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 

Yellow

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for a spring and one of the colours that mark its arrival, Yellow

Bamforth's 'Tempest Kiddy' Series No 472 (Illustrator Douglas Tempest)

"Here's a spot of Good Luck ... A Double Dose for You" 

 A card sent in 1934 from 'Grandma', who was visiting the seaside resort of Blackpool, to Alison in Cheshire.

"In the Car" - Roy Lichtenstein

Fast forward to 1963 and fast cars, a Hitchcock blond  in the driving seat and her squared jawed companion. This large Lichtenstein painting is based on the comic book series 'Girls Romances'. (The original story graphic revealed -  Tony Abruzzo panel with speech bubble.)

SVR Poster Series No 6 - Kidderminster (Artist - Alan Reade)

A world away is The Falling Sands Viaduct carrying the Severn Valley Railway over the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal whose bridge has the more parochial name of Bridge Number 16.

Farm Life

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is down on the farm with animals

Yew Tree Farm, Coniston, Lake District

A much photographed farm. On postcards but they usually feature cars by the house, however this is an older card so there are just some peaceful cows and quad-bikes. Yew Tree Farm, a 17th Century farm house and barn with spinning gallery.

Mossy Bottom Farm with Shaun the Sheep and Bitzer the sheepdog. In the 'Shaun the Sheep Movie' Shaun's flock and Bitzer are in the "Big City" trying to rescue the farmer who has amnesia. What could possibly go wrong!

 Not as much chaos will be caused with this flock of sheep in Allhallows Lane, Kendal in the early 1950s.

Decorate

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is decorating  Christmas Trees

After their fun in the forest last Thursday the tree has arrived indoors and the aunties have been fruitfully engaged decorating it.

1981: Christmas in Your Community (Artist - Alan Copp)

Parcels and baubles predominate on this Christmas Tree in  Royal Square St Helier. The scene is ornamented with a Christmas Rose. A flower that is linked to the Nativity by a legend of a poor shepherdess who had no gift for Jesus and wept. Her tears fell into the snow but an angel, taking pity on her, touched the ground where her tears had fallen and a plant bloomed with white flowers (symbolising purity and hope). The little shepherdess was then able to present this miraculous gift to the Christ Child.

This was Jersey's first issue of stamps for Christmas, designed by one of Jersey Post's favourite illustrators, Alan R Copp.

Cut and Collect

See It On A Postcard's  Thursday Postcard Hunt - Christmas Trees

Picking the perfect tree.  The Finns have many descriptive words for pine trees, a Petäjä is a tall straight pine and would be one to search out for Christmas. Pines are also considered rather human like as Inge Löök shows.

Lots of trees to choose from at Christmas time in a Finnish forest.

50% are pine and a third spruce the rest are deciduous trees, especially birch. Meanwhile away from this snowy landscape 

50%

2018: Christmas PHQ Card (Illustrator - Andrew Davidson)

 in a city far away a shopping trip has included a tree.

Orange

See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is celebrating the colours of Autumn, this week -Orange

 

one of the colours of the Irish flag.

Welcome to the 2012 London Olympics - Cycling - London Eye

Sunsets

Valentine's Flower Series No. 16

and coreopsis, which with its postcard companion, scabious, are known for their long bloom time, continuing flowering into autumn.

Japan

See It On A Postcard's  Thursday Postcard Hunt  for A place you would like to visit

Kyoto

so I have chosen Japan, a country with a culture both ancient and modern

Cat looking at fields of Asakusa by Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858)

and maybe I will stay in a house that overlooks the rice fields of Asakusa  that comes with a resident cat, although will have to travel back in time as the closest rice fields to Tokyo today are at Chiba. In the present times the area of Asukusa with its waterfront and temple complex is a popular tourist destination. The woodblock print is from '100 Views of Edo'. It depends on weather conditions and urban haze if a view of Mt Fuji 62 miles (100k) away can be seen from Tokyo.  As I have travelled back in time why not travel in imagination to

Moominland. It looks as though it is Moomintroll's birthday although he has yet to arrive.  Moomin Day is in August (as is my birthday).  We don't know how old Moomintroll is, and Tove Jansson did not say, but wrote in her notebook "He is of that particular age when summers are long, the water warm and new things are constantly happening" Jansson's home in summer was on an island in the Gulf of Finland. I would head further into the Baltic Sea from there to the Åland Islands. I remember reading of an artist who would go there every summer because of the amazing light. Water, light, islands and ferry rides, a true summer delight.

"Visit Aland"

Postcard of the same image Åland issued for the Europa stamp theme of 'Visit' in 2012

Summer Fun

 

1994: Centenary of Picture Postcards

Bathing at Blackpool, tales of the unexpected

Stay on the sands and enjoy a game

of Beach Volleyball as illustrated by Catharina Nygard

1988: Operation Raleigh (Design - Victor Ambrus)

Head to the Great Barrier Reef where the water temperature at the moment is 24℃ (an average temperature for July), not bad for the beginning of winter in Australia!

2006: Summer at the Lake (Illustrator - Irina Gebuhr)

Summer fun by the lake picnicking, fishing, swimming (the dog is not tempted) and enjoying the warmth and calm of a long summer evening.

2016: Lake Constance

 Time to relax after all that fun and watch the world go by.

