Faroe

 

1981: Europa - Folklore

Faroese Folk Dancing

1983: Fish

Fish - Cusk (Bosme brosme), a cod like fish, the only fish in its genus and a Haddock

Atlantic Halibut and an Atlantic Wolf-fish, a natural anti-freeze runs in its blood.

2015: SEPAC - Knitted Art

Something to keep ones fingers warm and admire the art and versatility of wool (warm even when wet).  When the textile artist Randi Samsonsen knitted these objects and designed  the stamp she was looking forward to using it on her mail.

Sunday Stamps A-Z - In the Faroe Islands - find more at See It On A Postcard

From the Sea

 

1991: For A Better Environment

The Mediterranean coastline and its wildlife

2006: Norwegian Marine Life IV

Meanwhile in the Atlantic - a sea urchin with a name that seems to use a good portion of the alphabet Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, Green Sea Urchin (found in northern waters around the world).

1980: Animals

Ocean perch

1981: Painting

'Hauling the Line' by Gunnlaugur Scheving who painted life in Iceland, many of whose works featured the sea, as can be seen here

A seal hauling out from the sea at low tide. Our local haul out has a seal cam so one can take an interest in the seal and pup numbers when it is the winter breeding season from the comfort of a couch.

Sunday Stamps theme - From the Sea - 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
 

Caribbean Sights

1966: Cuban Shells

Imagine a walk along a Cuban beach maybe find some pretty shells, a Measled Cowrie or in the inter-tidal area a West Indian Fighting Conch (Strombus pugilis), where maybe two sea snail eyes suddenly pop out on their stalks

1994: Caribbean Fauna

Look out to sea and a dolphin leaps

1990: 25th Anniversary of  the Oceanology Institute

Fancy a trip on a research vessel?  I would.

See the marvel of a sailfish.

2010: Tourism

Take a dive and seahorses drift past in the warmth of the Caribbean.

Sunday Stamps this week is all at sea with - Marine Life - See It On A Postcard

 

Underwater Sights

 

2000: World Tourism Day. Diving Sites

Time to travel to the warm, clear waters of the Caribbean and these Cuban stamps suggest some diving locations to try.  The fish await.  65 - French Angelfish at Santa Lucia a "diving paradise"; 75 - Black margate at Maria la Gorda, Cuba's most western tip

10 - Hawkbill Turtle at Guardalavaca, one of the first ports Christopher Columbus visited and once a refuge for pirates, today it is a refuge for  tourists. 15 - Nassau grouper at El Colony

1998: Deep Sea Fish

A deep submergence vehicle would be required to be able to see these weird and wonderful fish of the deep but without going to all that effort we can  enjoy through the pleasure of stamps.

Top:  Skate and a Gulper; Bottom, lots of teeth - Caulophryne and its illuminated 'fishing lure' and Sloan's viperfish in the twilight zone. Oh no now the  twilight zone theme music is now in my head

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

Swimming

 

1955-7: Sport (Design - S Jonsson)

Diving into a geothermal pool, how pleasant.

2014: Sport - Swedish Classic (Design - Henrik Karlson)

This may be a little more bracing. The Swedish Classics are 4 races consisting of Cross Country Skiing, running, open water swimming and cycling.  They have to be completed within a year of registering and on completion a certificate and medal are awarded.

1953: Sports (Design - Andre Jacquemin\)

The ambient temperature of a pool

1992: Olympic Games (Design - T Ekstrom)

the spectacular but exhausting butterfly stroke.

1966: Prehistoric Fauna (Design - A Heidrich)

One might choose a different stroke if this was swimming towards you. I would call that the panic stroke. The Terror Fish (Dinichthys), apex predator. Swam the seas when sharks were small in comparison. Its fossil remains have been found in the USA and Canada.

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

 

Under the Waves

 

2010: Life on the Coast (Design - Norbert Tamas; Engraver - Piotr Naszarkowski)

Under the sea on the west coast of Sweden off the coast of Lysekil is the world's largest wave power park with hundreds of 8-10 metre caissons anchored to the bottom to transfer energy from the buoys bobbing up and down in the water.

