POSTCARD N.50 -  United States of America
Postcrossing postcard sent on the 15th November; received on the 25th November
Postcard image: Arizona - The Grand Canyon State
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The desert and all those amazing tall cacti plus the inebriating views of the Grand Canyon. The stuff of longing... yes, I've always wanted to go there and see it in the ..well...rock and chlorophyll. 

Looking at the postcard Roxanne sent me (a great Thanks, Roxanne!) only served to remember me that there is so much world out there to see, this feeling being strongly accentuated against the backdrop of a pandemic that is raging and condemns us to stay... just a little bit longer (hopefully).

And I know, i'm one of the lucky ones. I live in a country where almost 90% of the population is fully vaccinated, a sound proof that our public health system, even though stressed to the limit, can deliver due to the generous and committed effort of our doctors, nurses and health system support professionals. Brave people they are, and brave people we are for fully accepting the vaccination programme. Of course we still have infections and deaths, but the numbers can't compare with those from one year ago when people weren't yet vaccinated.

Richer nations like mine can even afford to have fringes of population that think they are better off living in interactive flirting with such sexy objects of desire as smallpox and measles and covid-19, in the comfort of their fully infrastructured societies, where water never stops to run in the tap, sewage goes somewhere the eyes don't see and the nose doesn't smell, light bulbs are a human right, and so on.

Of course richer nations even have those that believe that the planet, our planet, is flat...

I am no expert, but I do have faith in Science and Knowledge, They are the only way out, and they have to be taken everywhere... in a massive vaccination effort, just like the Covid vaccines.  It is no perfect solution, yet, but so far it is the only one we have and the world should be concentrating in ensuring that people on all corners of the ROUND planet (I know, corners and round don't match, but idiomatics are exercises of poetic freedom, aren't they?) get their shots so that, just like measles (or even better smallpox) the only ones who get it are those that so chose, in the exercise of their right to abuse themselves.

What has this all got to do with Arizona and the grand Canyon? I don't know, but sometimes words just go their own way across the keyboard....

Nice card, isn't it?

Roxanne used a "Forever"  Global rate  self-adhesive Stamp, issued as a single stamp on 24APR2020, with a nice picture of a Chrysanthemum.

The machine applied cancellation identifies the mailing local as Arizona's State capital: Phoenix.

COVER N.55 - Canada

Postmark: Santa Claus North Pole - Canada
Posted on (?); received on the 24th November
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He exists, after all... and I have a letter from him to prove it - well, from one of his elves, because I'm sure he can only answer the mail of big shots, like Presidents, Kings and so on, for protocol reasons, which are more than understandable.  It even has some handwriting from an elf.. Outstanding!

Sure the stamp is printed, and so is the postmark, but I'll keep it on my collection just the same. After all, someone was kind enough to read my letter to Santa and add some handwritten words to his standard reply.

As I said before, I'm not that fond of Christmas, but I just can't escape it and I confess I felt rather pleased to open my letter box and see this nice colourful envelope inside. 

Thank you so much Santa, you've made my day, and I hope all around the world your letters may kindle hope and longing, not for the thousandth Barbie or Action man but for that little three letter latin world that everybody understands but that sadly and strangely is so difficult to impart: Pax!

 COVER N.54 - Slovakia

Postmark: Bratislava
Posted on the 15th November; received on the 23rd November
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Within days of receiving a cover from Slovakia, I got another one. As the portuguese saying goes, "there's no hunger that doesn't become abundance".  Thanks so much for the nice cover Venco. 

 

The 0,95€ stamp was issued on Stamp day - 03DEC2018 - and it celebrates the first Czechoslovak stamp ever issued, that is reproduced on the stamp. A se-tenant vignette is illustrated with the picture of the designer of the first stamp, Alfons Mucha.

The Tariff 1, 50g stamp was issued on 04APR2019 and it celebrates the 75th anniversary of ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The aircraft depicted on the stamp is a Caproni Ca.3, a bomber used in the first world war by the Italian Army. The plane was that on which  General Milan Rastislav Stefanik flew to his death on a crash close to the airfield of Bratislava where he was about to land after departing from Italy.

Other than aviator Milan Rastislav Stefanik was also an astronomer, a skill that would take him to France eventually to obtain French citizenship in 1902 and an active participation in the First World War, fueled by the belief that the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a member of the triple alliance with Germany and Italy, would lead the way to an independent Czechoslovakia.

