A Boat, , a Flag, A Vintage Beauty, Tintin, Leuven and Brive

BLOG # 1417

Well, I figure it's time for another blog and as today's title implies we'll be covering a multitude of topics.  So here goes.

First up is this card from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Not quite sure just what type of boat this is , whether it's a yacht, or a tour boat or something else.

Bruce , who was visiting Dubai, sent this card along. He used a 2019 stamp from a set of 2 celebrating  Sharjah - World Book Capital for 2019. Open Books. Open Minds.

Now here's a flag card for all the flag enthusiasts and collectors out there out . It's the South African Flag. This flag is ethnic in design and concept and heralds an era of optimism, progress and peace for all the country's varied race groups. It was designed by Frederick Brownell and adopted on 27 April 1994.

What better way to celebrate a flag postcard than to send it with a celebratory flag stamp. This is just what Bruce did. He used a 2019 mini-sheet of 1 celebrating 25 Years of South Africa Democracy.

I hope I don't offend anybody with my next card. I received it back in June or early July. I have been debating whether to add it to my blog for a while now.  Looks like the lady won out.  I've added  nudes on cards before and never gave it a second thought. I feel that if a card makes it through the mail to me, it's fair game to put up on my blog.
The beauty on this card is 1 of 30 in a  " Postcard Book of Yesterday's Beauties " by Schonheiten von Gestern . 

Thorsten used 2 stamps from a 2019 Tourism issue featuring Germany's Most Beautiful Panoramas.

Next we have Herge's version of  Man on the Moon. Only it's Tintin  not Neil Armstrong.

Jean Pierre used a beautiful First Day of Issue stamp on this card and secured a wonderful cancellation.  The stamp showing Man on the Moon commemorates the 50th Anniversary of this auspicious event , and the cancel has a boot print to mark the event.

My next card was postmarked in Brussels but shows us an area in Leuven, located to the east. We can see a part of the great Beguinage, the preserved and restored historical quarter in downtown Leuven. Note the timber framing on the house in the middle. The area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.

Johan used a quite nice looking stamp and also secured a First Day of Issue cancellation. The stamp , issued in June, commemorates the 150th Anniversary of the First Horse Tram Line in Brussels.

Today`s last card is a look at some of the buildings in Brive, in southwest France. It is known for its large food market held three times a week.

This is another card from Jean Pierre. He used a Flower stamp, 1 of 4 in an Endangered Flora mini-sheet , issued this year.

Well, that does it for this time. Six cards has always been a good number for me to end with and this time is no exception. Big thanks for cards this time go out to Bruce, Johan, Jean Pierre, and Thorsten.  Once again, thanks for dropping in , and come back now, ya hear.

Arches, Planes, Venus and a Democracy Monument

BLOG # 1416

Hey there again. I'm back with another selection of cards from the top of the desk. Once again no particular order, only as they lay on my desk.

Let's start with a card from the Kingdom of Lesotho. Bruce's card shows Sehlaba-Thebe Arches , part of the rock formations in Sehlabathebe National  Park, Lesotho's first national park.

Bruce used a couple of the Flower Definitives from 1997 along with a stamp celebrating  Lesotho Postal History. It is one  of a set of six issued in 2016.

 My second card shows a 2009 oil on canvas by Liz Maw called  Venus From Hell. It can be found in the Auckland Art Gallery.

Kitty used a 2019 commemorative stamp showing a Colin McCahon painting. It is 1 in a set of 5.

Time now for a card from Thailand. Jobbo's card shows the Democracy Monument , located in the centre of Bangkok. It was commissioned in 1939 and stands  24 m high. It commemorates the 1932 Siamese coup d'etat which led to the establishment of constitutional monarchy. 

Jobbo used a great selection of stamps as he always does. My Thailand stamp collection has increased immensely since Jobbo started sending cards. Of course they remain on the cards, not in my album. Let's look at these 4 stamps, from left to right. The current King is shown on this 2018 definitive, 1 of 12 in the set. Next, from 1994, 1 of 4 highlighting Thai Heritage Conservation Day. Then a Bird stamp from a set of 4 Water Birds issued in 1997. Lastly, from 2004 , 1 of a set of 4 Boats.

