BOO , IT'S HALLOWE'EN

Boo to you too, it may be Hallowe'en but I didn't receive any Hallowe'en postcards this year. I guess they must be a thing of the past. I sure never see them in any stores around here.
All is well though as I still have a number of cards to post here today. If you've been following , it's the last of the pile plus a few more received since.

Let's start with a card from Austria. I don't get a lot from this country, I guess they aren't postcard people. My wife likes this card, she always says cards with real people on them are the best. If she were a collector, these type of cards would make up her collection. Here we have two small boys and their cats.

The card is from Anna , a PostCrosser in Flachau, a small village of about 2,800 located in central Austria. She used 2 nice stamps from 2015. On the left is 1 of a set of 16 definitives called " Impressions of Austria " . A rather attractive set actually. On the right is a stamp celebrating the Semmering Railway, the first mountain railway in Europe built with a standard gauge track.

Here's a card left over from our visit to Vancouver Island in August. It shows a large mural in Chemainus, British Columbia. This mural entitled Native Heritage is by artist Paul Ygartua depicts the Natives past and present in the local area.  Painted in 1983 it is the most recognized mural in the town.

It's a great stamp on this one. It was issued in 2016 and features Yousuf Karsh's 1936 portrait of Grey Owl. It is one of Karsh's best known portraits.

Now I have another of David's cards from his south African trip. This one shows some of the animals and views of Etosha National Park in northern Namibia.

David used 1 of 3 stamp in a set of Birds issued this year. It's a really nice set , mush like the set of 5 Herons , also issued this year. I showed 1 of the Heron stamps in a post  a couple of updates ago. Now here's the Bird stamp.

Don't miss David's great postcard and stamp blog , its called
"Postcards A World Travelogue " . Click on  this .

This next card, received from Johan , is a great Aviation themed card. It celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Air France's first Concorde flight from Paris to Washington.  The stamp , on the bottom right ,  issued by France , also commemorates this great event.
Be sure to check out Johan's fine blog , aptly called " Johan Postcards " . It's right here .

Here's a card from a Postcrossing meet-up that was held in Genoa on the 16th of this month. I've received a number of cards from meet-ups , not a lot mind you, maybe 7 or 8. I should think Genoa would be a great place to meet, and what better to show off on a card , than the Lighthouse of Genoa.
 It is the main lighthouse for the port of Genoa and serves as the symbol and a landmark for the city. At 76 m it is the world's fifth tallest lighthouse. It was first constructed in 1128, although some say 1161, and rebuilt in 1543 and is the world's 3rd oldest lighthouse.

Carla attended this meet-up and had the card signed by a number of PostCrossers attending. Her choice of stamp is 1 of 8 in a definitive set issued this year showing City Squares. The one on the stamp is Piazza Ruggero Settimo in Palermo.

I received a this next card from South Africa. It arrived blank in a cover from Bruce. It's one more for my Aircraft / Airline Postcard Collection. Shown is a Zambia Airways Boeing  707, used on the airlines Europe and Africa service in days gone by.

Now I have 2 cards compliments of Jean Pierre, each showing a German Airport. Let's look at the Frankfurt/Main Airport card first. Lots of aircraft on the card, indicative of lots of aircraft at the airport. Frankfurt is the main hub for lufthansa and features 2 passenger terminals with a capacity of 65 million passengers per year. It is the 4th busiest in Europe and 12th busiest worldwide.

Jean Pierre used 2 Classic Cars stamps from this current year. Shown are the Ford Capri and the Porsche 911.

Jean Pierre's second card is of Stuttgart Airport, an important hub for Germanwings. With 4 terminals it is the 6th busiest in Germany with 10.5 million passengers passing through in 2015.

 

HereJean Pierre used 2 current year Lighthouse stamps. On the left is Staberhuk Lighthouse and on the right is Kampen Lighthouse.

We finally made it to the last card for this time. It's from Belgium. It features the Library at the Catholic University of Leuven, the largest and oldest university in the country, dating back to 1834.

This is another private swap card from Gerda. She has a great postcard blog called " My Postcard-Page " and you can have a look at it right here . Go ahead, give it a click, it's well worth the effort.
Gerda used a beautiful Aviation stamp. It is 1 of 5 Aircraft stamps in a souvenir sheet called " Old Belgian Airplanes " .

There it is , another great update. Thanks for cards today go out to Anna, David, Johan, Carla, Bruce, Jean Pierre and Gerda.  If you have any thoughts on anything you have seen here or read today, leave a comment. It's the only way I know if it's good or bad.
Take care and we'll be back again soon, like when I receive a few more cards to put up here. Just a single card arrived in today's mail, from Ravindra in Sri Lanka. So you know that one will be up next. That's all I have in hand.

