The Return of The Blog

Sounds like a new movie title to me, no, I guess that would be The Blob. Anyway, I'm back, and The Blog's back. I was away for a couple of weeks in Newfoundland. I bought a few postcards, mailed a few postcards, so if you feel lucky look in your mailbox. If you aren't one of the lucky ones this time, maybe next time. Moving along, my mailbox was quite full on my return, stuffed with 27 postcards. Some of these will be showing up here on the blog in the coming days. Today's blog will feature cards from Thailand, Finland, Pakistan, Taiwan and Poland.

First up is Thailand. The card shows a reproduction of a Thai classical painting of Loi Krathong. This is an annual festival celebrated ion Thailand. It takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar, usually November. During this night, Thais float their Krathong on a river, canal or lake. The festival is believed to originate in an ancient practice of paying respect to the spirit of the waters. Today it is simply a time to have fun. The stamp here is from a 2007 multi sheet issued for Tourism.

This next card comes from Finland. It is a reproduction of a poster from the 1950's, put out by the Finnish Railway Museum. The young dude here looks to have just arrived by train to one of the local ski areas. The stamp was issued in 2007 and is 1 of 2 in a set featuring antiques.

Card # 3 is from Pakistan. I haven't received many cards from this country. So to get this one is good.On it we can see a Hunza woman making bed sheets. The stamps are from a set of 12 definitives issued in 1994 featuring Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Next up is a black and white card from Taiwan. The picture , from 1988, is from a Jan Pang Hsu exhibit entitled Taiwan Retrospective Exhibition on Farming with Black and White. Ho-Nan , a Postcrosser in Taiwan sent this card along and used a number of different stamps as you can see.

Today's final card is from Poland. Asia who sent this card lives in Olkusz. This is a town in south Poland and was first mentioned in a written document in the year 1299. It has a population of around 38,000 inhabitants. Asia used 2 stamps, the one on the left is 1 of 2 issued in 2001 showing farmhouses and the one on the right is 1 of 2 issued for Easter in 2011.

That's it for postcards today. Just a couple more items before closing.

First, I have a little 3 part cartoon for you. It's for all of us who send postcards or like stamps and often complain about postage costs. Here it is , enjoy.
And, finally, a last call for entries to the contest that I wrote about in this blog back on August 26th. Check it out , it has a great prize . One last clue for you- as of this writing, card # 1982 has arrived.