COVER N.141 - ISRAEL.

Postmark: Tel-Aviv Yafo 06.07.22
Posted on the 6th July; received on the 14th July 2022
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On a hot day (much like the rest of western Europe, we've been experiencing an horrible heat wave that not only has been making life very hard for quite a number of people living in places not usually associated with this kind of phenomenon,  but has also been  fuelling forest fires everywhere,...) I open my  letterbox to find a letter stamped with beautiful cactus stamps... Quite adequate, I should say, so Thanks a lot Yair, you aced it this time 😀!

Cacti are strange creations, surviving in the harshest of conditions, they bring a touch of green to places that would otherwise  be quite devoid of  any other colour than yellow of brown, and most of the times they exhibit  gorgeous flowers that, contrary to them are almost ephemeral.

Still they also adapt to humid and not so hot climates and so much so that one of the cacti in the stamps on the envelope - Opuntia ficus-indica,  is cultivated in Portugal, not only for its fruit, but also for applications in the area of cosmetics and health, I believe.

Stamps left to right:

Gerberas are very beautiful members of the Asteraceae family. Being native to South America, Africa, Madagascar and Tropical Asia, they are today cultivated as cut flowers in many countries, mine included, cultivars now exceeding 80 varieties, I believe.

On 05FEB2013 Israel post issued a souvenir sheet with 10 stamps (2 strips of 5) featuring images of gerberas, from which the .20 shekel on my cover was taken. other denominations include are .30; .40; .50;.60 and 1 Shekel. Strangely enough, the date on the margin of the stamp reads 22.10.2012, which is probably the date of printing?

Cacti of Israel was the theme of the 5 se-tenant 2.5 Shekel stamp strip issued on 15FEB2022 from which the two cacti stamps on my cover were part. Illustrated on these two stamps are a Ferocactus (a gender that comprises more than 30 species) and the already mentioned Opuntia ficus-indica. The nice photos in the stamps highlight not only the general aspect of the cactus itself but also the beautiful flowers they produce.

The difficult to read postmark confirms that the letter was mailed in Tel-Aviv.