New Countries #200 Benin and #201 St Kitts

Well, I'm back from vacation, just one day late. We had a great few days in Victoria, B.C and a wonderful week in Honolulu. And I might add a postcard free vacation. No postcards , no stamps and no covers, just a relaxing time. Well I guess that's not 100 percent true. We sent 3 postcards from Waikiki to our 3 grandsons here in Calgary. There is no time like the present to get them started collecting postcards. Also, while on the beach, I overheard a small conversation between 2 ladies behind me. It went like this, the first lady said"did you send any postcards?" . The other lady said "yes, I did out a bunch of cards, but I haven't posted them, I'll send them when I get back to L.A. , that's o.k. they are just postcards. " I wanted to turn around and say, "not really," but I didn't, each to their own I guess. Enough about my trip, on to postcards. While away, I received a total of 12 new postcards and 2 nice covers. But, before any of that, I have a little business to attend to , left over from the day before I left.

I received 3 postcards that day and 2 of them were new countries to my collection. First is a card from Benin, new country #200. It was sent by Sara who lives in Niamey, Niger. She had earlier sent a card from Niger. Sara has a blog called La Love Affair at http://laloveaffair.blogspot.com .
Thanks Sara for this great card and your support both times with great cards .

Benin is a country in Western Africa. It borders Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Niger. It's capital is Porto Novo, with the city of Cotonou, the seat of government. Benin was known as Dahomey until 1975. Sara's card shows 3 scenes of Cotonou. She said she wanted to visit Ouidah and the Slave Road. Ouidah is the voodoo center of Benin, while the Slave Road is a 4km road between Ouidah and the beach, over which thousands of slaves traveled on their way to board slaving ships for the New World.

Sara used 2 new 2008 Benin stamps showing the Coat of arms of the country.


The second card is from Iceland. It was sent by a Postcrosser named Kristina. The card shows some children dressed in 19th century Icelandic National costumes . Kristina used 2 stamps from 2007 on her card. The green stamp is 1 of 2 issued to commemorate 100 years of Icelandic forestry. The other stamp was issued to commemorate the Iclandic national Archives. Thanks to Kristina for this card.

The last card is from another new country in my collection, St. Kitts, country #201. St. Kitts is located in the Eastern Caribbean. The island is 69 square miles with a population of approx 32,000. Basseterre is the capital. The card shows a drawing of The Golden Lemon. The Golden Lemon Inn & Villas is located in Dieppe Bay, St. Kitts. The Inn is a 17th century Great House and has been operated by Arthur Leamon since 1963. Arthur named it The Golden Lemon, as his friends and early guests said he had bought a real lemon. Arthur replied that it had better be a Golden lemon and that is how it got it's name. Check out their website at www.goldenlemon.com.

The stamp on the card is from a 2004 set of 4, marking World Aids Day.
Thanks Arthur for this card.

This is just a catch-up from before I left, hopefully I will get to some of the other 12 cards, over the weekend, that arrived while I was away.


But before I go , one more bit of business. As you all know, I was holding a small contest as to which country would come in as country # 200. Well I only had 2 entries but luckily 1 was a winner. Benin is country # 200 and it was correctly guessed by Thomas Vandaele of Belgium. His blog is at http;//veedeesstamps.blogspot.com . His prize for this is a cover or postcard, his choice. I might suggest a cover , as what I want to use as postage won't fit too well on a postcard. But as I said, it's your choice Thomas. Just let me know and I will get it off to you asap.

That's it for this time. I still have alot of catching up to do, so I should have another update tomorrow. Stay tuned.