COVER N.87 - Czech Republic

Postmark: UHERSKÉ HRADIŠTĚ  22mar22
Posted on the 22nd March; received on the 28th March
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Another fine cover from the Czech Republic. Thank you so much Ladislav.

Stamps, left to right:

Czech stamps nearly always amaze me. They simply look like tiny works of art, with their carefully elaborated drawings exquisitely detailed. And this is not only the case with commemorative issues but also with their definitive emissions, as the humble but decidedly beautiful definitive Flowers emission, started in 2002 with a 6,4 Koruna pansy stamp clearly proves.

The 3 Koruna stamp of this emission on my cover was issued on 19MAR2019 and it depicts an  Azalka (Rosebay).

One flew over the cuckoo's nest. That's the thought that immediately came to my mind when I looked at the name besides the picture (did I mention that Czech stamps are exquisitely detailed...?) on the second stamp. Miloš  Forman (1932-2018) was the director that led Jack Nicholson into one of the several "roles of one's life", of the acting volcano that erupted in Easy Rider as "George Hanson". The Firemen's Ball; Amadeus; Valmont; Hair... the list of famous films is huge, and it is no wonder that the Czech Post chose to honour his memory on the date of his 90th birthday with this 19 Koruna stamp issued on 16FEB22.

The view of Prague's castle at the top of the hill, with Karlov bridge below, on the foreground, is one of Prague's many iconic views. Prague, the city that makes my neck hurt, from the strain of constantly looking up to stare at the  wondrous architecture that is everywhere to behold....I absolutely love it.

A beautiful line drawing by painter and illustrator Jan Kavan, who himself was already honoured by the Czeck Post with a commemorative postmark celebrating his 75th anniversary takes the limelight on the 17 Koruna stamp issued on 05MAY2010 on the theme of  "Prague Castle in The Art of Postage Stamp"

The Postmark tell us that Ladislav posted this letter in the city of Uherské Hradiště.

 POSTCARD N.70 - Russia

Postcrossing postcard sent  the 4th March; received on the 29th March
Postcard image: Tupolev 154-M
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Cover 86 contained this lovely postcard of a Tupolev 154-M. Thank you so much Julia.

Arguably the most used transport jet aircraft for medium haul produced in the former Soviet Union, the Tupolev 154 first flew in 1972, following the lines of the no less famous tri-jets of the time, Boeing 727 and Hawker Siddley Trident.

Having been subject to several modifications over the years of its operational history, the TU 154 which initially was powered by three Kuznetsov NK-8-2U turbofan engines, each delivering 20,950 lbf of thrust, would be reengined in its TU 154 M version, produced from 1982 on, with  3 Soloviev D-30KU-154 turbofans, each delivering 23,000 lbf .

The success of the design can be grasped from the number of civil operators that in 39 countries relied on its services, with the air forces of no less than 14 countries also using the type in its military guise.

The last commercial flight of the type, performed by  RA-85757 from   Alrosa airlines, a Russian operator, took place on 28 October 2020, between Mirny and Novosibirsk.

COVER N.86 - Russia

Postmark: КАЛУГА ПОЧТАМТ УООПО -   ПОЧТА РОССИИ (Kaluga Post Office - Post Russia) 04MAR2220FEB22
Posted on the 4th March; received on the 29th March
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Russia; the mere invocation of the name today and all the images we've all seen on TV immediately come to mind... and yet a nation is much more than who is in power; who gave the absurd order; who sent thousands to their death; who once again robbed the future from innocent children who wonder why they had to undergo so much suffering, fleeing from their once peaceful homes... just like it happened decades ago in Leningrad, or unfortunately in so many places that a list would be hard to compile....

No, a nation is not one person and his subservient privileged entourage. A nation is its people, its culture, its values and traditions and they will always prevail over men who, by definition, are transient.

In this troubled times, when we all had to take sides, a mere postcard can be much more than a nice picture inside an envelope. It is a gesture of understanding, of sharing, of communion, of humanity. 

I never met Julia; she never met me, we don't know each other, so we don't know what each other thinks, believes, wants, and yet we both offered each other the pleasure of a common gesture, without any other intention than to foster an also common interest in learning, knowing, discovering. That's what drives humanity forward, not cannons, 

Thank you so much for another beautiful envelope with an equally nice card inside. I truly appreciated it.

The envelope Julia used was issued in 2020. Judging from the logo on the stamp corner it is meant to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the ending of the second world war and also to mark the centenary of birth of Grigori A. Rechkalov, a twice hero of the Soviet Union and air combat ace with a total of 56 victories, 50 of them in the American built and supplied under  the lend lease program P-39 Airacobra, the aircraft that can be seen in the background on his portrait shot on the botttom left corner of the envelope.