This objective t was fully achieved  as a result of the efforts and action of the Czechoslovak National Council created by  Tomáš Masaryk, Edvard Beneš  and Milan Stefanik, when, on the 28th October 1918, a fortnight before the end of the hostilities of the War to end all wars, Czechoslovakia became independent, although still within the Austgro-Hungarian Empire.

POSTCARD N.49-  Belarus

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 26th October; received on the 22nd November
Postcard image: Tradiitonal Belarus Costumes (?)
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I love a surprise. Today, as usual, I went to check my letterbox. All I found inside were the usual supermarket promotion brochures, which I confess I seldom open at all. After dinner I picked up the two or three brochures and was going to thrown them on the recycling bin when out of one a postcard dropped to the floor. I couldn't believe my luck... Not that I could be blamed, but I was going to unknowingly throw away a postcard from someone who had gone through the care and trouble of writing it to me... As of today, I'll never throw a supermarket catalogue brochure into the bin without first making sure there's nothing inside 😀

And what would be more: not only would I be throwing away a pretty nice postcard, with a great stamp on it, but I would miss the opportunity of adding another country to my list: Belarus. Thank you so Much Maria, for your nice Postcard!

Belarus... quite cited on the news lately... just as my own country, decades ago, would also be cited on the news abroad.. the essence of people is the same everywhere though, no matter who leads, or rules, or reigns, or dictates,  a friendly gesture like writing a postcard to a complete stranger just goes to prove it!

I quite like the postcard Maria sent me. Not being able to read Belarusian, I would presume that it shows  local  traditional costumes . I tried to find a photo on the internet of a wooden church similar to that on the card to try to identify the region, but I wasn't lucky.

Being a Postcrosser herself, Maria went through the trouble of making sure she would post her card with the most appropriate stamp: the N tariff (surface international postcard) single issue set stamp celebrating Postcrossing, issued on 21JUL21.

 So far, it seems, 15 postal administrations have issued Postcrossing themed stamps, these being those of Russia, Austria, Belarus, The Channel Islands, The Czech Republic, Finland, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Ukraine, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, Äland and Brazil. Strangely enough, the place where it all started, my own country, hasn't yet obliged...

The two small 1(cucumber) and 5 (carrot) kapeyka self-adhesive imperforated stamps are part of a definitive "vegetable" 14 stamp set, issued on 01JUL2020.

The postmark was applied twice and it is not very clear, but it seems to read Minsk, (the Belarus Capital) what confers with where Maria sais she was writing from.

COVER N.53 - Slovakia

Postmark: Illegible
Posted on (?); received on the 17th November
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My second received mail ever from Slovakia. More than aything else, I'm having a lot of fun with this new hobby of mine. It really feels good to open the letterbox not knowing if there's anything new inside and if yes where from...

A full seven months have passed since I started this blog and in the meantime I have already received mail from 37 different stamp emitting countries/entities.  that's encouraging, to say the very least.

Yesterday another large envelope full of goodies greeted me, upon opening the letterbox. Tank you so much Venco!

The Tariff 2 stamp, although not mentioning it, is presumably one of  the 2020's Christmas stamp emissions of the Slovak Post (Slovenská pošta), issued on 13NOV2020. The illustration depicts a textile snow flake pattern and the stamp layout mirrors that of another stamp dedicated to traditional textile designs issued on 13MAR20. The stamp was also issued in self-adhesive format.

The 1,10€ stamp is the 2018 EUROPA stamp issued on 04MAY2018. Citing Post Europe site, the stamp depicts "the Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) over the Danube River in Bratislava (.It) joins the city centre with the newly built housing complex of Petržalka. It was created by architects Jozef Lacko, Ladislav Kušnír, Ivan Slameň and a stress analyst, Arpád Tesár, from the Slovak University of Technology, and built between years 1967 and 1972.

Again,  a stamp take me on a trip down memory lane, and i ahd to go over to my photoalbum to recall my visit to Bratislava and the picture I took of this same bridge....

COVER N.52 - Germany

Postmark: Kiel, 12OCT2021 
Posted on the 12 October; received on the 16th November
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Lovely cover, said I to none other than myself upon opening my letterbox to find this nice clean and simple envelope inside. Thanks a lot, Andreas!

