COVER N.190 - BRAZIL

Postmark: AC -Carmo da Cachoeira MG 29.11.2022

Posted on the 29th November; Received on the 20th December 2022
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I'm always very happy to receive a cover coming from abroad that speaks my own language. On top of it, the envelope shows no less than 5 stamps, they too speaking the "romantic language of the Portuguese" as James Taylor once so fittingly proclaimed in is beautiful "only a dream in Rio" song.

So allow me to go back to what's really my own idiomatic second nature and say Muito Obrigado, José, pela magnífica carta que teve a gentileza de me enviar!

That said, why do I keep this blog in an idiom that is not my own, when there readily available and free tools that can help any potential reader, convert it to his/her idiom of choice?

I do think of this every once in a while.  The main reason, I think, is pretty obvious: English, as I often say, is modern day Esperanto, at least for the side of the world which I take for granted, the often referred to as the "West": Thus, using it (irrespectively of any less than optimal uses of  syntax and semantics in which I may incur, and for which I apologize) allows me to believe that more people will potentially waste some time reading the lines I drop into the main text box of the blog entry form (more on this later).

On the other hand it allows me to practice English as a second language, which is something that I am pretty keen to do because many were the times in my own personal and professional life that benefited from my being fluent in what I believe is the most used "exchange" idiom in the world in spite of not occupying the 1st place in the ranking of idioms with the most native speakers.

A third reason might be a more personal one: pleasure and knowing I can do it. I like to write even if I'm a lousy writer, So keeping a blog in a foreign language is a bit of challenge and everybody knows that the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward when we overcome it.... (I know , I know, writing a couple of Lapaliçades in English is not such a great feat, but I do get a fair amount of pleasure and a feeling of accomplishment from it, trust me).

Now could this all be but a manifestation of pride? Vanity? One of the *cardinal* sins? a pure act of self-indulgence? Some sort of exhibitionism? After all, who gives a s**t about what I write or not? Who really cares?

And yet, as with any form of communication, writing presupposes that there is a recipient of the message at the end of the line, there, on the hidden face of my computer screen, that is, *you*, who have been kind (and stoic) enough to have reached this point of the text.

The question is: are you there? do you exist? or am I writing in a circular mode? am I the main recipient of what I write here? 

I check the blog statistics every once in a while, and these tell me that there are some "visitors" to these pages (which isn't a synonym of "readers" of these pages).

Further to that, some friends do actually tell me they have read or have visited or do visit regularly, and this type of feedback for me is much more relevant than the crudeness of stats based on click data.

I know how hard it is to retain one's attention on anything written of a screen, a constraint that leads to the  dictatorship of the short (or minimal, I should say) text. This, in turn, leads to semantic predation, with the number of words being used in conversation in spoken or written form decaying constantly. It seems to me that sustainability and biodiversity are notions that should also be applied to languages, We are loosing words by the thousands each year, So much so that sometimes I feel that we're progressing towards the Weissmuller speech norm, the ultimate tweet: "Me Tarzan; you Jane!". What more needs be said?

I will not follow the trend though. I'll keep writing using what words and what length of them I deem appropriate, assuming there is always someone, like you, who will be kind enough to reach the bottom of these blog entries, even if just to say "what a piece of rubbish".

All things considered  knowing why I do it, after writing almost 300 blog entries shouldn't worry me too much. as I enumerated above, there are sound reasons for doing it, and if the third reason I enunciated, - the manifestation of a cardinal sin - is the strongest of them (even If I will never admit it) then I'll be sure to take my lawyer along, come judgement day.

So, if you have reached this point, let me just offer my most sincere thanks for your attention, and this being the last entry for the year, let me also wish that 2023 may become your best year so far, and yet not as good as all those that are still to come, which I hope will be many!

Stamps left to right

- Domestic animals, pets, was the leitmotif chosen for the 2018 common theme stamp issue of the Postal Union of the Americas, Spain and Portugal. 

The Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos, the Brazilian Postal Administration, took the challenge to the next level and decided it would promote an internal contest for its workers, asking them to provide photos of their pets for the creation of the stamps. The idea was a huge success, judging from the almost 1700 photos received, of which 30 were selected and then used in the 1,55€ stamps that feature in the mini-sheet issued on 06NOV2018. 

Cats. dogs, birds, fishes... sound proof that pet animals are as diverse as their owners, as the rabbit on my cover - named Orelhinha (little ear) the legend tells us - clearly illustrates.

- Bikes...there was a time when I thought they were a good idea,.. but I never took the plunge, the notion that the airbag is in fact your chest or that asphalt is but another coarser grade of sandpaper made me stay away from them, although for some years I chose the un-motorised version, a bicycle, of course, as my vehicle of choice for my daily comings and goings from home to work and vice-versa.