Stamps:

6 Ruble stamp, part of a 5 stamp (5; 6; 7; 8; 9 Rubble) minisheet  celebrating the centenary of the birth of helicoper designer Mikhail Leontyevich Mil (1909-1970), whose picture can be seen in the vignette of the stamp with a very nice image of a Mil Mi-4, one of Mil's most famous designs, created as a counterpart to the American Sikorsky H-19, whose general outline and layout it follows.

24 Ruble stamp, issued on 28JUL2016, illustrated with a beautiful picture of a Grigorovich M-5, Flying Boat,  part of a four 24 Ruble stamp set themed on Weapons of the First World War which includes the 6.5mm Fedorov Automatic Rifle, 1916; the "Mgebrov Isotta-Fraschini", Armored Car and the "Empress Catherine the Great", Dreadnought. the stamps were issued on minisheet form (3x3) each minisheet also including a vignette in the upper left corner position.

The very clear postmark informs us that the letter was mailled from the city of Kaluga on the 4th March, coincidently, my birthday!

COVERS N.84/85- France

Postmark: machine applied postmark 38276A-02 France (91320 Wissous, Essonne. Post office) (?) - 23-MAR-22 
Posted on the 23rd March; received on the 25th March
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Upon returning from a weekend escape in the Island of Terceira in the Azores (rain, and rain and rain and fog, but still very enjoyable) I checked my letterbox to find two pre stamped envelopes sent from France with a more than generous gift inside from its sender. Thank you so much Pierre! As I told you, I am at loss of words to tell you how much I appreciated it.

I have written about it here, but I am always taken aback by generous gestures like this one, coming from someone who really doesn't know me at all, and  yet knowing we share some specific interest in something did not hesitate to provide me with  a kind gift I appreciated immensely.

I look at what is going on  in the eastern border of Europe, to what has been going on for ages in the eastern end of the Mediterranean sea  and at what is going on in several other places in this round world of ours and I can't help but wonder how come a race that is capable of such incredibly generous deeds as the one I benefited from be equally capable of such hideous atrocities as those that are going on in Ukraine, have been going on in Syria, Yemen, ... ( anyone reading this can fill in the list at will....)

I tried to find some information regarding the envelopes themselves but wasn't lucky, so I had to don my Poirot hat and try to reach some conclusions....

Cover 84

A self stamped envelope useable for priority mail in the international service, probably part of a set dedicated  to the Regions of France, this one highlighting the "intense violet" of the lavender fields of the then Rhône-Alpss, now Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region.

The pre-printed stamp echoes a 5 Franc stamp issued by la Poste on 25NOV1988 as a joint issue with Switzerland, featuring  "Méta", a painting by Swiss painter and sculptor Jean Tinguely, well know for his moving or kinetic sculptures, which he would call métaméchaniques,  and for  having co-authored, with his wife Niki de Saint Phalle , the sculptures of the amazing Stravinsky fountain, near Centre Pompidou, in Paris.

The back of the envelope has a printed copyright notice by ADAGP, the French associative institution representing artists and authors dated of 1997, so I would presume that this envelope was issued on this same year.

Cover 85

This was an easy one. being also a self stamped envelope useable for priority mail in the international service, it was issued in late 2007, as the  image of the counter in the envelope clearly suggests. 

The pre-printed stamp also echoes that time of the year.. Season's Greetings, it says....

 COVER N.83 - China

Postmark: 2 postmarks Suzhou (?) - 18FEB22 / 20FEB22
Posted on the  18th February on the 16th March
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A cover from China with quite an interesting set of stamps. Thank you so much Xu!

Joint issues usually have the added bonus of presenting the viewer with discovery opportunies on the countries involved, and this was not an exception.

Once again the quality of the handwriting on the address lines made me feel ashamed of my nothing short of cuneiforme handwritting....

The chosen theme for this joint issue was Bridges, something that I think is pretty popular with many philatelists. As usual, I had to resort to Wikipedia to enlighten myself about the beautiful images on the two 1.20 yuan stamps, issued on 11DEC2021.

The stamp on the top of the cover shows the Guangji Bridge on the Han River, East of Chaozhou, in the province of Guangdong, a protected major historic and cultural site.

The present day bridge, spanning 517.95 metres, inherits its location from the past many iterations of this important infrastructure, the first having been built  in 1170 by Zeng Wang, a magistrate of the Song Dinasty as a boat bridge.

The boats were to be replaced over time by pontoons and piers, and the Guangji bridge would end up getting a mix of beam, arch and pontoon bridges features.

A curious charachreristic of the pontoon section is that it can open to let boats cross it.

 The second stamp is illustrated with the image of the Khaju bridge, in Isfahan, Iran.

