50 years ago today, a carnation bloomed out of the barrel of a machinegun. 

I was 14 at the time and on that same day, as the military action successfully progressed and the people took to the streets, I realised I would not have to go to war... a thought that was becoming a rather present preoccupation, since at 17, in just three years time, I would have to "give my name to the military" as the act of registration for compulsory military service was named.

50 years after, I'm still haunted by the remembrance of the parade at  Lisbon's Praça do Comércio each year, on the 10th June, and the images of the young orphans, awkwardly dressed in their father's uniform, being presented with a medal, a posthumous medal,...

I owe it to those that made this possible! I owe it to those that resisted in times of oppression and tyranny, I owe it to those that gave all they could give, even life, so that I could today write these simple lines.

I now live in a country that in spite of its many contradictions and idiosyncrasies is ruled by the most righteous of the rules, the Rule of Law, thanks to them. I'll never forget it.

Obrigado!

After writing these notes, it came to my knowledge that France's President, Emanuel Macron, had published a note on YouTube which I cannot resist incorporating here, for all its meaning. Democracy is about this, Europe is about this: Respect, Solidarity, Common grounds in spite of differences.

Merci, la France; Merci, Président Macron.

COVER N. 436/437 - SOUTH KOREA

Postmark: First day of issue 22.03.2024 

Posted on the 22nd March; received on the  9th April 2024

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Two very nicely laid out FDCs from Korea, with four of the six 520 won se-tenant stamps that replicate the "Folding Screen of King Heonjong’s Wedding Celebration", issued on 20MAR2024.

 매우 감사합니다 Jung Min!

I, of course, know nothing about King Heonjong, so I hopped to Korea Post's website, where I learned that the scene depicted in the amazing silk screen, the royal wedding of King Heonjong to Queen Hyojeong, took place in 1844, during the Joseon Dinasty, Korea's longest and last.

One can but marvel at the amount of detail included in the painted silk panels of the screen, which, according to the issue notes, are painted in the traditional Cheonggoksansu technique. At a time when photography was still in its infancy, such immense amount of interesting detail is also an insight into the ways and uses of the time, what gives a totally new dimension to the already high value of the screen as an exceptional work of decorative art.

COVER N. 435 - BRASIL

Postmark: AC Central de S. Paulo SE/SPM 25.03.2024 

Posted on the 25th March; received on the 10th April 2024

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A large envelope with some nice stamps inside and some nice stamps outside... what's not to like?

Muito obrigado Luis! É sempre um prazer enorme receber  correspondência que sabemos ter aquele gostinho especial da língua que partilhamos. Um grande abraço! Resposta em breve.

I have written about it here before. Markets are one of those places that I cannot do without visiting when travelling abroad, for they tell a whole story about a country or at least a region in terms not only of the products being offered there to consumers, but also in the way things are organised, the shoppers, the sellers, the interactions between them both and with each other, the smells, the colours, the hustle and bustle, not forgetting the buildings themselves, often real works of functional art...

It is therefore not surprising at all that they should be considered for a philatelic issue, such as the one put out by Correios do Brasil on 07SEP2023, comprising five stamps of the same face value (2,45 Reais) dedicated to the Central Markets of Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, Goiânia and Manaus.

The first three I mentioned were used by Luis on this cover and I really like the beautiful watercolours of the illustrations.

From what I gathered on the internet, the Serra do Mar railway, operated by Serra Verde Express  is a 130 years old train service  between Curitiba and Morretes, that takes the traveller through  rather scenic expanses of preserved  Atlantic forest,  along a 110 km railway stretch, completed in about three hours.

 On 26JUL2016, Correios do Brasil issued a four 1º Porte de Carta tariff (Domestic, up to 20g)  se-tenant stamp set dedicated to the Serra do Mar railway. The photos on the stamps illustrate several landmarks of the railway such as the Murumbi range (on the stamp on the cover), the Carvalho and the Saint John Bridge viaducts, and the train compositions themselves. 

I believe that the A C initials in the postmark stand for Agência Central, although I still don't know what the SE/SPM initials refer to.

COVER N. 434 - CZECH REPUBLIC

Postmark: Rychnov nad Kněžnou 30.03.2024 

Posted on the 30th March; received on the 5th April 2024

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The Phantom flies Bata, it seems, but he does is in great style... a Lockheed Electra, proof that beauty is not a subject of gravity... provided you are not Amelia Earhart, who sadly lost her life in one of these, when trying to circumnavigate the globe.

Danke sehr, Alex. I really appreciate you going through the trouble of getting this cover for me.

Three siblings of the eight generation of a shoemaker family from the city of Zlin in what was then Czechoslovakia  would, in 1894, revolutionise the shoemaking industry, with the creation of a small 10 employee company that  in time would evolve into an immense industrial conglomerate, with interests in such diverse areas as  publishing or air and sea transport, but always solidly anchored in what was its initial area of activity: shoemaking.

Bata´s success (the initial 10 workers were already 600 by 1912)  can also be regarded as the result of a daring use of technologies and work organisation never before tested in shoemaking industry. An example of this can be seen in the fact that Bata, it seems, was first in introducing steam driven shoemaking machines, for instance.

