Cards from David, Dominique and Mike

It's time for another blog update. I have seven cards for this time. They are all from readers of this blog, whether regular readers or readers who drop by once in a blue moon, or should I say , once in a blood moon. That's exactly what is happening Saturday, as the moon undergoes the briefest total eclipse this century. Making this lunar eclipse a bit more noteworthy is that totality will last only a mere four and half minutes long, much shorter than the average blood moon, which can last upwards of an hour.  The blood moon moniker is derived from the red color that is cast over the moon from light refracting in Earth's atmosphere. Enough science, on to postcards.
 First will be a bunch of cards sent by David, from his last trip abroad. 
Card # 1 is from Christmas Island, Australia. It's a bird's eye view of Flying Fish Cove,  the main settlement of  Christmas Island. Although it was originally named after British survey-ship Flying-Fish many maps simply label it  "The Settlement " It was the first British settlement on the island, established in 1888. About a third of the territory's total population of 1,600 lives in Flying Fish Cove, which lies near the north-eastern tip of the island.

David used a bunch of stamps on this one. On the left is a red Crab stamp from 2014. Just below this one is a Christmas stamp from 2014. Both of these received the special crab cancel. The 3 stamps on the right are from a souvenir sheet of 14 , all celebrating the Year of the Goat / Zodiac. They were issued this year. 

Card 2 is from Cocos Keeling Islands. The  Territory of Cocos ( Keeling ) Islands , is a territory of Australia, located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Christmas Island  and approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka . The territory has 2 inhabited areas , West Island and Home Island , with a total population of approximately 600. David's card is from West Island and shows a map of the area. 

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Two great stamps on this one. On the left is a 2011 stamp , 1 of 2 in a Ships issue. The right stamp, a map stamp, was issued in 2014 in a set of 4. 

David's third card comes from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Here we see an adult male orangutang. The Malay word orangutan means "person of the forest." These long-haired, orangish primates, found only in Sumatra and Borneo, are highly intelligent and are close relatives of humans. Orangutans are more solitary than other apes. Males are loners. As they move through the forest they make plenty of rumbling, howling calls to ensure that they stay out of each other's way. The "long call" can be heard 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) away.

Three stamps on this card. On the left is a stamp from 2010, it's 1 of 8 in a set of Flowers. In the middle is a 2015 stamp featuring a couple of  Water Buffaloes. Then on the right is a stamp featuring Xing Xing . It was issued on Feb 25th of this year celebrating the presence of Xing Xing and Liang Liang , 2 Giant Pandas on loan to Malaysia, from China. 

  

Here's David's final card for today. It comes from the World Heritage City of Penang, Malaysia. It shows the clan jetties or waterfront settlements of early Chinese immigrants in the middle of the 19th century. The houses are built on stilts along the wooden piers that extend to the sea. 

I'll show the stamp , but unfortunately I couldn't find anything about it, other than it was issued in 2014. Maybe someone will recognise it and leave a comment about it.  Don't forget to check out David's fine postcard blog - Postcards A World Travelogue and you can find it here . 

Now it's a card from France, showing the style of a typical house in Strasbourg.  It's the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Strasbourg's historic city centre was classified a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988.

Dominique used a 2014 stamp celebrating the spring Philatelic Exihibition in Clermont - Ferrand. 

My last 2 cards are from Mike , actually one is from Mike and one is from Mike & Ashley. They recently came across this blog and just wanted to drop me a line from West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. This first card shows a reproduction of a painting of the Philadelphia Art Museum by David Fox. The Museum houses more than 227,000 objects showing the creative achievements of the Western world since the first century AD and those of Asia since the third millennium BC.Included in it's paintings collections are works by Rubens, Gainsborough, van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Picasso and Chagall.  Impressive indeed. 

Mike used a couple of recent stamps on his card. On the left is the 2014 Abraham Lincoln stamp. Then it's 1 of 20 from the 2014 Songbirds set. Over on the right is a stamp featuring the light at New London, Connecticut. It's from a set of 5.

Here now is the card from Mike and Ashley. On the front is a C-5 Galaxy aircraft from Dover Air Force Base. The base is home to the U.S's largest cargo planes- the C-5 Galaxy. Three dozen of these 247 foot long planes are assigned to Dover Air base, the only all C-5 wing in the U.S.Air Force.  The C-5 is a monster of a plane. I remember back in the mid 1970's seeing C-5's landing or taking off at Goose Bay, site of a former USAF Air Force Base.  Even going aboard one at an air show there. 

  
A great addition to my Aircraft Postcard Collection.
Mike & Ashley used 3 similar but mostly different stamps on this card. Here they are. 

That about does it for today. Thanks for cards to David , Dominique and Mike & Ashley. Happy Easter to all who celebrate, Good Weekend to those who don't. It's a Long weekend here in Canada , no new mail until at least Tuesday of next week. Did someone mention postcard withdrawal ? 
Comment if you got one . Take care,  Later.