This 133 metres long bridge  was built circa 1650, in the reign of king Abbas II and it connects both margins of river Zayanderud.

Originally it was used as a teahouse and as well as bridge it also functioned as a weir to regulate the flow of the Zayanderud.

The 50 fen stamp is part of a two stamp set dedicated to Environmental Protection ,issued on 01JAN2004.

This stamp highlights the "prevention and control of desertification", while its companion 4.5 renminbi yuan stamp calls on our attention to the protection of biodiversity.

Of note is the fact that the cover presents two postmarks issued by the same office. One machine applied in red with a 3.5 Yenand a manual cancellation in black,  both applied on the same day.

COVER N.82 - Czech Republic
Postmark: PRAHA1 - 8.03.22
Posted on the 8th March; received on the 16th March
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Rain has finally come to my country again, after a very dry winter that put our water reservoirs near critical level in a large area of our territory, so I don't know whose rain fell on the beautiful cover I received from the Czech Republic. It could have been Czech rain, it could have been Portuguese rain, but the somewhat wrinkled envelope is keeping the secret to itself, and in all truth it really doesn't matter, because even if a bit crumpled, the stamps it holds are works of art, and a joy to the eye of the beholder. Thank you so much Ivan!

Stamps, left to right:

1 Koruna stamp issued on 15FEB2021, part of a definitive series themed on Butterflies started in 2020 with 3 stamps. The butterfly depicted is the "orange tip" (Anthocharis cardamines), a common species of the Pieridae family, that is present in all of Europe (Portugal included) and Asia, up to the Himalaian region.

B tariff (Standard up to 50 g in domestic Economy service) stamp issued on 26FEB2020, celebrating the centenary of the Czech Constitutional Court. The legend "One Hundred Years of Constitutional Justice is cantered in between the images of the heads of two pillars from the Constitutional Court in Brno. The one on the left bears the inscription "Democracy" and the one on the right claims " The Rule of Law".

19 Koruna stamp, issued on 10OCT2018, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the National Museum in Prague, the largest of the Czech museums. The main image on the stamp is that of the statue of Čechie, an allegory of the Czech Nation,  on top of the fountain right in front on the National Museum, whose façade can be seen in the background.

Both these very beautiful stamps were designed by graphic artist and stamp designer Jan Kavan. Born in 1947, Jan Kavan has designed many a stamp for the former Czechoslovak and current Czech postal service, so the later decided to honour him with the rather elegant special cancellation mark celebrating his 75th birthday that was used to cancel the stamps on my cover.

Ivan also applied a very nice vignette with an image of god Baco (?) but I could not find any information about it, although I suspect it came from the pen of Jan Kavan too...

COVER N.81 - Faroe Islands

Postmark: Tórshavn 24.02.2022 FØROYAR
Posted on the 24th February; received on the  7th March
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Puffins... what's not to like about their stubby little bodies and pleasant faces with that most wonderful colourful beak? I only saw them once, from afar, in Ireland, flying, but today they came and paid me a visit, neatly glued onto the beautiful cover I got from the Faroe Islands, once again courtesy of Roland. Thank you so much, friend!

The Faroe Islands are one of those destinations that anyone with a soft spot for nature and wildlife photography has on the whish list (not always for the nicest of reasons... I can't forget the pictures on an old national geographic with a bay with the sea tinted blood red..), so adding them to my philatelic atlas fills me with great pleasure. While technically integrating  Denmark, the 18 islands that constitute the Faroe Archipelago enjoy strong administrative autonomy and are self-governed, with their own cabinet and Parliament (the Løgting). 

As it happens in quite a number of Island nations, total independence is strongly supported by a significant share of the population who would like to sever their ties with the Kingdom of Denmark, so one day, maybe,  the United Nations may get a new full standing member.

The two stamps on my cover, denominated at 27 and 17 Danish Krone, constitute the 2021 Europa set, issued on 26APR2021. They depict that most charming cousin of the seagull, the Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica). 

A northern breeder, it can travel as south as my own country where it can be episodically seen offshore during the winter migration, from October to April.

Although puffin populations still add up to 11 million plus individuals, its global conservation status was downgraded in 2015 and is now classified "Vulnerable", due to a sharp decrease in numbers in later years as a result of "increased predation by gulls and skuas, the introduction of rats, cats, dogs, and foxes onto some islands used for nesting, contamination by toxic residues, drowning in fishing nets, declining food supplies, and climate change" (cf. wikipedia).

The very neat and clean postmark indicates that the cove´r was mailed from the city of Tórshavn, (Thor's harbour') the Faroese Capital, in the Island of Streymoy, with a population of about 19,000.

