X

 

1977: Birds

This woodpecker is so unique it decided that it would rather appear at X than W. It is the only species within the genus Xiphidiopicus.  The bird's full Latin name is Xiphidiopicus percussus or Cuban Green Woodpecker. The most widespread and common woodpecker in Cuba, endemic to the island.

1990: 25th Anniversary of the Oceanological  Institute

Cuba is fond of Roman Numerals on their stamps

1930: King Christian X -  60th Birthday

and monarchs like them too.

1970: Bulgarian History

Another king. Cyrillic has an X but with a sound as the ch in the Scottish loch. On the stamp Khan Asparerch and the 'Old Bulgars' are crossing the Danube. An x appears at at the beginning of his title XAH  (Khan) and the end of his name.

2012: United Kingdom  A-Z Part 2

The stand alone X of Station X, Bletchley Park home of the code-breakers who among other things broke the Nazi Enigma code, the result of which it is said cut the length of World War II by an estimated 2 years.

Sunday Stamps A-Z this week has reached X - See It On A Postcard 

Hot Air Balloons

 

1997: For Us Children

The ultimate air mail arriving by the power of hot air.

1983: Bicentenary of Manned Flight

Left: - In 1859 John Wise carried 123 letters in his hot air balloon 'Jupiter', the first official airmail delivery for the US Post Office. Right: - The pioneering flights of  balloons during the Siege of Paris of which the The Neptune was the first to take off in 1870. Weight was of great importance because every balloon had to reach the altitude of at least 3,300 ft (1000m) in order to be beyond the range of the Prussian rifles. Neptune took off from the hill at Montmartre with three bags of mail weighing a total of 125g, and eventually landed in the grounds of Castle Cracouille at Evreux, 104 miles NW of Paris.

1983: Bicentenary of Manned Flight

  

Hungarian Hot Air Balloons for leisure. The captive observation balloon at the Budapest Exhibition in 1896 and the 1904 Balloon Chase Race. Balloon racing became quite popular at this time unfortunately I could only find a passing reference to Hungarian races but this paragraph of British events in 1904 gives the gist of the pursuit.

1989: International Young Inventors Exhibition, Plovdiv

 

Bright young minds travelling to Plovdiv, the tiger arrives by hot air balloon.

Sunday Stamps A-Z, this week it is H for Hungary and Hot Air Balloons - See It On A Postcard

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
 

Birds

 

2004: Migrating Birds

On last week's Sunday Stamps a lone bird flew past a lighthouse so here is the rest of the set with views of Alderney.

The FDC illustration increases the number of Yellow Wagtails to three, one of my favourite birds.

1988: Birds

Meanwhile in Bulgaria it is dinner time with a Yellow-legged gull and White Stork

A fishy treat for a Grey Heron, Peter Rabbit meets his end with a Goshawk and the Eagle-owl has found a country mouse.

Sunday Stamps is looking at birds - See It On A Postcard

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

Easter

1974: Rozhem Monastery Wood Carvings - "Passover Table" 

 Picture the scene, a man called Simon has travelled a great distance from Cyrene (in modern day Libya) to mark Passover in Jerusalem's temple and has been caught up in a jeering crowd.

1970: Easter. The Stations of the Cross - 'Christ falls for the first time'

He sees Jesus being whipped or rather scourged and sinking under the weight of a cross. Suddenly a Roman soldier seizes Simon and compels him to carry the cross.  From innocent bystander he walks into history carrying the cross through the crowds and behind Jesus to Golgotha. Well that day didn't turn out as expected for him!  No other mention is made of Simon; the Gospels only tell of the women and the 'beloved disciple' who stayed near the cross at the end.

2014: Easter Surprise

Journey from sadness to happiness and Sunday - the day of the Easter Surprise.

Happy Easter

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Easter - See It On A Postcard

Child

December 1946: Winter Relief

As the cheery buntings are out here for 75th Anniversary VE Day here is post war Europe.  I could not find anything out about winter relief but the stamps show a destitute mother and child and a child begging for food. I seem to have only the grim stamps of this set for others show happy children receiving parcels.  They would need aid for the winter of 1946/7 was brutally cold with food shortages. From these grey times things got better, for all things pass

1965: International Children's Day

and here we are planting trees and going to the beach because

1996: Child Welfare Week (Design - Takashi Yanase)

the sun is out.

