Republic of Crimea # 206 in my Collection

Today's mail brought a wonderful and total surprise in the form of a postcard from The Republic of Crimea. This will be # 206 of my collection. I am not sure who sent it to me but I hope that you will contact me via email or at least leave a comment on the blog. To know that I have readers in that part of the world is quite something. Thank you so much.
The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is an autonomous republic of Ukraine, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea. Crimea is a parliamentary republic which is governed by the Constitution of Crimea in accordance with the laws of Ukraine. The capital and seat of the republic's government is the city of Simferopol, from which this postcard was mailed. The comment on the card says" This card was sent by ground mail from Simferopol, capital of Crimea, 19Nov 2008. " Eight days later, it's delivered in Calgary, Canada, not too bad for a card that started out by ground mail.
Crimea's total area is 26,200 square kilometres with a population of approximately 2 million inhabitants.
The card shows Bakhchisaray Palace, located in the city of Bakhchisaray, a city of roughly 35,000 people. Known as The Khan's Palace or Hansaray, it was built in the 16th century . The walled enclosure contains a mosque, a harem, a cemetery, living quarters and gardens. The republic's capital, Simferopol has the longest trolleybus lime in the world with a total of 86 kilometres.
The sender used 4 wonderful stamps from Ukraine. The large one on top was issued in 2003 and features Yevpatoria , coat of arms and ships and boats. The small stamp at left is from a set of 7 definitives , issued in 2007 featuring art and antique objects. the middle stamp, issued in 2005 shows Sebastopol and again coats of arms and ships & boats. Finally the stamp on the right , issued in 2004 shows Balaklava with coat of arms .
This is a great addition to my postcard collection. To whoever sent it, many thanks . If and when you contact me , I will certainly acknowledge your sending it to me.
Best regards to all. Comments welcome.

Couple of Postcards

Hello again, I have a couple of postcards for today, plus a cover and some stamps.First the two postcards are both from Postcrossers. The German card is from Gundula and shows a scene from a beach. I believe this is a card produced from the sender's own picture. Now, my German is not all that good, not even fair, but I believe the words made with rocks on the beach translate into many greetings from Gundula. I'm sure that if not, someone will correct me. She used two semi-postals on this card, from a set of 4 issued in 2007. They featured horses, dogs, rabbits and hares.A really nice set.
The second card is from Laura who lives in Santa Rose, Sonoma County, Californis, U.S.A. The card shows Wine Country, Northern California. Santa Rosa is located 55 miles north of San Francisco. There are over 400 wineries in the area. Laura used 2 37 cent flag definitives.
Although I don't show many covers on this blog, I want to show one I received from Anton of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He has contributed a couple of times to this blog with postcards from his country. Inside the cover were a set of 4 stamps from 2006 and a single stamp souvenir sheet, from the same Flora of Uzbekistan series.

Just a short update this time. Thanks Gundula, Laura and Anton

A Rare Sunday Update

I have three cards to have a look at today. They come from China, Australia and Croatia. All three were received as a result of my participation in Postcrossing. First let's have a look at the card from China. The card shown Soung Dongting Lake. Dongting Lake , China's second-largest freshwater lake , is located in Northeastern Hunan Province. South Dongting Lake , near Yuanjiang City, is famous for the picturesque beauty of its fishing villages: the mist and fog rising from the surface of the lake , making the sky and the water the same color, exactly as it is on this postcard. The card is a prepaid postcard with the same picture of the lake , shown on the postage. In addition a 1996 stamp , celebrating Children's day was also used.

G'Day from Australia. This is the opening comment on the card from Australia. Shades of Crocodile Dundee and Mick Dundee. The card shows The Sydney Opera House, illuminated as it is in January of each year as part of the city's summer festival. I don't really need to write anymore about this wonderful building, as it is world famous and has been the subject of much publication. The card's sender used a quite nice Christmas Island 2008 Christmas stamp.

The last card for today is from Croatia. Croatia is a southern Central European country bordering Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. It's capital is Zagreb. The card shows 4 views of Zagreb. The sender used 2 stamps from 2008 and a 2004 issue featuring Virovitica, a Croatian city near the Croatian -Hungarian border. The 2008 stamps celebrate Bizovac, a town in eastern Croatia and Ravni Kotari, a region in Croatia, situated in Northern Dalmatia.

That is today's update. Regards to all.

Postcard Of The Day --- Brazil

Today's update is quite small compared to yesterday's. I have just 1 postcard, no make that 2 , plus a cover to show today. The postcard of the day is from Brazil. It is from Postcrosser Leo. It was sent from Itapoa and shows an aerial view of Upper City and Lower City of Salvador. Located on the northeast coast of Brazil, Salvador is known as Brazil's capital of happiness. It must be great living in the capital of happiness. The city was founded on March 29, 1549, making it one of the oldest cities in the New World. Leo used a new 2008 stamp from a set of 3 featuring Amazon animals.