I believe, from consulting the philatelic information sheets that Deutsch Post publishes, that Germany has a very prolific special commemorative postmark yearly programme. I don't know if this has anything to do with the fact of it being a Federal Republic with events, personalities, occasions worthy of special note at State level feeding into the Deutsch Post philately department, but the truth is that it only takes a glimpse of those information sheets to notice that month after month a lot  of nice commemorative postmarks are used on a varying selection of German cities.

The beautiful postmark was issued in the city of Kiel on 12OCT21 for the Day of the Postage stamp (Tag der Briefmarke) and as far as I could understand it was promoted by the Philatelic Society of Kiel 

(Kieler Philatelisten-Verein von 1931 e.V). The personality it honours is that of Heinrich von Stephan (1831-1897) who organised the German post under the German empire and who was also a key personality in the foundation of the General Postal Union (1874) that would evolve to become the Union Postale Universelle (1878).

The two stamps used are part of a series that began in 2014 dedicated to "Baby animals", the 80 cent stamp with the image of a baby otter (Lutra lutra) was issued on 03SEP2020. 

The European otter has a very wide distribution and it can be found from Ireland and my own country, Portugal,  to Japan, and from as far North as Finland to Indonesia on Southeast Asia. It has a lifespan of 6 to 8 years and it has a Near Threatened global conservation status.

The 60 cent stamp featuring the photograph of a baby hamster (Cricetus cricetus) is half of this year's emission of the series (the other stamp presenting the photo of an Alpine Ibex) at it was issued on 10JUN2021.

The European Hamster is now considered to be Critically Endangered as far as its global conservation status is concerned, with populations dwindling due to habitat loss and hunting for fur collection.  According to Wikipedia it  can be found in  Belgium and Alsace in the west, to Russia in the east, and Bulgaria in the south. It has a lifespan of up to 8 years.

Of note is the fact that the 2021 stamp is already fitted with the special code that allows tracking of the letter it has been used on.

POSTCARD N.48 -  Russia
Postcrossing postcard sent on the 23rd October; received on the 10th November
Postcard image: citing the legend on the card itself "The East Messoyakha field is the northernmost of the developing onshore oilfields in Russia"
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Inside lovely cover # 51 was this postcard issued by Gasprom and Rosneft, the two Russian giants of oil and gas, showing the general swampy landscape aspect of the area where the norterhnmost oilfields of Russia are located. Victoria, sent me the card from the city of Tyumen, the first settlement established in Siberia, and today's main city and administrative centre of the Tyumen Oblast.

Since the 60's decade of the XX century, the region's economy has been deeply rooted in gas and oil extraction, the main vector of Tyumen's development.

Victoria has also included another postcard in her nice envelope, with an image of a monument dedicated to Marx and Engels in the city of  Petrozavodsk, the capital of the Republic of Karelia, that borders Finland. This monument still stands on its feet in spite of the downfall of the communist regime,  as I was able to conclude while trying to identify it on the internet.

COVER N.51 - Russia

Postmark: Tyumen, 28OCT2021 
Posted on the 23rd October; received on the 10th November
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A very nice envelope, with an aura of ancient times evocative of explorers and exploration, fell into my letterbox, after a long, but rather quick, journey from the city of Tyumen in Siberia. Thank you so much for your lovely letter with Postcards #48 inside ,Victoria!

Victoria was extremely kind and used no less than 4 nice stamps on the cover. left to right:

30 Ruble stamp issued on 17MAR2021, part of a same face value 4 stamp set dedicated to  Fedoskino miniature lacquer painting, a type of folk art that emerged in the 18th century  in the city of Fedoskino, consisting of miniatures painted with oil paints on papier mâché.

The images on the stamps are those of lacquer boxes from the collection of the Moscow Regional Museum of Folk Art Crafts and besides "Ruslan and Lyudmila", the main characters of Pushkin's famous epic poem, that would be converted into an opera by Glinka, painted on a 1971 box by M.S. Chizhov, there are stamps featuring images of the following works: Tea Party (1946) by V.I. Lavrov; The Firebird (1959) by S.V. Monashov; and Ivan da Marya (1989) by Yu.V. Dotsenko.

6 Ruble stamp issued on 24JUL2006, part of a two same value stamp set, commemorating the 150th Birth Anniversary of A. M. Vasnetsov. The stamp is illustrated with the painting Novodevichy Monastery Towers, of 1926.

