COVER N.123 - BELGIUM

Postmark: 89 - BEERNEM 01.06.22
Posted on the 1st June; received on the 15th June 2022
__________________________________________________________________________________

A cover from the Centre of Europe... from the Belgium of chocolates and trapist beers... Thank you Guy, for letting me add another country to the list, and also for all the goodies inside your nice cover.

Stamps, left to right:

"Ne gravez pas sur cette pierre ce que je fus, ce que j’aimais, ce que j’ai fait sur cette Terre, quand reviendra le mois de Mai, les oiseaux dans leur doux langage le chanteront aux champs et aux forêts".

Do not engrave on this stone what I was, what I loved, what I did on this Earth, for when the month of May returns, the birds will chant it, with their sweet language, over fields and forests. 

The authoress of this moving epitaph was Antonia De Smet de Naeyer (1874-1949), the last Marquise de Pierre. A  passionate avant la letre  conservationist, with a deep love for nature and for birds in  particular, in 1922 she established the Ligue Royale Belge pour la Protection des Oiseaux (Belgian Royal League for the Protection of Birds).

Honouring the centenary of the Royal League, Bpost issued on 24JAN2022 the se-tenant pair of value 1 (non priority domestic) stamps on my cover. The stamp on the left side of the pair showing a portrait of the Marquise de Pierre and the stamp the right a carefully bandaged owl, evocative of the League's activities and commitments.

I first heard Toots Thielemans (1922-2016) play on Paul Simon's "I do it for your love" in the "Still crazy after all this years album", that was issued in 1975.... man, how time passes...

Toots was a well known harmonica player, the greatest ever jazz harmonica player, it is well acknowledged, although he started his career as a guitarist. Over his long and productive life he played with countless stars of the jazz constellation, from Charlie Parker to Miles Davies, from Ella Fitzgerald to Bill Evans...

Celebrating the centenary of his birth Bpost issued on 21MAR2022 a single stamp tariff 1 World, wherein Toots is displayed in two portraits as both an harmonica player and a guitarist. Of note is the fact that the stamp was issued in a curious minisheet format mimicking a vinyl record including 5 stamps.