P for Penguins

 

1978: Antarctic Fauna

Emperor Penguin are the heaviest and  largest of the penguins

1991: Endangered Species - King Penguin

The King Penguin is smaller but unlike the Emperor Penguin it lives in the sub-arctic islands and rocky coastlines.

1999: Definitive - Birds (Design - Una Hurst)

It  is the largest and most colourful penguin on South Georgia. The artist Una Hurst specialises in the wildlife of the South Atlantic and has designed and painted nearly 50 postage stamps. Born on the Falkland Islands she now lives in Scotland with her family on a sheep farm in Orkney. 

1956: Penguins and Seals

The Rockhopper Penguin, one of the many species of crested penguins.

2002: Comic Strips and Movies

Rasmus Klump is a bear that always wears polka dot dungarees and goes on many adventures with his friends, Pingo the Penguin, Pelle (a pelican), Pildskadden (a turtle) and Skaeg (a seal) on his boat the Mary.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - here for Penguins and a Pelican - See It On A Postcard 

Island Life

 

2014: 50 Years of Manx Radio

Weather forecasts on Manx radio and a rather topical stamp this weekend. Strong winds in the Irish Sea have  resulted in ferry crossings being cancelled. The fronts and troughs of low pressure near Iceland and high pressure in the Atlantic have produced weather very different to last year when we enjoyed unusually warm weather.  Ah how fickle is Spring.

1991: Manx Photography (Design - Colleen Corlett)

  The first recorded photograph in the Isle of Man (to be found in the Manx Museum) dates back to the 1850s

These are later. 17p photo by Marshall Wane (operating between 1865 and 1882) of local businessman and philanthropist  Henry Bloom Noble with his group of orphan boys. 21p taken at the beginning of the 20th Century of Douglas on a more benign day than my first stamp. It is by a well know name for postcard collectors, Fredrick Frith, who travelled the British Isles and took approximately a quarter of a million photographs.

26p is from the photographer Hilda Newby (1897-1969) know on the island as a Studio Photographer. 31p is of Cashtal yn Ard one of many landscapes taken by Christopher Killip in the 1970s. The English translation is Castle of the Heights, a megalithic chamber tomb.

The stamp designer of this set, Colleen Corlett, a keen photographer, provides the last photo of a not unfamiliar coastal sight, seagulls at a picnic table. I wonder what tasty morsels they have found?  A 1990 view of Peel where the descendants of those seagulls will probably be scavenging  in the same place in 2026 and looking forward to the coming tourist season.

Sunday Stamps A-Z for Isle of Man and Inclement weather - See It On A Postcard 

Woodpeckers

 

2001: Woodpeckers (Artist - Erik Bruun)

  

An issue designed by Erik Bruun known for his iconic Finnish bird and wildlife stamps  Born in 1926 Finland's Posti will be celebrating his birthday in April with some of those stamp designs. Approaching his 100th year I believe he is still painting and drawing but just for pleasure.

The sheet features 6 woodpecker varieties. The top pair - lesser spotted and three toed woodpeckers, middle. white-backed and great spotted woodpeckers and lastly grey headed and a black woodpecker

1970: Birds (Design- Richard Gerbig)

Another Great spotted but living in Switzerland

1996: Birds (Design- Michael Matherly)

Flying to the USA and another species to add to this list, the Red-headed Woodpecker.

Sunday Stamps A-Z this week here for Woodpeckers and wildlife - See It On A Postcard 

T for Transport

 

The RMS St Helena was a cargo/passenger ship that served the remote South Atlantic islands of St Helena and Tristan da Cunha from 1990-2018.  It was one of the last Royal Mail Ships. Today this "rugged little vessel"  has been repurposed for polar exploration. Wondering about that air mail sticker? The ship's routine journey was from Cape Town, SA where it would pick up the mail destined for Tristan da Cunha and St Helena. The St Helena airport opened in 2016,  however Tristan da Cuhna is 1900 km south of St Helena so no wonder its famous sign says "Welcome to the Remotest Island'. Mail is delivered by infrequent cargo and fishing vessels making mail a highly anticipated event. I think I get excited when post  drops through my letterbox but this must but on another level of excitement for the islanders!

The 10p stamp shows another, older, Royal Mail Ship the 'Rangitata' which operated from New Zealand. Part of the 1994 'Ships' issue. The 45p stamp shows a scooter and a Yamaha motorcycle, one of the 1995 Local Transport issue.

The stamps used on this cover were for Thailand's 1967 International Letter Writing Week. The cover was carried aboard Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) plane for the first Trans-Asian Express air route connecting Copenhagen and Denmark to Bangkok and Singapore via a technical stop in Tashkent then part of the USSR (today Uzbekistan's capital). Called the great circle route it was a one stop flight to Asia flown by a DC8, all very exciting and a great event at the time.

Here is the cover being returned with the additional cancels to Henry Jensen from the 'circle route'

1977: Centenary of Local Transport

Keeping it local. Right - A horse drawn tram, Malmo, Electric Tram,Gothenburg

Left Ferry Boat to Djurgarden, Stockholm, Articulated bus, Gothenburg and the Underground train, Stockholm.

