COVER N.4 - Canada

Postmark from Toronto ON - with legend "Torontos's First Post Office", posted on the 12th May, received on the 28th.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Spring on a cover. That’s probably the best way to describe the outstanding envelope I just got from the land of the Maple Leaf, as if to remind me that the apple tree I have in my small garden is but part of a worldwide unfenced orchard that, comes spring, blooms white and rose and red in all 5 inhabited continents. Thank you so much, Jeff.

The stamps on the 2 stamp souvenir sheet, both rated "Permanent Domestic", depict two apple tree varieties developed locally. Quoting from a quote on a stamp news site:

"The pretty bright-pink flower of Malus ‘Rosseau’ was introduced in 1928 by the Central Experimental Farm’s pioneering ornamental plant breeder, Isabella Preston. The delicate white bloom of Malus ‘Maybride’ is a dwarf cultivar bred by Preston’s successors, Daniel Foster Cameron and Dexter Reid Sampson."

As if to remind us that spring follows on winter footsteps, a winter coated Ermine looks at us from the stamp on the left side of the cover. This beautiful stamp is part of a 5 “Permanent Domestic” rated set, themed on “Snow mammals” of Canada, that also includes the Peary Caribou; the Arctic fox; the Snowshoe hare and the Northern collared lemming.

According to the Canada Post website “Each stamp also reproduces its animal’s tracks in snow in fluorescent ink, which are only visible under ultraviolet (black) light”, so I’ll have to get me one of those, to see if they live up to their promise 😀.

Both issues are 2021 items.