Apollinary Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (August 6, 1856 – January 23, 1933)  was a brother of the more famous Viktor Vasnetsov (May 15 (N.S.), 1848 – July 23, 1926), who would also be his mentor.  I confess my ignorance as to the works of both artists but the internet again came to my rescue and I could see that A.M Vastenov was also a graphic artist and while his brother's work shows an intense dedication to mythological and historic scenes, Appolinary's work verges more on landscape and common day life scenes, both showing, at least to me, a clear evolution in their way of painting from the more subdued, if not, at times, sombre,  romantic school to the new winds of modernism.

7.5 Ruble stamp issued on 27AUG2008, part of a four same value stamp series dedicated to Decorative-Applied Arts of Dagestan. 

Other than the Kerchief Chain with Pendants, on the stamp on the envelope, the set also included stamps illustrated with a head ornament called a "Kuk’em", a  "Marg’al", a sewn suspension from a Wedding Dress, and a dagger in a scabbard. Other that the image of the actual piece, the stamps also include an image of someone actually wearing it, what makes it easier to understand its functional characteristics.   On a personal note, I quite like the quality of the illustration on the stamp.

8.5 Ruble definitive stamp issued on 26May2011, as part of the year's emmission of  the Coat of Arms

definitive series started in 2010, depicting the coat of arms of  Irkutsk (Siberia). The other stamp of the series issued on the same date is the 11.80 Rubles stamp, with the coat of arms of the  Komi Republic.

POSTCARD N.47 -  Netherlands
Postcrossing postcard sent on the 2rd October; received on the 9th November
Postcard image: The canals at Utrecht, by night
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Utrecht, a city that has some of the most beautiful canals in the world, I read somewhere. To prove it Suzanne sent me a beautiful postcard of the canals at night in the city where she lives inside envelope #50. Thank you so much, Suzanne.

It seems that the main difference between the canals here and at Amsterdam, just 35 km away, is that Utrech canals have warfs that had pedestrian access walkwcristinaays along them. In time, the wharfs transmorfed into cafés and restaurants and the walkways are now streets what creates a two level street system along the canals.

COVER N.50 - Netherlands

Postmark: Nieuwegein, 23OCT2021 
Posted on the 23rd October; received on the 9th November
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A simple clean  envelope, with a well machine applied postmark on a rather plain stamp, and yet the overall result is aestetichally appealing and it will make a nice addition to my collection, now that I reach the 50 covers mark.

From a philatellic standpoint it might not be a great addittion, but the sheer pleasure of receiving a letter on a nice clean well organised envelope more than compensates for the plainliness of the cover.

Holland, the flat country, heaven for cyclists, is the country of origins and inside it carried a nice postacard (#47) from the city of Utrecht. 

The stamp is part of a self-adhesive 5 stamp tariff 1 international (up to 20 g) booklet issued on 03JAM2014 themed on Dutch Icons. other icons featured, besides the milk cow, are windmills, bycicles, dutch houses and tulips.

The clear machine applied cancellation indicates that the letter was posted in Nieuwegein, a town in the vicinity of the city of Utrecht.

COVER N.49 - Mali

Postmark: Bamako, 15OCT2021 
Posted on the 15th November; received on the 8th November
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Mali! Once again a rather unexpected but nonetheless (or even more so) appreciated letter dropped into my letterbox. Thanks you so much Roland. I said it before, I repeat: your contribution to the diversity in my collection leaves me wordless.

A former French colony, Mali emerged to full independency in 1961, roughly one year after severing the colonial ties that linked both Mali and Senegal (the Mali Federation) to France.

Often cited on news for not the best reasons due to the presence of ISIS militants in the country and a unstable poilitical situation regarding the country's administration, Mali has much more to be cited for, like the famous earth made houses at Djenné or Timbuktu, or the outstanding vituosism of its Kora players, not to mention musicians like  Alif Farka Touré or Salif Keita.

The stamp on the cover ws issued on December 2020, as part of a 2 stamp set (500 and 1000 Francs) promoting the African Philatelic Hub, a website created by the postal administrations of Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Central African Rebublic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Marocco to provide easy access to philatelique products of the participating countries, via web.

The postamark indictes that the letter was mailed from Mali's capital, Bamako.

COVER N.48 - UK

Postmark: (?); 01-11-21 
Posted on the 1st November; received on the 5th November
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The sea and its dwellers. In later years attention has been increasingly drawn to them, as the effects of global warming and climate change are felt at world level and impacts in habitats become ever more apparent.

