Atlantis, Planes and A Few Others

Today's update has a lot of aircraft cards and a few others. I always welcome aviation related cards as I collected postcards with airline names and aircraft long before I collected as I do now. Hope that makes some sense.


 My  first card today is a 3D card showing the Space Shuttle Atlantis thundering skyward.. Liftoff of Mission STS-45 occurred from launch Pad 39A  at 8:13:40 A.M. EST, March 24,1992. On board the 46th Shuttle flight were a crew of seven astronauts and the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-1 ( ATLAS-1 ) .

Lydia, a 13 year old Postcrosser from Germany sent this card along. She used the 2011 Regensburg stamp , which we all have seen before.








Now begins a bunch of airplane cards. Let's start with this Singapore Airlines Concorde. Leisa from Marshall, Texas was lucky enough to find this older card at a postcard show in Dallas. In 1977 Singapore Airlines and British Airways shared a Concorde for flights between London and Singapore. The aircraft was painted in Singapore Airlines livery on the port side and British Airways livery on the starboard side. The service was discontinued after just three return flights because of noice complaints. The service was resumed in 1979 but ended for good in 1980.

Leisa used a 2012 Northern Goshawk stamp from the set of 5 Birds of Prey. 









Here's a Dragonair B747 at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. Dragonair, founded in 1985, is an international airline headquartered in Hong Kong. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific. The aircraft on this card, the B747 is used by Dragonair as a freighter.


I got this card from Wesley, a Dutch Postcrosser. He's a plane spotter, he took the photo on the card and had it made into a postcard. Did a good job,
too. He writes that he just recently started collecting postcard from every country, so I know all too well what's ahead of him. Good luck to him, though. Wesley has a blog about his postcards called  "Collecting postcards from all around the world ". Check it out.  Wesley used 3 stamps- the one on the left was issued in 1999 , honoring the Euro. The top  right stamp is 1 of 2 issued in 2000 for Nature Conservation. The bottom right stamp is a semi-postal stamp issue in 1983 honoring Johan van Oldenbarneveldt. 


Now we have a card from Anna who loves in Montgomery, MD, U.S.A. showing an Aeroflot airliner. Pardon the pun, but I'll go out on a wing here and say it's an Ilyushin IL-96-300. If not correct, I'm sure I'll hear from someone.



Anna used the 2012 Lancaster , Pennsylvania stamp .














The last Aviation card for this time comes from Russia. An old single engine bi-plane. Type unknown to me. Anyone want to take a guess, be my guest.




Natasha used 3 related stamps on her card. The one on the left was issued in 2005 and is 1 of 5 in a set of Military stamps. The middle stamp is 1 of 2 Helicopters stamps issued in 2008. The final stamp was issued in 2009 and honors Yuri Gagarin, the first human to journey into outer space. He completed an orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. 

So ends my aviation lecture for today, but class is not quite over. I still have a couple of fine cards from Netherlands, Spanish Andorra and Finland to have a look at. The Netherlands card is my first pin-up card in over 6 years of collecting. My online translator says the words on the card mean "previously everything was hotter ". As is ofter said, "it's all in the translation ".

The stamp is one ,quite often seen , so I leave it at that.












Andorra is featured on this next card. There is a map of the principality, along with 4 views of Pas de la Casa in winter. It's a ski resort town lying on the border with France.



Fabienne who hails from Spain sent this card on her recent visit to Andorra. She used 2 stamps from the Spanish Post in Andorra. The one on the left is the 2011 Christmas stamp and the one on the right is the 2010 Europa stamp
highlighting Children's books.

Now , the final card for today. It comes from Lapland., Finland or more correctly Rovaniemi, Finland. Finnish Lapland is the Arctic far north of Finland, starting near the Arctic Circle. Temperatures in the area can plunge as low as -50C in the winter and the sun is not seen for days on end. Rovaniemi , with a population of about 61,000 is a city in Finland's northernmost province of Lapland. It is 5 km south of the Arctic Circle. Tanya's card gives us a look at two of the frozen local residents.  From Lapland with Love.