But, in spite of all that, one has to agree that riding a bike has to be a lot of fun and I do understand those that worship the 2 wheels, especially those that use it for long leisure travels, and I also confess that I am always in awe at the way  racing pilots handle the almost 300 BHP of their mounts in what looks to me like some sort of ballet as they roll from one side to te other, their knees even touching the asphalt (yes, the sandpaper) at incredible speeds...

On 29SEP2002, EBCT issued a mini-sheet containing 6 different 0,60 Real stamps dedicated to Motorbikes, of which a pair can be seen on my over.

The left stamp shows a Suzuki GXS - R1000, which was powered by a 999.8 cc 4 cylinder engine capable of producing 199BHP for a total weight without rider of 201 kg... 1 BPH per kilo... small wonder I am not that confident about ridding them....

On the background of the stamp there is the image of the very first Suzuki motorbike, or should I say powered bicycle...the Power Free as it was called available from 1952 had a  36cc engine with a maximum power of 1 horsepower at 4,000 rpm. I guess Suzuki rode a long way since then...

The right stamp is illustrated wit the image of a Triumph Daytona 955i centennial edition. 

This massive beast saw the light of day in 2002, with a production run of only 200 units. It was equipped with a 955 cc engine delivering almost 150 BHP and it weighed 191 kg. 

As it happens in all the other 5 stamps of the set, on the background of the image there's also a picture of the first  motorbike of the brand, in this case a Triumph, dating back to 1906, which was test driven by....a priest! 

Indeed, after manufacturing motorcycles since 1902 with parts from other manufacturers, Triumph Engineering conceived its first all in-house model in 1906 and asked Rev Basil H. Davies, a well known motor biking enthusiast of the day, who would write about motor biking under the pseudonym of Ixion, to test drive its product, which he did, achieving a total of 1279 miles, (about 2000 km) in six days without any major breakdowns.

This story only goes to prove that I am probably right being suspicious about motorbikes in general... inviting a priest to be your test driver isn't the best publicity stunt, I reckon...... 

- UCCLA - The Union of the Portuguese Language  Capital Cities was the brainchild of the then Lisbon Mayor, Nuno Kruz Abecasis, the institution having been created in 1985 with the aim of developing and implementing concrete actions with a view to sharing experiences and cooperation so as to improve mutual understanding. 

Besides Lisbon, the founding members were the  cities of  Bissau, Luanda, Macau, Maputo, Praia, Rio de Janeiro and São Tomé/Água Grande.

Brasilia as the Capital of Brazil would join in 1986.

In 1993, on the occasion of the Brasiliana World Philatelic Exhibition that took place in Rio de Janeiro, the postal administrations of the  members of the UCCLA  issued stamp sets celebrating their being part of the organization.

The Brazilian issue, which began to circulate on 30JUL1993. was a se-tenant two stamp set, with face values of 15,000 and 71,000 Cruzeiros (high inflation times, those were... hmmmm or should i say... these are....) depicting the current and the former capital cities of the country, that is Brasília and Rio de Janeiro.

The stamp dedicated to Brasilia highlights the modernist buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer which have given the Brazilian capital World Heritage status with the famous "Os Candangos" sculpture by Bruno Giorgi in the foreground.

The right-side stamp shows the image of  the no less iconic and also holder of World Heritage status “Christ the Redeemer” statue  spreading its arms over the beach of Copacabana, two images that are immediately associated with Rio de Janeiro.

The very large and clear postmarks indicate that the cover was mailed from the city of Carmo da Cachoeira in the state of Minas Gerais, in the Southeast of the country.

COVER N.189 - BELGIUM

Postmark: Antwerpen X  01.12.22

Posted on the 1st December; Received on the 19th December 2022
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What can one say when one opens the letterbox to find  an envelope therein as nice as the one I got from Lieve, with postcard #99 inside? 

Not only is the envelope, hand-made (?) from paper from a children's story book, truly beautiful, but it is also graced with three very interesting stamps. Thank you so much, Lieve. I know I have stated in my postcrossing profile that I'd rather receive my postcards in an envelope, but I wasn't expecting such high standards :-). Thank you so much. I truly appreciated it!

Stamps. left to right:

- Blood... the most precious liquid on the face of earth. an absolutely vital commodity.... and yet, one that is criminously wasted by those who hesitate not to order that their equals be extricated of it by  sheer force and brutality... casualties, they are declared, how obnoxious.. as if killing someone was but a ...casual, mundane act...

And yet again, there are other people who hesitate not to generously donate it, so that others can live.

On 19JAN 2008, BPost, the Belgian Postal Administration issued a single Tariff 1 (domestic) + 0,25 stamp celebrating the Red Cross and the generous act of donating blood, and the message couldn't be clearer for if a cat can donate blood to a mouse, why should we do otherwise?

- Beethoven, surely one of the greatest musical geniuses of all times.  The man who wrote what his ears could not ear, but his brain would perfectly synthesise as if  sound and harmony were but ordinary human senses. 

