Mounains in Monochrome

 

1983: Low Value Definitive Stamps

Seven Stars Crags are limestone karsts peaks rising out of Star Lake in Guangdong. The lake is 20k long. I believe the early morning golden hour is the ideal time to capture the peaks reflections in the lake. The area is also famous for its colourful caves, underground rivers and ancient stone inscriptions.

Mt Zhumulangma, the Chinese name for Mt Everest

Taishan Mountains. Mount Tai is one of China's five sacred mountains rising to an elevation of 5,069 ft (1545 metres) and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are about 7000 steps to climb to the top! Over 70 Chinese Emperors have used the stone steps,  an imperial path to ascend the mountain to perform the sacrifices to heaven and earth at the top. Emperors and their massive entourages started the ascent from the Dai Temple. While emperors walked the sacred path as a display of piety and humility they sometimes were carried in sedan chairs up the steepest sections like the 'Eighteen Bends' which lead to the mountain's summit. This single section contains contains exactly 1.633 stone steps carved directly into the mountain cliff. Pity those sedan carriers.

1979: Kluane National Park (National Park definitive series)

Kluane National Park, home of high mountains, glaziers and grizzly bears. The artist Alan C Collier travelled to southwestern Yukon to paint its rugged icy white mountain landscape. The stamp features his 'Across the Tundra'.

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

Trips in Trains

 See Ir On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for August will be Travelling, this week, on trains

1980: 150th Anniv of Liverpool and Manch ester Railway (Designer - David Gentleman)

 

A full train of day trippers, some are in the 1st class carriage and others in 2nd class

All together on the Ravenglass and Eskdale narrow gauge railway enjoying a day out in the Eskdale valley.  Just in case you were thinking about the Lake District's proclivity to rain they also run covered carriages.

Strasburg Rail Road, Strasburg, Pennsylvania

In contrast, a big country needs a big train. Great Western  #90 built in 1924 originally pulled sugar beet in Colorado. Purchased in 1967 by the Strasburg Rail Road who needed a more powerful locomotive to pull the  increasing numbers of tourists. The card says "Ride the train and experience the Amish farm country for yourself". 

Aviation

 

1987: Airmail - Aviation

1st test airmail flight, Villacoublay to Pauilac in France in 1913. . The Morane Soulnier Type H was a single seat monoplane primarily used for racing and sporting purposes.

1980: World Cup Aerobatics, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA

An acrobatic sport aircraft,

2016: Royal Aeronautical Society 150 Years - Innovation in Aerospace

Two, at the time, cutting edge airplanes. 93p) The Harrier Jump Jet, its Pegasus engine permitting vertical or horizontal flight according to the vector of the exhaust flow. 93p) The supersonic airplane Concorde whose first passenger scheduled flight was in 1976

1987: Helicopters

20₮) The behemoth that was the Soviet designed airliner B-12, a rotary winged vehicle able to carry 200 passengers. Although technologically brilliant it never made it to full scale as it was too expensive and complicated to manufacture. 30₮) Westland WG-30 Lynx  . Originally envisioned as a military vehicle for tactical transport and air ambulances instead it  became a useful civilian helicopter including transport to and from offshore oil and gas fields. The prototype was built in 1979 followed by manufacture. The last of the Lynx class were sold to India in 1988.

Sunday Stamps theme - Aviation - at  See It On A Postcard 

Shelters

 See It On a Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Shelters

Charcoal Burning

A charcoal burners hut. A charcoal burn requires constant day and night supervision to watch the smoke colour and seal any cracks in the earth mound and control the air flow. The huts are simple structures consisting of a stone base, wooden poles, turf and branches.  At the height of the industrial revolution there must have been hundreds. The remains can still be seen in the woods today, here is an example.

Barn in Winter. (2016: Finnish Barns Maximum Card 112)

 I presume this what the Finns call a Lato (Hay Barn). A good thing to take shelter in if you were caught in a snow storm.

