Welcome Back Glenn

Welcome back, but I haven't been anywhere. Then again I guess I've been everywhere except here on the blog. What can I say, sometimes life gets in the way. Anyway, cards still continue to arrive , so I guess I should get to it.

Today's first card is a type of hologram styled card of Alcatraz Island. Located in San Francisco Bay this former federal prison , now is a national park with historic gardens, tide pools , bird colonies and bay views beyond compare. The card shows the prison high atop Alcatraz Island. Tipping the card allows a completely different view. Then you can see what was referred to as Broadway, the central walkway in the cellblock between B and C blocks. The card is from my brother Mel who was vacationing in California a short time ago. He used a couple of the 2012 Aloha Shirts stamps along with a couple of other definitives which aren't shown.

My second card for this time comes from St Pierre & Miquelon, the self governing territorial overseas collectivity of France , in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean near Canada. It is 3,819 km from France but just 20 km from Canada. The card shows a couple of houses and fishing sheds on St. Pierre . The card comes from Patricia who actually lives on Miquelon Island. Patricia used a 2011 Marianne definitiive from a set of 6. I think I have mentioned previously that the stamps of St Pierre & Miquelon are quite attractive and collectible. I myself collect them.

Next up is a card from France showing Mont Saint Michel, a rocky tidal island in Normandy. It is about one km off the country's northwestern coast. Mont Saint Michel and its bay were named part of the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979. The area is visited by over 3,000,000 people each year. Jean Pierre used a 20 gram international rate stamp but I wasn't able to find any information about it.Here's a card that shows Dingle, Ireland. Dingle is a town of about 1900 people in County Kerry. It is the only town on the Dingle Peninsula and sits on the Atlantic Ocean about 70 km northwest of Killarney. It is a fishing port with lots of pubs, hilly streets and brightly painted houses. Sounds like St. John's , Newfoundland to me. David , who hails from Ireland sent this one along. He usually sends cards from other countries , so it's nice to get a local one from him. David used, what I think is some kind of ATM vending machine stamp but I could be wrong on that, anyway it shows a Squat Lobster , which in fact is not a lobster at all, but is closely related to the crab.
I think I would enjoy a visit to Ireland and Dingle , so who knows. Maybe someday.

Now if you ever wanted to look down a Ballistic Missile Silo, here's your chance. This card shows a Minuteman II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile ( ICBM) in Minuteman Missile National Historic Site , South Dakota. The Minuteman II Missile contained solid fuel unlike its liquid fueled predecessors and contained a 1.2 megaton nuclear warhead. Kate of deltiolog fame sent this card while travelling east to west in the States. She used 2 definitives from 2007 and 2011 along with a 2001 Yankee Stadium stamp and a 1992 Theodore von Karman stamp featuring a rocket blasting off. A little appropriate I guess with a rocket on the card and a rocket on the stamp.

The last card for this time is from Libya. It is the Four Seasons Mosaic at Leptis Magna, Libya. Leptis Magna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site , having been inscribed in 1982. Omran who has a postcard blog here sent this one along. Omran used a stamp , shown here, of which I couldn't find any information. I have received cards with 2 other stamps of this type from Libya in the past, but again no information.

That's the postcards for this time, but I still have a little something left to have a look at.

Many of my readers know that I collect stamps showing aircraft and that I like to show them when anything new arrives. A couple of weeks ago I received this cover from Ana in Macedonia. It was franked with 2 new aircraft stamps that Macedonia issued on April 04, 2012. Great stamps and they will be wonderful additions to my collection. But that's not all. When I opened the cover, inside was a First Day Cover containing the same 2 stamps. Just great. Thanks Ana. Ana has a great postcard blog called My World of Postcards.


Thanks for cards going out to Mel, Patricia, Jean Pierre, David, Kate and Omran and to Ana for her covers. See you all again soon.