Return From .................

I'm finally here, live or maybe alive would be better. It's been quite a while, my last update was April 7th . Wow, more than a month ago.  Some of you know that I was away and that takes care of 25 days. I returned home on May 5th . The rest of the time I have been sick, ill,  not well , or all of the above. I have been to the doctor 3 times , been on 4 medications , yesterday was my best day since returning home. Today is another good day. Looking forward to tomorrow and every day after. I haven't seen my kids or my grand kids since I returned , so am definitely looking forward to that. Must have picked up some form of cruise ship bug. That's enough about me. You didn't come here to read about me, it's postcards you were looking for.

When I returned I found 54 postcards in the mailbox, there wasn't room for too many more.  And, of course I posted a few cards while away. 83 cards in fact  . I managed to find postcards, stamps and post offices or a postbox  in each port we stopped. A total of 13 places to post from. All I can say is , look in your mail box., you never know.

So let's get to today's goodies. First up is a card from Bhutan, "Land of  Happiness ". It shows a Drukair Royal  Bhutan Airlines Airbus A319 on the runway , possibly at Paro Airport. David sent this card from Thimphu back in February .














The extra specialness of the card is the postage that David used. The actual stamp contains  a CD-Rom . It is a video promoting the country. It was issued in 2008 as the world's first CD-Rom stamp. All stamp collectors know that there are some strange items out there listed as stamps, 3D stamps, hologram stamps , stamps made of wood or metal, stamps that give off a smell, stamps with bits of rock, wood or crystal embedded . These are all good and collectible to who ever takes a liking to them. Myself, I have a fine collection of the Holograms stamps. The thing is , we rarely , if ever,  see these types of stamps used or fulfilling this role of carrying the mail. I'm happy to report that this Bhutan CD-Rom stamp did its postal duty. The postmark or cancellation is quite visible in the lower left corner, datestamped  25. 02. 13 . A fine and rare addition to my collection. Thanks David. Check out David's great postcard blog called Postcards A World Travelogue .




My second card for today is from Singapore. The Singapore Philatelic Museum in fact. Every year the museum has a children's exhibition of postcards based on the current Chinese New Year. Since this year is the Year of the Snake, the exhibition is entitled Snakes and Ladders. Every year through Postcrossing the museum asks members to send a postcard theme related. If you include your name and address, you get a card back from the museum. Hence my card.

 

The card arrived with a nice, clear cancellation of The Singapore Philatelic Museum on a stamp from 2009. It is 1 of 7 stamps in a Sculptures set.

 
 
Here's a card of a 1958 photo of a Sabena Douglas DC7. I wonder why this lady is out strolling around the airfield by herself. Don't think you can do that today.

 

Johan of Belgium sent this one along. He used a Belgian Chocolate stamp from a set of 5 in a m/sheet. I couldn't really smell the chocolate , guess I don't have quite enough imagination. Be sure to give Johan's postcard blog a look , it's called Johan Postcards . 
Here's the chocolate stamp, can you smell it ?

This next card is a photo of a painting by Macadonian artist Tomo Vladimirski ( 1904-1971). A very nice painting, but I really don't know if it actually has a name.

Ana used 3 large stamps on this card, 1 of them, the one on the far right represents another of Tomo Vladimirski's works. The stamp on the left is from 2006, 1 of 4 in a Famous Persons set. The middle and right stamps were both issued in 2004 , 2 of them in a Paintings set. Don't forget Ana's blog, My World of Postcards


Two more to go.  Saba is up next. Saba is a Caribbean island and the smallest special municipality of the Netherlands. Mount Scenery ( 870 m ) is located on Saba, and is the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Saba is one of the BES islands along with Bonaire and Sint Eustatius. The three now form  the Caribbean Netherlands.

Jean Pierre used a 2012 Caribbean Netherlands stamp.

Now here's the last card for this time. It comes from Bruce from South Africa.. It's of a very flashy painted South African Airways B747. It was commissioned to commemorate the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The SAA Boeing 747 bears the colours of the SA Flag along with the hopes and dreams of The Rainbow Nation. It was used to transport South Africa's athletes to the '96 Summer games in Atlanta. It's another great addition to my Airlines/Aircraft on Postcards Collection.    



