So Long February

Hello from Bitter Cold Alberta, Canada. It is extremely cold out today and it's going to get even colder this evening and overnight. As I write this it is -21 C , with a windchill of -31C. This evening it will drop to -25 C and feel like -36 C. Overnight tonight the temperature is forecasted to be -35 C with a windchill of -47 C. You know , right now it is only -22 C on MARS, yes Mars. Temperatures like these are really Out Of This World. I guess March is coming in like a Polar Bear, not like the old saying , coming in like a Lamb, or a Lion.
Stormy days in winter are always good days to work on postcards and stamps, and Cold days the same. Who wants to go outside and freeze if one doesn't have to. So it's on to postcards.

What better way to start on a Cold day than a card from warm Hawaii, Maui in fact. This first card shows a breathtaking Hawaiian sunrise at Haleakala National Park. The park covers an area of 33,264 acres.   The park features the dormant Haleakala Volcano, which last erupted sometime between 1480 and 1600 AD. The volcano is Maui's highest peak, rising 10,023 ft. above sea level.

This card is compliments of my son Parker and his family. They recently vacationed on Maui and took time to send me a card. Both stamps are self- adhesives from 2013. The top stamp is from a set of 2 Stylistic Flowers and the Butterfly was a single issue.  Also note the Haleakala National Park hand stamp. Interestingly , the card is cancelled Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. I wonder if any mail gets cancelled on Maui. If anyone out there knows , drop me a comment.

Thanks Parker, Amanda, Zach, Xander and Will.

Card number 2 today is a fine Sabena , Belgian World Airlines B737. The 737 series is the best-selling jet airliner in the history of aviation.  The 737 has been continuously manufactured by Boeing since 1967 with 7,865 aircraft delivered and 3,680 orders yet to be fulfilled as of December 2013.  There are, on average, 1,250 Boeing 737s airborne at any given time, with two departing or landing somewhere every five seconds.

Johan of Johan Postcards used 2 copies of the very recently issued Michael Borremans stamp. This is a First Day of Issue cancel as the stamp was issued on Feb 15, 2014. Note the neat cancellation used, it's like the stamp itself.

 

 I often receive postcards of Aircraft and Airlines , but not often cards of Airports. So now here's a card of Shanghai Pudong International Airport. PVG is the primary international airport serving Shanghai, and a major aviation hub for Asia.. The airport is the main hub for China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines, and a major international hub for Air China. It is also an Asian-Pacific cargo hub for UPS  and DHL. The DHL hub, opened in July 2012, is said to be the biggest express hub in Asia.

Another reader of this blog, Wang Jia Yi from Shanghai sent this card and used a nice assortment of stamps. From the left the stamps are : a 1998 King Yandi Mauseleum issue , 1of 3 and a 2012 Furniture issue, 1 of 4. Then we have a 2013 Tadpoles issue, 1of 5 and lastly a bird definitive from 2002.

 

Next is a card from Jyvaskyla, Finland. The city of about 135,000 is located in central Finland.  The city hosts Neste Oil Rally Finland  which is part of the World Rally Championship, evidence of which you can see on the lower right of the card. Also on the card are a couple of hockey players, not from the Olympic team mind you, but Congratulations anyway to the Bronze Medal winning Finnish team. Teemu Selanne, Olli Jokinen , looks good on you. 

Strange thing about this card is that I don't know who sent it. It arrived blank, except for my address. Nice stamp though, it was issued in 2013, 1 of 2 in a Eero Jarnefelt souvenir  sheet honoring the Finnish realist painter.

Gaisen , a PostCrosser from Hong Kong sent my next card. 

The Bird stamps are part of the definitive set of 16 issued in 2006. 

Here's a country that I haven't received many cards from , Brunei. On it you can see Istana Nurul Iman, the largest residential palace in the world. It is the official residence of His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam. Hopefully his Majesty doesn't get lost in its 1788 room or 257 bathrooms. Life is tough, isn't it ? 

 

 Ping used 2 of the 2007 set of 12 stamps featuring Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

Another nice Sabena card compliments of Johan. This card shows a couple of  Sud Aviation Caravelles and an older Sabena jet, perhaps a B707. Long gone are the old days of walking around the ramp to board your aircraft , like shown on the card. 

Johan used another First Day of Issue stamp, this time 1 of the 5 Nature set issued on 15 February 2014. 

I had a couple more cards ready to go, but I think that's enough for this time. Thanks for cards to Parker & Family, Johan, Wang, Ping and Gaisen.

Take care, it's still bitter cold , I'm just going to hunker down for the evening and watch a movie. I think the movie  " 42 " sounds like a good one for tonight. I do like baseball movies. 

Later.