You Decide Today's Post Title

NEW TITLE FOR THIS UPDATE :

Stamp Wars : Episode V : The Postman Strikes Back

Title Courtesy of Barbara From The Netherlands and a postcard goes out to her for her title.
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Hello again. I am stuck for a title for this update. So, now it's up to you , the readers. Leave a comment and suggest a title. Who knows - the best one might even win a postcard !

I'll start today with a card from Shanghai, P.R.China . An older gent attempting a set of stairs, with his cane. This could be many of us in years to come. Who knows ?

Elder Boy, a Postcrosser from Shanghai, sent this card along. He used a rather nice large stamp from 2002. It's the only stamp in a beautiful souvenir sheet. It gives a great look at Hokou Waterfall.

Now I know you can't see my anger, but it's there. Once again the postman ( either in China or Canada ) saw fit to strike his pen through another fine stamp. I'll never understand this , especially since this stamp had already received a circular cancellation. Shouldn't that be enough ?

Now we have an interior view of The Premontres Abbey of Pont-a-Moussos, an 18th century building in the Lorraine region of France.

 
Dominique used a 1973 stamp commemorating the 10th Anniversary of French - German co-operation. It is a joint issue with Germany.

Marilyn Monroe- American actress, model and sex symbol. That just about covers it, I think.

Many people collect Marilyn cards. I don't , but I have a number of them and periodically send one to Barbara, who has a fine collection of them.

Natali , who lives in Rybinsk , a city on the Volga River used 3 of the Kremlin definitives on this card. They were issued in 2009.

A final note on Marilyn. The dress she wore when she sang
" Happy Birthday Mr President " to President John F. Kennedy will be on display in Luseland , Saskatchewan, a small rural town of   about 500 , on July 10th. The dress cost $12,000 in 1962 and was last sold for $4.8 million . I guess security will be tight in Luseland that day.

My second card for today, from Dominique, shows the 44.4 meter Cross of Loraine in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises in north-eastern France. The town achieved fame as the home and burial place of Charles de Gaulle. The Cross of Lorraine was built to commemorate de Gaulle's wartime role as commander of the Free French Forces.

Dominique used a 2014 stamp with tab, featuring a building in Poitiers, a city in western France.

Now for the last card for today. It arrived from the beautiful island of Tasmania. It shows the West Coast Wilderness Railway , one of the world's great railway journeys. It operates over 35 km between Queenstown and Strahan using the unique rack and pinion third rail ABT system to conquer the mountain terrain.

Elizabeth used a stamp from 2017, 1 of 4 in a Jetties set. Shown is the Kincumber Jetty in New South Wales. Oh my, what else do we have here. Looks like the Stamp Defiler has struck again. As Johnnie Cash sang in his song " A Boy Named Sue " ,  " I still hate that man " .

Well folks, that's all for today. Thanks go out to Elder Boy, Dominique, Natali, and Elizabeth for their fine cards. Don't forget to leave a title for today's update in comments. Take care.

Russia, Jordan, Belarus and the U.S.A.

I apologize for the poor format and colour of today's blog. Somedays things just don't go the way you want and I guess today qualifies as one of those days. I really don't know what happened, I guess the magic just wasn't in the old fingers.



Hello there. I'm glad you found your way here again. I have five cards for today.
Let's start with a card from Russia. I can't tell much about this card, simply because I don't understand Russian. There is in addition to the comment on the front, lots of preprinted information on the reverse. Perhaps one of my readers might be able to translate the comment on the front. Anyway we have two soldiers, one possibly ready to fire and the other reloading his musket .

Polina used 3 stamps on her card. On the left is 1 of the often seen Kremlin definitives from 2009. Next is a 2006 stamp from a set of 5 Wildlife. On the right is 1 of 4 in a 2012 Sochi Olympic Winter Games issue.

Today's second card arrived from Jordan. It shows Rudolf Swoboda the Younger's 1883 oil on canvas " The Carpet Menders " . It recently sold for USD 2.3 millions, so you know it's not hanging in my place.

While I don't know who sent this card , I do know it was posted at the Science & Technology Post Office at the Amman University. Sadly , it arrived  without  a stamp, just a postal label .

Now I have one for the Train / Railway enthusiasts out there. The card has no info about what train it is or where it is, but it is a nice card just the same.

 Barbara used the 2016 Global Forever Moon stamp.

Here's a Belarus card next. It's the Magilyou  Regional Art Museum, named after P.V.Maslenikau. 

Yanina used a nice 2015 stamp, 1 of 5 in a Construction Equipment set.

We're down to the last card for today. Another Train card for the train lovers. This one is from Moscow, Russia.

Sergey used a Railway stamp from a 2015 Souvenir Sheet featuring the Baikal-Amur Railway.

There you have it, my update for today. Thanks for cards go out to Barbara, Polina, Yanina and Sergey. Be sure to drop in again.