Bruce used a 2010 definitive from the Handicrafts set of 27.

  

So ends another update. It's good to get this one up and running after such a long time away. Thanks to Bruce, Jean Pierre, Ana, Johan, David and The Singapore Philatelic Museum for these cards.  

Please come back again soon, I promise my next update won't take near so long. 

Take care.

A Few Choice Cards

Let's start off this update with a nice card from Turkey. Leslie sent this card of Maiden's ( Leander's ) Tower in Istanbul. The tower is located on a small islet at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus  strait.

Leslie and  I have exchanged cards often, over the years. Her postcard blog, the postcard blog, can be found here .  She used a nice gold- embossed mini sheet of 2 different stamps issued this current year.

Here's a card that will appeal to the many train card collectors out there. It comes from France and shows Locomotive 404 way back in 1975.









Pierre used 2 of 4 Tropical Fish stamps issued in 2012

My next card is " a little out there ". It's a Hubble Space Telescope image of the Bug Nebula  ( or Butterfly Nebula ) , with wing-shaped gas cloudsin shades of red-prange and white. This nebula is approximately 3800 light years from planet earth, in the Scorpius constellation.

 

Marg from Pflugerville, Texas sent this one and used the new round Forever Global stamp, featuring an image of the globe.

A Lundy Post box is featured on this next card. The card comes from little Luxembourg. It is compliments of Michael, a Postcrosser over that way.

Michael used a couple of 2009 stamps along with a Lundy stamp. The middle stamp , from Luxembourg , is 1 of 3 in a Flying set. The stamp on the right is from a set of 3 issued to showcase Fire Fighters. The Lundy stamp was just a little bonus from Michael.

 

Next up is a picture of a painting by Jean-Honore Fragonard ( 1732-1806 ) . I can't say I know anything about him or his work. But enjoy anyway. 

 

This is another Postcrossing card, from Iryna on Belarus. Iryna's stamp is a Christmas

stamp issued in 2012, 1 of a set of 2.


And, finally , Guyana. I received a bunch of cards from Guyana , six in fact. I'm not showing all of them , just three, but I do want to show all the stamps that were on them, because they were all great stamps and I don't receive all that many items with stamps from Guyana. First I must tell you how this all came about. A couple of weeks ago I saw a Guyana card on Johan's postcard blog.  He wrote that he received it through www.postcardlocker.com .
I visited the site and went through their postcards for sale. They have lots of great postcards at great prices . I purchased a fine selection  and indeed received them from Guyana in short time. They also have a service called Mailing Service in which they have a number of cards that you can purchase and have them mailed from Georgetown, Guyana. Since I didn't have many  cards from Guyana, I arranged for 5 to be mailed to me. I even asked that they use different stamps on each, and they did. If you don't ask, you maybe don't get. Anyway, the cards all arrived , adorned with wonderful stamps.

 

The stamp on this one was issued in 1995 for the 18th World Scott Jamboree in Holland. You can see it here along with a number of other stamps that were on other cards.

 

My next card from Guyana gives us a look at the Two-Toed Sloth, a native to the country's  tropical rainforest.  They spend most of their life hanging upside down from trees.

PostcardLocker put a wonderful Elvis stamp on this one. I know lots of countries issue Elvis stamps for the Elvis collectors out there , but you don't really see them on mail all that often. Here's Elvis Aaron Presley in his army uniform.

Here's the last card from Guyana. It is of Kaieteur Falls, the highest single drop waterfall in the world. It is 226 meters high compared to Niagara Falls at 51 meters.  It must be impressive.

Again we find Elvis on this one. It is the 2nd stamp in the the 2002 set of 2. Not in uniform this time, perhaps though, singing "I'm So lonesome I Could Cry ". People often say that Elvis has left the building, maybe he just went to the Post Office to hang out.

That's it for the Guyana cards, but I just want to show the other Guyana stamps that were used on the envelope that brought me the postcards I ordered from PostcardLocker. Here they are.

 

 Now it's bonus time. My Airplane/Airline card for today is a Luxair Boeing 737. Luxair is the flag carrier of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. As of 2011 they operated 4 B 737s. Looks like the kids are having a blast on this flight, but I don't know how high they'll get with the windows down. 