Here's a new addition to my Aircraft / Airlines on Postcards Collection. A Condor Airbus A 300 B 4.  The A 300 is / was  a wide-body medium range twin engine jet. It was introduced in 1974. A total of 561 were built , however very few remain flying. Only Iran Air and Mahan Air currently operate them for a total of 11.  The aircraf t on this card, D-AIBF was operated by Condor, starting in 1979. It also saw service with Orion Airways, Britannia Airways, and Iberia. It was finally scrapped in 1999.

I never flew on an A 300, and I guess I never will now. Too Bad !


Ilona used a couple of stamps on her card. On the left, from 2012, a stamp commemorating the 1100th Anniversary of the Birth of Kaiser Otto the Great in 912. The top right stamp is from 2011, showing a Glider over the Wasserkuppe. And of course, the proverbial Flower definitive from Germany.

What's this ? Another Aviation themed card, Who would have thought ? This card shows the history of Airbus at Toulouse, Airbus Headquarters. There's a couple of early aircraft, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, The Concorde, An Airbus A 300-600ST and the  big one the Airbus A380.

Jean Pierre secured a Toulouse cancellation on his card and used a 2019 Flower stamp.

There you have it. Another blog in the books, so to speak. Thanks for these cards go out to Jobbo, Bruce, Kitty, Ilona and Jean Pierre.
As always , great cards and great stamps. It doesn't get much better than that.
Take care, thanks for showing up and we'll get back here soon.

A Lot of Mooing Going On

BLOG # 1415

Time for another blog with some great cards. Let's start with a card from Alderney, Channel Islands showing a fine herd of Golden Guernsey cows. Apparently Golden Guernseys are the only cow breed that isn't modified genetically to produce larger amounts of milk.

Jean Pierre used a nice Alderney Souvenir Sheet and a single stamp on this card. The souvenir sheet was issued in 2015 to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The single stamp appears to be from Guernsey but I wasn't able to find any information on it.

Next up is a card showing Track 1, of a train station perhaps somewhere in The Netherlands, since that's from where the card arrived .

Joke used 4 stamps on this card. Let's look at them from left to right. First , from 2005, is 1 of 4 in a Nature Parks Souvenir Sheet. The middle stamp is from 2003 and is 1 of 10 in a sheet commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Vincent Van Gogh. On the right, from 2001, 1 of 6 in a Comics set. The lower stamp is also from the Comics set.

This next card arrived from Sri Lanka. We can see a part of Horton Plains, a National park and protected area in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka. The Central Highlands have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2010.  The sheer precipice of World's End is a major tourist attraction of the park.

Ravindra used a stamp from 2017. It is 1 of 2 stamps in a Souvenir Sheet celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Ceylon Tea.

Belgium is up next - a card showing the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. Construction on this building started in 1352 and was finished in 1521. The belfry of the cathedral has been  part of the Belfries of Belgium and France  UNESCO WHS since 1999.

This card is compliments of Johan. He used a 2019 bird stamp from a Souvenir Sheet of 2 different National Birds stamps. It is a Europa issue.

Nice bird shaped cancellation with First Day of Issue.


That Belgian card was so nice , here's another. This time it's Kasteel van Horst or Horst Castle, a Flemish Renaissance castle in Holsbeek. Some say a castle here dates to the 11th century, but most certainly Horst Castle dates to the mid 14th century. There have been many owners over the centuries but now the castle stands empty and has for over three hundred years. Today you will find a visitor's centre, a heritage shop and a cozy cafe.

Gerda used a great selection of mostly stamps from the 1980s.
The far left stamp is a semi-postal from 1984 . The theme of the set of 3 is Children. The middle top stamp, from 1985, is a Europa stamp , celebrating European Music Year. The bottom middle stamp is from a 1991 set of 5 Tourism stamps. The top right stamp , from 1986, is 1 of 4 celebrating Famous Personalities. In this case it Maurice Careme, Belgian Poet. Now for the last stamp, it was issued in 1982 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Cardinal Cardijn.