Freedom and justice are values that are central to Ludwig van Beethoven's works -  after all, Fidelio, the Eroica, the 9th, to name but three of his better known masterpieces are all works that are permeated with the notion that someday somehow, "Alle menschen werden brüder" as Schiller wrote in his "An die Freude" ode. 

Another of his musical monuments traversed by the fire of these ideas is the  set of incidental  music for Goethe's Egmont play that tells the tragic story of Lamoral, Count of Egmont, a nobleman who stood up against the Spanish dominators in the then Spanish Netherlands, an act for which he was  sentenced to death, but whose execution led to mutinies which, in time, would lead to the independence of the Netherlands. 

The Egmont set is fundamentally remembered by its extraordinary overture, which is often executed in concert halls around the world.

The beautiful stamp with Beethoven's portrait and the effigy of the Count of Egmont over  a couple of staves from the Egmont score was issued on 06OCT1990, as part of a three stamp set dedicated to Culture and Music with face values of 10+2; 14+3; 25+6 Belgian Francs.The companion stamps are dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the "Jeunesses Musicales" and to the centenary of the birth of  sculptor Josef Cantré (1890 –  1957).

- The capital of the West Flanders Province, Bruges, is the subject of the last stamp on the envelope. Issued on 25SEP2006, with a face value of 0,70 € it is part of a two stamp set celebrating the 650th Anniversary of the Hanseatic League, a merchant confederation, an avant la letre common market that spread across Central and Northern Europe from the late 12th century until its demise, in the mid 17th century.

Bruges, the city of the bridges from where it gets its name (Brugga in old Dutch), but also of  the many canals, the Venice of the North as it was also called, was one of the most important merchant centres of the League, for its strategic location as a crossroads for the northern and southern Hanseatic trade routes.

Gone are the days of the League, but Bruges is still one of the most interesting cities to visit in Belgium if only for its sheer beauty, as the 8,5 million visitors a year (2019 data) aptly proves.

The stamp is illustrated with an image of the Hanseatic House, the "Oosterlingenhuis", as can be read on the legend, of which today only a section remains.

The companion stamp (0,80 €) s dedicated to another Belgian city, Antwerp, and it is illustrated with an image of the Hanseatic House therein built by the German Hanseatic League in 1564. 

Antwerp is also the place where the letter was mailed from, as informed by the  mechanical postmark.

POSTCARD N.99 - BELGIUM

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 1st December, received on the 19th December 2022

Postcard image: Castle of Retie
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Retie is a city located in the  province of Antwerp in  Belgium. According to some articles I read on the inernet, the area was largely swampy soil until, in 1854, King  Leopold I bought a large expanse of it to create a park and a palace. The former is now a very popular recreation park but the latter was never built.

Also located in Reti is the castle whose image features on the nice postcard which I have to thank Lieve for.

Built in 1906, along bysantine lines, by the Count François de Four, an industrialist linked to the paper milling industry,  the castle and the park could until recently be visited by the public, but from what Lieve tells me, at least the park is now off limits to those that used to be able to enjoy it...

Lieve was kind enough to send me the postcard inside an envelope (cover #189) with some very nice stamps for postage, but since a sent postcard should not go unstamped :-)  she also glued an used stamp on the back of the postcard itself: a self adhesive  Priority stamp issued on 04NOV2002 adorned with a Crocus vernus, a larger than usual species of this beautiful flower, endemic to the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Balkans. 

COVER N.188 - CHINA

Postmark: 江苏苏州 (Suzhou, Jiangsu) and 干将西路 (Ganjiang West Road)  21.11.22

Posted on the 21st November?; Received on the 16th December 2022

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On receiving this beautiful cover, the first thought that came to my mind was "I have seen this before". And yes, I had. Not exactly the same, but the very colourful and interesting  stamps  that Xu so carefully arranged on this envelope mirror to a great extent those that were issued by the Portuguese Post in a set dedicated precisely to the same theme: protected natural areas. So Thanks a lot Xu, it really is a most interesting addition to my collection.

On  the 11th October 2021, the first day of the United Nations Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity China - COP 15 (part 1) chaired by China and held virtually from the city of Kunming in China, the host country officially designated its first five national parks.

The decision, in a country that has the third highest number of animal species and is home to 34,000 plant species, and which in later years has become synonymous with massive pollution issues generated by  an outstanding industrial growth, can only be regarded as a welcome effort to ensure that all this biodiversity is preserved and fostered in the future.

In the wake of this decision  China's Postal Administration issued on 05NOV2022 the stamp set used on the cover, comprising 5 stamps of the same face value, highlighting the new 5 National Parks.

Each of the stamps, with a face value of  1.20 Chinese renminbi yuan,  is illustrated with a photo of the National Park it celebrates, as well as with a "medallion" with a photo of a fauna species that I presume is emblematic of it.

