COVER N. 559 - SRI LANKA

Postmark: Headquarters P. O. Colombo Mail 18.10.2025

Posted on the 18th February; Received on the 26th January 2025

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Latest sending from Ravindra features the first issue for the year, of Sri Lanka Post. Bohomȧ  sthoothi, Ravi!

As far as I managed to conclude after searching a bit over the internet, Planet Protectors is an Environmental minded organisation established in Sri Lanka, "dedicated to preserving and protecting the Earth’s natural ecosystems.

Founded with the mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals and communities, Planet Protectors strives to address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges through impactful initiatives, collaborative efforts, and innovative solutions." (quoted direct from the organisation's  website.

Further to the practical actions promoted by Planet Protectors, like reforestation and environmental protection sessions,  the organisation is also responsible for running what is called "The Earth Summit" an environmental conference bringing together political leaders, Scientist, Conservationists, Policy Makers, Educators and Individuals, to foster debate and exchange of ideas and experiences in the field of Environmental Protection and Conservation.

This year's conference, Earth Summit 2025, organised in cooperation with the Sri Lanka Government , took place on the 11th February, in the Dambana Tribal Village of Sri Lanka, under the motto "Love nature, Save wildlife" and focused mainly on the relationship between Humans and Animals, in particular in the not always easy relationship between Elephants and People.

Marking the occasion, Sri Lanka Post issued on 11FEB2025, a single 50 Rupee stamp of which a pair and a single stamp souvenir sheet can be seen on the cover Ravindra sent me. The stamp is illustrated with the logo of the conference in the centre, while the relationship between elephants and man is hinted at by the presence of an elephant and its calf on the right and the effigy of  Uruwarige Wannila Aththo, the leader of the Indigenous Veddah Community, and one of the key participants in the conference.

COVER N. 558 - BELIZE

Postmark: Ladyville Registration

Posted on the 11th February; Received on the 25th February 2025

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Independent from its former colonising power, the UK, since 1981, and only recognised by neighbouring Guatemala, with whom there are still disputes as to the definition of the common border, in 1992, the state of Belize,  holds a total population of about 400,000 nationals and, as a realm of the Commonwealth, is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, its Head of State being the Monarch of the former colonising power, that is to say, King Charles III.

With an economy deepley rooted in tourism and agriculture, this small state of Central America gets its name, it seems, from one of the rivers that run through it, River Balis.

Once part of the Mayan civilisation, Belize fell first to the Spanish concquerors in the 16th century and was then occupied by English settlers in the 18th century.

Belize was not yet on my list of countries, here on my blog, so it was with great joy that I opned up my leterbox today to find that my friend, the Flying Dutchman, had included me in a circuit originated in this rather not so usual location. Muito Obrigado, Eric. Um grande abraço!

Eric used a 75 cent stamp issued on 06DEC1999 as part of a four stamp (25; 60; 75 Cents; 1 Dollar) Christmas issued for the year, featuring reproductions of religious paintings. The work highlighted on the 75 cent stamp is "Madonna and Child with St. John and Angel"  by an unknown artist, as indicated in the legend on the base of the stamp.

The postmark was applied at Ladyville, the largest village of Belize, located some eight miles from the country's capital, Belize City, of which it is actually a suburb. 

POSTCARD N.176 - SRI LANKA

Postcard sent on the 11th February, received on the 18th January 2025.

Postcard image: Post Office at Nuwara Eliya 

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Lately, my friend Mr. Postman has been acting rather thriftily  in what concerns visits to my letterbox, on top of that, I have been in bed for the last few days with the worst case of flu I had in recent years, so the last postcard I got from Ravindra was quite a cut in the monotony of coughs and sneezes and body aches that have been filling my days. Bohomȧ  sthoothi, Ravi!

With each new Postcard that Ravi sends, the desire to visit his land grows, so many are the points of interest that Sri Lanka has to offer. Just have to wait until my companion of 42 years finally retires so that we can travel in the best time of the year to visit the beautiful Island of Taprobana.

And I'm sure that on seeing a sight such as the one on the postcard below, all those reading these lines will follow me in this desideratum...

The Tudoresque Nuwara Eliya Post office building was built by the British in 1894, and since that date it has been open to the public what makes it one of the oldest Post Offices in Sri Lanka.

As I read in Wikipedia, the postmaster's living quarters were converted into  tourist accommodation in 2012, and in 2017, the United Postal Trade Union of Sri Lanka went on a 3 day strike to stop the conversion of this amazing Post Office and also those at Kandi and Galle Fort into hotels... some things are better left unchanged, it seems.

The 20 Rupee stamp featuring a Schumacheria alnifolia, a critically endangered member of the Dilleniaceae family endemic to Sri Lanka, was issued on 07OCT2016 as part of a 12 definitive stamps issued in two minisheets (1x 8 and 1x4) themed on the Flowers of Sri Lanka.

Smal as the stamps from this particular issue are, I find them rather beautiful.