We don't own the world, and even if we like to think we are invulnerable, comfortably occupying the top of the chain, that is not so at all (and our current concerns prove the point); we are its gatekeepers, instead... and we've been failing at our job...

As I write this, Humanity meets in Glasgow ... again... and the challenges are the same (if worst)...the clock is still ticking. Let's hope we live up to our responsibilities, Kid's are right: there's no Planet B and we must manage in a systemic way our relationship with the world, for we are the only species that can influence at will its general characteristics in a swift and decisive way.

Failing that, stamps like the ones in the cover I thank Faisal for having sent me, will be issued under sad series designations, like "Former forms of sea life" or "Once upon the time on a coast near you (when the coast was much farther away...)"

The two 1st class stamps used on the cover are part of a 5 stamp strip set issued on 22JUL21, dedicated to Wild Coasts : Wildlife of Coastal UK, that besides the Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) and the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) included the Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus), the Common Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and the Spiny Spider Crab (Maja squinado).

Unfortunately the postmark on the stamps was very poorly applied... twice and can't be read, so I wasn't able to decipher where the cover was sent from.

Is Santa Claus coming to my letterbox?

Do I believe in Santa? No, I don’t. I’m not even a true Xmas fan, I have to confess: being an agnostic, Xmas is much more of a cultural mark impinged on me, than something I feel as part of an inner spiritual cycle.

But then there’s tradition, and you just can’t escape it, having been born in a mostly catholic  country where people consider Xmas as The festivity of the year and fueled by ever aggressive marketing strip down shops of all they have on offer to ensure granddad gets his millionth pair of bedroom slippers, younger daughter her Barbie #125 and mom the cookbook she never asked for.

I remember once, when my daughters were of the right age to believe in Santa, I had them send a letter to Santa in the North Pole, and they did get an answer.

The received cover is long gone, but I could do with another for my collection, and since I read that Canada post would kindly send Letters on behalf of the man with the key to every toystore in the world, I decided to ask for one too…. Let’s see how this goes… 

 

 

POSTCARD N.46 -  Germany

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 1st November; received on the  7th November
Postcard image: The Lünburger Heide (Lunburg Heath)
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Heather. The type of plant I would usually associate with Scotland or Ireland. but it seems that we can "go lassie go, and we'll all go together, to pull wild mountain thyme all around the bloomin' heather" in Germany, close to Hannover, the capital of Lower saxony, as the postcard I received from Gisela clearly proves. Thanks a lot Gisela!.

The Lünburger Heat is located in the north of Germany and most of it has nature reserve status, being in fact Germany's oldest Nature reserve, it seems.

I am absolutely certain that the sky on the postcard shot was replaced, but skies can be pretty much the same everywhere, now heather expanses ... only where you can have them, and Gisela tells me there's a lot of heather and sheep in the region.

Gisela used a 0,95€ stamp, issued on 02APR2020 as a single stamp set in both self-adhesive and gummed versions, dedicated to Metro stations a theme that would be continued in 2021 with 2 more stamps. The station in the illustration is Marienplatz in Munich.

The machine applied cancellation tells us that the postcard was sent through Briefzentrum 30 (Hannover) and it includes a rather nice vignette of the New Town Hall of Hannover, that according to some references I consulted on the internet, has been applied since june 2012 (but I'm not really sure about this, since my german is more than scant...)

POSTCARD N.45 -  USA

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 22nd October; received on the  7th November
Postcard image: Twin falls, Maui, Hawaii
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I love waterfalls. Yes, I admit being prey to the commonplace. I mean, who doesn't, right? So I was really  thrilled when Mr. Postman dropped a very nice waterfall postcard in my letterbox, the more so since it came from one of those places on earth (I should have said, on sea...) that really tickle everyone's fancy: Hawaii. Thank you so much for the nice card, Sandra!

Having lived in the Azores when I was a kid, I miss the beauty of islands, the constant brouahaha of the waves, the salty air, the green swept hills, the sound of thunder in winter...yes, I could say that I have it all here since I'm just about 10 km from the sea, but no, it is not the same thing, at all...

anyway, the falls are a very popular attraction on Maui Island, and they can be visited and enjoyed for a swim in the pond after a short 1.8 mile hike on a wet and muddy trail that connects to a regular main road.

