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.