The 50 Rupee stamp is one that Ravi has already used before, part of a set of four (2 x 50 Rupee + 2 x 110 Rupee) dedicated to the UNESCO WHS of Sigiriya, issued on 15JUN2023.

As usual with Ravindra's covers and postcards, the postmark indicates expedition through the PO Headquarters of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.

COVER N. 557 - NETHERLANDS

Postmark: Zwolle

Posted on (?); Received on the 10th February 2025

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Every once in a while I get a request to exchange covers from a fellow collector who happens to come across this little blog of mine.

This time the request came from the Netherlands and I was quite happy to receive this cover from Rohan, which also included a kind gift of stamps inside. The more so since I haven't been receiving much mail in this beginning of year and to hear again the sound of the metallic flap of my letterbox being dropped by my friend Mr. Postman, really feels me with joy.  Hartelijk dank, or better yet, Multe mulțumiri, Rohan!

Bonaire is a small island in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela, and part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 1636, following the Dutch conquest of Curacao from the Spanish in 1634.

In Bonaire, 209 confirmed bird species have been registered. On 02JAN2024,  PostNL issued a 10 tariff "1" Stamp minisheet dedicated to the birds of this particular Dutch possession. One of them featuring a photo of  a Red Caribbean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), was used on the cover. Red flamingos inhabit the salty lakes of Bonair, Lake Goto having a population of 20,000 individuals of this beautiful member of the Phoenicopteridae family.

Willem-Alexander became King of the Netherlands, on 30 April 2013. that very same year PostNL started to issue yearly definitive issues with the effigy of the king, the stamps of these sets being distinguishable from each other by the faintly  imprinted year  that appears on the top corner of the stamp. The Tariff "1 International", of the 2024 set was also used on this cover.

The mechanical postmark was applied at Zwolle, a city of 120,000 inhabitants on the eastern side of the country.

COVER N. 556 - BRASIL

Postmark: A C Central SE/SPM 20.01.2025

Posted on the 20th January; Received on the 31st January 2025

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Luis kindly sends me a cover to follow up on the theme started with cover #542: Radio. Muito obrigado Luis, pela interessante emissão (o vocábulo não poderia estar mais adaptado 😀)

The 100 years of Radio in Brazil. A theme that can really relate to a stamp "emission", as I told Luis in our common language, above.

Radio, the harbinger of news;, the company for the evening; the connection to the world, both before and after TV, in those places where it was not available, such as I experienced for years as a child.

Radio, the magic box that exposed me to the music I came to love through author's programs that were a immensely far cry from the hours and hours of publisher dominated play lists which today fill wave after wave with the same pre-fabricated hits, that have more to do with selling the highly stereotyped looks of an "artist" that with "Music" itself.

Radio, an old technology which I think will still be around until the day when cars will be fully autonomous, self-driven.

In fact, I think that the lifebuoy for radio has been the fact that we cannot take our eyes from the road (or at least one shouldn't....) when driving. I would imagine that most of the radio that is heard is by drivers, their auditorium being the confinement of their cars while commuting to and from work.....

Until that day comes, I will still turn on the radio in my car or here in my work desk, where I can hear emissions from all over the world thanks to https://radio.garden, a rather curious platform that allows us to do just that.

In fact, as I type, I'm listening to Antena 1 FM 94.7 in S. Paulo, as a tribute to Luis.... who knows if he's listening to it too right now 😀.

As I read on the AESP - Associação das Emissoras Rádio e Televisão do Estado de São Paulo  (Radio and Television  Broadcasters Association:

"Officially, Radio was born in Brazil on the 7th September 1922, during the celebrations of the Independence centenary, with the long distance wireless transmission of president's Epitácio Pessoa allocution for the inauguration of the Brazilian radiotelephony."

Precisely 100 years to that moment, on 07SEP2022, Correios do Brasil issued a 4 x 3,25 reais minisheet celebrating the occasion. When together, the four se-tenant stamps which Luis used on this interesting cover  bear the image of a an old radio circular display over which an old fashioned  radio and a radio reporter are superimposed.

Luis also glued onto the cover  the remaining graphic elements of the minisheet, namely the logo for the commemorations of the centenary and another radio display, again with "frequencies" ranging from 1922 to 2022, as it was the case on the stamps themselves.

As usual on Luis' covers, the postmark hails from the central Post Office from the city of São Paulo.

 POSTCARD N.175 - UKRAINE

Postcard sent on the 20th November 2024, received on the 30th January 2025.

Postcard image: Irpin, the City of Heroes.  The Central House of Culture 

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The Russian aggression on its neighbour drags on, in a relentless war of attrition that sadly brings to mind the ferocious lunacy of the western front of WW1...countless lives, sufferance, destruction, what for?

I read it on the news that V. Putin  is quoted as saying that that if  D. Trump (who would end it in 24 hours, both before and after his coming to office, of course...) had been in power in 2022, the war would never had started... How come, then? Would the so called Ukrainian Nazis need no denazification then? 

Anyway, today I got a rather battered postcard from Alex from the Ukraine which was hand dated of last August.