I also received this cover from frequent contributor Wei Yi of Taiwan. This cover commemorates the 50th anniversary of The Flying Tigers arrival in China. Wei Yi used 3 nice stamps on the cover. The stamp on the left , from a set of 4, was issued this year to mark the Inauguration of the 12th President and Vice President. The center stamp shows The Flying Tigers. The smaller stamp on the right , issued in the 1980's is from the National Flag series.
Inside this cover , Wei Yi sent an unused postcard of a Blood Chit.What's a Blood Chit , you may well ask ? A Blood Chit is a notice that was carried by many military aircraft personnel, that displayed a message aimed at civilians that ask them to help the service member in case they are shot down. The postcard shows the Blood Chit issued to the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers. The Chinese characters read: This foreign person has come to China to help in the war effort. Soldiers and civilians , one and all, should rescue, protect, and provide him medical care. Another blood chit said: I am an American airman. My plane is destroyed. I cannot speak your language. I am an enemy of the Japanese. Please give me food and take me to the nearest Allied military post. You will be rewarded . If you look closely on the middle stamp, you can see the Blood Chit on the airman's back , on his shirt or jacket. I found this quite interesting. Thanks Wei Yi.
That's about it for today, I said it was going to be a short update. But before you go, have a look at my appeal for help at the end of yesterday's posting. Who knows, you may just be the one who can help me. We'll see how it goes.
Cheers, and enjoy your postcards, stamps and covers.

Many Postcards Again Today Plus An Appeal

Hello again. Well, I have a bunch of postcards to show again today. Six arrived today and one arrived yesterday. They are all from my participation in Postcrossing. So if you want to receive postcards from around the world, just sign up at Postcrossing.com. It's free. Now, on to my cards. First is a card from China, P.R.C . The card shows Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou. Dr Sun Yat Sen is often referred to as The Father of Modern China. The sender used 3 definitives from 2002 on the reverse side and also put 3 more on the picture side.

With all the wooden shoes pictured on the next card, it's pretty much a giveaway , where it's from. Yes, The Netherlands. Not a lot to say about this card, but I do have something to say about the stamp. Over the past 2 years or so, I have received quite a number of postcards from The Netherlands and for the most part, the stamps are boring, this one included. Now I am not saying all Netherlands stamps fall in this category , maybe it's just the international postcard rate, but it would be wonderful to see some nicer Netherlands stamps on incoming cards.

Moving along, I received a nice card from Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. It is in fact a Season's Greetings card, which I take to mean a Christmas card. Now I have read that a lot of postcard collectors don't really like to receive this type of card, but it's ok by me. It's my first card of this type and I look forward to a few more over the coming season. Used on this card was the 2008 94 cent international airmail rate stamp showing St. John U.S. Virgin Islands.

Next up is a Card from Portugal. The card shows the complete story of the legend of The Cock of Barcelos. I hope that you can click on the card and are able to read the complete story. Interesting reading! Two stamps from the 2007 transport set of 5 were used to get the card here.

Now I have 2 cards from Finland. One shows a reproduction of Kaj Stenvall's The Night of The Arts. Stenvall is a very popular artist in Finland. Postcards of his work are in very much demand among card collectors. This is just the first of his that I have received. Paula the sender used a Moomins stamp from 2007. And, Moomins stamps are very much in demand also, so I guess I'm very lucky to receive this card.
The second Finland card shows The Hotel Kristina in Kristinestad, Finland. Marjatta used a stamp from the 2008 s/s of Alpine ski sports. In this case, it's downhill skiing. She says the stamp is 3D, motion print imaging. I'm not sure if it's 3D or a hologram. Either way, it's a great stamp. Any comments as to which it is ?

The final card from Great Britain shows a painting by James Nicholls entitled Train. You could have fooled me on this one. Anu used 2 stamps, a 20p Machin and 1 of the set of 6 , 2008 Christmas stamps. A quite nice set actually.

I was going to end this posting , but first I want to make a small appeal of my readers. To finish up 2 parts of the world, I need a postcard from Kazakhstan and Tajikistan and from Guyana and French Guiana. Two distinct parts of the world for sure. Now who can help me out here? Do you have any relatives, friends or business acquaintances living in either of these countries, know any one going to either country, or have a pen pal in either ? If anyone can help me here, I sure will be grateful. I have been trying for quite a while to get a card from these places but so far no luck.
Hopefully someone will come through for me and I will add to my collection.
Thanks for reading. Cheers.