Left to right; top to bottom:

Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park

The park is located in the South China’s island province of Hainan  and its numbers, just like those of its companions, are staggering, for it extends over a total area of 4,269 square kilometers, of which more than 95% is occupied with the largest rain-forest of the country.

A biodiversity haven with 3,653 species of wild vascular plants registered the park  it is also the sole place in the world where the Hainan gibbon, considered to be the world’s most critically endangered primate can be found (30 surviving in the wild).

The Gibbon is featured on the stamp's medallion, along with what I presume to be Hainan Eld's deer, another of the rare species that call the park home. 

Wuyishan National Park

Located in the southeast China's Fujian Province, the park occupies a total area of about 1,000 square Km, which includes the Wuyi Mountain Nature Reserve, established in 1979, these mountains having been classified by the UNESCO as a World heritage Site since 1999, for their cultural, scenic and biodiversity importance.

The medallion on the stamp is illustrated with a female Elliot's pheasant, endemic and under protection in China;  the Wuyi subspecies of the  golden-spotted beaked phoenix butterfly, apparently the rarest butterfly in the world, endemic to China, and a frog I couldn't not positively identify.

Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park 

Again the numbers speak for themselves: covering an area of 14,065 square km, covered in 93+% by forest, the park located in both the Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, is home to the largest population of Siberian tigers and leopards which both feature on the stamp's medallion, along with one of its preys,  probably a Sika deer.

Sanjiangyuan National Park

Located in the Tibetan Plateau, in the  Qinghai Province,  this is Chinas's largest National Park, occupying a staggering 123,000 square kilometers and the birthplace of three of the most important rivers of Asia: the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Mekong.

Immensely rich and diverse in terms of fauna, the park is also home to the Chiru, or Tibetan antelope, which features in the stamps medallion.

Giant Panda National Nark

Ask anyone to name an animal associated with China and I'm sure the Panda will be the unanimous answer.

The majority of the population (73%) of this cute little giant, which now numbers more than 1,800 individuals after almost having gone for good from the face of the blue planet, inhabits reserves located in this National Park, located in  Central China in the Sichuan, Ningxia, and Shaanxi provinces.

It is thus no surprise that the animal chosen to illustrate the stamp's medallion would be the Giant Panda, and If I am not mistaken, on the background there are also images of  its unrelated "cousin", the Red Panda.

Just for the sake on comparison, here's a peek at the stamps on Portuguese protected areas I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

Left to right, top to bottom:

Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela and the Lagartixa-de-montanha (Iberolacera monticola);

Parque Natural de Montesinho and the Veado-Vermelho (red deer -  Cervus elaphu);

Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros and a fossil of a bivalve mollusc from the jurassic period;

Parque Natural do Vale do Guadiana and a Francelho (Lesser Kestrel - Falco naumanni);

Parque Natural da Ria Formosa and a Caimão (Porphyrio porphyrio)

image credits: CTT

COVER N.187 - FRANCE

Postmark: Santa Sleigh * 33500 Libourne * 2022

Posted on ?; Received on the 14h December 2022

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I'm not a believer. In fact I'm an agnostic. But one can't escape the cultural background that one had from cradle (to the grave... as the saying goes) and traditions are part of one's culture to the point that they sometimes lose their innermost signification to become but a date on the calendar when one is supposed to do this or that.

Christmas is one such occasion. For a nonbeliever, Christmas is pure folklore, tradition, and most of all a time to get enormously irritated at the mercantile hypocrisy that rules it nowadays.

This fact notwithstanding, I concede that there is an element of joy and hope in the tradition, even for someone like me, which is linked both to the religious  (again, the cultural background unto which one is born and raised) and secular ( winter, end of  cycle, a new year about to begin....) fundaments of the tradition.

And so, I embark on it and like any other person,  do what one is supposed to do these days: send out Season's greetings to friends, go out and buy presents, have dinner with my family, etc etc. The only thing I refuse to do is to watch again "The sound of Music" or "Home Alone" on TV.

And, just like last year, I wrote Santa (or better said Père Noël) a letter. 

I am glad to say that I must have behaved all year long because once again Père Noël wrote me back, to my great joy.

Santas's Cover from La Poste: a C5 envelope with Santa's Office Logo and a  pre-printed International stamp featuring Père Noël, cancelled with an also pre-printed postmark reading Santa-Sleigh 33500 Libourne. On the side another stamp mark reading Santa's Office Devoted to Children for 60 years.

Santa's Letter

Santa's gift: a connect the dots postcard.

POSTCARD N.98 - USA

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 28th November, received on the 9th December 2022

Postcard image: New York City Retro Skyline
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I have never been to New York, but like a pretty large number of the world's population I was able to identify  almost all of the features on this very nice card I got right from the city it announces. Thanks a lot, Linda.  Very nice postcard!

The Statue of liberty, Brooklyn bridge, One World Trade Center,  Empire State Building, One Vanderbilt, ?,  40 Wall street and Chrysler Building... 7 out of 8... not a bad score, even if I confess I had to look up the list of tallest skyscrapers of New york in Wikipedia, because without checking I could only identify the very distinctive art deco lines of the Chrysler Building.