2014: Save the Children (Design - Jakob Monefeldt)

Charity is still required and this stamp supports Save the Children (Red Barnet).  The crisscrossing words in different colours tell a child's story for Jakob Monefeldt always likes to tell a story through his stamps.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Mothers/Children - See It On A Postcard  

Happy Easter

1978: Easter - Paintings by Giotto

I start the Easter journey with Christ entering into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with all his travails before him.  The fresco is in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Giotto's masterpiece, no space left unpainted and vaulted over by a blue starry sky.  Sensory overload.

1971: Easter - Flowers

Easter has lots of symbolic flowers and trees but apart from the fact it flowers in Spring I don't know about the Yellow Trumpet Tree, perhaps it is the palm shaped leaves or even the thought of the trumpets of heaven.

1999: Easter (Design - Maglena Konstaninova)

No problem with the meaning of this exuberant painting of flowers and decorated eggs, pure joy. Happy Easter to you all.

Traditional Bulgarian Easter Eggs from Wiki

Sunday Stamps II this week is celebrating - Easter - See It On A Postcard

Insects

2010: International Year of Biodiversity (Design - H Ólafsson)

The UN raised awareness in 2010 with an International Year of Biodiversity, this looks the perfectly balanced ecosystem.  I noticed something important was missing, insects, although it does depends on whether the white cloud on the right is a hot geyser or a cloud of midges.  Iceland has midges and black flies but impressively

1955: Five Year Plan

no pesky mosquitoes.  It also lacks

1999: Europa - National Parks 'Herm, Our Island Jewel' (Design - Colleen Corlett)

butterflies so an Icelander would have to travel to another island to see them. A nice destination would be Herm, a tiny island off the Guernsey coast. The stamp combines a new design with one of Herm's carriage labels on the 50th anniversary of their introduction. The labels paid for the journey from Herm to Guernsey where British stamps were affixed to the letter or package to journey onward (this continued until 1969 when the Guernsey Post office took over control of the post). The stamp shows a Small Heath butterfly while the carriage label shows a Red Admiral and a Painted Lady.  Iceland may have no butterflies but it does have

1974: Butterflies and Moths (Design - Éva Zombory)

lots of moths so hours of fun with a moth trap recording them. This Purple Tiger Moth will not be found unless it has hitched a ride from warmer climes.

1964: Insects

I stay in Eastern Europe with a Turkish Lacewing and a Bush Cricket which according to the story

1959: Fairy Tales (Éva Gabor)

sang away all summer while the ant was storing grain and on the stamp winter is coming.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter I - here for Iceland, India, insects, island and international - investigate See It On A Postcard for more

Busy Bees

1966: 'Spring' National Folklore (Design - Neva and Nikola Tuzsuzova)

Spring is in the air, daffodils are in flower and as we have just had the warmest February on record here so no wonder I heard a buzzing among my flowering heart ivy (sometimes called Paddy's Pride).

1940-42: Definitive - Farming (Design - A. Anev)

Perhaps it came from a beehive

1958: Savings Campaign (Design - S Legrady)

with some bees readying for the busy year ahead or maybe they are still dreaming

of flowers and clover rich meadows.

2015: Bees (Design - Anna Ekelund)

The great yellow bumblebee shown here flies over grasslands looking for clover, vetch and knapweed.

1977-8: Definitive - Insects on Flowers

maybe it will be joined by a copper butterfly which can be seen in all sorts of habitats but daises are never in short supply.

2018: Reintroduced Species (Design - Godfrey; Illustrator - Tanya Lock)

The Large-Blue is a specialist which is probably why it became extinct in England in 1979 for its grubs feed on a single species of red ant. Fast forward to 2006 and 10,000 eggs were painstakingly   placed by conservation projects in SW England.  Ten years later and 250,000 eggs were laid on wild margoram and thyme plants at reserves in Gloucestershire and Somerset. I wonder who counted them?

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter B - here for Bulgaria, bees, beehive and butterflies - See It On A Postcard.


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