On par with the attention to processes that allowed the company to grow, Bata's workforce also benefited from some measures of what is now called corporate social responsibility like housing, schools, access to health care, sports or leisure facilities, which in the corporate universe of the early 20th century was not that commonplace (and still isn’t, in many places….)

Due to the second world war and the geopolitical order that ensued from then on, the company went through various ups and downs, nationalisation, relocations, atc. But be it as it may, the company founded by Tomáš, Anna and Antonín Baťa still survives to this day, employing some 32,000 workers in 70 countries in the 5 continents,  its headquarters being located in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

Amongst its many innovative business approaches, Bata is also to be credited with the invention of business aviation when, in 1932, a Lockheed Electra painted in  the colours of the company was put to service to ferry  company executives and highly skilled workers to factories of the group in need of technical assistance or to send replacement parts for production line machinery.

This aircraft, which itself has an interesting operational history, having been used by the RAF and RCAF during the second world war, still survives today, in flying conditions after undergoing full restoration in the US,  being based at, Točná Airport, Prague.

On 04SEP2019,  Česká pošta  issued the two tariff E (Europe up to 50g)  self-adhesive stamps Alex used on this nice cover. One of them, printed in colour, depicts Electra OK-CTB flying (Bata also owned OK-CTA, which crashed in 1937, on which Jan Bata initiated a round the world business promotion flight, which he concluded in OK-CTB) while the other, in black and white, depicts presumably the same aircraft, one of its engines being started. 

The cover also includes a stamp mark from  Massarykova Chata, a winter and mountain sports lodge in  Deštne village, Czech Republic.

The postmark hails from Rychnov nad Kněžnou, a city in North-eastern Bohemia. 

COVER N. 433 - SINGAPORE

Postmark: "...llerton" Singapore 21.03.2024 

Posted on the 21st March; received on the 3rd April 2024

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Further to the postcard from Singapore, Ravindra also kindly sent me a cover with a joint issue, Singapore-SriLanka, both countries having established formal relations on the 27th of July 1970.

Coral reefs and mangroves, two delicate habitats that both countries enjoy and hopefully protect to the best of their possibilities.

The two 1.4 Dollar stamps, also issued in a souvenir sheet,  illustrated with beautiful photographs of a reef in Singapore and a mangrove swamp in Sri Lanka, saw the light of day on 27JUL2021.

Incidentally, and as a curious note, in 2021 there was also a joint Portugal-Sri Lanka issue.

Bohomȧ  sthoothi, Ravindra!

 POSTCARD N.135 - SINGAPORE

Postcard sent on the 21st March, received on the 3rd April 2024

Postcard image: Orchids grown in Singapore
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Orchids are my favourite flowers, albeit I do much prefer the wild type, not the also amazingly beautiful hybrids that we see in flower stands, which in spite of the unquestionable beauty always look a bit artificial to me.

Anyway collecting orchids is like collecting stamps... the more tye better, they say and there is even cross pollination between the two, since orchids are also a popular philatelic theme (and I have to admit being very happy whenever an orchid stamp crosses my way).

Ravindra was in Singapore and sent me a very nice orchid postcard, with... orchid stamps, what a nice surprise! Bohomȧ  sthoothi, Ravindra!

Ornamental orchids are a huge business, and either for business or pure enjoyment reasons there is a large worldwide community enthralled by the beauty of orchids, that is keen to share experiences and knowledge as a way of fostering knowledge, as expressed in the Mission statement of the World Orchid Conference Trust: "to encourage and improve the science, education, conservation, art, and practice of horticulture as related to the Orchidaceae..."

The 20th WOC conference took place in Singapore in 2011. On the occasion Singapore Post issued a five stamp set (1st local; 45; 65; 80 cent; 2 Dollars) each value being illustrated with a beautiful watercolour of a specific orchid. The "1st local" tariff stamp Ravindra used on this postcard showcases the Vanda Miss Joaquim, the national flower of Singapore, a naturally occurring hybrid, resulting from cross pollination between Papilionanthe teres (Vanda teres) and Papilionanthe hookeriana (Vanda hookeriana).

The pictoric postmark although quite nice is nor very clear and I can only read "...llerton", as the place of dispatch.

 COVER N. 432 - ICELAND

Postmark: Kópavogur Islandpóstur 14.03.2024 

Posted on the 14th March; received on the 30th March 2024

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Iceland, the land where trees were swapped by waterfalls, black crystal beaches, permanent white, lava blankets, aggressive vulcanoes... all of an immense beauty, but all of them a reminder that nature is the king, and we, Man, the subjects.

Takk fyrir, Steinunn.

On May 2020  Iceland Post informed that they would no longer issue stamps, in order to cut back expenses. Luckily they did not live to their word :-) and last year a four stamp set was issued to celebrate the 150 years of the first Iceland stamp.

Let's hope this is a recurring trend for I, for one, can always do with beautiful flora stamps as the ones on this cover, especially that  of the common seal (Phoca vituylina) issued on 28JAN2010 as part of a 2 stamp set (5 and 220 Króna) dedicated to Seals.

The 50g (I presume this to be used on domestic letters up to 50 grams) is a single stamp issue, dated of 29OCT2020, and it features a photograph of a mink (Mustela vison).

The postmark hails from the city of Kópavogur, Iceland's second most populated town, part of the greater Reykjavik region.