Tanya used a 2012 Clouds self-adhesive, 1 of 3 in a set.









That's another update in the books. Thanks to Tanya, Fabienne, Natasha, Anna, Wesley, Leisa, and Lydia for these cards.

Four Cards From Four Collectors

The four cards for today come from Ravindra , Johan, Dominique and Vladmir. Countries are Sri Lanka , Belgium, France and Croatia.

First up is Ravindra's card from Sri Lanka. It gives us a great view of the Alahana Parivrna , a vast monastery complex built in the 12th century. Located at Polonnaruwa, this ancient city was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982.

Ravindra used 2 stamps , the large one on top is from a set of 4 Bridges issue from 2011. The lower stamp celebrates 60 years of World Health Organization service in Sri Lanka. It was issued this year.

You can find Ravindra's blog on Lighthouse On Postcards here .









Here is another card from Johan in Belgium. This one shows the Menin Gate, Menenpoort, in Ypres, Belgium. The Menin Gate was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates 54,338 men of the British Commonwealth, except New Zealanders, who died in the Ypres salient in the Great War, up to August 16, 1917 and have no known grave. After that date, those with no known grave are commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial. All Canadian and Australian soldiers with no known graves in the salient are commemorated on the Menin Gate. The Last Post has been played here every night at 8pm, by members of the Ypres Volunteer Fire Brigade, since 1928.

Johan used another of the Calligraphy stamps issued this past year and was again good enough to get the postcard cancelled on November 11th, Remembrance Day.

My next 2 cards are from first time contributors of cards. Dominique of France sent this card of Montpellier.

The city of just over 255,000 people is located in southern France. It is the fastest growing city in country over the past 25 years. On the card one can see Montpellier's Corum, a building that houses a conference centre and an opera house. I guess Dominique's card will also appeal to the train postcard collectors out there. His choice of postage, a large stamp , is always appreciated. The stamp was issued this year and commemorates the Petanque World Championship, held in Marseille. 





Here's the second card from a new contributor.   This one is from Croatia and is compliments of Vladimir. It is a view of Samobor , where he lives. Samobor is a city of just over 37,500 people located west of Zagreb.









Vladimir used 2 nice stamps on his card. The one on the left was issued in 1991 and is Croatia's first airmail  stamp. It was issued for the first Airmail service between Zagreb and Dubrovnik. It's another stamp for my Aircraft on Stamps Collection. The other stamp is 1 of 3 in a 2011 Animals set.



That's the four cards from four collectors. Thanks Ravindra, Johan, Dominique and Vladimir.
As first timers, Dominique and Vladimir get cards in return. Vladimir , I have your mailing address , but Dominique, you need to drop me a comment with your address. Hope to hear from you soon.
Take care everyone. see you again soon.

Another Catch-Up

Hello again. Here I am again with another catch-up. It seems that all I do lately . I have a nice bunch of cards though , so let's get to it. First up are a number of vertical cards .

Card # 1--  This card is a great card, an airline  card that arrived with aviation stamps . What more could I ask for ? A Connie maybe. It even has that near the top. This is an Iberia card. A great card for my collection of Airline Postcards. Iberia, or as it is shown on this card, Lineas Aereas Espanolas, is the flag carrier of Spain. They operated Lockheed Super Constellations from 1954-1966.  

Fabienne, who operates the blog World Heritage Postcards sent this card . We have exchanged cards on a number of occasions. Have a look at her great blog here.  She used a couple of wonderful Aviation Stamps which are new to my collection. They are 2 of 4 stamps in a beautiful souvenir sheet commemorating 100 Years of Military Aviation in Spain. The sheet was issued in 2011.

Card # 2 --  This next card shows a street scene in Belgrade, the capital and largest city of Serbia. It's another card from Ana , after another of her trips to Belgrade.

Ana used a 2012 stamp from a set of 4 in an Architecture issue. Ana's blog , My World of Postcards can be found here.













