# 225 In My Collection

I received just two postcards in Friday's mail, but one was from a place that is new to my collection. The card in question is from American Samoa, which makes # 225 in my collection. The other card is from Belgium . First , let's look at the American Samoa card.
American Samoa is a group of Polynesian islands in the South Pacific. Fourteen degrees below the equator, it is the United States' southern-most territory. it became an unorganized U.S. territory in 1900. It is located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga and 500 km south of Tokelau. To the west is Wallis and Futuna Islands, a place I would love to receive a card from. I have tried and tried but still nothing.
The card from American Samoa shows a couple of Breadfruit, which is a staple of the Samoan diet. American Samoa uses U.S. postage , but in this case a postage label was used indicating postage paid at Pago Pago, the capital. The card was sent by a park ranger at the National Park of American Samoa. Notice the hand stamp, lower left .
As mentioned the second card is from Belgium. It shows some building and its reflection, but, of which I know not. It is from Thomas of My Stamps and Covers blog , located at www.veedeestamps.blogspot.com . Thomas used 2 new aviation related stamps , from a set of 5 issued this year. The one on the left celebrates the first flight of Concorde 40 years ago in 1969.
The stamp on the right celebrates The Bleriot , which first flew January 25, 1909, 100 years ago.
These are great stamps and will be welcome additions to my aircraft on stamps collection. But of course, they will stay on the card. Thomas was able to get a special postmark for these stamps , on June 20, 2009, which just happened to be my birthday. I can see that the postmark contains a drawing of The Bleriot, itself. I just wish I knew a little about the postmark, but perhaps someone will leave a comment as to its significance. Also Thomas , your comment on the card is a little too cryptic for me. Tell me more.
Now to clue things up for today, we have another Norfolk Island card , # 3 of 7. It is another view of Kingston, Norfolk Island. The stamp is from 2002 and is 1 of a set of 7 definitives featuring flowers.

Take care and enjoy the weekend or what's left of it.

Norfolk Island , South Pacific # 2

Well , as I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I will continue with another of the Norfolk Island postcards. And since today's mail brought no new postcards, let's get right to it. This card shows Slaughter Bay, Kingston, Norfolk Island. The stamp is from 2008 , 1 of a set of 4 featuring animals.

That's all for today. Cheers.

Mayotte, New Country # 224 and a Whole Lot More

Even though this blog is a postcard blog, today's update will be a mixed bag, including postcards, covers, and stamps. When you get good stuff, even if it's not a postcard, it's hard to just ignore it , hence the mixed bag. First , of course, is new country #224, Mayotte.
Mayotte, or the Departmental Collectivity of Mayotte is an overseas collectivity of France consisting of Grand-Terre, Petite-Terre and a few islets around these two islands. Mayotte is located in the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, betwen northern Madagascar and northern Mozambique. The territory is geographically part of the Comoro Islands , but has been politically separate since the 1970s. It's capital and largest city is Mamoudzou. The card shows an underwater scene off Mayotte, with tropical fish, coral and underwater plants.The stamps on the cards are from 2009 and show the tamarind tree and its fruit. The card is from Elhem who works at Hotel Sakouli on the island of Mayotte. I have been trying for a card from Mayotte for well over two years and have finally succeeded. And, let me tell you it feels really good to get a card from one of those so called hard to get countries.
Next is a card , my second, from Republika Srpska. This is one of the two main political-territorial divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The card shows the view of Prijedor, the 3rd largest city in Republika Srpska. It is located in the northern part. This card came from Maja and is the result of a private swap. Maja sent a prestamped postcard to which she added extra postage. The extra stamp is from 2008 and is 1 of a set of 6 definitives featuring flowers. Thanks to Maja for this card.
Now for a part of the mixed bag I mentioned earlier. I received a beautiful cover , a first day cover in fact, from Edna of Vienna. The cover has a beautiful aircraft stamp celebrating the 100 years of the Wiener Neustadt Airfield. Note the great first day of issue postmark. A wonderful addition to my aircraft on stamp collection. And if that wasn't enough, there were 2 more aviation related covers inside.They include a first day cover from May 31, 1968 and a 1987 cover with a 1983 Austrian Airlines stamp. Just a great package , thanks to Edna.
And another cover now. It is from Norfolk Island. One doesn't see a lot of mail from there, so I think whenever one comes along, it deserves to be seen. In the top right corner are 2 of a set of 4 stamps issued in 2009 featuring mosaics. The other stamp is from 2008, one of 4 featuring animals. This cover contained a set 7 beautiful postcards of Norfolk, 5 of which are stamped.This cover and postcards are all courtesy of Norfolk Tourism and the thanks go to Jacqui. Because the cards are so nice, I will feature one of them here today and one in each of my next 6 blog updates. Today's card shows Kingston from QE Lookout. It has a 2008 Christmas stamp on it.
And finally to close out today I just want to show a stamp that my son Parker dropped off for me tonight. It is a mint, Scott #3 from Liechtenstein. Another great addition to my aircraft on stamps collection. Thanks Parker, I appreciate it.
Wow, this is a big update. And in my opinion a good one.
More tomorrow.