For postage, Linda used a "Forever" Chrysanthemum self-adhesive Stamp, issued as a single stamp on 24APR2020.

The machine applied cancellation identifies the mailing local as the city on the postcard... the city that never sleeps, it's said...New York.

COVER N.186 - CANADA

Postmark: Canada Post Postes Canada, Downsview Retail Postal Outlet 1027 Finch Ave West Toronto, ON M3J 2L6

Posted on the 30th November, received on the 8th December 2022

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Red and gold dominated stamps, hailing from far North... 'tis the season to be jolly, I guess 😀

Thanks a lot Nargiza,

- The male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) looks quite distinctive in its red overalls tinted with black on the tail and face. The stamp it illustrates is part of a three stamp souvenir sheet ("P"; 1.30 and 2.71 Canadian Dollars) issued on 01NOV2022, featuring "Season's birds". 

Further to the Cardinal on the domestic P tariff stamp, the small but quite attractive stamps include the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) - 1.30 CDN and the Evening Grosbeak (Esperiphona vespertina).

- On 18MAY2018, Canada Post issued a stamp dedicated to the Ice Hockey Memorial Cup 2018, held in Regina, Saskatchewan,  between 18 and 27 May, 2018.

The tournament, honouring the Canadian Military fallen in combat, was first held in 1919 and has since been held yearly, the 2018 edition being the 100th (hence the celebratory stamp). Its winner is declared Canada's Ice Hockey League Champion for the season. In 2018, the title was won  by the Acadie–Bathurst Titan team. 

Further to the rather uncommon large rectangular postmarks on the front of the envelope, which tell us that the letter was mailed from Toronto, there is a Portuguese Postmark, upside down on the back of the envelope which reads 6-12 SAD Lisboa (I know not what the acronym SAD stands for) on the circular postmark. On the side, the legend  "Como endereçar corretamente a sua correspondência" (how to correctly address your correspondence) features besides an image of an envelope wherein I presume are indicated the preferred areas to inscribe the address of the sender and of the recipient ( the image is neither clear, nor complete).

POSTCARD N.97 - USA

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 22nd November, received on the 5rd December 2022

Postcard image: Mammoth hot springs - Yellowstone National Park
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Yellowstone...the first ever national park created in the world, I believe...and a giant pressure cooker said to blow off one day, but hopefully it's rather unlikely that day will be witnessed by anyone currently alive.....

Anyway, my first contact with Yellowstone came from the TV and from Hanna-Barbera's  famous character: Yogi bear and Boo-boo bear, who for me will always be remembered as Zé Colmeia e Catatau, because these were their names in the Brazilian version that aired on Portuguese T&V when I was a little lad.

Later, I would marvel at the images of such distinctive features as old faithfull geyser and tge grand prismatic spring in the pages of my daddy's National Geographics...and i would dream of the day i would go and see them for real.... the bad side is that I never did, the good is that I still long for it and maybe one day I will be bale to make just another tourist photo of Old Faithful spitting out the earth's expectoration....

So thanks a lot Lori, for a beautiful postcard that adds volume to my already enormous wishlist of places to visit someday...

Stamps, left to right, top to bottom

- The Mississippi is the second longest river in the US, after the Missouri, and it has the third largest drainage basin in the world, only surpassed by those of the Amazon and the Congo.

Having Lake Itasca, in the State of Minnesota, as source, the Mighty Mississippi runs for 2,340 mi or 3,770 km before delivering its waters to the Atlantic,  the Gulf of Mexico, a mere 160 km away from New Orleans.

Over the years, the Mississippi has inspired countless works of art - Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and their creator Mark Twain come immediately to mind, as does the image of Pole Robeson singing Old man river - so the fact that the United States Postal Service in 2022 had decided it was high time that such a significant landmark should be honoured with a dedicated set of stamps came as no surprise.

As such, a minisheet of ten domestic "Forever" self-adhesive stamps were issued by  USPS on 23MAY2022, each stamp featuring a photograph of the river taken at different locations, such as the one that was used on this postcard.

- ON 16OCT2020, USPS issued a set of 10 USA/Forever self-adhesive stamps themed in "winter scenes". The stamp illustrated with the photo of two deer is part of this set.

- William M. Harnett (1848-92) was an American still life Painter that would become well known and respected for his masterly use of the tromp l'oeil technique.

On 03DEC1969, USPS issued a six cents stamp illustrated with a reproduction of one of his most famous paintings: Old Models, painted in 1892 and which now can be seen in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

- To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Commercial Aviation, or better, of contracted airmail flights  (Dearborn, Michigan to Cleveland, Ohio on  15FEB1926 and  Pasco, Washington to Elko, Nevada, on 06APR1926. USPS issued a 30 cent stamp illustrated with the image of the two aircraft that were used for these flights, respectively a Ford-Stout AT-2 (top) and Laird Swallow (bottom).