Flowers, Planes, a MailBox, a Train, and Helgoland

I have a mixed bag of cards for today. Let's start with a field of Sunflowers in Lopburi, Thailand. The city is one of Thailand's oldest , with many temple ruins and many mischievous monkeys in the area.

Pronpimon, a new Postcrosser, sent this card from Ayutthaya, the historical city which was founded around 1350. She used a Phromthep Cape, Phuket definitive from a set of 10 issued in 2012. The cape is Phuket's southwestern most point.

 

Final word on this card. This is the 2400th postcard I have received from my participation in Postcrossing.  That's 2,400 cards in 4,110 days. That's not bad at all.


Even though Pan Am ceased operations in Feb of 2008, here's a Pan Am jet themed card from 2014. I guess someone is still making money off  Pan Am. The small print says " Pan Am Jet Clippers, world's fastest airliners on the World's Most Experienced Airline... now serve 4 continents. All aboard for another " first " - regularly scheduled round-the-world true Jet service! " . A lot has changed and a lot has been written since those slogans first appeared.

Ichigo from Japan sent this card and used a nice bunch of stamps. On the left is a 1967 stamp commemorating the 20th Anniversary of a Road Safety Campaign. Next to it is a 1968 stamp issued for the 100th Anniversary of a Youth Goodwill Cruise. The last 2 are showing Steam Locomotives from a 1975 set of 4.

A Russian postbox is next. We've all see these mailboxes before , but there is something about this one. I'll get to that in a bit.

Maria from Moscow used a Kremlin definitive from 2009 , alongside a 2016 stamp issue by Russia for Postcrossing. Fifteen countries have so far issued Postcrossing stamps, and Canada isn't one of them, I might add.

 

Now if you look closely at the postcard that the hand is dropping in the mailbox, the stamp on the card actually matches the Postcrossing stamp that Maria used. Pretty cool , eh ? ( I am Canadian , after all ) .


Now it's off to Helgoland, Germany, a small archipelago in the North Sea. Now German, the islands have been Danish and British in the past. David's card shows it to be a really nice place to spend a few days.

David used 2 stamps from this current year. On the left is one issued for the Opening of Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall. On the right is a Europa stamp featuring Wartburg Castle, dating from the Middle Ages.

How about Royal Nepal Airlines ? The flag carrier of Nepal operates with its main base in Kathmandu. The airline operates a fleet of ten aircraft to 8 international destinations. Royal Nepal operated the Pilatus Porter , as shown on this postcard, from 1961-1998. This particular aircraft, 9N-ABJ crashed in Biratnagar in November 1981, killing all ten persons on board.

 


This card didn't come from Nepal, it was sent by John who lives in Georgia, U.S.A.  He used a 2016 Global Forever round stamp.

My last card for today shows the historic Borkumer Kleinbahn, the oldest German island train. Borkum - the Pearl of the North Sea is the largest of the East Frisian Islands and is located in Lower Saxony, Germany.

 
Angelika used a 2017 stamp showing a VW Golf from a Classic Cars set of 2.

Well that's all folks , at least for this time. Thanks for dropping in .
Today I owe thanks to Pronpimon, Ichigo, Maria, David, John, and Angelika for all these cards. It's great to receive them and great to show them here.

It's Still June

I'm back with this week's postcard offerings. Maybe I should say today's offerings as I would hope to be back again . Let's start with 2 cards from France, both sent by Dominique.
Card # 1 shows a portion of the walled town of Langres, in northeastern France . The walls are 3.5 km in length and include a dozen towers and seven gates. The Cathedral of Saint-Mammes , dating from the 12th century , in located in Langres. The town is also known for the cheese of the same name , made there. Finally, it is the birthplace of Denis Diderot, the philosopher famous for editing the  " Encyclopedie " .

Dominique used a large nice 2014 stamp on this card. It features Anne of Brittany. She looks exactly the same

on this stamp as she does on a postcard that I featured here on the blog back on Sunday, April 9th of this year.


Here's Dominique's 2nd card. It's a look at the former home of Paul Verlaine, French poet and translator. Verlaine was a member of the Decadent Movement, an artistic and literary movement in Western Europe. The movement was characterized by self-disgust, sickness at the world, general skepticism, delighting in perversion and crude humor. As you can see on the card Mr Verlaine's home is now a restaurant.

It's a 1963 Art stamp , from a set of 2, on this card.

Here's the latest postcard for my Airlines / Aircraft Collection. It's a Czech Airlines B737 , aircraft registration OK-DGL. This aircraft was only in Czech Airlines fleet during 1998. It is now in Badr Airlines fleet and registered as EK73772.
The livery on the card is really nice, with an old aircraft painted on the forward section of the fuselage and another on the tail section.

A PostCrosser named Sarka sent this card along. She lives in Litomerice, a city of about 25,000 in the north of the Czech Republic. Her stamp is from 2011 and celebrates Folk Architecture.