Mexico Card Update and Other New Cards

I have a number of new cards to show today , but first I want to update the Mexico card that I wrote about on Thursday past. The card is from my son, his wife and my little grandson. I have their permission to show the reverse of the card and the comments. This is not something that I normally do. But in this case , it's special. The card has a crayon drawing on it in addition to comments about my grandson, Evan. The drawing represents Evan and a small Mexico boy playing together on the beach. The artwork is courtesy of Stephen. Thanks.
Now on to the new cards. First is a card from Macedonia. It shows Ohrid. Ohrid is a city of about 42,000 inhabitants on the eastern shore of lake Ohrid, in the Republic of Macedonia. Ohrid is notable for having once had 365 churches, one for each day of the year. In 1980 Ohrid and Lake Ohrid were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. This card is from Ana, who writes the blog My World of Postcards at www.thewholeworldatyourhands.blogspot.com . Ana's blog is the first blog I check out every day. I hope she is enjoying her time away right now. Ana used 3 great stamps on her card. On the left is a 1998 stamp picturing Mahatma Gandhi. The 2 stamps on the right are from a set of 4 issued in 1999 featuring Medieval Rulers. Thanks Ana for the card and the great stamps. Thanks to you, my Macedonian collection continues to grow.

Next is another great card . It's from The United Nations in Vienna, Austria. The card shows Vienna International Centre. The VIC was built between 1973 and 1979, just north of the river Danube. The card is from Edna who posted it at the U N post office in Vienna. And , it is indeed postmarked at the United Nations. It is actually a prestamped postcard to which Edna added extra stamps. The prestamped stamp is the same design as the front of the card. The 4 extra stamps are as follows: top left- Eggenberg Castle , issued 2003. Top right and bottom left, 2 of a set of 4 issued in 2008 featuring sculptures. The last stamp, bottom right was issued in 2002 and is 1 of 6 definitives issued for tourism. Just a great card , Edna, thanks .

A card from the U. K. is next. The card shows the set of 4 stamp miniature sheet issued for Kew Gardens, this year. The Gardens, located in southwest London, is between Richmond and Kew. The gardens contain the world's largest collection of living plants, numbering 30,000 different kinds and over 7 million preserved plant specimens in its herbarium, the largest in the world. The card is from Scott of the website positivelypostal. Check out Scott's site at www.positivelypostal.co.uk for a contest in which you can win stamps, mini sheets and much more. Scott used , in the right corner, a 2009 stamp from a sheet of 10 different values featuring Endangered Plants

And, finally the last card is from The Philippines. It shows The Banaue Rice Terraces in the mountains of the North, in Ifugao Province. These terraces are often referred to as The Eighth Wonder of the World. They are also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The card is courtesy of Myron, a fellow blogger at www.sangdoocha.blogstot.com , and his blog is entitled Filatelin Sa Filipines. The two stamps were issued in 2009 , but that's all I know about them.

That's all there is for today. More tomorrow. Be sure and tune in again.
Tune

Three New Postcards

Doha, Burton and Alaska. That is where the three postcards in today's blog update are from. First let's look at the Doha card. Doha is the capital city of Qatar, an Arab emirate in the Middle East. In 2005 Doha's population was 400 thousand and a bit. Doha is the economic center of the country , as well as the seat of government. One of the unusual things about Doha is that the majority of residents are expatriates, with Qatari nationals forming the minority. The card shows a young Qatari boy studying the Qu'ran in the early light of a Gulf morning. This card was a complete surprise . It is from Trevor , one of the expat majority. Trevor happened upon this blog and decided to send a postcard. I love it when that happens , thanks Trevor. Trevor mentioned on the card that he is a Canadian, a fellow Newfoundlander and was even born in Grand Falls, my Hometown. Obviously that makes him a great guy in my book. There is a card on the way for you Trevor, my friend. Two great stamps from 2008 were used on this card. The stamp on the left celebrates The Museum of Islamic Art. The stamp on the right is one of a set of 4. Too bad about the heavy cancellation. The set of 4 is just a wonderful set and a set that I wouldn't mind adding to my collection. The 4 stamps show Streetlife in Souq Waqif or Standing Market . It was a real pleasure to get this card from a guy from Grand Falls.

