Darkness

See It On A Postcard's  Thursday Postcard Hunt - Halloween, Black or Orange

Winter Sea (1925-1937) - Paul Nash (1889-1946)

 

What sinister thing journeys across the water when light turns into darkness

Danjuro VII as Warrior Monk, Benkel 1852 - Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864)

 

Who will protect us?

 

Wizard of Oz Cover Illustration - Temujin Doran

 

Or maybe it is all an illusion and just the perfect time of year to tell eerie tales of witches, ghosts and goblins. Happy Halloween.

Red in Nature

 

2026: Waterfalls

The Pistyll Rhaeadr (Spring of the Waterfall) in mid-Wales, it was reduced to a trickle in July when a drought was declared in Wales, nobody had seen the falls so low.  It started to rain in September so maybe it looks like this now.

2025: Mushrooms

Nice damp weather for the fungi, such as the Scarlet Elf Cup, it is said the wood elves drink morning dew from the cups. The Fly Algaric is home to fairies.

1992: Edible Berries

Autumn of course is a time for foraging for berries and fruits. The kinnikinnick, is an Algonquin name for 'smoking mixture'; they were only interested in the leaves of this shrubby plant but bears and small mammals prefer the berries.

2008: Wishes

Swimming into view, two fish in love

2003: Roses in Norway

The deep velvety red of a 'Grand Prix' rose, the flower of love

2009: Meteorology

Natures 'goodnight' extravaganza with reds and yellows and pink

An entry to Sunday Stamps theme - Red - See It On A Postcard 

Illustrated

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Illustrations

1985: Theatre (Design - Paul Flora; Engraver - Wolfgang Seidel)

Opera buffa (Italian comic opera) usually in two acts often using the lower male voices. The basso buffo is a comic bass (or baritone) specialising in lighthearted, absurd or blustering characters. It demands comic timing and very fast singing with clear diction for the word play. The illustration shows a typical costume and a random owl.

One thing will not make an appearance is

Wood Engraving by Robin Dower

a Northumberland Small Pipe. It says on the back of the card that they can be heard playing at Wallington Clock Tower. The history behind this statement belongs to  Patricia Travelyn who was part of the family that owned the Wallington Hall estate before donating it to the National Trust. She regularly played the small pipes in the courtyard to entertain visitors to the Clock Tower Cafe. To honor her memory traditional music groups and pipers still gather at Wallington Hall in the summer months. If you want to see how it all works the Northumberland piper Kathryn Tickell explains here in a short video. I don't think I could manage all the co-ordination!

As it says on the card they are designed for playing indoors

Building A House, 1949. (Illustration by Richard Leacroft

but they will have to finish the house first. Helen and Richard Leacroft wrote and illustrated several architectural books for Puffin which included churches and even pyramids. These children's books were first published by Penguin in 1940 despite the challenges of severe paper rationing during World War II. The idea was a success as it expanded into all types of literature, at one time there was a Puffin Magazine and Puffin Club, with badges! The strapline is "There's nuffin like a puffin!"

Invention

 

2007: Swedish Innovations (Illustrations - Sara Lund)

Two very useful inventions probably in your tool box. The always useful adjustable spanner,  A wall plug, usually referred to as a rawlplug in the UK, a brand name that became a generic term. The Swedes call them a Thorsmanpluggen, invented in Sweden in 1964 by Oswald Thorsman together with their colour coding, red being a medium size general purpose plug.

2007: World of Invention (Illustrations - Peter Till)

Bridge Building in Thomas Telford's imagination.                        Railway locomotion

Communications.                 Television

 E Mail, Internet and the World Wide Web.            Still to come - Space Tourism to the moon 

Sunday Stamps theme - Celebrating Inventions - See It On A Postcard 

Animals

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is looking for Travelling Animals

"The Champ"

This champion sheep has done a lot of travelling to agricultural shows to win its rosettes.

2014: Working Horses

Travelling around the  city. The police won't have had much need for raincoats this summer

Elephants taking a trail through a misty forest

Rivers

1965: Gorges du Tarn

The Tarn River in Southern France carving it way through limestone cliffs which tower up to 600m above it.. The gorge has a microclimate that can be hot in summer and mild in winter. A canoeist says it is a most amenable river to paddle along. 

1982: Navigation on the Danube - Danube Commission

The Danube - a  river that has been in the news in this long hot summer as it reaches record lows. The stamp show the ferry Kamzic passing under the SNP (Slovak National Uprising) Bridge, today called the New Bridge. The Kamzic was built in 1972 and could carry up to 200 passengers. It was a popular attraction for Bratislava residents but stopped operating in 2003

1970: Floating Logs - Log Driver Johan Eriksson

Timmerflotting (historic log driving) from the times past when harvested timber was floated down rivers to saw mills. The trees were cut in winter and the spring floods sent them on their watery journey. Commercial floating ended in 1991 with a final drive on the River Klaralven. 

