Equatorial Guinea , New Country # 256 Plus Another Mishmash of Cards

Hello again. Well this is indeed a good day on the blog. It is always a good day when I get to introduce a new country in my card collection. Here we go -- Equatorial Guinea, how good is that ? That makes # 256, leaving just 17 more to go. This is the first new country since 03 Jan of this year. And the best part is that I wasn't even expecting it, the sad part is that I don't know who sent it to me. Here's the card. Nothing to identify it as from Equatorial Guinea, other than the postmark and the stamp. It is postmarked from Malabo, the capital of the country. Equatorial Guinea is located in west central Africa. Despite it name, no part of the country lies on the equator, and it is entirely in the Northern Hemisphere, except for Annobon Province , which is 155 km south of the equator. It shares borders with Cameroon and Gabon. The card arrived with a great stamp, 1 of 3 in a 1994 set commemorating the 25th anniversary of man's landing on the Moon.

I just hope that whoever sent this card might read this and drop me an email at gemsworldpostcards@shaw.ca and let me know how they found out about my collection and the fact that I needed a card from Equatorial Guinea. Plus I'd like to say " thank you".

Now for the Mishmash.

Germany -- This is a great card showing not 1 but 2 Super Transporter Belugas. These Airbus A300-600St Belugas are the true heavy lifters of the air freight industry. If you got something big to move, these are the guys that you want. The ones shown on this card are # 3 and # 4 of the 5 built. Igor of www.covercity.de sent this card and his postcard blog Ansichtskarten can be found here . Igor used a wonderful souvenir sheet showing Zeppelin Airship LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin"with a special postmark marking the hundred anniversary of Airship LZ 11 "Viktoria Luise ". Just a great card with great franking.

Ledbury, England---A surprise card from Michael of cddstamps. It shows Market House , which was built in 1617. Ledbury is a thriving market town of 9,900 in rural England. Michael used a 2012 definitive from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic stamp set. They were issued on Jan 05, 2012. They are a self adhesive set consisting of 2 1st class and 2 worldwide up to 20 grams stamps. Michael has a number of websites and blogs . You can find him here, here and here .

Latvia---Another post/mail box. This one from Riga. I never know if these small ones are postboxes to send outgoing mail or personal mailboxes to receive your mail . Perhaps someone in Latvia can let me know. Regardless , it's a good one for my collection. Could even be a German box. The stamp that Silvana used is from 1996. It is from a definitive Coat of Arms set of 4.

Grand Falls Windsor, Newfoundland, Canada---A card showing a picture from my hometown. It is a look at the Pulp & Paper Mill which operated in the town from 1909-2009. It was the a main resource for the townspeople during that time. Although it's difficult to see, the card was posted on Leap Day, Feb 29th of this year. The stamp is Canada's domestic rate Year of the Dragon stamp.

A Submarine From The United States---The USS Cavalla was a nuclear attack submarine, launched Feb 19, 1972. She was 300 feet long and displaced 4,500 tons. The Cavalla was decommissioned on 30 March 1998 and was scrapped by 17 Nov 2000 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. I don't think I could serve on a sub, I'm sure I'd find it too confining. Kate of deltiolog sent this card along and you can find her postcard blog here . We've swapped cards a number of times and hopefully will again. Her stamps on this one include the 2011 George Washington definitive and 1 of a set of 4 self adhesive Working Dogs stamps, issued this year.

The Scottish Tartan---Here we have the Scottish Tartan. This is a reproduction of a Scottish definitive stamp designed by Tayburn, and issued by Royal mail on 8 June 1999. This one is compliments of Jean Pierre and he used a stamp from a 2011 set of 8 featuring The Crown Jewels. Also of note is the special cancellation from Edinburgh for The Queen's Jubilee .

The Lost Bridge---Here we go with today's final card . It comes from Sri Lanka and shows us The Lost Bridge In Arugambay. Ravindra wrote on the card that the bridge was washed away in the 2004 tsunami. Ravindra has a couple of postcard blogs here and here . The 2 stamps used were both issued in 2012. The one on the left celebrates 100 years of Sri Lankan Scouting. The other stamp commemorates Gamini Fonseka ( 1936-2004 ) , a Sri Lankan film actor and politician.

So ends another blog update. It was great to add Equatorial Guinea to the fold and it will give me great pleasure to put a line through that country in my list over on the left side. Many thanks to all who sent cards, Ravindra, Jean Pierre, Kate, Silvana, Michael, Igor and the mystery person from Equatorial Guinea. I hope to know who you are eventually. Take care. See you soon.