Turkey, Language of the Stamps, van Gogh and Tha Haka Poi

The title of this update must leave any viewers wondering what it's all about. I hope after reading , all will be explained. Cards today come from Turkey, Germany, The United States and New Zealand. But , first I have to offer an apology. On my last update I wrote that winter had arrived on the prairies.Well, I heard from Shaunna who advised that there was no sign of winter or snow in Winnipeg, Manitoba. So I offer my apology to Shaunna and all of Winterpeg, oh sorry, Winnipeg. I hear though,that it's on the way very soon, Shauna. All right, let's get on to the postcards.

My first card today is from Trabzon City, Turkey, located on the Black Sea. It seems to me that I have been receiving more cards from Turkey lately than in the past. That's good as I am always open to adding more Turkish stamps to my collection. Not that I would ever remove them from the postcards of course. The card shows us Izmir City. Izmir is Turkey's third most populous city and is located in the western part of the country. The clock tower in the center of the card was built in 1901 and is 25 m high. It looks like I will be flying blind today in relation to information on stamps. My online source is updating their website today and as a result is unavailable. The smaller stamp was issued this year and celebrates Mustafa Kemel Ataturk ( 1881-1938). He was a Turkish army officer and president of Turkey from 1923 to 1938. Today , he is remembered as the founder of modern Turkey and a great statesman. All I know about the larger stamp is that it was issued in 2007.

Card # 2 is from Germany. It is titled Language of the Stamps. It gives us English, German and French translations of six short phrases. Just what this has to do with stamps , I'm not quite sure. But, as a longtime stamp collector, any postcard with stamps on the front , will find a good home in my collection. Sigrid, a Postcrosser in Germany used a couple of stamps , including the large soccer stamp from this year and a smaller definitive.

Next up is a card from The United States showing Vincent van Gogh's The Quay, Antwerp 1885. Eric , who sent this card, says " even though this is not Detroit, I thought it conveyed the feeling , grey, industry and water". When I think Detroit, I think Red Wings, and cars. Getting back to The Quay, I think I'd have no problem finding a wall for it in my place. Eric used 2 First Class Forever stamps and an American Clock definitive from 2003.

Today's last card comes from New Zealand. It shows us a group of girls performing The Haka Poi. The Haka Poi is a dance in which the girls keep time with raupo balls ( pois). As the dance and song progresses the pois are twirled and swung in time to the rhythmic music. Gina , who sent this card along, says she has collected cards since she was a child. This particular card is about 25 years old. Since she joined Postcrossing, she has started to send cards from her collection all over the world. On this card is a 2010 New Zealand Christmas stamp, celebrating 50 years of Christmas stamps. It shows a 1979 Christmas stamp from New Zealand. I'm not one to boast of course, but Canada issued the world's first Christmas stamp on December 7, 1898 . I know, I know , some people will say that it really wasn't as a Christmas stamp. To quote Charles Dicken's Ebenezer Scrooge "Bah, humbug".

I think that about does it for this time. See you tomorrow.