Card # 3 -- Times Square, New York City. I don't really need to say anything about it. Just look at some of the names in the lights- The Lion King, The Beauty and the Beast, Cabaret, The Phantom of the Opera, Elton John and Tim Rice's AIDA. I guess it's a lot busier and a lot brighter than it was when I visited in 1963. Guess it's time for a return visit.



The card is from Bruce from South Africa, who was visiting The Big Apple just after Hurricane Sandy and just before the recent U.S. election. Bruce used the Golden Eagle stamp from the 2012 Birds of Prey issue. It was a set of 5 self -adhesives. 




Card # 4- Another vertical card, this time of the 2 Port engines of a JAL aircraft. How do I know it's  JAL?  If you look on the wingtip , you can see JAL. Not sure if it will show on the scan, but hopefully so. Not quite sure of the actual aircraft type here, but the card is from 1997--- any guesses ?  




Even though it's JAL, the card comes from Hamburg, Germany. Ute writes on the card that Hamburg has more bridges than any other city in the world. A fact I did not know. Ute used a flower definitive along with a 2012 Helmut Kohl stamp.



Card # 5-- Last of The Verticals for this time. Even though it's well past November 11th, this is still a fine card to have on the blog. In Flanders Fields by Major John McCrae.

 "In  Flanders Fields" , a poem penned by Canadian doctor, Major John McCrae at an aid post at Essex Farm , near Ypres, in 1915. It was published in Punch Magazine in December 1915 and inspired the use of the poppy as an enduring symbol of remembrance to this day. McCrae died with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in January 1915 and is buried at Wimereux, France.

The card is from Johan and he had it cancelled on Remembrance Day , Nov 11th, 2012. He used a 2012 Calligraphy stamp from a booklet of 5 different stamps.

Johan and I have swapped postcards often and I hope we can continue doing so. He has a blog called Johan postcards that you can find here.   


I think I'll call it a day here. Five cards is a good day. Thanks to Fabienne, Ana, Bruce, Ute and Johan for these cards. I wouldn't have much to blog about if not for you guys.
I still have some really good cards for next time, hopefully tomorrow, but we'll have to see. It's  the 100th  Grey Cup game tomorrow, so we'll have to see, I may be a bit busy. For those of you that don't know , The Grey Cup is the Championship Game of the CFL ( Canadian Football League ). Tomorrow's game features the Calgary Stampeders and the Toronto Argonauts facing off in Toronto. Go Stamps Go. 

Catching Up Again

I certainly have lots of catching up to do . I have been missing here on the blog for just about two weeks. Cards continue to arrive even when I'm not blogging, so now I have lots of material. I have a bunch of cards in front of me now as I write , so we'll see how many of these I get through. With no advance notice of where they are from or who sent them , let's get to it.

First up is a card from Belgium, compliments of Johan. It's a card showing an older , former Town Hall in Overijse, a town of about 25,000 in the center of Belgium. Overijse is where Johan lives.

 It must be great to live in a town or city where one can actually buy and send postcards of things and places in that town. I live in the city of Airdrie, with 40,000 people , with not a local postcard to be found. I have often thought about taking a few local pictures and having them made into postcards, but honestly there is nothing historical, nothing breathtaking, nothing outstanding, nothing worth picturing and sending as a card. Sounds pretty sad , doesn't it ? Johan used 2 new and current Christmas stamps and they arrived with a First Day of Issue cancel. Thanks Johan.You can find his great postcard blog called Johan Postcards here. 















Next up is a self made postcard from Linda in Holland. Linda loves to take photographs and took this one of a young lady in Madagascar. It turned into a nice postcard.    I'm not showing the stamp on this one. I've shown it many times before. It's the 2011 Environment stamp for worldwide delivery.










Here's a card posted in Minsk, Belarus. It shows people from Kamenets, in western Belarus celebrating the Day of Belarusian Written Language. The holiday is marked on the first Sunday of September. It is intended to demonstrate the unity of the Belarusian written word and to show the development of the written language in Belarus. Olya sent this card and remarked that ice hockey is her favorite sport - I can identify with that, but sadly I am missing it this year, what with the lockout.

