Long Awaited Update ( at least by me )

Hello faithful, glad you keep coming back. I know this is long overdue and I have lots of excuses, not least of which  is some technical  glitch with Blogger that is not allowing me to sign in. However,  as is evident with this, I ( actually , my son Steve ) have found a back door way that allows me to sign in. That's enough about that, I'm sure that if you're reading this , you're here for the postcards. Speaking of postcards, I might not have been on my blog, but that didn't stop the cards from arriving. I think 28 or so arrived since my last update.

A private swap card from NSW, Australia is first up . It's actually a maximum card with a very similar stamp of the Blue Mountains of the Grose Valley area. Spectacular sandstone cliff formations dominate The Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The Blue Mountains is a national park and a W H Site since 2000.  The Grose River Gorge stamp on the front of the card was issued in 2008, one of four

in a New South Wales set.

Don , a Postcrosser who hails from Springwood, NSW sent this card. He and I will do a few card swaps in the coming months. Don  used 2 stamps from a 2012 set of 5 entitled Agriculture in Australia. 









I'm not quite sure what to think about this next card. I'm not even sure it is actually a postcard. It did the work of one and was accepted by the post offices of Taiwan and Canada. Isabel sent this tiny card to fulfill her Postcrossing obligation after drawing my name. It is certainly the smallest card I have received , measuring just  8.5 cm x 5.5 cm.  Here is Isabel's circus ride.

Even as small as I have shown the card, it really doesn't give a true idea of its size , especially when one looks at the stamp that was on it.
Isabel's stamp is 1 of 4 in a Berries set issued in 2012.

I wonder if I just bought a stamp and wrote an address on it , would that be accepted and get to a destination, because let me tell you, I have seen stamps bigger than the above card. Who wants to try ?

My next card is another addition to my Airplanes on Postcards collection. This one flew in from Belarus. It's a cool looking 2 seater little prop job.

Anna from Minsk used a neat 2013 Embroidery stamp from a set of 3 issued Feb 12th of this year.

As I receive more and more Train cards I am starting to find them quite interesting and can see why some collect  them , much like I collect planes. And when they arrive with a train stamp , it makes it even better. This is an interesting card as Sirpa  the sender actually took the picture and then had the postcard professionally printed . It's a good job, too. The train is one that makes an old style trip from one city to another, just once a summer.

 

The stamp is from a booklet of 6 self adhesives issued in 2012 celebrating Finnish railway's 150th Anniversary. And, if my geometry holds up, I believe the stamp is a vertical trapezoid. If not, I'm sure someone will let me know.

Today's final card for today is my bonus Aviation card followed by a couple of Aviation stamps. The card is a beautiful view of a C-141 Starlifter. The Starlifter provided a variety of heavy lift duties for the Air Mobility Command of the USAF. It was used to airlift combat forces, and equipment along with transporting the sick and wounded. This postcard brings back memories from the 1970s for me. When I lived in Goose Bay, Labrador, the USAF had an air force base there and quite often one could look skyward and see a C-141 landing or taking off. If I'm not mistaken, one of the tings I remember is that they didn't seem to make a lot of noise, unlike the KC-135 Stratotanker refuellers which were based there. You couldn't hear yourself when they were on the move.

 

To to make sure you were paying attention I will post a C-141 Starlifter card to the first one to correctly answer the following 2 questions :

1-  How many C-141s were lost during the Viet Nam War  and 

2- What were the dates of their destructions ? 

First email with correct answers to glenn.moores@shaw.ca  Wins

 

Here are my Aviation stamps for this time. Enjoy.

 
  They come from Lundy, not exactly a bastion of stamp issuing prowness, but I can't help liking these two. On the left is a De-haviland Comet and on the right a Bristol Brabazon.

Thanks to Don, Isabel, Anna and Sirpa for their cards. 
Come back soon, as I hope to get a few more updates in before the end of the month.
My next update will be a bunch of cards all from one sender- David from Ireland. It will be cards from his recent trip to India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Sounds good to me,