My next card is from Kempten, a town of 67,000 in Bavaria, Germany. It is the oldest urban settlement in the country, dating back possibly to 50 BC . Kempten is also the birthplace of Claude Dornier, the German aircraft engineer and founder of Dornier GmbH. His legacy includes the Dornier DO X Flying Boat, for decades the world's largest and most powerful airplane. Unfortunately , none of this is featured on the postcard, just a number of local Kempten buildings.

Anne Marie used a Flower definitive on her card. She is from Dublin but was in Kempten for a Virtual Tourist EuroMeetUp.

 One more for my Airlines Collection. An Air Lib Express DC10-30. Registration F-GPVA. The first flight for this aircraft was on 27 November 1974. Other operators of this DC10 were Finnair, JAT Airways, World Airways and Malaysia Airlines. F-GPVA is no longer with us - it was scrapped in early 2005. Jean Pierre's card shows the aircraft at Paris Orly in 2003.

Pushkin Square in central Moscow is the subject of my next card. The square was named for Alexander Pushkin in 1937 and is one of the busiest city squares in the world. The card from Yulia shows a statute of Pushkin in the center of the square, which was moved to Addis Ababa in 2014 to commemorate the poet's African heritage.

Not much in the line of stamps here, just a couple of the old 2009 definitives. Nice clear Moscow cancellation though.

Well, I think that will do it for this time. Thanks for cards go out to Dominique, Anne Marie, Sarka, Jean Pierre and Yulia.
As always, leave a comment if you want , I read them all, not that I get many, mind you. Take care.

Hey , It's June Already

Yes, it's June and time for a few more postcards. This is the first update for June - I hope this month is as busy, blog wise as May was. I did 10 updates last month - that's really a good month for me. I know many blogs get updated just about every day and that certainly looks good on them. More power to them. Now, it's on to the cards.

Let's start with a card from Veurne, a city in northwestern Belgium, near the French border. The market square is dominated by the Belfry which is the subject of this card. It was built in 1617 and  construction took 10 years.  It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List in 1999.

Gerda sent this card along and used 3 stamps . On the left is a 2002 stamp , 1 of 20 , in the 20th Century set. The middle stamp is from 2003 and is 1 of the 10 This is Belgium set. On the right is a 2016 stamp , 1 of 10 in the Nobel Prize Winners set. It celebrates Ilya Prigogine, a a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry for work in dissipative structures, nonequilibruim thermodynamics and irreversibility.
With those topics, it's no wonder I never even made the list.

Card # 2 for today arrived from Singapore. It shows a Tembusu Tree in Singapore Botanic Gardens. The trunk of this tree can produce very hard wood that is often made to produce chopping boards. The wood of this tree lasts a long time, often over 100 years and as a result, it is also used for flooring.

Jobbo also used 3 stamps on his card. On the left is 1 of 8 in the Myths and Legends set. It was issued in 2014. In the middle is 1 of 4 in the Kent Ridge Park set from 2010. The stamp on the right is from 2007 and is 1 of 4 in a City Tourism set.

Now it's on to beautiful New Caledonia. Jean Pierre's card shows Anse Vata Beach, just 10 miles from Noumea city centre.

On Jean Pierre's card , he used 3 definitives from 2014 and 2016, along with a nice 2016 stamp featuring the ship Caledonien.

Now here's a different card, a different face. I'm not sure from looking at this Maori warrior, if he's scared or trying to scare. You decide.
Recent years have seen a revival in Maori culture, so it's not surprising  to see one featured on a postcard.

Postcrosser Jen is the sender of this card. She used a 2016 definitive stamp featuring Abel Tasman Scenic Reserve in Awaroa Bay.

This next card features a UNESCO World Heritage Site from the Czech Republic. It features the gardens and castle in Kromeriz, a Moravian town in the southeastern Zlin Region of the country.The Kromeriz Gardens and Castle were added to the WHS list in 1999.

Emil used a 2012 Architecture definitive and a 2016 World Heritage Sites stamp.

Well I think that's about it for today. A nice start to the month of June. I want to thank Gerda, Jobbo, Jean Pierre, Jen and Emil for their cards. GemsWorldPostcards would be nothing without people like you all. Many thanks. Please drop by again soon.

However before I sign off for today, I think it's time for one more of my infrequent appeals. There are still a few countries and stamp issuing entities that I have not as yet received a stamped postcard from and they are: Australian Antarctic Territory, Central African Republic, Congo ( Democratic Rep ) , Guineau-Bissau, Liberia, Niuafo'ou, Sierre Leone, South Sudan, Tokelau Islands and Transniestra. Just 10 more, but 10 difficult ones it seems. So , if you are going to any of these places, know anyone living or working in any of them or know anyone going to any of them , please keep me in mind. Thanks for reading.