More From The Disappearing Pile

How's it going today ? It's all good here and now it's time for a few more cards before the pile disappears. My first card today arrived from Malaysia. On the front is an Indian lady who the sender says reflects the Indian culture in Malaysia. With 2.7 million people who self-identify as " Indian " holding Malaysian Nationality, I guess there is a lot of Indian culture in the country.

 I mean no offense, but when I first saw this card , I thought it was a picture of Frida Kalo. It looks so much like her.

Lek Yuen from Kuala Lumpur sent this card and used a beautiful single stamp souvenir sheet from 2015. It pictures a Vulcan Steam Locomotive from Sabah.

This next card is from Thailand and gives us a look at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The complex of buildings has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam and later Thailand since 1782.

This is another card from Khun Gordon, who is becoming a bit of a regular contributor to this blog. Like Jobbo's cards from Thailand, Gordon's always arrive with great stamps. My Thailand stamp collection is certainly growing. On this card are 5 stamps and we'll look at the odd one out, on the far right, first. It was issued in 2015 to celebrate the World Dental Congress, held in Bangkok on September of that year.  The other 4 stamps are a complete set issued in 2016 marking the Centenary of The Bangkok Railway Station.

Next up is Mont Saint-Michel. This island commune in Normandy, France, has a population of 50 people. It is one of France's most recognizable landmarks, visited by more than 3 million people each year  and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list since 1979. From the card it is easy to see that Mont Saint-Michel is located on the river Couesnon which separates Normandy and Brittany.

Dominique used a recent 2016 stamp of Pierre Messmer, Prime Minister of France from July 1972 until May 1974.

Talk about multi-tasking. Cooking, reading and having your hair done all at the same time. This Nouvelles Images card is from Tanja in France.

Tanja used a recent Marianne stamp. Marianne is the allegoric figure of the French Republic. There have been many Marianne stamp series over the years. A number of French actresses and models have been used as the face of Marianne over the  years. My favourite has always been Laetitia Casta.

Here's the latest Airline/Aircraft postcard for my Aviation Collection. Far Eastern Air Transport. They operate MD-82 , MD-83 and B737 aircraft. The airline has its head office in Taipei, Taiwan. I have a confession to make with regard to this airline. For all of my 28 years in the airline industry and for years after, I honestly thought that Far Eastern was a Russian airline. Guess I should have done a little research  on this one.  Never to old to learn , hey ?

Lisa , a Postcrosser who lives south of Russia near the Don River sent this card along. There's a couple of nice stamps on this one. On the left is 1 of 5 circular stamps , all showing Fruits and issued in 2003. Then on the right, is a large stamp celebrating Whales. It is 1 of 2 issued in 2012.

A night view of The Temple of The Emerald Buddha in Bangkok is featured on this next card. The Temple , known locally as Wat Phra Kaew is regarded as the most sacred Buddhist temple in all Thailand. It is the home of the Emerald Buddha.

Jobbo used 2 examples of stamps featuring Thailand's late King.

Mantenga Cultural Village in the Kingdom of Swaziland is front and center on my next card. The card brings greetings from Ezulwini but was postmarked in Manzini, the Kingdom's second largest center , having a population of just over 78,000.

David used 3 stamps, 1 from 2007 and 2 from 1991.

On the left is 1 of a set of 13 Trees of Swaziland  definitives. The other 2 are from a set of 13 Butterflies definitives. 

Here's another card from David's recent trip to southern Africa. This time it's the Kingdom of Lesotho. The card shows a building in Maseru shaped like a Basotho Hat. The conical shape is seen everywhere in the Kingdom, even on the flag, and is the recognized symbol of the country. 

The stamps on this one are from 1997 and feature Flowers. 

Now it's time for the last card for today. The pile on the desk is just about gone. I think there's only 4 left.  My Lovely Teena picked this card while going through Montreal Airport recently. It's The Big O - no not that one , but the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Opened in July 1976 , it saw its first baseball game in April of 1977. 

Teena wrote on the card of all the good memories that The Big O has for us. That's quite true  ,  as a family , we  saw the Montreal Expos many times in Montreal. Sadly The Expos left Montreal in 2004 and The Big O has never been the same.

On this one we can see another of the 2012 Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee stamps, another stamp on a stamp. 

There it is , another bunch of great cards. Thanks to all for sending them - Lek Yuen, Khun Gordon, Dominique, Tanja, Liza, Jobbo, David and My Lovely Teena. I'll be back again soon and will finish off the pile on the desk.  Take care, leave a comment if so inclined. 