Sunday Stamps is enjoying Summer Fun at See It On A Postcard 

Crossings Illustrated

 

1994: Postman Pat Visits the Isle of Man (Design - Colleen Corlett)

 

Postman Pat and his black and white cat Jess are using the Green Cross Code to cross the road safety.  "Stop, look, listen, think". No sign of the Green Cross Code Man but we do have a policeman to remind them. The stamps issued with the mini sheet tells the story of Pat visiting his friend Ffinlo who takes him to well known locations on the Isle of Man.  The stop motion animation has been turned into stamps by one of Isle of Man post's popular illustrators Collen Corlett.

In the UK we have Lollipop ladies (and men but that doesn't have the allure of alliteration) who hold up their large lollipop shaped stop signs. In  Germany they are called Pupil Pilots and the stop signs on this card are a lot smaller.

1983: Children and Traffic (Design - Lilo Fromm)

An all action illustration complete with lollipop and ball is by the artist and children's book illustrator  Lilo Fromm,

Sunday Stamps theme - Illustrated, Engraving - See It On A Postcard 

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

Cakes

 See Ir On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is in search of sweets or deserts...

A postcard of one of a series of posters commissioned by London Transport around the 'Simply' theme so that taking the tube or bus could lead one to the simple pleasures of the city.  'Simply Appetising was  the subject for artist Michael Forbes who came up these sweet treats as "A Little Bit of What You Fancy", I'm picking the eclair which I am sure, to complete the idiom, 'will do me good'.

2016 PHQ Card -  Aardman Animations

Is it tea time? No its Timmy Time. No cake stays hidden for long.  As well as appearing with Shaun the Sheep little Timmy  has mini adventures of his own and tries (not always successfully) to stay out of trouble. The series of short 10 minute animations are called 'Timmy Time'.

Great Lives

 Thursday Postcard Hunt is on Inspirational Thoughts and I start with a writer

"Don't Be afraid of BIG ideas!"

who had lots of radical Big Ideas but then Mary Shelley was the daughter of  Mary Wollstonecraft and Stanley Godwin who also had lots of big ideas.

"Stand up for what you believe"

An  activist who believed in deeds not words - Rosa Parks was not going to give up her seat on the bus.  This led to the 382 day Montgomery Bus Boycott and eventually down the road a Supreme Court decision that bus segregation was unconstitutional. 

There is no mention on the cards to the illustrator however I think it may be the Ukrainian children's book illustrator Yulia Zolotova as my Google search turned up a series of books by Mary Nhin called 'Mini movers and shakers' which has an illustration of a similar style.  I like to think the book cover of Rosa Parks was the 'before' and this postcard the 'after'.

Bamse Bear

It is a  Thursday Postcard Hunt for " Words - Speech Bubbles"

1980: Swedish Comic Strips

Bamse the world's strongest and kindest bear. His strength comes from the Thunder Honey his Grandmother prepares for him but only he and his friend Little Bee can eat it, everyone else will get stomach ache. He has many friends and he is saying "It is good to have friends and little friends too". One of his catchphrases is 'Better to be kind than strong', just as well for sometimes he forgets his honey.

City Travels

 Thursday Postcard Hunt for the month is 'Words' - today City Names takes me to

Postsdam and I think I am heading first to that pretty chinoiserie teahouse which Frederick the Great had built near his Summer Palace

2013: Road Trip (Artist - Gavin Ryan)

Or if I am in a mood for a party perhaps head for Adelaide,  the 'City of Churches and Festivals'  Our travellers are not having a smooth ride into town.  But wait something is missing from the card as the stamp shows

a little koala gazing out of the window has come along for the ride. Adelaide is also the home of the Australian Koala Foundation which works to protect them.
 

Sleigh Ride

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Christmas Animals

Lapland

While the reindeer are away

Artist - Inge Löök/223

the Christmas elves will play.  The bear is having second thoughts

Christmas Trees

 Time for a See It On A Postcard Thursday Postcard Hunt this week and its Christmas Trees. All sizes still available from the garden centre near me but

Inge Löök's grannies have already decorated theirs and have decamped with all the essentials for Christmas  to the coast.  They have thought of everything, including an inflatable igloo.

PHQ Card - 2018: Christmas (Illustration - Andrew Davidson)

Meanwhile the posties will still be working until Christmas Eve for the post must get through.  This is one of the big city postboxes with lots of room for Christmas cards and London always has lots of Christmas trees of every size and interpretation. David Hockney's 'Bigger Christmas Trees' may be the most eye catching this year for lovers of lights.

Cowslip Wine

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt is cartoon animals

Time for a picnic where the wasp this time is perfectly welcome and provided with a teeny glass for Mr Bunny's cowslip wine toast. 

Springtime : Illustrator Ammi Krogius

A springtime picnic for the sheep family in a field full of cowslips so why not celebrate the season maxing out on cowslips to both drink and eat. 

Sheep Gathering

 The See It on a Postcard Thursday Postcard Hunt this week is a search for Working Animals

"Sheep Gathering in the Skidadalur valley Ljosmyndari"

and here are the  hardy Icelandic horses. Iceland's sheep spend the long summer days in the mountains but come September/October Icelandic farmers head to the mountains to gather the sheep in before the long cold dark winter arrives. The sheep roundup is called the Réttir and starts with search parties riding horses and quad-bikes to locate the roaming sheep.

2016: PHQ Card "40 Year of Aardman Animation"

No horses live at Mossy Bottom Farm but the farmer has his sheep dog Bitzer (who is always seen wearing the blue knitted hat the farmer gave him as a puppy).  Bitzer is never completely in control of Shaun the Sheep or the The Flock but life would be dull without them.