2023: River Wildlife

An Atlantic Salmon making its epic journey from ocean to the freshwater river or stream where  it was hatched, jumping up and over weirs and waterfalls to reach their ultimate destination. But for lazy summer days for humans what could be more pleasant than sitting on a river bank and spotting a Kingfisher. The juveniles will leave home this month in search of territories of their own so there may be more opportunities to see Kingfishers in unexpected places than normal. 

Sunday Stamps theme - Rivers - See  It On A Postcard

Ships Ahoy

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt this week is travelling in Boats although I am mostly travelling in ships here -

A variety of vessles plying their trade on the Great Lakes. Clockwise from top left, the historic steam powered Willis B Boyer, a lake freighter currently operating as a museum ship in Toledo, Ohio (Lake Erie), William R Roesch self unloading Great Lakes bulk freighter  The Armco -a 1953 bulk freighter which spent decades hauling iron ore and coal. Way after this card was published it was  renamed American Valour in 2006-2018 after that it changed flags to Canadian to become the Valo and settling into its home port in St Catherines, Ontario. Indiana Harbor 1,000 foot long self unloading lake freighter. Edmund Fitzgerald a Great Lakes freighter that encountered 100mph hurricane force winds and massive waves on Lake Superior in 1975 and sank suddenly without issuing a distress signal. All 29 crew members perished. Lastly Stewart J Cort entered service in 1972 carrying iron ore for Bethlehem Steel. She has had an accident prone life but still sailing.

From working vessels to

the leisure of Cruises. The sister ships of Veendam and Volendam started life as Argentina and Brasil but were bought by the Holland American Line and refitted for cruising in 1971 making their debut in 1973

for the shipping line's centenary. Torquay serves as an occasional port of call for Holland America who tender passengers ashore to the 'English Riviera' . Long after this card of 1973 Torbay became famous for sheltering Holland America's  multiple idle ships during the 2020 pandemic pause,

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 or QE2. Now a retired ocean liner it operated from 1969 to 2008

when in 1982 this card was posted on the high seas. Today the QE2 is an hotel and tourist attraction in Dubai.

"Colours of Brittany"

The romance of sail

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 

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  

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 

Send a Letter

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for Shapes in the form of Letters

The Irish alphabet has 18 letters. It uses the Latin alphabet but omits eight letters used in English J K Q V W X Y and Z which are only used in loan words.

Oh no some letters are not going to make it onto the train

but these are on board and as the train speeds through the night to Scotland  the traveling post office's workers are sorting them ready for the morning delivery. The full Auden poem with the night train steaming through the countryside in 1936 can be seen here 

Robots

 

1989: Europa - Games and Toys (Design  - Dan Fern)

A toy robot 

2017: Star Wars - Droids and Aliens (Illustrator: Malcolm Tween)

 The 'real' things in the Star Wars franchise

Artist Malcolm Tween discusses his "mini masterpieces"

2011-2013 Definitive - Canadian Flag

Robotic arm or the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS)  on the Space Shuttle - Canadarm. First tested in orbit 1981, eventually after 90 missions, its last to the International Space Station in July 2011 Canadarm eventually took up its retirement home at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum

Sunday Stamps A-Z - Robots and Robotics - See It On A Postcard 

Queen

1990: Greeting Stamps - Smiles

Queen of Hearts by Colin Elgie.

1991: Europa - Europe in Space

In August 1846 Queen Victoria was the first monarch to visit Guernsey. The attention of European astronomers, and no doubt Price Albert, was on the hunt for a previously unknown eighth planet, in fact this planet, later named Neptune, was seen twice in August but mistaken for a star and was not identified as a planet until September 1846.

2020: Queen

Queen Live - Freddy Mercury at Wembley Stadium, 1986; Roger Taylor at Queen's free London concert, 1976; The full band photographed at Primrose Hill, 1974; John Deacon at the Hammersmith Odeon, 1975 and Brian May at Nepstadion,Budapest, 1986

Sunday Stamps A-Z and here at Q for Queen - See It On A Postcard  

Orchids

 

1968: Flowers IV

O is for Orchid

1982: Wild Orchids

L-R = Early Purple Orchid or as the Swede's call it, St Peter's Keys: Marsh helleborine; Elder-flowered orchids the two grow together in different colours, purple and white, so I rather like the Swedish name of Adam and Eve; lastly a Lady's Slipper. 

The price of this stamp sheet included 1.60kr in aid of stamp collecting.

1993: Orchids -  issued for the 14th World Orchid Conference in Glasgow

We now head into the esoteric growing of orchids by enthusiasts 18p Dendrobium hellwigianum from the mountains in east New Guinea the next 24p has so many Latin names I'll just say it is a clone and cross from Asia and Borneo 

 Cymbidium owianum (Low's Boat Orchid)  introduced from Burma

33 another cross from the Himalayas and Thailand; 39  a variety of Dendribium vexillarius originally from the cloud forests of New Guinea 

Sunday Stamps A-Z - O for Orchid  - See It On A Postcard