Two Locomotives

   

 Blog # 1642--- Day 1096 ( Three Years to the Day--That's  One Thousand and Ninety Six) of the Current  (

 Second ) Russian Invasion of  UKRAINE .               

                                                                      GLORY TO UKRAINE

Hello again. Here's a few cards from a few places. I'll start with a couple of maxi cards from Slovakia. Both are train cards, so I will leave it to the train card collectors out there to drool over these. Both were originally issued on April 17, 2015. The first card shows a 498.104 Albatros  Steam Locomotive. 

Alena used a number of stamps on this card. From the left  they are :

Issued in 1994, highlighting No Smoking Day .

Again from 1994 , issued for International Family Year.

Issued in 2019, this one commemorates the 75th Anniversary  of ICAO. ICAO is the International Civil Aviation Organization.

And finally , from 2010 a stamp showing Milan Hodzan, Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1935-1938. 

Here's the second card,  much like the first. This one shows a Parna Locomotive 464.001 . 

Alena used 3 stamps on this one. Again from left to right : From 2013, a stamp with tabs ,  showcasing Kosice, European Cultural Capital.  Then a Stop Aids stamp from 2010. Finally A Folklore stamp from 1998. 

I think that's it for this time. Thank you Alena for both cards. 

NATIONAL FLAG DAY, 2025

 Blog # 1641

This is not my usual type blog. It will have a few postcards but they will be all from the same country and all with the same theme or topic. The country is Canada and the cards will all show Canada's flag, the Maple Leaf. Why you might ask am I doing this today ?. The answer is that Canada's Flag, my flag , is 60 years old today. The Maple Leaf first flew on Canada's Parliament Hill on February 15th 1965. 

Here's a few cards showing our flag.  First is a wooden  ( Cedar ) card.

Flying in the Wind

It is more important than ever it seems , for Canadians to fly our flag on this 60th Flag Day. Sadly we have a bully and a buffoon out of control who keeps reiterating that he wants to take control of Canada and make it the 51st state of the United States. Not going to happen , not in a hundred years or a million years or ever. Mark my words, we will never submit to a bully and we will never be the 51st state. As Canadians we are always laid back but the bully has been stoking the flames for a month now and Canadian Patriotism is at an all time high. Bullies always lose in the end and this Orange Idiot will lose too. A buffoon surrounded by buffoons is destroying the United States and the whole world is standing back and doing nothing, saying nothing but laughing and hoping he doesn't turn on them. 

Long live a free Greenland , long live the PANAMA Canal and The Gulf of Mexico and Long Live the FREE, INDEPENDENT and SOVEREIGN NATION of CANADA. 

I apologize  for my political rant here today. I try to keep my politics off The Blog but sometimes  and this is one of those times when I have to stand up and I Stand Up for Canada. 

Back to my normal Blog next time.  Take care. and feel free to comment.

 

Omis, Eurowings, Ely Cathedral and Villefranche-de-Conflent

  Blog # 1640--- Day 1083 ( One Thousand and Eighty Three) of the Current  ( Second ) Russian Invasion of                                                                                       Ukraine   

                                                                      GLORY TO UKRAINE

Hello once again. Here we go with a few more postcards that arrived  over time. The first one is from England. It shows Ely Cathedral, built between 1083 and 1375. Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral can trace its origin to the abbey founded in Ely in 672 by St Æthelthryth.

Josep and Assumpta sent this card and used a 2022 stamp featuring a Tutankhamun Boat Model.

My second card for today is from Omis, Croatia. Omiš is a town and port in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and a municipality in the Split-Dalmatia County. The town is approximately 25 kilometres south-east of Croatia's second largest city, Split, where the Cetina River meets the Adriatic Sea. It has a population of around 15,000.

The card from Alena shows a nice aerial view of the city. 

Alena used a stamp from 2020, 1 of 3 , in a set featuring Natural Wonders. 

Now here is another card sent by Josep and Assumpta , this one from France. On it we see a view of part of Villefranche-de-Conflent. Also seen is the defensive wall surrounding the town. Villefranche-de-Conflent is historically a town in the Conflent region of Catalonia, and now a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France Association and has a population of around 205.

The stamp on this one is from 2024 and celebrates French Film Director Agnes Varga.

Now here is the last card for this time. It is from Prague, Czech Republic. The card is a rather generic aircraft card featuring Eurowings.  Eurowings is a German low-cost carrier headquartered in Dusseldorf and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Founded in 1993, Eurowings serves 152 destinations and has 81 aircraft in its fleet.

Now the stamps. Do I have 3 stamps or 2 stamps to highlight here. The top right is a stamp from 2015, showcasing Plzen - a European Cultural Capital. The bottom stamp was issued in 2022 for Christmas. The top left item I am not sure about . It looks like a stamp but has no value indicated. It is either a label or a modern error, but I will err on the side of caution and say it is a label. At least until someone tells me or shows me I am wrong. 

So that is all for this time. Thanks to Alena, Josep and Assumpta and Meelis for their cards. 

Take care , see you back here soon. 

A Bridge, A Lake and The Punjab

   Blog # 1639--- Day 1080 ( One Thousand and Eighty ) of the Current  ( Second ) Russian Invasion of                                                                                       Ukraine   

                                                                      GLORY TO UKRAINE

Hello once again. Here we go with a few more cards for your perusal. The first card for today arrived from France. It shows le lac des Truites ( Trout Lake ). It is the highest lake in the Vosges mountains at 1066 m. 