On 22MAR1963, USPS  issued  a stamp dedicated to the country's 7th president, Andrew Jackson. The monochrome (green) in taglio printed  stamp with a face value of 1 cent is illustrate with a side portrait of Andrew Jackson. 

The mechanical postmark indicates that the postcard was sent from Knoxville, in the state of Tennessee.

POSTCARD N.96 - FINLAND

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 22nd November, received on the 5rd December 2022

Postcard image: Avro Lancaster
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No, Finland has really nothing to do with A.V. Roe or with any of te many products that his aircraft manufacturing company produced since its inception in 1910, just 7 years after the Wright brothers flew the Flyer. 

Of these, one of the most famous for the role it played in the 2nd World War, is the Lancaster, the subject of the very nice postcard I got from Finland. Thanks a lot Vesa, and also thanks fro having sent it in an envelope with the beautiful EUROPA Finnish issue of 2022.

Developed from the twin engine Avro Manchester, the four-engined Lancaster was first flown on the 9th January 1941. 

Powered by four 12 cylinder  Rolls Royce Merlin XX engines (yes, it equals more or less  4 spitfire engines diving a single aircraft....), the Lancaster had a crew of 7 (pilot, navigator, flight engineer, wireless operator, bomber, turret gunners).

As the most important long range bomber of the RAF, the Lancaster would play a very important role in the bombing runs that targeted several German cities, including the infamous and controversial Dresden raids,  but  the most famous mission performed by the type was operation chastise, the bombing of the Ruhr river dams that took place in 1943.

 The type was used by a number of air forces around the world after the second world war, a period when  some surviving examples, that had become redundant, were transformed into civil transport aircraft, in the guise of the Avro Lancastrian, a conversion which was first done in 1943, while the war was still raging. 

 Though there are still some surviving examples in museums, only two Lancasters remain airworthy, one in the UK, part of the Battle of Britain memorial flight and another in Canada.

COVER N.185 - FINLAND

Postmark: no postmark

Posted on the 22nd November, received on the 5th December 2022

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Nothing could be more appropriate to send a postcard dedicated to an aircraft than an envelope tinted in the colour of the sky. Thanks a lot again Vesa.

To make his envelope fly across Europe into my letterbox, Vesa used one of the two "International", no face value stamps that compose Finland's EUROPA 2022 set, issued on 27APR2022, dedicated to the goddesses of sun and moon in Finish mythology, respectively Päivätär  and Kuutar, the first being obviously the one whose image appears in the stamp on the envelope.

COVER N.184 - USA

Postmark: manual: Lexington MA 02420 - 21.11.2022; machine applied: Boston MA 21 NOV 2022 PM 7 L

Posted on the 21th November, received on the 3rd December 2022

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Again, a perfectly composed cover, addressed in a rather spiffy handwritting, marred by a quite unecessary double postmark...

Thank you so much, Karl. nice cover, indeed.

Alan Shepard was the fist american in space and only the second Homo sapiens to be so, after Yuri Gagarin's maiden return trip to "infinity and beyond". 

I was not much more than a newborn whan that occured, but as for any kid growing up in the 60s and 70s of last century, the space race was the stuff of constant wonder and curiosity.

Then, years later, I read Tom Wolfe's "the right stuff" (and, of course, saw the movie, as well)  and read Michner's "Space" (and watched the series on TV too) and my appreciation for Alan Shepard grew enourmously, for If I do recall correctly, he was presented (well, in Mitchner's book, the characters are semi-fictional but one of them fills in for Sheppard's role) as an immensly witted bloke, who always looked on the bright side of life.... Quotes like the one  he uttered upon returning from his first epic space flight - "It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract" - and the joyful way in which he was portrayed on the above mentioned films contributed to this, and to this day, Alan B. Sheppard is one of my favourite names in the astronaut gallery.

This notwitstanding, it should not also be forgotten that he also said "I realized up there that our planet is not infinite. It's fragile. That may not be obvious to a lot of folks, and it's tough that people are fighting each other here on Earth instead of trying to get together and live on this planet. We look pretty vulnerable in the darkness of space."  Hear that Vladimir?

On 04MAY2011, the United States Postal Service issued a two self-adhesive stamp Forever tariff stamp set dedicated to milesstones in space exploration. The very beautiful illustration of the stamp on my cover,  celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sheppard's flight into space, depicts  the astronaut's portrait in astronaut tenure, while on the background, on one side we have the  Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket lifting off and, on the other, the Freedom 7 capsule in space. The companion stamp is dedicated to the Messenger mission, launched in August 2004, the first spacecraft to orbit Mars. 