COVER N.80 - Israel

Postmark: Illegible 13FEB2022
Posted on the 13th February; received on the 4th March
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80. Another round number...I look back at when I started this blog (and i'm not far from the one year mark) and I think of what I have learned, of what knowledge I have acquired just by looking at tiny squares (well, ...for ease of expression, I'm not that geometrically challenged...) of paper glued onto an envelope by other so inclined persons scattered all around the globe. It is like reading a book, I guess,  each page or small set of pages being a full chapter that can motivate the reader to go deeper in the quest for the story, the facts, the curiosity, the personality, the whatever subject that is presented on that tiny square of paper.

Israel, four stamps on an envelope... Thank you so much Yair, let the quest begin again...😀

Stamps left to right:

two 10 new agora stamps from a 10  even priced stamp minisheet dedicated to the Hebrew Alphabet, issued on 13FEB2001. On the same date, another minisheet was also issued with the full 22 letter alphabet. I could not find any information on why this particular 10 characters were also issued in a separate minisheet.

2,5 new shekel stamp issued on 06APR2021,  celebrating The Israel Memorial Day, a remembrance day for the fallen soldiers of the wars of Israel and the victims of actions of terrorism.

2,5 new shekel stamp issued on 08MAY2019 as part of a two stamp  joint emission with Singapore.

The illustrations on these beautiful stamps feature a garland made of flowers butterflies and the national birds of each of the two countries. Each stamp has a mirrored illustration of the garland, the stamp on my cover highlighting the "Singapore" side of it while the other, conversely, highlights the Israeli side.

As such, my stamp showcases Singapore's national bird, the Crimson sunbird - Aethopyga siparaja, (see? What did I tell you about learning things from stamps....?), while the other stamp on the set gives the rostrum to the lovely Hoophoe - Upupa epops.

The postmark, although  used several times on the cover is always, unfortunately, undecipherable, but for the date in one of them, that indicates that the letter was mailed on the 13th February.

 COVER N.79 - United Nations - New York

Postmark: 2 Postmarks : United Nations - New York FEB 17 and United Nations Post Office 18FEB2022
Posted on the 17th February; received on the 4th March
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Just two days after seeing the General Assembly of the United Nations rising to its responsibilities and strongly condemning the brutal and unjustifiable invasion of a sovereign country by its neighbour, on the whim of a madman, I got this lovely cover sent through the UN Post Office in New York. Thank you so much Stephen, for letting me add another stamp emmiting entity to my collection. My response is on its way, as I type.

The United Nations Postal Administration began issuing stamps in 1951, its services opening on United Nations Day, October the 24th, in New York.

At present, there are two other UNPA Offices - Vienna and Genève, which are responsible for issuing stamps denominated in Euro and Swiss Franks respectively, while the stamps issued by the New York office are, as would be expected, denominated in US Dollars.

Stephen used the following stamps to mail the letter to me:

A souvenir sheet issued on 24OCT2002 highlighting the UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS)  Awareness Campaign. Besides this souvenir sheet, a 70 Cent stamp displaying in larger detail the UN building with the fight against AIDS  symbol projected on its façade was also issued.

A 94 Cent stamp, issued on 08AUG2008 as part of a 3 stamp set celebrating the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, under the motto "Sport for Peace".

COVER N.78 - JAPAN

Postmark: Gamagori, Aichi 14FEB22 (?)
Posted on the 14th February; received on the 3rd March
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Another rather nice air mail envelope,  addressed in a beautiful handwriting fell into my letterbox today. Thank you so much Shouzi!

Shouzi used one stamp of the five stamp set (denominated at 7, 70, 90, 110 and 130 Yen) issued on 08OCT2021 to celebrate the International Letter Writing Week, thus continuing a long standing tradition of the Japanese Post of celebrating this event with the emission of a stamp set.

The international Letter Writing week takes its roots in the 14th Congress of the Union Postale Universelle, held in Ottawa, Canada, when the following recommendation wad adopted by its members:

“The Fourteenth Congress of the Universal Postal Union urges all member countries of the Union to consider the possibility of making the week in which 9 October falls [International Postal Day] International Letter Writing Week. It expressed the formal opinion that the United Nations and specialized agencies, whose aims and objects coincide with those to be achieved by the said International Week, should assist effectively in introducing it. “quote taken from https://stampaday.wordpress.com/2016/10/09/world-post-day-international-letter-writing-week/"

The Japanese 2021 International letter writing week stamp set honours none other than the great Japanese master of the woodblock printing technique Katsushika Hokusai, the stamps reproducing five of its many masterpieces. The one on the 110 Yen stamp on my cover is called "Across the Tatekawa and Honjo District"

The postmark indicates that the letter was mailed from the city of Gamagori, located  in the Prefecture of Aichi, Island of Honchu, with a population of about 80,000.