More Cards From The Pile On The Desk

Good day again. Here's  the second installment of the cards on the desk. Again in no particular order.
Let's start with this card sent by Johan in Belgium. The card though is all about Kyrgyzstan. It's a look at The Aykol Manas Monument , in front of the State Historical Museum of the Kyrgyz Republic in Bishkek.

The card originated at Antwerpfila , which was held in Antwerp 30 September and 01 October. It is a prestamped card issued by the Kyrgyz Express Post, the second designated postal operator for Kyrgyzstan.
Here's a look at the stamp and post cancellation.

This next card is of a painting of Emperor Nicholas II , by I Galkin.
Nicholas was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from November 1894 until his forced abdication in March 1917. I guess abdication wasn't quite enough as he was later assassinated on July 17, 1918.

A couple of fine stamps arrived on this card. The card is from Anna, a Postcrosser who attended a Postcrossing Meet-up in Arkhangelsk, near the White Sea. Guess I missed that one !
Anna had the card signed by 10 or 12 Postcrossers who attended.
The 2 larger stamps are of interest. The vertical stamp was issued in 2013, 1 of 4 showing Military Uniforms. The larger stamp on the right , also from a set of 4, was issued in 2011 , all of them showing Bridges.

Card # 3 for today is from the Czech Republic. It is a a card showing a Taras Kuscynskyj  photo called Dana, who appears to be relaxing in a tree. I think I would want somewhere softer and a little closer to the ground, but to each his own I guess.

 This was a private swap with Alena. She used a 2016 stamp showing a Streetcar . It is from a set of 2 , the other is of a ship.

A new addition to my Airline Postcard Collection is up next - S7 Airlines. PJSC Siberia Airlines, operating as S7 Airlines is Russia's biggest domestic airline. Airplanes make a neat Christmas Tree, don't they ?

Nastya, who lives in Central Russia sent this card and used a number of the old Animal definitives from 2008, along with a new Ballooning stamp from 2016.

My Lovely Teena is the sender of this next card. She dropped it in the mail while we were back East to Newfoundland. It's a view of Quidi Vidi Village, a neighbourhood of St. John's. Quidi Vidi pronounces like Kiddy Viddy. The large green building is the Quidi Vidi Brewing Company, the largest microbrewery in Newfoundland. Also located in the village is Mallard Cottage, one of the oldest wooden buildings in North America. It's an 18th century Irish Newfoundland styled cottage.

Teena used a Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee stamp , featuring a stamp on a stamp. It was issued in 2012.

A show looking at the private life of Marilyn Monroe was held at the Palazzo Madama, in Turin, Italy from June 1st to September 19th of  this year.  It was titled " The Woman Beyond The Myth " . This is a card from that show.

Carla from Genoa swapped this card with me. We swap every month or so. Always a good card and stamp from Carla.
 Her stamp this time celebrates Albenga, a city on the Gulf of Genoa on the Italian Riviera. It was issued earlier this year.

Here's the last card for this time. As I wrote last time, if your card hasn't been featured yet, then it's still on the pile on the desk. It will surface eventually.
This last card is another addition to my Postcard Collection of Newfoundland Towns. It's the 30th Newfoundland Town card in the collection. As you can see , with just 30, I haven't really been trying too hard. Hoping to do better though.
# 30 is from Bell Island, an island located off the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland , Conception Bay. It measures 9.7 km in length and 3.5 km in width.  
Bell Island has a rather unique Second World War history. On September 5th and November 5th, 1942 the anchorage for bulk iron ore carriers was attacked by German U-boats U-513 and U-518. Four ships were sunk and 70 mariners lost their lives. In addition to the four ships , an errant German torpedo also struck the iron ore loading dock on shore. As a result, Bell Island was one of the very few locations in North America to see enemy action during the war, and the only location in North America to be subject to direct attack by German forces during World War II. There you go - Bell Island's claim to fame !
The card from Bell Island shows " Whiskey " a two year old Newfoundland Dog.

Thanks for this card go to the Postmaster  at the Canada Post Office on Bell Island. It arrived with one of the recent Haunted Canada stamps, the one featuring The Bell Island Hag.

A good , clear cancellation on this one. Love that.
Well that's it for this time. With any luck I'll be back again soon, in a day or two and get a few more of the cards front and center . Take care. Thanks for cards going out to Johan, Anna, Carla, Alena, Nastya, My Lovely Teena and the Bell Island Postmaster.