The stamp below  with an head-on flying Curtiss Jenny was issued on 11AUG2018 as part of a two stamp set celebrating centenary of the establishment of regular Airmail Service in USA, 

The stamp and its blue compoanion issued on 01MAY2018 echo, but do not mirror, the design of the infamous " 24 cents Jenny" issue (on this "Forever" self-adhesive stamps the aircraft is pictured from head-on as opposed to a side view on the former) that was the first ever air mail stamp produced and which originated the most famous stamp printing error of history: The Inverted Jenny.  

The Red Pear 10 cent definitive self-adhesive stamp was firt issued on 17JAN2016, although the one on my cover has a little 2017 legend on the bottom left corner, that should indicate that it is part of that year's print run. 

The very clear manual postmark indicates that the cover was mailed from Lexignton, Massachussets, but at some point if was procesed in Boston, where the mechanical postmark was applied.

POSTCARD N.95 - GERMANY

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 22nd November , received on the 3rd December 2022

Postcard image: a fox...
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The fox said "Lass uns was unternehmen!" (Let's do something) and I, not knowing what to do, decided I'd post its charming face on my covers and postcards blog. Thank you so much Darryl, for this pretty foxy card.

Baby animals have the added charm of all things infant. Exploring the theme, Deutsche Post has started in 2014 an yearly series dedicated to baby animals, with two stamps being issued each year . For the 2021 issue, which began circulating on 10JUN2022  the two animals chosen were the Foil Sheet-Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex), a wild goat that inhabits the European alps, which can be seen on the stamp used on this postcard, and the European Hamnster (Cricetus cricetus) a critically endangered species, whose distribution area encompasses  Belgium and Alsace in the west, Russia in the east, and Bulgaria in the south. 

The almost imperceptible postmark can only be read with the help of a loupe, but I think it reads Briefzentrum 40, what indicates that the postcard was mailed from Düsseldorf.

 POSTCARD N.94 - TAIWAN

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 24th November , received on the 3rd December 2022

Postcard image: black faced spoonbill (Platalea minor)
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Spoonbills are fun to watch. Their rather conspicuous "spoon" makes them quite distinctive and even if  the species portrayed in the very nice postcard  I got from Taiwan , is  confined to eastern Asia, I have on a number of occasions spent some time watching little groups of the species that occurs here - Palatalea leucorodia - in marshes in the south of Portugal (Algarve) or in the margins of the great Alqueva artificial lake in the  centre south (Alentejo) . So thanks a lot  Ying-Han, for  a nice card full of nice birds!

Chou Lan-ping (1926-1971) was a China born, Taiwanese composer,   who wrote several film and series scores in spite of a rather brief life and whose works became rather well known and regarded amidst the Chinese community at large.

On 06JUL2022 the Taiwanese Post issued a set of four 12  NTD stamps dedicated to modern Taiwanese composers. The Stamp design follows the same general concept on all four stamps with a B&W photo portrait of the composer superimposed on a photo of a page of one of his scores.

Further to Chou Lan-ping, whose stamp can be seem on the postcard, the set honours Deng Yu-Shian (1906-44); Hsu Shih (1919-80) and Yang San-Lang (1919-89).

The Postmark indicates that the card was mailed from the Capital - Taipei.

POSTCARD N.93 - CZECH REPUBLIC

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 24th November inside cover #183, received on the 29th November 2022

Postcard image: Český Ráj
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“Český ráj” reads the main legend of this beautiful postcard I got from Mary, inside cover #183. Not being fluent in Czech, I had to look it up with the use of "deepl" and I learned that this translates into Bohemian Paradise... and I don't dispute it, because the idea I have of the Czech Republic (even though I know precious little more than the charming city of Prague) is that it is a beautiful country, full of outstanding landmarks, both natural and manmade.

Bohemian Paradise, in fact, is the designation of a Protected landscape area , established in 1955, in the north of the Bohemia region, corresponding to the first natural reserve created in what was then  Czechoslovakia and is now the Czech Republic.

Some  of its landmarks, located in the Liberec region, in the centre North of  the country, are featured in this postcard, these being, clockwise from the upper left:

- The Pantheon Chapel integrated  into the Vranov rock castle located on a cliff overlooking the town of Mala Skala;

- The Hrubá Skála Palace, which now is an high end hotel and welness centre, in the town of Hrubá Skála;

- Frýdštejn Castle, a rock castle  in Frýdštejn in the Liberec Region,dating from the 14th century, with several rooms carved into the rock;

- Sychrov castle, built in neo-gothic style,  located close to the village from which it gets its name, dating back to the second half of the 19th century;

-  Hrubý Rohozec castle, in Turnov. The current configuration, dating back to the mid 19th century, is the result of a series of refurbishments to an original castle that was built on the site in 1300 AD. It is thus possible today for the visitor to encounter marks and traces of the gothic,  renaissance, baroque and romantic styles;

- Valdstein castle, also located close to Turnov, in the city of Hruboskalsko, considered to be the oldest of the Bohemian Paradise Castles. The original rock castle was built circa 1260.