But let our thoughts turn to summer and the 3-12 August 1951 Scout Jamboree in Bad Jschl, Austria. This card has both a hut and tents. The card comes with a

postmark and a scouts message home as he sets out in that direction. It says "At the moment I am not sure who is going to wait for who at Dieppe but I believe it is equal. Otherwise alive and I am not broke yet. Today it is sun again"

Stories

 

1997: Europa - Tales and Legends

The Fisherman and his Wife - a fairy story collected by the Brothers Grimm

Rubezahl, a mountain dweller and  subject of many legends in Germany and Eastern Europe

2006: Animal Tales

Favourite children's book animals:- Roald Dahl;s 'The Enormous Crocodile'; Michael Bond's Paddington Bear. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, where a very tiny Caterpillar  consumes many types of foods before eventually turning into a butterfly. It seems it has taken two circular chunks out of the stamp on the journey. Lastly learn the alphabet with Maisy Mouse's ABC here she is dressing up as a Queen but her adventures include balancing on an Elephant's trunk and flying a Kite. The interactive book is by Lucy Cousins.

Sunday Stamps theme - Children's Books - See It On A Postcard 

Past Stations

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Architecture - Stations (train, bus or airport) 

Liverpool Exchange opened in May 1850. it had five platforms with an overall roof for "the comfort of passengers"  By the 1870s traffic had increased so much it was eventually expanded in 1888 and opened in its new form. Exchange consisted of this grand hotel frontage behind which was a covered cab road, further buildings provided offices, booking and waiting facilities. It now had 10 platform faces protected by gabled roofs. The station closed in 1977 and trains were diverted to the new underground link line. The card was sent in 1903.

In contrast - Redmire Station in the snow.  Once the terminus of the Wensleydale Railway, unfortunately the track has deteriorated and at the moment the platform and car park are being used as en engineering base to re-lay the line The station building (once the station masters house, booking hall and waiting room) has been owned by the 2nd Acomb Scouts Group since 1988 taking the name of Redmire Station House Activity Centre, a hostel for use by families and youth groups with cycling and walking routes straight from the door into the Yorkshire Dales. 

Broad Gauge engine in Bristol's old Temple Meads Station. Brunel's Great Western Railway was built using broad gauge which would lead to the Gauge Wars as the rest of Britain largely adopted standard gauge. The tracks at Temple Mead were then converted to mixed gauge. The postcard artist John G Norris shows Post Office Station Staff transferring mail at Bristol Old Temple Mead Station around 1892.

 

As an added bonus there is a special cancel for the departure of the Orient Express from Temple Meads Station in 1985 as part of the Great Western Railway's 150th anniversary celebrations

Lighthouses

 

1998: Lighthouses (Design - Dick Davis)

The original Eddystone Lighthouse of  1698 built on a small rock in dangerous seas (first of four). This was a wooden structure built by Henry Winstanley it experienced many storms in the next few years and was showing wear and tear.. A great storm five years after being built was its last and killed  Winstanley who had gone out to make repairs on the structure. Ironically it fulfilled his wish to be in it during "the greatest storm there ever was"

1978: Lighthouses of the Bailiwick

Views of calm seas but dangerous rocks and tides in the Baliwick of Guernsey

2002: 100th Anniversary of ICES (Council for the Exploration of the Sea)

A joint issue of  the same miniature sheet by Greenland, Faroe Islands and Denmark. Each country had two stamps. I have a Danish stamp which was used for postage but it is the one with the ship and fish without the attached lighthouse so post the full expanse with a lighthouse showing the way. I like to think that is the Skagen Lighthouse in the far north of Jutland, once Denmark's tallest lighthouse which today also houses a migratory bird center.

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

Palaces

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Architecture - Palaces

The monumental Winter Palace in St Petersburg, the former main residence of the Russian royal family on the south bank of the Neva River. Today of course it is part of the Hermitage Museum complex.

 

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez one of the official residences of the Spanish royal family. It looks a wonderful entrance into the square for high stepping horses. There is a museum on the ground floor and the rooms and gardens are open to the public.

Sporting XYZ

 

1996: Olympic Games

The XXVI Olympic Games in Atlanta. The first time Uzbekistan competed as an independent nation.

1970: Football World Championships

Football's Jules Rimet Cup was awarded to the winners of the FIFA World Cup between 1930 and 1970. Named after the FIFA President who initiated the tournament, the trophy went permanently to Brazil when they won it for the third time in 1970.  In 1938 Italy won the trophy in France. When the Nazis occupied Rome in 1943 the Italian football official Ottorino Barassi took the trophy from a bank vault and hid it in a shoe box beneath his bed to prevent it being stolen or melted down by the occupying forces. 

  Brazil won the Jules Rimet trophy for the first time in 1958 beating the hosts Sweden

and for the second time in Chile 1962

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1982: World Cup

The 1982 World Cup in Spain. The stamp features El Salvador and Hungary. This would he the last time that El Salvador qualified for the tournament. Hungary beat them 10-1 in the first round but despite that did not advance to the second round.