After A Month's Absence

Hello there, I can't believe it's been a month since I was last here. Where have I been, how come the month away ? Who knows , I guess it's called life. I was actually away for 2 weeks, a visit to Newfoundland, to visit family and friends. Also in the month, my wife celebrated her birthday, my little grand daughter also had a birthday. Then with fall here, there were a few things to put away for winter, and a few small renovations.  Then there were the baseball playoffs, now over for me with Toronto going down to defeat. So with all that,  postcards, blogs, and stamps kind of got put on the back burner . Happily postcards continued to arrive. Before I go on I want to thank Jobbo, Barbara, David, Dominique, Gordon, Ravindra, Johan, Alena, Carla, and My Lovely Teena for all the great cards with great stamps that I received in the past month. But now it's time to move forward with postcards.

First up is a card from the U.S.A.  It's a postcard featuring a manhole cover in Berlin. Maybe it's just me but I think they make a great collection. From looking at the design on this manhole cover, it appears it's a great place to advertise your city and its sights.

The card is from Meredith who lives in Saint Paul, Minn and she picked the card up on her recent visit to Berlin. She used 2 great stamp, a Star Trek stamp from 2016 and a Butterfly stamp from 2015. The Star Trek stamp is 1 of 4 in a set . The Butterfly stamp has a Non Machinable Letter Rate and shows an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

My second card today is from Thailand and gives us a look at a picture of a rare color plate of a spotted elephant from " The Manual of Royal Elephants in Rama II's Keep " .

Jobbo's card arrived with a couple of definitives featuring The Late King Bhumibol Adulyyadej (1927 - 2016 ) .

Note to Jobbo - the answer to your question is a Big No. If I removed the stamps from my postcards, the cards would then be meaningless to me .


Here now is a card from The Netherlands. It's a look inside the Rijksmuseum Library in Amsterdam. It was founded in The Hague in 1800 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808. The current building opened its doors in 1885. The museum's collection consists of over 1 million objects with around 8000 currently on display.

This card is from a private swap with Barbara. We have swapped a number of times now and continue to do so. Barbara used 2 stamps from a set of 10 issued for Year of the Book 2016.

This is another card from Barbara and what do you know- it's another Manhole cover card . That makes 3 manhole cards  that I have received . The collection grows !  This one is located in Nara, Japan. Nara has eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites but I don't think the manhole cover is one of them. But I still like it.

Barbara used a number of stamps including 2 often seen common stamps on the left. The middle stamp is from a set of 12 Dutch Province stamps issued in 2002. Over on the right is  1 of 2 Youth Philately stamps from 2014.

Today's cards are in no particular order . I'm just picking them from the stack on my desk. So if I don't get to yours today, hang in there. There's always tomorrow. I promise it won't be another month.

David's card from Windhoek, Namibia is the next one up. We can see a few of the locals along with the church built on a traffic island. This is Christ Church, built of quartz sandstone in the first years of the 20th century. Formerly known as the Church of Peace, it is situated in the middle of Robert Mugabe Avenue and is one of Windhoek's leading tourist attractions.

David used a recent 2016 stamp commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Allgemaine Zeitung.

Another card from David.  This one shows the Dunes of Namibia. You can also see in the top left corner, a salt and sand pan or dry lakebed, surrounded by high red dunes in Sossuslei, in the southern part of the Namib Desert.

This card arrived with a really nice stamp It shows a Black Heron on a white background. The scan may be a little difficult to see with all the white. It is 1 of 5 different Herons in the set, issued in 2016. A beautiful set of stamps, to be sure.

Now it's a card from Khun Gordon in Thailand. On the card we see HTMS Chakri Naruebet, the Flagship of the  Royal Thai Navy. It is Thailand's first and only aircraft carrier.

This was a prestamped postcard at the 6 Baht rate. The prestamp is a stamp showing exactly as on the front of the card, the aircraft carrier. Gordon also used 2 definitives of the late King. He also used a 2014 souvenir/sheet showing the aircraft carrier in question. A really nice souvenir sheet. Issued at the same time as the s/s was a set of 4 , all war ships , 1 of which was the aircraft carrier.

Here's the last card for today. The 8th card is from Ravindra is Sri Lanka. It's an ocean/beach view of Beruwala, a town in Western Province. Here you will find one of the oldest mosques in Sri Lanka. It is believed to be the site where the first Arab Muslims landed in the country. You'll also find that Beruwala is the starting point of a 130 kilometres long stretch of beach. Must be a great spot to beachcomb.

Ravindra used 2 stamps from 2016 and 1 from 2014. The lower left stamp celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Sri Lankan Tourism.
The top left stamp celebrates VESAK 2016 or Buddha Day. The top right stamp is 1 of 4  issued for APPU, the Asian Pacific Postal Union.

There you have it for this time. Thanks for cards go out to Meredith, Jobbo, Barbara, David, Khun Gordon and Ravindra. More great cards next time , soon I promise. Take care now.