Stamps, left to right

Forever stamp with a face value of 0,55 USD on the day of issue, part of a se-tenant self-adhesive block of 4 stamps issued on 11OCT2019 with "spooky silhouettes" celebrating Halloween

Single issue first class auto-adhesive stamp, issued on 11SEP2011, with a facial value of 0.44 +0.11USD, themed on "Save vanishing species". It depicts the Siberian Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica). Classified as Endangered by the IUCN, the Siberian tiger is one of the six tiger populations still existent. its habitat is now restricted to Southeast Siberia.

POSTCARD N.44 -  Canada

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 22nd October; received on the 4th November
Postcard image: The Northern lights
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The only lights I ever see when I go out at night are those of street lamps and those of the shiniest  celestial bodies. Northern lights here would never be, so it is always a pleasure to look at a picture of such a wondrous phenomenom such as the one in the beautiful postcard Meghan sent me from Canada. Thank you so much Meghan.

I confess I'm totally ignorant about Canadian Geography, after all is is such a big country. also the postmark on the card is totally unreadable, so I can't even grasp where the card was mailed from, other than it came form somewhere up North, in the Manitoba region, according to the Postcrosser profile.

The self-adhesive 2,71 Canadian Dollar stamp used on the card was issued on 13JAN2020 as part of Group III of the Far and wide series and it depicts the Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, a circular road that takes you through some terrific landscape scenery, on what I presume would be a perfect trip to enjoy  the beauty of autumn colours.

POSTCARD N.43 -  Japan

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 20th October; received on the 4th November
Postcard image: sunset view from Cape Shirepa - Hokkaido
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Google Earth. What a tremendous tool. I Can't read a word (or is it an ideogram...) of Japanese, but I can pretty well compare them, and when faced with a sunset somewhere in Japan, I put on my best detective hat and started by the legend on the back of the card to try to grasp where in the world's end the sun was setting (something that it seems also happens in the land of the rising sun....oh, the irony....😀).

Hokkaido. First clue came from the text on the card itself, written by a postcrosser that chose not to mention  his name, but whom I thank for the card and nice stamps on it: Arigato (this being a word that immediately strikes a connection with my own mother tongue, since it derives from the Portuguese "Obrigado", that means just the same).

Google Earth then came to the rescue and in a matter of minutes I had not only found the name of the area/city indicated in the very tiny map on the back of the card - Kushiro - but also, and most importantly,  the  place  where  the  shot of the sunset  had been taken - Cape Shirepa or 尻羽岬.

Sunsets...whenever I see a picture of a sunset, Richard Harris' immortal words from "Slides" come to my mind: "sunset; another sunset... I know it looks indistinguishable from the last, but I remember the difference...."

Stamps

The 50 yen Stamp is a single stamp emission issued on 29NOV1980 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Japanese Diet, the country's legislative body comprising two chambers: the House of representatives and the House of Councillors. The image of the stamp is that of the upper façade of the National Diet Building, in Tokyo being overflown by a flock of doves, probably symbolising peace.

The 20 Yen stamp with the image of a Silka deer (Cervus Nippon) was issued  on 02FEB2015 as part of a large definitive set dedicated to fauna and flora.

The postmark indicates that the card was mailed from the small island of Okushiri, facing the southwest tip of the island of Hokkaido.

POSTCARD N.42 -  Finland

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 25th October; received on the 4th November
Postcard image: images of the Finnish countryside
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Finland, the land of a thousand lakes  and also green pastures, judging from the photos on the card Kerttu kindly sent me through Postcrossing. Thank you Kerttu.

Finland is on my list of countries to visit someday in the future. in good truth, the whole world is on my list of countries to visit, this being a perfect example of "wishful thinking" because I have the clear notion that the proposition dwelves in impossibility. Still, receiving mail from countries I have never been to does provide some consolation againt the realisation of the sad truth.... 

To post my card, Kerttu used a 1st class (no facial value) self-adhesive stamp issued on 08MAY

2015 with a "Golden Swan". 

I searched on the internet and came across a children's story called "The Golden Swan" which I presume the stamp does try to illustrate

The postmark wasmachine applied on the wrong face of the postcard, that is the front of the card, over the pictures on it. Other than Tammerfors, I cannot read the information on the daystamp.

 POSTCARD N.41 -  Russia

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 23rd October; received on the 4th November
Postcard image: a winter landscape scene (1892) private collection. by Julius Yulievich Klever
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Julius Yulievich Klever was a Russian landscape painter of german origin of the romantic period, who lived between 1850 and 1924. 