My aviation stamp selection for today is this fine mini sheet from Sweden. Be sure to click on and enlarge to see the fine detail. I'm not sure I'd fly in that contraption  shown on the center stamp though.

So ends another update. Thanks to Leslie, Pierre, Marg, Michael, Iryna, and PostcardLocker.Thanks for visiting and reading. Check back soon.

Cards From David

 All the cards in today's update were sent by David of Ireland. His recent trip yielded a nice assortment of cards from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and India. Let's start with a card from Khulna, Bangladesh. David's card shows a reflection of post-monsoon clouds in a river in the East Sanctuary Sundarbans area . The Sundarbans is the world's largest mangrove forest. Khulna is located in the southern part of the country and is the 3rd largest city. Here is David's card.

David wasn't lucky enough to find a stamp for this postcard. I imagine that didn't go over too well, I know it wouldn't have for me. He had to settle for a postage meter of some sort, showing Bangladesh, Postage Paid and the date. The good part though is that it works. Have a look.

Card 2 is from Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a picture of Kathmandu Durbar Square, with the external courtyard facade of the Taleju Temple to the northeast.

 This card arrived with a really nice stamp issued back in September of 2012. It is a Joint Issue with Israel. It shows the Highest  ( Mount Everest ) and the Lowest ( the Dead Sea ) places on Earth. It is also the first joint issue by Nepal.

Next is David's card from Paro, Bhutan. Paro is a town of around 15,000 in the Paro Valley of Bhutan. It is also the home of Bhutan's only international airport. The card gives us a look at some of the houses and buildings  in the valley with the farms near the bottom of the valley.

 

Many, many years ago as a young stamp collector, you might get a stamp or two from exotic Bhutan and think to yourself, these don't even look real. Now , those many years later, who would have thought that I would even receive mail from there ? Certainly not me. 

The stamp here is the 2012 Year of the Dragon Stamp.

  

Now for a card showing the Khangchendzodnga Mountain Range. It is looking from Phoktay dara, above Chiwabhanjyang, West Sikkim, India. Sikkim sate is the least populous state in India. It shares borders with Nepal, China's Tibet and Bhutan. It has the only open land border between India and China. 

 

The stamp on the left was issued in 2012, celebrating the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. The lighthouse stamp is 1 of 2 in a recent 2012 set. The 2 formed a very nice souvenir sheet. A 2009 definiteve can also be seen.

David's next card is titled, les enfants de Calcutta and it's easy to see why with a couple little kids and a mom on the front. My Lovely Teena likes this card, she always  likes cards with people.

Quite a large stamp on the right, it was issued in 2010. It commemorates the Rath Yatra held in Puri. It is the oldest , and biggest Rath Yatra held in the world. It is a Hindu festival that involves transporting idols on a chariot. The left stamp was issued in 2012 and is 1 of 4 celebrating 100 Years of Aviation in India.

Here's another one thanks to David. This one is of Shore Temple in Mahabalipuram, a town in the state of Tamil Nadu. The state is in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula. The Shore Temple was built in 700-728 AD and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1884.

The stamps on this one feature two very well known females. On the left is Indira Gandhi, a former Prime Minister of India , while on the right is Mother Teresa, an Indian Roman Catholic nun, born in Skopje, Macedonia.

David's last card for this time is from Pondicherry, India. Pondicherry is a city in the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. The French acquired Puducherry in 1674 and held it until 1962. David commented on his card that the area had a little French feel to it. From looking at the card , almost anywhere comes to mind except India.

Three of 4 textile stamps were used on this one. They are from a set of 4 issued in 2009.








That's David's cards for this time. Thanks David. , Nothing left except for my bonus Airlines postcard and bonus Aviation stamps.

The card this time is of a Alaska Airlines DC-6C, pictured at Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Alaska first introduced DC-6 service in 1957. With the DC-6 , Alaska was the first carrier to introduce in-flight movies on regular passenger flights.

 

My Aviation stamps for this time are a group of stamps issued by Sweden. On the left are a Friedrichshafen FF49 and a Junkers J4-52. The 2 center stamps show a JU-52 and the right stamps are of Douglas DC-3s.