Gem's World Postcards First Anniversary

Well, it's been one year since this blog was started. Who would have thought that it would have lasted ? But it has and it will keep going, something like the Eveready battery. It its first year , there have been 130 postings. When started , I had postcards from 157 different countries or stamp issuing entities. As of now, I have them from 205, an increase of 48. Also in this year of blogging my total received postcards have increased from 420 cards to 720 , an increase of 300 postcards. Not a bad year at all.
Now on to some postcards. I have a number of cards to show plus one cover , all received yesterday or today. First is a card from Brazil, showing a shoreline and some great waves for surfers. This card was sent by a Postcrosser and she used 3 different stamps, from 2002, 2005 and 2006. The 2002 stamp on the left is from a set of 10 featuring musical instruments. This one is of a trumpet. I wasn't able to locate any information on the other 2 stamps shown.

The next card is from Portugal. It was sent by fellow blogger Nuno Marques who writes on http://worldstampspostmarks.blogspot.com . Thanks Nuno for this card. The card shows Commerce Square and a statue of King D. Jose I located in Lisbon. Nuno used a recent 2008 stamp honoring European year of intercultural dialogue.

Now for a card from Kupio, Finland. Kuopio is a city of about 93,000 in eastern Finland. It is also a Postcrossing card sent by Pirkos. The card shows a ski-jumping facility. Pirkos used a 2008 stamp from a souvenir sheet of Alpine ski sports. This stamp is a hologram stamp showing a snow-boarder in action. Just a great stamp and a new addition to my hologram stamps topical collection. Thanks Pirkos.

Here's a card from Travemunde , Germany. Travemunde has been a town since 1317. One of the attractions in Travemunde is a lighthouse dating from 1539, the oldest German lighthouse on the Baltic coast. The card shows quite a nice sailing ship. Jenny sent this card and used 2 stamps. The one on the right was issue in 2001, in a souvenir sheet and the other , issued in 2008 features birds.

Finally I want to show a cover that I received from khatuna in Tbilisi, Georgia. It has 7 recent Georgia stamps, 5 of them face different. Some great Georgia stamps. Inside was a selection of mint airplanes on stamps from Chile, Brazil and Georgia. All of these will add to my topical collection on aircraft on stamps. Thanks Khatuna.

That's all for today, a great way to start year 2 of my blog. As always, your comments are welcome.

A One Card Day

Just one card to show today. It is an official Postcrossing card from Cleveland, U.S.A. The postcard says, Cleveland, A Hall of Fame City and shows a downtown scene taken at night. According to the card, this Ohio city has five halls of fame located there. These include The Cleveland Hall of Fame, honoring citizens of national prominence, a Polka Hall of Fame, a Baseball Hall of Fame, a Football Hall of Fame, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. A couple of nice 2008 U.S. stamps were used to mail this card. They are part of a set of 5 issued in October, featuring classic automobiles. The 2 on this card are the 1957 Chrysler 300C and the 1957 Pontiac Safari.
I also received a cover a few days ago bearing a number of these stamps, including the 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk. So now I have 3 of the set of 5. I am missing the 1957 Lincoln Premiere and the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. Hopefully these 2 will arrive in my mailbox in the not too distant future on some postcard or cover. All in all, they are a very nice set of stamps.
That's it for today. Comments welcome.

13 Years Ago Today

Today, a snowy day here in Calgary, is somewhat of an anniversary for me. It was 13 years ago today that I moved , with my family to Calgary. 1995 , now seems such a long time ago.
I have 3 postcard to show today. They arrived yesterday and today. This posting will be commentary free, as I am just going to show the cards and the stamps . You viewers can make your own comments , if you like. All 3 cards are from Postcrossers. The cards are from Hungary, Japan and Portugal. Enjoy.

New Country #205- Nevis

I received just one postcard yesterday. It was from Nevis. Nevis makes country # 205 in my collection. Now before any of you purists out there email and say that Nevis is not a country, I agree , you are right. Nevis is part of The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, a federal two-island nation. But it does issue its own stamps and that makes it work as a stamp issuing entity and welcome in my collection. So on to Nevis.
Nevis is an island in the Caribbean, located about 350 km southeast of Puerto Rico and 80 km west of Antigua. Its capital is Charlestown. As mentioned above, Nevis is part of The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Nevis is where a young Horatio Nelson, of The Battle of Trafalger fame, was stationed as a young sea captain and also where he met and married his wife, Frances Nisbet.
The card shows a rain forest on Nevis. I can't say who sent this card as it was not signed. The only thing written on it was the slogan '' I love Nevis"'.
The stamp used is from 2000 , 1 of a set of 4 , featuring tropical fish.
That's it for this entry, more next week. Comments please ?