Adare, L`Hermione, West Cork and UTA

BLOG 1537  --  Day 520 of the Pandemic  

Hello again folks. I`m back with a few cards to show . I`ll start with a card from Adare, a village in county Limerick, Ireland. It is designated as a heritage town by the Irish government. The village is an old world place of quaint thatched cottages and medieval churches located on the west bank of the Maigue River. Two abbeys within the town have been restored , one as a Catholic Church and the other is a Church of Ireland. 

David used a stamp from this year, 1 of 3 issued to celebrate Ireland`s Pride Movement.

 

My next card arrived from France. It shows the Hermione , a replica of the 1779 Hermione. The replica was launched on September 7, 2014. The card shows the Hermione passing under the transporter bridge at Rochefort. The bridge was built in 1900 and fully restored in 2020. It is 50 metres high and 150 long.

Again Dominique used an older stamp, from 1972. It shows a likeness of Paul de Chomedey, a famous French military officer. 

One more card from Ireland. West Cork is a tourist region in County Cork. The county is home to the 15th century Barney Castle and its world famous Blarney Stone. David`s card shows the Italian Gardens of Garnish Island, located in Glengarriff Harbour. The island enjoys a climate that is almost sub- tropical, and as a result, you can find plants from around the world.

 David used a recent stamp here, 1 of 2 in a 2021 set , with the theme For People For Planet. 

My next card is a keeper, the latest addition to my Airlines and Aircraft on Postcards collection. It`s a UTA DC-10. UTA or Union de Transports Aeriens was a French airline that was formed in 1963. It was the largest privately owned independent airline in France. UTA was absorbed into Air France between 1990 and1992. 

The DC-10s first flew on August 29, 1970 and UTA operated 7 of them. The last regularly scheduled commercial passenger flight operated with a DC-10 aircraft was by Biman Bangladesh Airlines on February 20, 2014 from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Birmingham, UK. 

Sadly,  I wasn`t on the last flight, but I did experience the DC-10 many years ago , flying to Honolulu. 

Jean Pierre`s card arrived with 2 stamps and a fine Philatelic Centre, Tahiti postmark. Ah,  Tahiti - fabled island of swaying palms and pretty vahines. Someday I`ll get there, I hope ! The stamps, from French Polynesia are these. On the left , from 2019, 1 of 2 showing Endemic Birds. On the right, from 2015, this stamp celebrates the 180th Anniversary of the Discovery of King George Island. 

Well readers, that`s all I have for this time. Thanks for today`s cards go out to David, Dominique and Jean Pierre. 

And speaking of covid- do your part, get vaccinated, it don`t hurt a bit. 

I have been researching travel in these times. It`s not going to be easy or cheap , that`s for sure. But that`s another story, for another time. 

Planes, Little Things, a Manhole Cover, CFU and More

BLOG 1536  --  Day 513 of Pandemic 

Hello once again. It`s a new month, so Hello August and welcome to the dog days of summer. Of course I`m looking forward to National Root Bear Float Day on August 6th. See you at A & W. Oh yes,  August 24th is a big day for My Lovely Teena and I, it will mark our 47th wedding anniversary. 

Now on to cards .  I have a bunch of cards for this time. We`ll see just how many of them I get to . 

I`ll start today with an aircraft and airline card . It`s an Air Inter Airbus A330, registered as F-GMDB, landing at Toulouse in 1994.  A total of 1,518 A330s were built since 1992 and the one on the card is nbr 037, so a very early model.  Air Inter was a French domestic airline from 1958 to 1997, when it merged with Air France.  Aircraft F-GMDB had its first flight in Oct of 1993. It flew with Air Inter from Dec 1993 until July 1997. After that it saw service with Sabena, Birdy Airlines and finally Brussels Airlines. It was stored in Oct 2018 and is to be scrapped at some later date. 

Jean Pierre used the new Solar Impulse stamp from earlier this year. I detailed this stamp in my last update. 

My 2nd card today is from Belgium. It shows the Stedelijk Museum het Toreke, located in Tienen, a city in Flanders. It has a population of approximately 35,000. 

Johan used a stamp that was issued on June 14th of this year. It received a First Day of Issue cancel at Brussels. The stamp is 1 of 5 in a minisheet , celebrating Belgian DeeJays. 

Be sure to check out Johan`s great postcard blog right here . It`s worth it.

Next is a card from Santorini, Greece. Santorini island is one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. It was devastated by a volcanic eruption in the 16th century. Roughly 2 million visitors flock to the island every year. 

This is another card from Jean Pierre and this time he used a stamp from 2020. It is 1 of 2 issued commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Revolution , the momentous war for independence of the Greeks from the Ottoman Empire. 

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Now it`s a card , from the Netherlands, showing a Nagoya , Japan manhole cover. Displayed on the cover is the Nagoya City Waterworks character `Amenbo`- an insect that lives in clean water. This is a photo taken by the sender of the card, Barbara, in 2016. 

Barbara used 2 Europa stamps from 2009 with Astronomy as their theme. The left stamp shows the location of the LOFAR, Low Frequency Array, a large radio telescope. The right stamp shows the Huygens telescope lens, used to discover Saturn`s moon Titan. 

Miniature World - The Greatest Little Show on Earth, is the focus of my next card. It can be found in the world famous Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C., Canada. Here you will find the world`s smallest operational sawmill, one of North America`s longest running model railways and much more. There are over 85 great little attractions to thrill you.  

This card is from Ryann and Evan, two of my grandkids who just spent a short vacation with their Mom and Dad on Vancouver Island.  The card was posted at Ladysmith, a town located exactly on the 49th parallel north. 

The stamp is from 2020, 1 of 9 in a set called From Far and Wide. The stamp on the card shows Carcajou Falls in Canada`s NorthWest Territories. 

One more note on Ladysmith. Who is the most famous person born in Ladysmith ---- I won`t give the answer , but it shouldn`t take too long to figure it out.  First correct comment wins --- nothing.

Here`s another card from Greece, this time it`s Corfu, an island off that country`s northwest coast in the Ionian Sea. Dominique`s card shows the Corfu International Airport at Kerkyra. It`s a pretty busy airport with over 50 airlines flying in and out. 

Dominique used a stamp from 2019. It is 1 of 4 in a minisheet . It is a Euromed Issue of Traditional Costumes. 

 

Time for the last card of the day. It arrived from China and is filled with five stamps and a whole bunch of stickers of planes, trains and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The card itself is of a Sichuan Airlines Airbus A350, registered as B-304V. The aircraft is 4.7 years old and had its first flight in 2016.

Before Sichuan Airlines flew this aircraft in November of 2018, it saw service with SriLankan Airlines. 

It is number 55 of 436 A350s produced.

 

There are five stamps to have a look at. I`ll go from left to right. 

The first 2 were issued in 2017 and are 2 of 5 in a Science and Technology set.  Next , from 1996, is 1 of 4 showing Cycads. The next stamp was issued in 2020 and is 1 of 5 showing Astronomical Phenomena. Finally the far right stamp is 1 of 4 issued in 2014 entitled China Filial Piety.

The stickers all show photos taken by the sender. 

Before I close out for today, I just want to show a photo of this Qantas B747. Have a look - leave a comment if you see it .

Okay, that`s it for this time. Thanks for today`s cards go to Jean Pierre, Johan, Barbara, Ryann and Evan, Dominique and the sender of the card from China. Sorry, but I don`t have a name.

Remember we are still in this pandemic. Most importantly , get vaccinated if you have not done so already. There is no other way to end this nightmare. It won`t go away on its own. 

 Take care.