Hello all you postcard collectors and bloggers. I have a bunch of postcards for today. Let's start with a couple from my World Post Day project. I asked My Lovely Teena to drop a few cards in the mail to celebrate that day. She posted one in Airdrie and it did receive a nice cancellation. Not a World Post Day cancel, but at least a readable cancel with the date as 2013-10-09 . It was dropped in the mail stream at 10 A.M. on Oct 09 and received by me at 3 P.M. on Oct 15. I don't think this will qualify as a banner delivery for Canada Post. The post office is just 3.8 km from my home , a 6 minute drive. It took 7 days to travel 3.8 km. That must be a record , but not one that Canada Post will like. It is a nice postcard though, a cover from The New Yorker of March 1, 1941. It shows a couple of vacationers deplaning from a DC-3 possibly, returning home in a in a slight snow storm. That's a time long gone when arriving passengers could be met at the bottom of the aircraft stairs with a warm coat by someone.
The stamp used commemorates the 150th Anniversary of The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment of the Canadian Forces. The regiment has earned Battle Honours in The North-West Rebellion of 1885, The Great War and The Second World War. According to Canada Post's 2013 Stamp Program, this stamp is due to be issued tomorrow, Oct 18th. Looks like I have an earlier than issued usage here, earlier by 9 days. With the Poppy on the stamp , it's a nice stamp to use leading up to Remembrance Day , on November 11th.
Now for another card from Teena , posted for World Post Day, but messed up badly by Canada Post. This one is an old time picture of Aspen Beach, Alberta. It is now the site of Aspen Beach Provincial Park,
the first provincial park established in Alberta (in 1932) on the southern shores of
Gull Lake. The park is located 17 km west of Lacombe, a small city of just under 12,000.
This card too was posted on World Post Day , Oct 09th in Lacombe. You would never know that, though, from looking at the card. It was cancelled on Oct 11th in Edmonton, 121 km to the north. How Canada Post messed this up , I'll never know.
The same Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment stamp was used on this card.
My next card is from Vannes, France . The medieval town is located
in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2000 years ago. The walled town of Vannes is without doubt one of Brittany’s most attractive sights, with many old buildings and houses.
Jean Pierre used a new commemorative from a souvenir sheet of 8 issued for the 100th Tour de France.
Just one more comment about this card. I didn't know until this card arrived that France used the long sprayed on cancellations that Canada is famous ( or not ) for. I won't feel so bad now when one of my cards slips through and arrives somewhere with the dreaded sprayed on cancel.
My next card is said to be the "most patriotic Turkish card of all time ". That's according to Leslie in Ankara and she should know. This card has it all, the Turkish Flag, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Ataturk's burial place. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer in the Ottoman
military, revolutionary statesman, and the first President of Turkey. He
is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
Leslie used a couple of fine large stamps on this card. On the left is a 2013 semi-postal stamp , 1
of 2 in a set, commemorating the 130th Anniversary of the establishment of Beypazari Municipality. The 6 sided stamp is from a set of 4 issued also this tear, commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Piri Reis World Map. Be sure to check out Leslie's postcard blog
here . Here's the stamps.
Before I go on to the next card, just one more thought about Leslie. My congratulations go out to Leslie on her fine achievement in June. I'm sure she is quite proud and so she should be. Congrats !
Amelia Earhart is next. Another card for my Postcards of Newfoundland Collection. This time it's Harbour Grace. Harbour Grace is a town in Conception Bay on the Avalon Peninsula
in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. With roots dating
back to the sixteenth century, it is one of the oldest towns in North
America. Harbour Grace was an important port and fishing centre since the earliest days of European exploration of North America
and was a thriving seasonal fishing community by 1550, with permanent
settlement beginning in 1583 (24 years before the Jamestown, Virginia
colony, often incorrectly cited as the first permanent European
settlement in North America, and two years before the "lost" colony at
Roanoke, North Carolina). The town was named after Havre de Grâce, France. In 1610, pirate Peter Easton made Harbour Grace his headquarters, and established a fort overlooking the bay. Then , later as trans-Atlantic
aviation became more popular in the 1920 and 1930s, many aviation pioneers, among them Amelia Earhart , chose to make their crossing from the nearby Harbour Grace airfield
due to its proximity to continental Europe. Altogether, some twenty
flights left Harbour Grace from 1927 to 1936 in their attempts to cross
the Atlantic.
Amelia Earhart took flight from Harbour Grace on May 20, 1932, to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Here the card commemorating that feat.
The statue is located in Harbour Grace, NL on the site of the Spirit of
Harbour Grace, the SS Kyle, and the Visitor Information Centre.
This card , and the next 2 , are all from the staff of the Harbour Grace Post Office. They used a different Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee stamp from 2012 on each card, along with the special , 75th Anniversary of Solo Flight Across Atlantic cancellation from 2007.
Here are the other 2 cards from Harbour Grace.
St. Paul's Anglican Church in Harbour Grace was built in 1835, making it the oldest stone church in Newfoundland and Labrador
The "Spirit of Harbour Grace" is a DC-3 manufactured in 1943 by the
Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, California and was on charge to the United
States Air Force. It served in North Africa until the end of the second world war when it
was purchased by Resort Airlines in the United States. Later it was purchased by Leeward
Aeronautical Service Lake Central Airlines where it was used as C47 cargo aircraft. In
1951, the plane was purchased by a Canadian company and modifies as a DC-3 Douglas. The
craft was owned by Quebec Air until purchased by Roger Pike in 1977. It then transported
food and dairy products from Stephenville to Goose Bay under private registration. In
1983, Mr. Pike acquired ownership of Labrador Airways Limited and the DC-3 was based out
of Goose Bay transporting mail and cargo.
The aircraft was retired in 1988 and restored close to its original
condition to commemorate the town's rich aviation history.
I think this next card will be the last for today. I had 2 more ready, but it's getting late.
This one is the Hindenburg.
Fire & Ice : Hindenburg and Titanic is an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum . It opened in March 2012 and runs until January 6, 2014, so you still have time.
In 1936 and 1937, Hindenburg regularly carried passengers and mail between Europe and the Americas. Of the ninety-seven aboard LZ 129 Hindenburg on May 6, 1937, thirty-five perished in the scorching disaster. Only a small amount of mail survived.
This card comes from a U.S. Postcrosser named Cathy. She wrote the card during a recent Postcrossing meetup in Washington, D.C. She had the card signed by 8 other Postcrossers and herself. This is the 3rd card , I believe, I have received from Postcrossing meetups around the world. Cathy used the round Global Forever Earth stamp which we have all seen by now.
Speaking of the mail aboard Hindenburg, here are a couple of the salvaged cards or letters.
And
That's it for this time. Thanks to Cathy, Staff of Harbour Grace Post Office, Leslie, Jean Pierre and My Lovely Teena for all the cards.
Any Comments ? Don't be shy.