Having risen to celebrity outside of the system (he was at some point expeled from the Academy of arts, only to be accepted years later as one of its teachers) he made the transition between the czarist and the communist regimes and in the later years of his life, he was supported by the Society of Artists, founded by another  Russian Landscape painter - A. I. Kuindzhi - to preserve the traditions of Russian Landscape painting. 

His is the painting on the postcard Zulfiya sent me from Russia. Thanks a lot Zulfiya!

Stamps, left to right:

Russian painting and painters is also the theme of the The 6 Ruble stamp, part of a two stamp set with the same face value, issued on 17JUL2006 to celebrate the birth bicenteanry of neo-classicist painter Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, who lived between 1806 and 1858.

The 52 Ruble stamp is the 2021 Russian CEPT  Europa emission, issued on 20JAN2021,  with the image of a persian Leopard (Panthera pardus ciscaucasica) .

The Persian leopard once roamed in all Caucasus region  but nowadays the few left are confined to western Caucasus, most of them in Iran. It is listed as "Endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

POSTCARD N.40 -  Slovakia

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 27th October; received on the 3rd November
Postcard image: Oravský Podzámok
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An so the list keeps on growing. This time with an addition from Slovakia, in the form of a postcard with a view from Oravsky Podzámok, a village in the Centre North of the country, not far from the Polish Border. 

Its main point of historical interest is seems is the Orava Castle that sits atop a cliff overlooking the village, as can be grasped from the view on the postcard that Slavo sent me. Thanks a lot Slávo!

Stamps, left to right; top to bottom:

The 0,65€ Stamp, comemorative of Stamp day 1995 and issued on 04DEC2015, is illustrated with a very nice rendition of the interior of Bratislava main Post Office. Of note is the fact that this stamp exists with 2 different vignettes attached, both showing images of the exterior of the post office.

The 0,40€ stamp, issued on 01JUL2011, is part of a two stamp set dedicated to vintage cars from former Czechoslovakia: the companion to the Aero 30 depicted on the stamp on the card was the famous aerodynamic Tatra 87, illustrated on the 0,80 stamp.

The Aero 30 was manufactured by a subsidiary of the the still existing Aero aircraft manufacturing company, founded in 1919. who produced cars between 1929 and 1951.

The 0,05€ and 0,10€ stamps are part of a 8 stamp definitive set issued on 02JAN2009, (0,01; 0,02; 0,05; 0,10; 0,20; 0,50; 1,00 and 2,00€) featuring highlights from the Cultural Heritage of Slovakia. The 0,05 € Stamp depicts the Rotunda of St. Margaret in Šivetice while the face of the 0,10€ stamp,  is taken by an image of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Sedmerovec - Pominovce.

POSTCARD N.39 -  Netherlands

Postcard dated of 27th October; received on the 2nd November
Postcard image: De Hoop, a gristmill in Hellevoettsluis
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Holland is well known for its Polder mills, yore used to pump water and thus ensure northern sea concquered dry land would remain ... well... dry. Still windmills were used for many other ends, making good use of the ever present and free energy of the wind, something that in later years would become a worldwide trend....

The mill at Heelevoetsluis, known as De Hoop (it seems this is a quite common name for mills in Holland) was a gristmill, that is a mill used for grinding cereal into flour. 

Thank you so much Gerdientje for the nice postcard, that came inside cover #47

COVER N.47 - Netherlands

Postmark: Rottterdam 25(?)21
Posted on the 25th October; received on the 2nd November
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Netherlands. Another country to add to the collection, this time again thanks to a Postcrosser, who kindly sent me a postcard (#39) inside an envelope, with two very nice stamps on it (and some more inside). Thanks a lot Gerdientje.

The stamps used are part of a 10 tarif 1 (domestic up to 20g) stamp minisheet issued on 13SEP21 dedicated to Dutch Horse Breeds, and they occupie the 2nd and 3rd positions from the left on the bottom of the sheet.

The first stamp depicts a Gronionger named Legende. This is a Dutch developed breed meant mainly for working purposes but also used as a family horse according to this specialist site.

The second one, a Gelderlander named Hobyant. According to Wikipedia Gelderlanders are a  "Dutch  warmblood horse breed. It was bred in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands as a carriage horse capable also of farm work". 

The two breeds are also noteworthy because (still acording to Wikipedia) they were the foundation  breeds of the Dutch Warmblood or KWPN - Koninklijk Warmbloed Paardenstamboek Nederland (Royal Warmblood Studbook of the Netherlands).