper are a rare species (also called Meadow Adders) which are found in France, Italy and much of Eastern Europe.  Although snakes are fascinating to me

these lizards are more endearing  - Sand Lizard and Green Lizard 

Sunday Stamps theme - Snakes and Reptiles - See It On A Postcard

Red Alert

See It On Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is looking for the colour red...

Chocks away for Snoopy and Woodstock

2013: Europa - The Postman's Van

Fairy tale houses in Madeira known as casinhas de Santana.  An island that looks like the perfect place to ride on a post bike.

Fungarium - Illustrator Katy Scott

A postcard of one of the images from Kew Garden's 'Welcome to the Museum' series of books.  The Fungarium illustrations are by Katy Scott in collaboration with Esta Gaya, a senior researcher at Kew Botanical Gardens who is especially fascinated by lichen.  Guess what, the image is of a lichen - Umbrella basidiolichen.  The basidiolichens are a genius of lichen that are poorly researched according to wikipedia. 

The Write Stuff

 

2008: Nobel Prize Diploma

Dario Fo was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 which was welcomed by some in Italy but condemned by others, such is the hazard of satirizing and pointing the finger at politics, religion and inequality. He said he spent his life whipping up jolly storms through "freedom of opinion and happiness of expression through rage and laughter".

1951: 15th Anniversary of the Death of Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)

Another politically active writer but who could also win a best mustache contest. Clear eyed he said

"Politics is the soil in which the nettle of poisonous enmity, evil suspicions, shameless lies, slander, morbid ambitions, and disrespect for the individual grows rapidly and luxuriantly. Name anything bad in man and it is precisely in the soil of political struggle that it grows with particular liveliness and abundance".

1998: 900th Anniversary of the Birth of Hildegard of Bingen, Prioress  (Vision of Life Cycle)

The woman who was, as the Bible encourages us to be, in the world but not of it. Hildegard, abbess and polymath. Writer, composer and mystic. The stamp shows an illuminations from 'Scivias', a book of her religious visions It is unknown if she painted them herself or oversaw their creation. 

Sunday Stamps - Authors, Poets of Composers - See It On A Postcard