As he most often does Dominique used an older stamp. Today the stamp is 55 years old. It celebrates Maurice de Broglie (1875-1960 ) . It is 1 of 3 stamps in a set features Famous People. Broglie was a French Physicist.   

 

Card 2 is a look at the John S Thompson Bridge , connecting Grave and Nederasselt, over the Maas River. The bridge opened in 1929 and is 515 m in length. It has been named after Thompson since 2004. One of the most successful military operations during Operation Market Garden was the capture of this bridge. Lieutenant John Thompson and his group landed not far from the southern approach. The rest of the company landed much further away. Thompson decided not to wait for them and immediately stormed the bridge. His actions captured the bridge undamaged. This action took place in 1944. 

Barbara sent this card along and used 3 stamps, 2 of which I will identify and 1 that I can not. The top left stamp was issued in 2002. It is 1 of 12 in a mini-sheet celebrating the Twelve Provinces of The Netherlands. The bottom stamp, from 2006, is from a mini-sheet of 10. It was issued to celebrate TPG becoming TNT. TPG, the Dutch mail and express service was rebranded TNT .The stamp on the right is the one I had trouble with. I just could not locate any information about it. I am sure someone will enlighten me with some information about it. 

  Update to the stamp that I had trouble with. Barbara sent me the following tidbit. And I use it with her permission. 

It's from the 2023 series of 4 stamp sheets under the title "Jimmy Nelson – Ode to the Netherlands".
They are personalised stamps, featuring portraits of women and girls in Dutch costume and regional dress, photographed by Jimmy Nelson for his 2022 book "Between the Sea and the Sky". The stamps were designed by graphic designer Larissa Rosvaenge of Jimmy Nelson Studio.
This stamp is from the first sheet "Ode to the Netherlands I", representing the "Veluwe" , a region in the province of Gelderland.

My next 2 cards are from Pakistan, 1 from Lahore and the other from Bahawalpur. The first card shows the Badshahi Mosque.  The mosque is located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was constructed between 1671 and 1673. It is widely considered to be one of the most iconic landmarks of the Punjab. It has 3 domes , 8 minarets and is made of red sandstone. The capacity is 100,000.

David used 9 stamps on this card, 7 of then alike. The 2 lookalikes are from 2023. A previous issue overprinted and surcharged to celebrate the /47th Anniversary of the Birth of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. 

The 2 stamps on the top were issued in a 2024 souvenir sheet of 4. to mark the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Allama Iqbal Open University.

 

Here is the second card from Pakistan and the last card for today. A great look at Derawar Fort. The fort is a large square fortress in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. The forty bastions od Derawar are visable for many miles in Cholistan Desert. The walls have a circumference of 1500 metres and stand up to thirty metres high. Derawar was built in the 9th century. 

Again , David used a bunch of stamps on this card. The 6 lookalikes on the left were issued in 2022, to celebrate The Poet of the East , Allama Mohammad Iqbal. The large stamp was issued in 2023 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Senate of Pakistan. 

There you have it , another update of The Blog.

Thanks for these cards go to Barbara, Dominique and David. Can not do this without you all. 

Take care.

Goodbye January - Hello February

  Blog # 1638--- Day 1074 ( One Thousand and Seventy Four ) of the Current  ( Second ) Russian Invasion of                                                                                       Ukraine   

                                                                      GLORY TO UKRAINE

Here we go again. A few cards in no particular order as to when they were received, or who they are from or where they were mailed from. Sounds random enough to me. 

First up is a card from France. It is a view of the Vosges Mountains, a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. The card clearly shows the Hohneck, at 1,363 m the third highest summit of the Vosges Mountains and the highest point of Lorraine. On its summit stands a mountain hut, clearly visible in the distance.

Dominique used 2 stamps from 2024. They were issued to mark the 97th Congress of the Federation of Philatelic Associations ( FFPA ), held at the Palais Brongniart in Paris. 

My second card was mailed from Shinagawa City, Japan. The card gives a nice look at an ANA B787. From looking at the logo in the lower left, I guess a postcard is one of the perks of flying First Class. 

 

Rafal and Jean Pierre sent this card and used a Flower stamp.

The third card for today arrived from Ohrid, Macedonia. Here we have an overhead view of St. Naum Monastery. It was established in the year 905. Ohrid is one of the oldest human settlements in Europe. The town has 365 churches, one for every day of the year. It is often referred to as the Jerusalem of the Balkans. 

 

Alena used 2 copies of a 2023 stamp celebrating Cede Filipovski Dame, a freedom fighter and Commander of the 48th Macedonian Division. He was accidently killed on Jun 29, 1945 and posthumously declared a Peoples Hero of Yugoslavia. 

Time now for the last card of this update. It arrived from Germany. The card shows part of the undercarriage of a locomotive. 

Isa sent this card along and used 2 stamps. The left stamp is from 2022 and titled  Message In A Bottle. The right stamp, from 2024, is a Europa stamp featuring Marine Life. 

  

Well that was easy , so easy I will show one more. From Belgium this time. Even though is is February, I still have a few Christmas postcards lying around, and this is one of them. Here we see a number of different  designs of post boxes from different countries. I see Canada is pictured in the bottom right, along with a Canadian Beaver about ready to mail a postcard. Good on him.  

Gerda used 2 Christmas stamps on her card. The left stamp is from 2024 and 1 of 4 . The right stamp, from 2023 is also 1 of 4. 

That was the final card for this time. Thanks for cards go out to Alena, Rafal & Jean Pierre, Dominique, Isa and Gerda. Hope to be back here again soon  and hope to see you all then.