Sunday Stamps A-Z

T for Tristan da Cunha, Thailand, Transport, train and trams - See It On A Postcard

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Stars

 

1994: World Cup and Swedish Technology on the Moon

The Swedish Soccer team was about to travel to the USA for the World Cup in 1994 when this FDC was issued. There were 24 teams competing back then unlike next year when the number is doubled. Yikes. 

It was also 25 years since the first moon landing. Neil Armstrong's unforgettable pictures of the moon were made using a Swedish Hasselblad Data Camera.

2009: Space Travel

The first Swedish citizen in space was the physicist Christer Fuglesang journeying on the space shuttle in December 2006 to the space station. 

The stamps were issued in booklet form

1969: Events (Design - Hans Emri)

The constellation of Pegasus. Find the four stars forming the lopsided square in sky and the rest of the stars will form the winged horse. The stamp commemorates the opening in 1969 of Switzerland's first planetarium which is located in Lucerne.

Sunday Stamps A-Z for Sweden, Switzerland, Soccer, Space and Stars - See It On A Postcard 

Mushroom Mutitudes

 

2025: Mushrooms

A mushroom hunters delight, the Morel, excellent when cooked slowly.

From Malta, a cross thistle oyster mushroom or King Oyster, widely cultivated and native to the temperate humid areas of the Mediterranean.

2006: Mushrooms of Greenland II

Greenland Milk-cap Mushroom, I am assuming this species is edible to be included in the stamp issue, although many milk caps (Lactarius) are not.

 Definitely edible, a puffball, Calvatia cretacea, although in common with all puffballs  the interior has to be pure white otherwise it is past its edible stage. 

Sunday Stamps A-Z - M for Morel, Malta and Mushrooms - See It On A Postcard   

Island Butterflies

 

1993: Butterflies - 21st Anniversary of the Manx Conservation Trust (Artist - Collen Corlett

Butterflies who have found their home on the Isle of Man. The cover features Small Tortoiseshells 

The stamps top - Peacock, Dark Green Fritillary and Painted Lady. Below are the Holly Blue and Red Admiral. The Red Admiral, unusually for a butterfly, sometimes flies at night.

2021: 70th Anniversary of the Manx National Trust

when the Garden Tiger Moth will be flying. The moth's striking black caterpillars are covered in long black and ginger hairs so referred to as 'woolly bears'.  The small island of the Calf of Man is a nature reserve and Bird Observatory.

1985: Flora and Fauna (Artist - Ian Loe)

Hopping over from the Isle of Man to the larger island of Ireland and a Marsh Fritillary, once widespread across Britain and Ireland but has declined in number and now mostly restricted to the west coasts of Britain and Ireland where it is sure to find its preference for wet meadows and boggy places.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - I for Isle of Man, Ireland and Insects - See It On A Postcard 

Dancers

 

1959-1965: The Copenhagen Festivals

Here Margrethe Shanne (1921-2014) dances in the ballet "La Sylphide", which she performed over 100 times, loved because of the ethereal and supernatural feeling she brought to the role.  The first Danish ballet dancer to appear on a stamp it was issued for three of  the Music and Ballet Festivals in May 1959, 1962 and 1965.

1976: 5th International Ballet Festival, Havana

Canto Vital (Vital Song), not one I am familiar with but apparently it is danced to the rondo of Mahler's 5th symphony and choreographed for male dancers. From one ballet dancer

1989: Ballet - The Art of Dance

to two

and four.

1979: Birth Centenary of Jacob Gade

For non professional ballet dancers but mere mortals this may be one of the ways to dance.  The stamp celebrates the  music of Jacob Gade (1879-1963) famous for his tango 'Jealousy', originally an instrumental but the lyrics we know today were created at a later date.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - here for Denmark and dance - See It On A Postcard 

Military Siege

 

1993: 350th Anniversary of the Siege of Castle Cornet (Design - Clive Abbott)

Scenes from the English Civil War. Castle Cornet was a Royalist stronghold however the population of Guernsey were for the Parliamentarians, they called on the Lieutenant Governor to surrender but he fired on them.  The population were not equipped to storm the castle as they discovered after one abortive attempt. The defensive batteries around St Peters Port originally built to protect Guernsey from the French directed their fire at Castle Cornet.  The guns on the castle fired back. Today archaeological excavations regularly find musket and canon balls fired from the castle.  Cornet was supplied by ships throughout the Civil War which were sent by the Lieutenant General of Jersey.  I liked the story portrayed on the 28p stamp of the three local officials who were tricked aboard one of the enemy ships thinking it was one of their own but the captain had switched sides. Imprisoned for 43 days they managed to escape by making a hole in the wooden floor to the room below where they found a supply of flax which they made into ropes and escaped.

The FDC shows the three shields of Castle Cornet's commanders, Osborn was disliked by both the population and his own side however on surrender Burgess, the last Governor, and his men, were allowed to march out bearing arms and leave the island at the end of the siege in recognition of their humane treatment of prisoners. Here is the story from the FDC insert...

taking us to the present day...

 Sunday Stamps theme - Military - See It On A Postcard

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

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

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