COVER N.183 - CZECH REPUBLIC

Postmark: V O   Hradiště 2950...
Posted on the 24th November, received on the 29th November 2022
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I wrote it before: it only takes a stamp, a postmark and an envelope to make someone happy at the end of the lelter's journey, after all it seems it has been acknowledged long ago, when someone wrote "Lonely days are gone, I'm a-goin' home /My baby, just-a wrote me a letter..." 😀

Of course, mine was a completely different case, but Mary was kind enought to mail a postcrossing postcard (#93) to me inside an envelope, as I do prefer, and this kind attention deserves to be acknowledged in this blog of mine, so Thank you so very much, Mary! Trully appreciated it.

Dandelions - Taraxacum sp. - everybody knows it, and I'm sure there is no one that hasn't blown one of its balls of seeds into the wind. Still, this humble plant with its yellow flowers. better, its yellow inflorescences, is so common, that we never stop to look in detail at the beauty of them. Next time do pick one up and look at it in detail. it is a thing of wonder!

... And well deserving of a stamp, Czech Post thought, as it selected the " Pampeliška" as the flower to feature in the 2019 single E tarif stamp issue of the definitive series started in 2002, dedicated to the beauty of flowers, which began circulating on 23MAY2019.

The Postmark indicated that Mary sent her letter from Hradiště, a small town which had around 600 inhabitants in 2010, in the west of the Czeck Republic, in the region of Karlovy Vary..

POSTCARD N.92 - NETHERLANDS

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 22nd November, received on the 29th November 2022

Postcard image: De Slufter - Nationaal Park Duinen van Texel
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A gull's eye view over a lagoon in De Slufter, a large salt marsh in between two sand dikes in the Island of Texel, the largest of the Frisian Islands in the North Sea, an important nesting area for some bird species given that most of the area is not of public access, although the southern part of the area is a popular spot for nature lovers

Thank you so much Willem. Really nice postcard, and great stamps too!

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Stamps, left to right

- Greeting stamps are a strange concept, I think, but I've seen them issued by several administrations, so they must sell well.

Anyway, on 01SEP2005, Post NL issued a three 0,39 € stamp set in souvenir sheet form under the slogan "Ik denk ann je" (I think of you) each with a balloon where one could write a message. The stamps were all of identical composition, although in differing colour schemes.

The strange thing is that the stamps were meant to be used until the 3rd December 2005, after which they would no longer be valid, Could it be that Willem included this stamp on the card because he knew I like stamps? If that's the case, I truly appreciated the gesture.

- On 06JUN2006, Post NL issued a souvenir sheet with 2X4 0,39€ stamps and 4 vignettes dedicated to the theme "Choice of the Netherlands". 

I can't make much of  this theme choice, but I suppose this means that  the persons and organisations chosen are well beloved in the Netherlands.

The stamp on my postcard is dedicated to Max Havelaar (1820-87), and confessing my ignorance, I'll quote directly from wikipedia: "Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin multa tulī, "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel Max Havelaar (1860), which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia). He is considered one of the Netherlands' greatest authors."

The other stamps on the set are dedicated to Elvis Presley, Freemasonry, the Dutch idiom, and the Muppets.... eclectic, to say the least....

- I, being a republican in the strict sense of the word,  although deeply respecting the choice of others,  feel that monarchies always capitalise on their monarchs as  consumer products. This is nowhere more evident than in the UK, but everywhere else a crown is worn, the faces of those who wear it and of their next of kin usually appear in a lot more than institutional portraits (and a good deal of times, nor for the best reasons...). 

Stamps, do qualify as "institutional" media. After all, the tradition of having one's monarch effigy on stamps dates back to the invention of the stamp itself, but one only needs to think about what has happened quite recently when Queen Elizabeth II passed away, with stamps being issued all over the world, (I even seem to remember having read about issues with errors in dates, so strong was the urge to cash in on the event) to feel that the borderline between institutional and strictly commercial is quite thin at times....

Anyway,  one of the grand events for monarchies is a royal wedding, and the Netherlands had one such moment in time when, on the 2nd February 2002, the Dutch King to be, Alexander Claus George Ferdinand, born in Utrech in 1967, married Maxima Cerruti, an Argentinian, born in Buenos Aires in 1971.

To mark the event Post NL issued on 01JAN2002 a souvenir sheet with two se-tenant 0,39€ stamps, of which one can bee seen on my postcard, featuring the side portraits of both bride and groom and the number 20 superimposed on them. The companion stamp featured the names of the soon to be newly weds with  the  numbers 02 also superimposed, so that when put alongside its partner, the legend 2002, the year of the wedding, would be apparent.

- A set of 10 stamps with congratulatory messages was issued by Post NL on 03SEP2001. One of these can be seen on my card, with the message "Gefiliciteerd" (Congratulations).

The Postmark indicates that the postcard was mailed from the city of Zwolle.