Sunday Stamps A-Z for -  the roman numeral X, Yemen and Zaire - See It On A Postcard 

Village Houses

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - for the month of July : Architecture - Houses

One of the traditional houses or mansions in the village of Vizitsa on the southern Pelion peninsula,  located 540 metres (1771 ft) above sea level overlooking the Pegasetic Gulf

The village of Pivakes on the south western slopes of the Pelion mountain range is considered one of the best preserved  villages in the region. The Pelion in Northern Greece, as can be seen, is heavily wooded with trees such as beach, oak and chestnuts  beneath which are cool springs and streams. The stone paved paths connecting the villages are called kalderimia where one might spot a wild tortoise trundling along or basking in the sunshine  One of my favourite places in Greece.

Vallorcine, Haute-Savoie, (Altitude 1260m) France

Vallorcine , the last village of the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc valley before crossing into Switzerland

Easdale Argyll

Meanwhile at sea level is the village of Ellanbeich on Seil. The village is sometimes called Easdale because of its proximity to the island of that name, one of the smallest permanently inhabited islands of the Inner Hebrides 

Waterfalls

 

1956: Power Stations and Waterfalls (Artist - S Jonsson)

Skogafoss, a 60 metre waterfall on Iceland's south coast with easy access from a car park. 

1977: Europa - Landscapes

In contrast the remote "off-the-beaten-track"  Ofaeru waterfall (Ofaerufoss)  in Iceland's Southern Highlands, a two tier waterfall plunging 40 metres (130 ft). The natural stone bridge spanning the falls was washed away by melting glaciers in 1993.

2026: Waterfalls

High Force, County Durham. The River Tees plunges 21 metres over a vertical cliff. After heavy rain the peat laden river splits into two falls but the rock can be completely covered  by water in exceptional weather.. England's most powerful waterfall in terms of volume.

Hardraw Falls, North Yorkshire plummets over a limestone lip, eroding softer rock to create an overhang. Visitors to this natural amphitheater are warned not to walk behind the veil of water because of the precarious nature of the overhang. 

Sunday Stamps A-Z this week at the letter W - Waterfalls - See It On A Postcard 

Church Towers

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt this month is Architecture, today - Churches

For those experiencing summer heatwaves here is a cool snowy view of Ulverston Parish Church, Cumbria. The tower was rebuilt in 1540 when the old one was destroyed in a gale.

.In the 13th Century as part of a modernisation of All Saints Church in Bakewell a tower and spire were built over the main body of the church. It became apparent in the 18th Century that the tower and spire were too heavy for the stonework and the spire started to crack. It was removed in 1825 and a new tower and spire built which we see today.

St Anna in the town of Verl, Westphalia. An east tower was a novelty at the time when it was built in 1792 as traditionally they would be built on the west side.

Waves

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Shapes that are  Wavy or Irregular

Artist - Gisbert Combaz

A lithograph used for an advertising poster in 1899 by  La Libre Esthétique (an artistic society formed in Brussels)  whose yearly exhibitions ran from 1894-1914.  Happily this design contains both wavy lines and irregular shapes.

"The Turbulent Sea"

Whereas these are shape shifting waves

Floating by Vasily Kandinsky (1924) Watercolour and indian ink on paper

Kandinsky experienced synesthesia, where hearing sounds caused him to visually associate and see colours and shapes. He considered music as the ultimate abstract art, dark blue for him was something deep and resonant like a cello or double bass. He often categorised his paintings in musical terms as either  Impressions, Improvisations or Compositions.

U for USA

 

1997: Bugs Bunny

"Whats up Doc?"

2004: Disney Cartoon Characters

Bambi and Thumper the classic 1942 film and Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, the 1940 film which featured the Academy Award winning song - 'When You Wish Upon a Star"

2014: Batman 75th Anniversary

The inspiration for all those Batman movies began with a comic strip.  Stamp collecting played a role in the childhood of Bruce Wayne who shared the hobby with his father in the comic books of the 1950s. He probably was too busy fighting for justice as Batman to continue with the hobby after that, but maybe he still has quiet moments with his stamp collection.

2001: Porky Pig

That All Folks! Or as Porky Pig says it at the end of a Loony Tunes cartoon "Th-Th-Th-that's all folks". Voiced by Mel Blanc (1908-1989), man of a thousand voices, those same words appear on Blanc's gravestone.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - for USA - at  See It On A Postcard