Operation TAAF 

a progress report on what happened to a souvenir sheet that was broken into 5 parts

Episode I - Iles Éparses 

Episode II - Crozet

Episode III - Iles Australes - St. Paul et Amsterdam

Episode IV - Iles Australes -  Kerguelen 

Episode V - Terre Adélie - Cover received on 29 March 2023

And so the Puzzle is completed!

I have to confess I was already losing hope of receiving this last piece since it has been more than a year  - 1 year, 2 months, 16 days, to be more precise - since I first sent out the pre-stamped covers on their journey to the various locations covered by the TAFF souvenir sheet that inspired this little philatelic operation.

The last cover to arrive had to be the one that travelled to the farthest point and, of course, one year is quite a normal rotation time if we consider the logistics involved in exchanging letters with the postmaster at the Dumont D'Urville Station, right inside the South Arctic Circle, in the land that gave its name to a penguin species...

According to the potted notes on Wikipedia, Tere D'Adélie, the French territorial claim in the Antarctic continent, was discovered by Dumont D'Urville, an officer and explorer of the French Navy, in 1840, commanding a fleet comprising  l'Astrolabe, a corvette built in 1811, and la Zelée, captained by Charles Hector Jacquinot, another French naval  officer. 

Dumont D'Urville chose to name the discovered land Terre d'Adélie, in honour of his wife, who - you've guessed it - was named Adèle, and, as stated above, would indirectly be the origin of the common name for the Adélie penguin  (Pygoscelis adeliae), which, I’m, pretty sure, is rather more common in the area than the human species....

Today, the scientific station that honours his name, is permanently populated with a staff that varies between 25-35 in the winter and up to 120 in the summer.

Further to the postmark issued at the station on 28DEC22, my cover is also graced with the usual rectangular stamp mark indicating the coordinates of the TAAF location where the letter was processed and also a rather nice green stamp mark showing what seems to me to be an emperor and some Adélie penguins below the legend Terre Adelie: Étude Scientifique et Protection de la Nature (Terre Adélie: Scientific Studies and Nature Conservation).

... and so the Puzzle is completed, said I in the beginning, and here's the proof to it:

POSTCARD N.102 - RUSSIA

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 16th March, received on the 28th March 2023

Postcard image: Cosmonautica History State Museum Kaluga 
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The Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, in Kaluga, was the first museum ever opened dedicated to the history os space exploration, so tells me Julia, whom I thank for the interesting postcard that arrived inside cover #227.

Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky himself, a pioneer of astronautics, who lived in a cabin on the outskirts of Kaluga, which is now, I believe, part of the Museum that bears his name,  was himself the subject of another postcard that Julia had already sent me, so this makes for a very interesting fine piece.

Of note also is the fact that the foundation stone for the Museum was laid by no other that Yuri Gagarin, the first man ever to go to space, on 13 June 1961.

The museum itself contains two mais permanent exhibition areas, one devoted to the works and life of Tsiolkovsky, and the other to the history of space exploration.

as a rather curious add-on, Julia has also sent me a sample of the Museum's admission ticket.

COVER N. 227 - RUSSIA

Postmark: ПОЧТА РОССИИ - ???? 16.03.23  

Posted on the 16th March; Received on the 28th March 2023

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Julia, once again, did her best to find an envelope that would somehow fit my philatelic interests. Thank you so much, Julia. Greatly appreciated, a usual.

Valery Chkalov, pilot, Georgi Baidukov, co-pilot and  Alexander Belyakov, navigator. 

The history of golden age aviation is full of daring exploits  that would elevate those who bravely pursued them to herodom (sometimes in absentia, though, when things went not according to plan....) and which would pave the way to what is now so common  that one tends to forget that not that long ago, it took much more that a check-in over the internet and a hop to the airport to board a plane to uneventfully fly between two continents.

I will not go over the history of the first transpolar flight, which started on  June 17, 1937 on the runway of Shchelkovo airport, in Moscow and would  come to an halt  63 hours and 16 minutes later, on the 20th,  in the tarmac of Pearson Field, Vancouver, and which was carried out by the three heroic aviators whose photograph can be seen on the lower left corned of the cover Julia sent me, since a good summing up of all the proceedings can be found  here. This notwithstanding, the simple knowledge that  less than 10 gallons of fuel remained on the tanks of their single-engine, long winged  Tupolev ANT-25 upon landing, is enough to muster a deep respect and admiration for the three members of the crew that embarked on such an epic and perilous undertaking.... just imagine if the M-34R engine failed along the route...

Ironically, nowadays, the aggression war that Russia, wherefrom the three aviators originated, is waging against one of its neighbours, dictated that  transcontinental flights over the  north polar route be suspended,  but again, I don't even think that when such flights were commonplace, any passenger boarding one of the multi-engine aircraft certified to do it, would even contemplate the possibility of a forced landing on the ice below...., let alone think of using his/her urine as coolant.....

Stamps:

The pre-stamped envelope Julia used was issued in 2022, judging from the date on the printed stamp which, I presume, highlights the 40th anniversary of the death of the navigator  on the epic flight, Alexander Belyakov (1897 - 1982), who would rise to the rank of Lieutenant general of the Soviet Air Forces and become a  member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. 

- 8 Ruble stamp, issued on 07DEC2007 as part of a se-tenant two stamp set which also included a vignette, themed on Arctic deep water  Exploration. Julia had already used the companion stamp on another of her sendings to me, and the vignette can also be seen on the postcard she sent me inside the cover, as usual.

The legend on the stamp reads something like Deep Sea Manned Vehicle - MIR-1.