For some reason, not hard to understand, for the postmark hails from Slovyansk, in the Donbas region, a place that has suffered badly the burden of the despicable aggression, the cancellation is dated of the 20th November, 

Before arriving at my letterbox it also got some heavy rain on it, for it shows clear signs of having been affected by water, but this could and probably did happen very recently for a letter I had mailed myself three days ago also arrived totally destroyed by water. Blame it on the ongoing storms that have been affecting Europe, because of climate change, that Chinese hoax....

Thanks Alex. I'm very happy to have this postcard on my collection which again bears testimony to the resilience of the valiant Ukrainian civil servants that make the country go on, in spite of all the hardship impinged upon them. Heroes, all of them!

The photo on the postcard is that of the Central House of Culture in Irpin, built in 1954 and clearly an important military target such as all the civilian institutions and homes that the Russian have destroyed since the 25th February 2022, for it was heavily shelled by artillery fire on 17 March 2022, barely one month after the beginning of the invasion.

As far as I could read, in 2023, protective works were carried out in order to minimize the consequences of exposure to winter of the damaged areas of the building, and I hope that it may sometime in the near future be fully recuperated and us for its  peaceful purpose.

On 23JAN2022, just about one month from the start of the shameful Russian occupation, Ukrapost issued the "F" tariff stamp on the top right of the postcard, dedicated to the 2022 Benjing Winter Olympics.

The Ukraine participated on this olympiad with a team of 45 athletes, competing in 12 disciplines.

 Oleksandr Abramenko won the only Ukranian medal: silver in thye Men's aerials copetition in Freestyle skiing.

I cannot find any indication as to the lion's head on the stamp, which was also used on a comemorative coin issued by the Ukraine mint, but statues of guarding lions are quite common in China, so there's probably a connection here.

For three years starting in 2018, Ukraposta issued a series of 3 beautifully illustrated minisheets with stamps dedicated to the Alphabet, each stamp being illustrated with a letter and a an object presumably begining with this particualr character.

The eleven stamps on the 2020 minisheet, issued on 12SEP2020, had each a face value of 9 Ukrainian hryvnia. The stamp on the postcard is illsutrated with a pair of boots, чоботи in  Ukranian.

On 05JUL2019 Ukraposta issued a set of five 8 Ukrainian hryvnia in the series The Beauty and Greatness of Ukraine  dedicated to the Donetsk Region.  The stamp dedicated to the Stone tombs reserve, near the town of  Nazarivka, in the Mariupol region, a nature reserve established on April 5, 1927. Sadly the occupier installed a military base in the reserve, I read... not good news for conservation, I fear.

There are two postmarks 0on the card, One of  Slovyasnk and the one on the upper right corner which calims "Донбас - це Украіна" (Donbas is Ukraine).

POSTCARD N.174 - SRI LANKA

Postcard sent on the 20th January, received on the 28th January 2025.

Postcard image: The Lion's paws at Sigiriya 

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The entrance to the  royal palace of Sigiria, Sri Lanka's capital in the 5th century, and a current UNESCO World Heritage Site,  sitting atop what is known as the lion rock, was made through a stairway that penetrated the monumental head of a brick sculpted lion.

Today, all that remains of this huge sculpture are the lion's paws, the subject of this rather nice card Ravindra set me.  Bohomȧ  sthoothi, Ravi! I hope to see in loco one day, but uuntil that time comes, your nice postcards are a great apetiser... :-).

The Ancient city of Sigiriya, is one of the eight UNESCO declared World Heritage Sites, six of cultural and two of natural nature.

As I mentioned a propos cover #385, The top of the lion mountain was chosen by King Kashyapa on the late 5th century as the place to erect  Sri Lanka's capital, something that  could only be attributed to the facility in defending it from any ill intended creature, be it human or animal, since  the site is a huge rock massive, protruding from the forest below, which makes it quite difficult to reach or attack from below.

In fact, it turns out that  Kashyapa was a parricide and he build his palace on top of what is known as the Lion Mountain, so as to defend himself from the vengeance of his brother, who, nonetheless, succeeded in defeating him, Kashyapa committing suicide afterwards.

After this episode, the site was progressively abandoned, having served as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century.

The site was declared of WHS importance in 1982, UNESCO highlighting the fact that the frescoes existing on the site inaugurated a style which endured many centuries, and also that the poems inscribed on the rock walls bi visitors, known as Sigiri graffiti, are among the most ancient texts in Sinhalese language.

The 50 rupee stamp is part of a set of four  issued (2 x 50 + 2 x 110 rupee) on 15JUN2023, dedicated to the Sigiriya site, all illustrated with aerial views of it, and bearing the legends the legends “Sigiryia”, “World Heritage Sites Sri Lanka” as well as the UNESCO logo.

The 20 rupee stamp is part of a large set of butterfly themed stamps issued on 01DEC2022, and it depicts a Pale Ceylon line blue (Nacaduba sinhala), a member of the Lycaenidae family, endemic to Ceylon.