The next card is a rather uniquely shaped card. It is a cut out of a London Taxi Cab. The card is from a Postcrosser named Laura, a young Finnish girl working in Burton , England. This taxi cab shaped card brings back some memories from the seventies. My wife and I visited London in the seventies and frequented these cabs often. Thanks Laura for this fine card.

The last card for today , from Alaska, shows the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) glowing above a Cessna floatplane. Quite a relaxing scene. The card is from Kris of the blog www.postcardkris.blogspot.com fame. He knows of my aircraft and airlines on postcards collection. Thanks Kris. On this card we see the 13 Mile Woods , 72 cent airmail rate stamp from 2008 and the 24 cent Common Buckeye butterfly stamp from 2006.

A short but sweet update this day. Have a great weekend everyone.

A Mexico Postcard

I have finally received the postcard from Mexico that I have been expecting for well over a month. The card was posted in Puerto Vallarta sometime between April 18 and April 25. However , one can see from the postmark that it was only postmarked on June 2nd. Where was it for the month of May, who knows? I am certainly glad that it has finally arrived though. The card shows Las Estacas Beach in Puerto vallarta. It is a beautiful beach situated on the south of Puerto Vallata, a Mexican resort city located on the Pacific Ocean's Bay of Flags. This card is from Stephen, Sara and Evan- my son, my daughter-in-law and my wonderful grandson. So as you can see, its arrival was extra special. Stephen used a 2007 stamp from a set of 11 values featuring popular handicrafts.

And as they say down Mexico way, Adios.

My 1000 th Postcard

I guess before I get to the 1000th card, I should say a few words about last week. On Monday , June 8th I started off the week with a new country, Timor-Leste and with my 2nd postcard contest. It was just so good to start off the week on such a positive note. Of course the week went totally downhill from there. Postcards were kind of scattered during the week and those that did arrive were very uninspiring and fairly uninteresting. The stamps on them were pretty uninteresting and boring , too. I was in a postcard funk the whole week. I really didn't have much to blog about. Then in the midst of this postcard funk I receive a card from The U.S with a Bart Simpson stamp and one from Belgium, with a Smurf stamp. As a stamp collector of more than 40 years, I have to ask , don't countries have anything more important, more interesting, more beautiful and more relative to their country to honor on a stamp ? If I were asked, Bart Simpson and Smurfs wouldn't even make the list. And, if that wasn't enough, not one person, not a single postcard collector, not even a blog reader entered my contest about the 1000th postcard. On that note, I can now announce due to a huge lack of interest there is no winner in contest number 2.

Now on to more positive things like postcards. Well, my 1000th stamped postcard arrived yesterday. It was from Belgium. A Postcrosser, Krista sent the card, her 3rd. The first two from her have never arrived. The card shows a number of building , 13 in fact , located in various Belgian cities.
It was very exciting to finally receive number 1000. I started collecting March 01, 2006. So 1000 cards in just over 3 years is pretty good, I think. First let me thank Krista for her milestone card and 999 others for all the rest.

Now for a card from Finland. It shows a bunch of young guys having a picnic , maybe just outside a sauna. The card is titled Cleanliness is half a meal. And the stamp shows a bunch of big guys inside a sauna. The stamp , issued this year is from a booklet of 5 stamps , themed around saunas and health. My thanks to Postcrosser Jorma for this unique card.

Finally we have another card from Finland. Another sauna card and sauna stamp. This one is a First Day of Issue for the stamp. Thanks to Virpi, another Postcrosser for this card.

That's this day's update. I guess I blew off enough steam above , hopefully I won't lose any readers, if indeed I actually have any, re contest. On a brighter note, I am expecting postcards from Ivory Coast, Mayotte and The UN in Austria. Also there is a slight possibility of a card from Sao Tome and Principe and finally Tuvalu . I actually succeeded in contacting someone in Tuvulu but he is driving a hard bargain.