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It's time for the last card of the day. It's from Thailand and shows the Stone Figure Statues located in Wat Pho, Bangkok.

Wat Pho is also the home of the Reclining Buddha and houses the largest collection of Buddha images in the country. 

Jobbo used 2 stamps, both issued in 2018. The larger stamp on the left is 1 of 4 in a set celebrating the 135th 

Anniversary of the Thai Postal Service. The smaller stamp is a definitive , from a set of 20 featuring the King.

Well, we've come to the end of another blog. Thanks for today's cards go out to Jean Pierre, Joke, Ravindra, Johan, Gerda and Jobbo.

I should be back here soon, be sure to come by again. Take care. 

Back From Away Blog

BLOG  # 1014

 It's been a while , as the title says, I'm back . My Lovely Teena and I were on a visit to the great island of Newfoundland, just off Canada's east coast. It's only 5739 km from here in Airdrie. We went to visit family, and take in a few tourist attractions. We visited a wonderful beach ,  visited a UNESCO World Heritage Site, visited a lighthouse, went whale watching, and saw tens of thousands of puffins, murres and  kittiwakes. We even visited Signal Hill National Historic Site on a clear day and could almost see England -- not really , just kidding.


Of course while away postcards continued to arrive in my mailbox. I now have lots to work with. Here is the first selection of them in no particular order, other than the order they are now in on my desk.

First up is this card from  the Algarve, Portugal. A beautiful view of the beach and cliffs in Olhos de Agua. Brings back some memories , my wife and I visited the Algarve way back in 1976.

This is a card from Johan, who was visiting the area. He used a stamp from 2017. It is 1 of 4 in a set of Traditional Desserts of Portugal.

My next card is from Texas, U.S.A. Here we see a Texas Longhorn, a popular symbol of that state. The horns can have a spread of over six feet. I wouldn't want that chasing me down a back alley.

Bruce from South Africa was attending a congress in the states and sent me this card. He used a round global forever stamp from 2017. It features a succulent plant known as the echeveria.

By the way Bruce - congratulations on your award winning paper.


Now as I said, in no particular order - here is a photo by Sara Saudkova. It's called " Love Letters " and the lovely miss is tearing them all up. And she looks happy doing it. I know, not everyone tears up their love letters in the nude but I'm sure she had a good reason.

Slavo, a Postcrosser from Bratislava sent this card. He used 2 stamps, the top one is from 2019 and was issued to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Union of Slovak Philatelists. The bottom stamp, from 2011, was issued for Stamp Day 2011 and shows an Historical Mailbox.

Next it's an inside picture of Chateau de Chambord. This impressive building was started in September of 1519. It has over 400 rooms, almost as many fireplaces and 84 staircases. It is one of the most recognizable  chateaux in the world. Over 700,000 people visited  in 2007.

Dominique used a 2018 stamp featuring a race car,  the Alpine  Renault.

Just a couple more cards to go for this time.  This next one is from Sweden.   Here's a view of Stockholm's Strom at Sunset. It's the innermost part of Saltsjon, a bay of the Baltic Sea.

Jean Pierre used 2 stamps on his card. They are 2 of 3 in a souvenir sheet issued in 2010 showcasing The Art of Engraving. It is a Joint Issue with Ireland.

Here`s today`s last card. Actually it`s from Sweden , also.  This one shows the Swedish Royal Family.

Jarmo used 4 great stamps and got wonderful cancellations at the PostMuseum in Stockholm. The 2 larger stamps on the left were issued in 1983, in a set of 4 for Stockholmia 86. The Bird stamp is from 2018, 1 of 10 in a Winter Birds set. The far right stamp , from 2002, is 1 of 8 issued highlighting Motorcycle Sports.

That ends this first blog after my recent trip to Newfoundland. Thanks for these cards go out to Slavo, Dominique, Johan, Bruce, Jean Pierre and Jarmo.

There will be more great cards and stamps next time, so be sure to show up. Take care.