Olya use a number of Flower and Animal definitives from 2008 on her card.

My next card is one of Popocatepetl, an active volcano located in Central Mexico, 70 km southeast of Mexico City. It's last eruption was this year, 2012. 

Ana used 2 stamps on this card. The larger one on the left is from a 2009 set of 5 entitled Terras Silvestres or wild lands. The other stamp is 1 of 4 in a 2012 set of Handicrafts definitives.


Ana has a great postcard blog called My World of Postcards and you should check it out here.









Now for a card from Germany but of Ireland. Mirko sent this card showing showing a bridge near Kunster, Cork County, Ireland. Mirko wrote that he has visited Europe, Africa and South America, but has never travelled by air. I guess that one advantage of serving in your country's navy.

Mirko's stamps include the 2010, 200th Anniversary of The Museum of Natural History in Berlin issue. The stamp on the right commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the ILA Exposition or Air Show held in Berlin in 2009. 












I think that 5 cards is enough for this time. Thanks for cards to Johan, Linda, Olya, Ana and Mirko.
I hope to be back again soon. It's just a matter of finding the time. Take care, enjoy your cards and stamps.

Ireland, Russia, Cuba, TapPortugal and Newgrange

As you can see from my title today, I am beginning in Ireland and ending in Ireland with a few stops in between. I have a total of five cards for this time. So let's begin with a card of Dublin City. On the card we can see the River Liffey and Ha'penny Bridge. The Liffey is a river in Ireland , flowing through the center of Dublin, supplying much of Dublin's water and a range of recreational opportunities.  Ha'penny Bridge was built in May 1816 and is 43 metres in length. It was historically known as Wellington Bridge, officially known as Liffey Bridge, but is commonly called Ha'penny Bridge due to the toll charge

David, a frequent contributor of postcards to this blog sent this one along. He used 2 stamps , one of which is a Flower definitive from 2005. The second stamp is a little more involved. It was issued to celebrate the 36th Ryder Cup which was held at the K Club, Straffan, Co.Kildare, Ireland  Sept 22-24, 2006. I believe the stamp is the left stamp in a Souvenir Sheet of  2, described in Scott's Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue as a Self-Adhesive with Three-Dimensional Plastic Affixed. When it is moved it does show some motion and allows one to see things that aren't visible when viewed straight on. The PostBeeld.Com online FreeStampCatalogue describes the stamp as from a 3D Foil Sheet. Either way is is a wonderful and interesting stamp. It is very similar to the 2009 100 Years of Ice Hockey stamps issued by Canada , with lenticular motion.  

Thanks David .

My next card comes from Russia. It shows the porch or front entrance of the Protection of the Virgin Cathedral in Moscow.     

PostCrosser Alexy sent this card and used a nice 2011 stamp honouring the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.









Here's a card from Varadero, Cuba. It's a card showing the Grand Theatre of Havana. It is also the home of the National Ballet of Cuba. This building was opened in 1915. The thing about this card is that the facade of the building is raised, you can feel the structure of the building.


Used on the card is 1 of 5 Cuban Sailing Ships issued for CAPEX 96.




This next card , an Airline/Aircraft card is certainly a welcome addition to my collection. It is a Tap Portugal A330-200 . An aircraft that I have yet to fly in. But I have flown on Tap Air Portugal as it was called back then in 1975. We flew from Montreal to Lisbon and return.Strangely after all this Portugal business, I have to say that the card arrived from Germany.

Birgit used 2 stamps, 1 a flower definitive and the other is a 2012 Wildlife issue showing a proud Moose.







We're getting there, here's the last card for this time. Newgrange. Here we have a highly decorated stone at the entrance to Newgrange Magalithic Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage site , in County Meath, Ireland. It is located in the Boyne Valley on the east side of Ireland. Newgrange was built over 5000 years ago, approximately 3200 BC. 




A postage label showing a Squat Lobster was used

 this card.









That brings us to the end of another update. Thanks to all who sent cards. Take care and drop back again soon.