Take care .

Another New Country , Timor-Leste # 223 and Another Contest

Well this week is starting off in just the right way. I found three postcards in the mailbox this morning. One of the three was a new country, Timor-Leste, #223 . That makes 4 new countries so far in the first 8 days of June. Looking good. Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco , along with Oecussi-Ambeno, an enclave located within Indonesian West Timor. Timor-Leste became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002.The card is compliments of Megatours of Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. Give them a look at www.timormegatours.com . According to the card, the front of the card shows a typical house in Timor-Leste. The stamps are 2 of the same issue, from a 2002 set of 4 celebrating Independence.

The second card from today is from Finland. It is just a great card , with a number of young polar bears on the front. Looks to me like they could be the Coca Cola bears from the Life Tastes Good television commericals. The card is a good one considering the stamp used. It is from 2009 and is half the souvenir sheet issued for the Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers theme. The card is from Eva , another Postcrosser.

The last card today is from Romania. I don't see that many cards or stamps from there for some reason. So getting one today is good. The card shows a painting entitled Sound of the Sea by Sabin Balaso. I have listened to the sea through one of these large shells, have you ? This is another Postcrossing card and the stamp is from 2007 , 1 of a set of 4 featuring ceramic objects.

There you have it for today. Will Lady Luck shine on me again tomorrow with another new country ? One can only hope.
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Oh, by the way, the Romania card mentioned above is the 987th postcard that I have received. I am quickly closing in on #1000. A postcard or cover (their choice) goes to the reader who correctly guesses county of origin of card # 1000. If no correct answer, I will select a random name as the winner , just so there is a little more incentive to enter. Be sure to leave a comment with your choice.
Take care .

British Virgin Islands, New Country #222

Here I am with a late Sunday update, showing a few cards that arrived on Friday. Leading off is a new country in my collection. The card is from British Virgin Islands, country # 222. What can I say, I just love it when a new country card arrives in the mail. With 222 here, that just leaves 44 more to go. British Virgin Islands is a British overseas territory located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The BVI consist of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke, along with a number of smaller islands. The larger island is Tortola , where the capital , Road Town is located. The card shows a red sunrise over Maya Cove, Tortola. The card is compliments of Robyn of The British Virgin Islands Tourist Board & Film Commission. For more information on BVI visit www.bvitourism.com . Robyn used 3 stamps on the card. The stamp to the left was issued in 2005, 1 of a set of 4 for the Endemic Bird Festival. The center stamp is from 1 set of 6 issued in 1991 featuring butterflies. The stamp on the right was issued in 2008 , 1 of 3 featuring The Rev. Charles Wesley and coats of arms.

The second card is from The Kingdom of Lesotho. This is another of several cards that have arrived from Lesotho during the last couple of weeks. This one shows a Mosotho Rider. From what I understand, the Basotho (not Lesothans) like to be referred to as Basotho, or a Mosotho (not a Lesothan). Basotho speak Sesotho. The card was sent by another PCV serving in Lesotho, Kelly F. She has a blog called Study In Contrasts- My Peace Corps Journey in Lesotho June 2008-August 2010. Thanks Kelly. Kelly used 3 flower stamps issued in 1997.

The next card is from Metropolis , Illinois- Home of Superman. Metropolis is located along the Ohio River and in 2000 had a population of 6,482 . A quick bit of trivia- Robert Stroud , the Birdman of Alcatraz is buried in Metropolis. The front of the card shows a reproduction of Action Comics front page , issue No 1 from June 1938. Check out the price , 10 cents. This card is from Nori, a Postcrosser. She used 2 of the 2008 USA First Class Forever stamps.

And finally , a card from Austria. Sent by Edna who I have swapped cards and stamps with previously. The card depicts the Wiener Staatsoper or the Vienna State Opera House. Work on the building started in 1861 and was completed in 1869. 2009 marks its 140th anniversary. Edna used 2 stamps and was lucky enough to get the special postmark marking the 140 years of the Wiener Staatsoper. The stamp on the right depicts the Staatsoper and was issued 25May 2009, while the stamp on the left is from 2003 and features Kleinwalsertal.

That is all for tonight. Hopefully the mailbox will bring a bunch of cards tomorrow.
Cheers.l