Long Overdue Update

Here we go again, I have no excuses for this gap in updates. I had the postcards, just never got around to the blog. I always had the intention but just never got there. Now with the snow falling this morning , this seems to be a good time for a blog.
I have some pretty good cards for this time, I won't say how many, I'll just go with it.

My first three cards are all from the intrepid traveler David, who continues to surprise me every week, with his adventures. The three cards are from Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion. Three pretty good postcard locations. Card # 1 gives us a number of views of Caudan Waterfront in Port Louis, Mauritius. The city has a population of around 150,000 and is the capital. It's history as a harbour dates back to 1638. David used a beautiful 2010 high value, at 100Rs , Gold Foil stamp honouring Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam , The Father of the Nation.

David's 2nd card comes from Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar. It gives us a look at the ruins of Queen's Palace ( Rova) in Tana, the shortened version of the capital's name. The palace was burned out in a fire on November 6, 1995. The blue and yellow stamp on the right is from 2007 and celebrates a Whale Festival. The other stamps are from 2010 and that's all I can tell you about them.
Here's the third card. It comes from Saint-Denis, La Reunion. Reunion Island is an island with a population around 850,000 , located in the Indian Ocean. It is an overseas department of France, hence the French stamps used on the card. On the card we have an aerial view of the island with Saint-Denis in the foreground. The stamp on the right was issued in 2010 and honours Villeneuve-sur-Lot, a town in south-western France. The stamp on the right is from 2011 and celebrates the Tran-train of Mulhouse, a town in eastern France.
With all the travelling that David is doing, I just hope he is a member of MostTraveledPeople.com or The Globetrotters Club. I would recommend MostTravelledPeople myself.

Now we have a rather unique item or one not often seen. It is an example of Paquebot mail. The stamp Paquebot is a postal marking or cancellation stamped on mail posted at sea for processing by the postal authorities at the next port of call. Mail so marked can and often will carry the stamps of another country. The concept is based on the fact that a merchant ship on the high seas is sovereign national territory of the country of the flag she flies (similar to an embassy) and therefore mail posted aboard a ship in international waters is entitled to be franked with stamps of the country of the ship's registry. Bruce from South Africa sent this card. I guess he boarded at Cape Town and headed for St. Helena. The markings on the card show that the card was posted at sea aboard R.M.S. St. Helena, one of the last working Royal Mail ships in the world. Then cancelled at the St. Helena Post Office at Jamestown. The card gives us a nice snap of R.M.S. St. Helena at anchor off Jamestown. The stamp used is from a 2010 set of 4 called Postal Ships. This is indeed a great item in my collection.

Today's final card is from the United States, Maui, Hawaii , in fact. Sent by my lovely Teena while on our recent vacation in Maui, it is a reproduction of an original painting by Karen Lei Noland. It is of the Kahakuloa Church located in the small isolated village of Kahakuloa. Teena used a 2007 Harriet Beecher Stowe definitive.I think I will end it here for this time. My thanks for cards go to David, Bruce and my lovely Teena. A pretty good update I think. What do you think ?