February 29th - Leap Day

Hello again, it's February 29th , a Leap Day. I best get this update in so as to make use of the extra day this month and this year. It doesn't come by that often. Here we go. Just before I get to the postcards, welcome to four new readers and followers of this blog. Their online names are as varied as where they come from. Obsessed hails from Dubai, U.A.E., Kat is from Belgium, doyee_g comes from Glasgow, U.K. , and Viva Chile is from Santiago, Chile. Sure, I'll be in Santiago for 2 days and 2 nights next week. Once again, welcome and come back often.
On to the cards . It's my usual compliment of 5 cards, and they come from Finland, Netherlands, Canada, Indonesia and United Kingdom.

Number 1 -- I guess this one is quite self explanatory. Two Finns from from an earlier time , standing around after a hard day skiing. How do I know they are Finns ? I don't really, but the card came from Finland, so . . . Pirkko used a number of interesting shaped stamps. The 2 on the left are from 2008. The other long strange shaped stamp is 1 of 5 in a souvenir sheet of 5 Wishing stamps. There was a time when if you saw or received a unusual shaped stamp, you knew it was from the nation of Tonga. Not any longer it seems.

Here's card # 2-- It's from Geeske, a Postcrosser in The Netherlands. The card shows a KLM House. Since 1952 KLM Houses were presents to travelers flying in Business and Royal Class. They have been presented over many years now and as such have become collector items. So far there is 91 different houses available. These houses are in fact bottles with a cork and a seal on top. Depending on the routing of your flight, they were sometimes filled with liquor and sometimes empty. A couple of nice current stamps were used including the one on far right with a design similar to the house on the card's front. The other large stamp shows a lockheed F-104G Starfighter. A nice stamp for those of us who collect aviation stamps.

Card 3 is a card I have wanted to add to my collection for 4 or 5 years. Finally it arrived. It is the Watson Lake Sign Post Forest card. Located in Watson Lake, Yukon, at Mile 635 on the Alaska Highway. The sign forest was started in 1942 by an American soldier with one post and three signs. Since then travellers from around the world have added other signs, increasing the number to over 40,000. My card didn't come from Watson Lake , but from the Village of Breton, Alberta, the result of a private swap with Ian, a Postcrosser up that way. Ian used much more than the normal postage rate within Canada. He used a total of $1.75 when $0.61 would have been enough. Ducks and butterflies from 2011 were used.

Card # 4 comes from Jakarta, Indonesia. This is a picture of Moseom Fatahillah Square, with old Batavia City Hall. This one is from David who is traveling in that part of the world. The 2 stamps are part of a sheet of 8 , a 2011 Joint Issue with Malaysia.

Now the last card. It gives us a look at Edinburgh, sometimes called Athens of the North. It's a view of Edinburgh Castle from the Dugald Stewart Monument , atop Calton Hill. Jean Pierre writes that the city is one of the most beautiful cities of the UK. Well I've never been so I can't say. Been to Glasgow ,though, but not sure it would rank with Edinburgh. Jean Pierre used a Machin definitive and a Roald Dahl Fantastic Mr Fox stamp.

That's it for this Leap day, I'm all Leaped out. Thanks to Jean Pierre, David, Ian, Geeske and Pirkko for their cards. It takes cards to do this so thanks again. These were nice cards with nice stamps. A new month starts tomorrow but I know it's going to be a month with just a few updates here. More on that later. Take care.