I'm Back, Now it's Catch-Up Time and # 216 Lesotho

Well, I'm back , and hopefully I can regain my readers. I 'm sure some people may have tuned in and found nothing new and may never return. Hopefully not though. After a couple weeks in Newfoundland , I arrived home to find 20 or so postcards and a number of nice covers in my mailbox. Obviously , I won't show all of that or at least not in one update, but I hope to show the best over a period of time, maybe on days that nothing new arrives. In that bunch of postcards I did receive one new country, Lesotho and it's # 216 in my collection.Along with the Lesotho card , I will show cards from Swaziland, New Zealand, Georgia and South Africa. Not a bad group actually. Lesotho is a landlocked country and enclave entirely surrounded by South Africa. It is the southernmost landlocked country in the world. Formerly called Basutoland , it has a population of around 2 million and it's capital city is Maseru.
The Lesotho card shows Basotho traditional life and dress in the Kingdom of Lesotho. It was sent by Nicole Evans , a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer based in Lesotho. She has a blog called A Different Mirror on the net. Nicole used a 2004 stamp featuring a butterfly from a set of 4. She also sent me a cover with some nice Lesotho stamps on it. Posted in Butha-Buthe, a city of 10,000 in the north of the country, Nicole used a 1998 stamp featuring King Letsie the 3rd, issued to mark the king's 1st anniversary of his coronation. The flower stamp, from a set of 16 definitives, was issued 1998 and the other stamp was issued in 2004 and showcases folkart. Thanks to Nicole.
Next is Swaziland., another kingdom in Africa and another landlocked country, surrounded on 3 sides by South Africa and on the other by Mozambique. The card shows Swazi women dancing , wearing traditional National Dress. Reginald Barrow of the Imformatica of Swaziland website sent the card. The stamp is from a 2007 set of 13 definitives featuring trees. Thanks Reginald.
Now a card from New Zealand, actually Invercargill. Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand and one of the southernmost cities in the world. The card shows Southland Museum and Art Gallery located in Queen's Park. This card was sent by Joyce , of the Invercargill i site Visitor Centre. Thank you Joyce. Joyce used 4 different stamps , all picturing lakes in New Zealand.
The next card is from the country of Georgia. It shows a scene from Nikozi, in northern Georgia, near the Russian border. This is in the Tskhinvali region, of South Ossetia. South Ossetia is a de facto independent republic, recognized as an independent state by only Russia and Nicaragua. The card was sent by Khatuna, who lives in Tbilisi. Khatuna has been a regular contributor to this blog , sending along with this postcard , a cover , literally covered with Georgian stamps and a few loose airplanes on stamps stamps. On this card, is a great addition to that collection. 1 of 3 planes stamps issued in 2000, along with a 1994 U.P.U. membership issue. Hopefully I can show the cover from Khatuna sometime soon. Thanks to Khatuna for all this.
And now finally a card from South Africa, Mossel Bay in fact. Mossel Bay is a town with 80 plus thousand inhabitants on the southern most coast of South Africa. It lies on the Indian Ocean coast and is part of the Garden Route, as mentioned on the face of the card. The card was sent by the Mossel Bay Tourism Board and is stamped from the Old Post Office Tree. That makes an interesting read , google it if you have the time.
Just one more thing. As this is my first update in the month of May, I just need to report my postcard stats for April. I received a total of 52 postcards , of which 35 were Postcrossing related. I mailed out 36 , and 34 of them were to Postcrossers. I received cards from 3 new countries in April . Not too bad at all.

That is it for today, I think I did fine. Still quite a lot left , but I'm sure I'll get through it as the week go on.
Cheers.