Be sure to click on these and see just how beautiful and detailed these stamps really are.

 

So ends another update. Next issue in April. See you then. 

Long Awaited Update ( at least by me )

Hello faithful, glad you keep coming back. I know this is long overdue and I have lots of excuses, not least of which  is some technical  glitch with Blogger that is not allowing me to sign in. However,  as is evident with this, I ( actually , my son Steve ) have found a back door way that allows me to sign in. That's enough about that, I'm sure that if you're reading this , you're here for the postcards. Speaking of postcards, I might not have been on my blog, but that didn't stop the cards from arriving. I think 28 or so arrived since my last update.

A private swap card from NSW, Australia is first up . It's actually a maximum card with a very similar stamp of the Blue Mountains of the Grose Valley area. Spectacular sandstone cliff formations dominate The Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The Blue Mountains is a national park and a W H Site since 2000.  The Grose River Gorge stamp on the front of the card was issued in 2008, one of four

in a New South Wales set.

Don , a Postcrosser who hails from Springwood, NSW sent this card. He and I will do a few card swaps in the coming months. Don  used 2 stamps from a 2012 set of 5 entitled Agriculture in Australia. 









I'm not quite sure what to think about this next card. I'm not even sure it is actually a postcard. It did the work of one and was accepted by the post offices of Taiwan and Canada. Isabel sent this tiny card to fulfill her Postcrossing obligation after drawing my name. It is certainly the smallest card I have received , measuring just  8.5 cm x 5.5 cm.  Here is Isabel's circus ride.

Even as small as I have shown the card, it really doesn't give a true idea of its size , especially when one looks at the stamp that was on it.
Isabel's stamp is 1 of 4 in a Berries set issued in 2012.

I wonder if I just bought a stamp and wrote an address on it , would that be accepted and get to a destination, because let me tell you, I have seen stamps bigger than the above card. Who wants to try ?

My next card is another addition to my Airplanes on Postcards collection. This one flew in from Belarus. It's a cool looking 2 seater little prop job.

Anna from Minsk used a neat 2013 Embroidery stamp from a set of 3 issued Feb 12th of this year.

As I receive more and more Train cards I am starting to find them quite interesting and can see why some collect  them , much like I collect planes. And when they arrive with a train stamp , it makes it even better. This is an interesting card as Sirpa  the sender actually took the picture and then had the postcard professionally printed . It's a good job, too. The train is one that makes an old style trip from one city to another, just once a summer.

 

The stamp is from a booklet of 6 self adhesives issued in 2012 celebrating Finnish railway's 150th Anniversary. And, if my geometry holds up, I believe the stamp is a vertical trapezoid. If not, I'm sure someone will let me know.

Today's final card for today is my bonus Aviation card followed by a couple of Aviation stamps. The card is a beautiful view of a C-141 Starlifter. The Starlifter provided a variety of heavy lift duties for the Air Mobility Command of the USAF. It was used to airlift combat forces, and equipment along with transporting the sick and wounded. This postcard brings back memories from the 1970s for me. When I lived in Goose Bay, Labrador, the USAF had an air force base there and quite often one could look skyward and see a C-141 landing or taking off. If I'm not mistaken, one of the tings I remember is that they didn't seem to make a lot of noise, unlike the KC-135 Stratotanker refuellers which were based there. You couldn't hear yourself when they were on the move.

 

To to make sure you were paying attention I will post a C-141 Starlifter card to the first one to correctly answer the following 2 questions :

1-  How many C-141s were lost during the Viet Nam War  and 

2- What were the dates of their destructions ? 

First email with correct answers to glenn.moores@shaw.ca  Wins

 

Here are my Aviation stamps for this time. Enjoy.

 
  They come from Lundy, not exactly a bastion of stamp issuing prowness, but I can't help liking these two. On the left is a De-haviland Comet and on the right a Bristol Brabazon.

Thanks to Don, Isabel, Anna and Sirpa for their cards. 
Come back soon, as I hope to get a few more updates in before the end of the month.
My next update will be a bunch of cards all from one sender- David from Ireland. It will be cards from his recent trip to India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Sounds good to me,