Swedish Post decided to use the 2010 Norden theme of  'Life on the Coast' to show the year round industries along the west coast, home to communities that survive partly on small scale fishing that is not harmful to the environment.  The stamps feature a mussel from a mussel farm and Alf Gustafsson on the deck of his boat, Emilie, pulling in the days catch of Norway lobsters.  Alf is from Fjällbacka where Ingrid Bergman spent her summer holidays (the main square is named after her).  It also has a high murder rate despite having only a population of 1000, although these only happen in the books of Camilla Lackberg.

Another coastal town this time in Kent on this FDC, Fisherman's Beach, Hythe with its two Martello Towers, remnants from the Napoleonic Wars.

2014: Sustainable Fish (Design - Kate Stephens; Artist - David Miller)

The stamp idea was to highlight which fish are sustainable and which are threatened in UK waters. The designer wanted to show them in a story of their environment

and designer and artist worked to create very precise representations, even down to the number of scales.

2005: Norwegian Marine Life II (Design - Enzo |Finger)

Of course there is a lot more that fish in the fabulous underwater world.  Here are Orca and sea anemone, this one is the strawberry anemone

2004: Norwegian Marine Life I (Design - Enzo Finger)

A helmet jellyfish (periphylla periphylla) found in the dark depths of up to 7000 m (23,000 ft), the Atlantic Wolffish, those teeth are needed for the molluscs and crustaceans it eats (it does not eat fish), and  the Atlantic Bobtail squid

2007: Norwegian Marine Life VI

 

Lastly is a squat lobster (Galathea strigosa) identified by the blue stripes across its body

 

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Under the Sea - swim over for what lies beneath to See It On A Postcard

Under Southern Skies

2009: Stargazing - Southern Skies

The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is located in the Hydra (water snake) constellation and the best time to see it is in the Spring which starts next month (in Australia).

1990: Animals of the High Country (Design - D Higgins)

If lucky enough to be in Australia and stargazing who knows perhaps a nocturnal marsupial may glide past and if you are in a eucalyptus forest then it will be this Greater Glider.

1966-1974: Decimal Definitive (Design - Betty Temple-Watts)

The sun is up and so are the cockatoos and this one is a galah - which I think is best said in an Australian accent.

2006: Australian Wildlife (Design - Trevor Marriott)

Meanwhile on the ground, a Tasmanian Devil  and another nocturnal creature, the common wombat.

 

Sit by fresh water and the curious creature that is the platypus may be playing there.

1966: Decimal Definitive (Design - Betty Temple-Watts)

Where next to go to watch the southern skies perhaps a beach,  where the nocturnal and gregarious Australian hermit crabs may be scuttling.  As they grow they need new shells and there is strong competition for the best shells so a fight may break out at any moment. 

The sun has risen

2010: Fish of the Reef (Design - Simone Sakinofsky)

 

take a trip underwater for a blaze of colour

with tropical fish  I was quite taken with the name of one as Spotted Sweetlips.

2011: Cocos Island Boats

Take a boat to sail the Pacific islands or travel much further south - but wrap up

1990: Australia/USSR Joint Issue -  Antarctica (Design - Janet Boschen and Yuri Artsimenev)

its going to be cold. 

 

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - the Southern Hemisphere - travel to See It On A Postcard

Fish Quest

1967: Fish of the Arabian Gulf

This is a satisfyingly large stamp (7cm) to stick on an airmail envelope from Umm Al Quiwain and features a pair of parrotfish.  These fish live on a diet of algae and dead coral, grinding the latter with teeth in their throat and famously pooping sand, which is the undigested coral.

1972: Tropical Fish

Don't know what these little fish are (goldfish?) but the stamp is one which came from a miniature sheet.  Today Umm Al Qiwain is part of the United Arab Emirates so to increase the number of stamps to show this week I journey to one of its other members

t

1971: Flowers and Fish (Design - Samir Ghantous)

Fujeira. This stamp features a paradise fish and the late ruler of the emirate Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqui succeeded by his son (who has the same name) in 1974. The duplicate names confused me for a while when I couldn't marry up the image on the stamp with the emirate's present ruler.  The stamp was designed by the Lebanese artist Samir Ghantous as is this one -

1971: Olympic Games, Munich, Germany (Design - Samir Ghantous)

issued as part of an Olympic set the same year.

UAE

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter Q - for Qiwain - See It On A Postcard