A Just Before Christmas Update

Well it's a busy, busy time of year, but I'm squeezing another update in before the Big day. I have 8 or 9 cards set aside for this time , but we'll see how it goes. My first card comes from Villach, Austria. It is a city surrounded by mountains and located on the Drava River. With a population of 60,000 it is the seventh-largest city in the country.

Swen used a nice stamp from 2012 commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Gustav Klimt. It arrived with a rare socked on the nose cancel.

My second card shows a lovely ballerina adjusting  her slipper. Jenny from Hong Kong wrote that she loves ballet and that's why she chose this card.

 
The stamp on the left is from this current year, 2013. It is 1 of 6 in a set issued to showcase the Restoration of Historic Buildings. The smaller stamp on the right is 1 of 16 Bird definitives issued in 2006.

This next card , when I first looked at it, brought back memories of that great medical drama television series ER, which ran from 1994-2009. A few of the actors on ER included Noah Wyle, George Clooney and Julianna Margulies. You might ask why this card reminded me of ER and here's why. The card shows the Chicago EL or L train. The L or elevated train dates back to 1892 and has an annual ridership of over 231 million. Oh yes, about the L and ER,   I remember well  many , many scenes in the tv series where the L was featured  .

Alexa used the round U.S. Global, Forever stamp from 2013.

 

A Finnair MD-11 is flying in next. Another great addition to my Airlines/Aircraft Collection. Finnair operated MD-11s from Dec 1990 to Feb 2010. Finnair is in its 90th year off operations, having started up in 1923. I haven't yet had the pleasure of  flying in a MD-11 , but have flown a number of times in a DC-10, of which the MD-11 is a derivative.

 

Oona used the first stamp of 2013 issued by Finland. It is a self-adhesive celebrating Sledging.

 

Here's a card that really shows the conditions here in my office, where I produce this blog, in addition to enjoying my stamps, and postcards. This fellow is jumping for joy on receiving a postcard. He's surrounded by stamps, postcards and stamp or postcard albums. He even has pins stuck in a globe showing the places his cards have arrived from. I don't have a globe, but I do have a world map on the wall stuck with hundreds of colored pins. I didn't know why I was showing this card, but on second look, it all fell in place. 

  

Julie from Belgium sent this great card and used 2 recent stamps .  On the left is a Butterfly stamp from 2012. It is 1 of 2 in a set of self-adhesives  which are imperforated on 1 or 2 sides . The other stamp is from 2013 and 1 of 3 in a set featuring King Philippe.

North Africa by Air is the title of this next card. It's also my last for today, I know, it's not 8 or 9 as I mentioned above, but it is enough , just the same.
I really like this card, it brings back memories of  The Flight of the Phoenix.

Fabienne used a really great aviation stamp here. It is a 2013 Roland Garros stamp. He was an early French aviator who in 1913 flew the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from France to Tunisia. A somewhat high valued stamp. Be sure to check out Fabienne's postcard blog here .

Thanks everyone for your cards, Fabienne, Julie, Oona,  Jenny , Alexa and Swen.


That's the update for this time. Maybe if I get all my Christmas wrapping done tomorrow, I might even get another couple of cards in tomorrow.
That would be just peachy.

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