EARTH Hour, Kenya, My 2000th Postcrossing Card, and More

Hello again. Well, it's still winter here in Alberta, regardless of what the calendar says. It has snowed non-stop for the past 3 days and today it's just a cloudy grey day.   Temp is around  -6C.

My first card today comes from Belgium. It shows the European Parliament's Visitor's Centre.

Johan used a new  Earth Hour stamp and was able to secure a First Day of Issue cancellation in Brussels. I received this card about a week ago but kept it until today, when Earth Hour is celebrated. Since its inception in 2007, Earth Hour has become a movement mobilising people on environmental priorities across the world.  Earth Hour is a worldwide movement for the planet,  encouraging individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet. Earth Hour  2014 is scheduled for Saturday, March 29, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. during participants' local time.

  ^{African wildlife is the subject of this next card that arrived from Kenya. You can see a giraffe , a couple of monkeys and an assortment of cats.} 

David used a couple of stamps from the set of 100 marking the 100th Anniversary of Kenyan Independence.

My 2000th card from my 8 years of participation in  PostCrossing is next. It took 2939 days of PostCrossing to receive the 2000th card. That's pretty darn good I think. Alina sent this lovely young lady from Germany. She's looking quite relaxed there on that boat. 

Alina used a couple of the everyday flower definitives along with a new 2014 stamp. It commemorates the 1250 years since Lorsch Abbey was opened in 764 AD.  It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.  

 

One of the world's great planes is shown on my next card. The Boeing 737, this one in Lufthansa livery. 

This B737 with registration D-ABCE has quite a history.  It was on 13 October 1977 that the aircraft was hijacked  by 4 militants who called themselves Commando Martyr Halime. On October 18, the aircraft was stormed by the West German  counter-terrorism group GSG 9 in Mogadishu, Somalia and all 86 passengers rescued.The hijacking took place over 6 days and involved landings in Rome, Larnaca, Bahrain, Dubai, Aden and finally Mogadishu. There were a total of 4 fatalities, Captain Jurgen Schumann was murdered by a hijacker in Aden and later 3 of the 4 hijackers were killed in Mogadishu. 

This is another card from Johan in Belgium. Again he used a current 2014 stamp and had it cancelled on the First day of Issue. The stamp commemorates International Women's Day, March 10th. 

My last card for today. Another of David's cards , this one from Malawi.  It shows a local market scene in the shade of overhanging trees. Malawi - The Warm Heart of Africa. Malawi has claimed to be 'The Warm Heart of Africa' for decades now. These marketing slogans can sometimes be stretching the truth, but in Malawi's case, this is a title that it well and truly continues to deserve. The Malawians greet all visitors with a beaming smile, and with a genuine, disarming warmth. They will go out of their way to be friendly and helpful to anyone who has done them the honour of visiting their country.

 

David used 4 copies of the 2012 stamp highlighting PMTCT - Preventing Mother To Child Transmission of HIV. 

There we have it - short and sweet. Another update in the book. Hope you enjoyed this one. I enjoyed bringing it to you. One more thing - This past week was a great week for me. I received 45 postcards in the mailbox. On Wednesday I found 19 cards there and thought that was great, then on Friday 20 cards were in the box. What can I say, I can only hope this coming week is as good. Take care , be sure to turn your lights out for an hour tonight.