The Last for 2013 and Hello 2014

It's New Year's Eve , December 31th again. This will be the last update for this year. It is update # 62, my lowest number of updates ever on this blog. I had a high of 125 in 2008, with 95 in 2009 and 91 in 2011. I am really disappointed with this low output. I will certainly endeavour to do better in the new year. 

My first card for today is from Japan. Best of all it's an Airline/Aircraft card. This one is a Japan Airlines B777-200.  A nice airplane and one I have flown in. Not the Japan Airlines one , mind you.

A Postcrosser named Kozue sent this card and used a couple of stamps. The Bee definitive on the left was issued in 1997 . The stamp on the right is 1 of 5 issued in 2012 for National Sports Festival.

Card # 2 is a shaped card while also a shapely card. This shapely , well tanned young lady came all the way from Perth, Western Australia.

Heather from Down Under used a couple of recent stamps on her card. The vertical stamp on the left is a Wishing Stamp from 2013. If is from a set of 6. The other stamp was issued in 2012 and is 1 of 5 in a set highlighting Agriculture in Australia. This particular stamp shows Grapes grown in the production of Wine.

This next card arrived from India and shows us the Blue Mormon butterfly. It is a large swallowtail butterfly found in South India and Sri lanka.

This card is a Postcrossing Meetup Card . It is from Bishnu who attended the Postcrossing Meet at Dharwad on the 20th of October, 2013. Bishnu used 2 2013 Flower stamps.

 

Here's one more Railway card for the railway /train collectors out there. It's the Alishan Forrest Railway, 86 km of narrow-guage track in Alishan, Taiwan. It's quite the tourist attraction with unique z shaped switchbacks, 50 tunnels and more than 77 wooden bridges. 

Mei used a number of stamps including 1 stamp issued in 2013 highlighting Children's Games. It is 1 of 5 in the set. The stamp on the right , also from 2013, is from a set of 4 entitled Outlaws of the Marsh.

Food and wine can be found on this next car, which actually came from Le Berthoud, a restaurant in Paris, France. The card though was mailed from Kiev, Ukraine.  Anastasia was visiting Paris and obviously enjoyed Le Berthoud enough to pick up this card. 

Anastasia used stamps from 2011 and 2012. The left stamp is a Europa Forests stamps from 2011 and the right stamp is from a set of 4 Windmills. 

 

Here's another shaped card, but not as shapely as the earlier one. On this one we see 9 different views of Slovenia. Included are Bled, Julijske Alpe, Reka Mura, Bohinj, Ljubljana, Rogaska Slatina, Portoroz, Izola and Piran. 

Michaela wrote on her card that she loves ice hockey and that the Toronto Maple Leafs is her favourite team. I don't want to be the one to tell her that a Stanley Cup may not be in the works again this year.

Michaela used a nice Cat stamp, if one likes cats, from May of this past year. 

I think 6 cards is enough to end off the year with. Thanks to Michaela, Anastasia, Mei, Bishnu, Heather and Kozue for all these wonderful cards. 

Now I want to wish all my readers, postcard bloggers, postcard collectors and stamp collectors  all the best for the upcoming year 2014.

A very special Thank You to everyone who has sent postcards this past year. This blog would not exist without your cards .

HAPPY NEW YEAR

See you again in 2014