- 30 Ruble stamp, part of a set of three stamps with the same denomination, included in a souvenir sheet, issued on 06SEP2020, dedicated to  Russian Space Science Achievements.

The image on the stamp is that of the Lunokhod-1 Lunar Research Craft, the first wheeled vehicle ever to operate on the surface of a celestial body other than Earth, which landed on the surface of the moon attached to the Luna 17 spacecraft on November 17, 1970.

COVER N. 226 - INDIA

Postmark: Ahmedabad G.P.C. 09.03.23  

Posted on the 9th March; Received on the 28th March 2023

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Lately I have been trying my hand at drawing and watercolour painting (don't be afraid, I'll keep it to myself....)

I am the worst artist in the world, and this is not false modesty. I can claim the title  for myself and I am sure that anyone that would be assaulted by one of my drawings, would right there, and without further ado, agree with me.

What has this to do with stamps?.... well, nothing. But, as a way to force me into actually drawing, I decided I would also keep some sort of graphic diary. Now this is probably the second offense I'm doing to society at large, because if I can't draw or paint, my handwriting has to be the least “graphicogenic” handwriting there is.

Yes, this is a problem that is still unrelated to stamps, but all this came to mind from looking at the nice cover I Got from India, today. Thanks a lot, Dilip.

I have stated it here before: I love to receive an envelope handwritten in a beautiful handwriting, and  Dilip's fills my bill. If only I could fill my pages with such  cursive, rounded, well proportioned, size conscious characters, well organised into words.... phrases.. periods... paragraphs..... 

 I guess it is not only the fact that my handwriting is horrible... the thing is that for the past 20 years or so, more that 95% of anything I have written must have been done in a word processor via a keyboard... so lack of practice must also play its part here... 

I also have never managed to keep a diary. I am to unorganised and undisciplined to do it. My new graphic diary will be one that will be filled in whenever I decide to do it, so periods between entries may be dissonant with the whole idea of a "Diary", but it's the purpose that matters most for me, so maybe I'll manage to be rather assiduous, at least for a while....

The First Africa-India Forum Summit was held in 2008, between the Heads of State and Government of the African Union and India as a way to reinforce the economic and development ties between the two regions, namely in what concerns  trade and industry, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), development of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) and Africa regional integration.  

The 1st forum took place in New Delhi, in April 2008, and it was agreed that it would take place every three years. The 4th edition of the Forum should have taken place in September 2020, but due to the pandemic situation, it never did and I could not find any information as to when it will be reconvened. 

Meanwhile, on the occasion of the second Forum, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2011, India Post issued on 25May2011 a souvenir sheet containing the two se-tenant stamps that can be seen on my cover, denominated at 5 and 25 Rupees, featuring, respectively, the image of  Asian and African elephants.

Asian and African Elephants can be readily  told apart by looking at their ears, since  the African ones have much larger, and rounded ears than their Asian cousins. Also, only Asian male elephants have tusks, while these are a feature of both male and female in what concerns the African dwellers, but since some elephants do not develop tusks at all, it's better to look at the ears... they tell the full story.

The postmark informs us that the cover was mailed from Ahmedabad, the largest and most populated city of the Gujarat State, located some 250 km inland to the West, from the North coast of the  Indian ocean. 

COVER N. 225 - FRANCE - Terres Australes et Antartiques Françaises - T.A.A.F.

Postmark: Dumont D'Urville - T. Adélie - T.A.A.F.  

Posted on the 28th November 2022; Received on the 24th March 2023

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Another totally unexpected landing from the deep South, with a nice stamp of a revamped Dakota.... boy, are those airframes immortal.....

Thank you so much Roman, as always your care and attention is always greatly appreciated.

This is the second cover I get from Terre Adélie and by now I should have received another one, as part of my Operation TAFF effort, but the cover that I mailed with a  view to getting it back after the round trip to the “banquise”, never made it back to me... probably some seal or penguin, trying to fill in the blank for Portugal in its private collection, found it first... 😀

The venerable Dakota, Douglas DC3, or C-47, has been around since 1935.  Under licence, it was also manufactured in the Soviet Union as the Lisunov Li-2 and Japan as the L2D2, total production of the type exceeding 16,000 units.

The interesting thing is that even today there remain upwards of 150 Dakotas still flying, what is a good indicator of the longevity and reliability of an aircraft which is now on the downwind leg of 90 years of flying history.

Acknowledging the sturdiness and reliability of the aircraft, Basler, an American specialist firm based at Oshkosh, started to revamp old but still airworthy airframes, by reinforcing, extending and re-motoring them with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 engines, thus creating the Basler BT-67, the subject of the stamp Roman used to make sure I would have a nice aviation themed cover from the TAFF in my collection.

The aircraft in the image is part of a fleet of 10 operated by Ken Borek Air, an air services provider specialising in polar operations (at both tops of the ellipsoid)  based at Calgary airport, in Canada, which I presume, is also instrumental in the operation of Concordia base, a joint French-Italian research station in Antartica, labeled by the ESA as the remotest base on Earth.

"Concordia research station in Antarctica is located on a plateau 3200 m above sea level. A place of extremes, temperatures can drop to –80°C in the winter, with a yearly average temperature of –50°C" (so says ESA).

Nice place for the outdoors loving ones amongst us, right?

The stamp on my cover is part of a souvenir sheet with two stamps, each one featuring a photo of  a Baseler BT-67 of Ken Borek Air (although  supporting different liveries), issued on  02JAN2021.

As usual with TAAF covers, further to the postmark, there are some other interesting stamp marks, one identifying the TAFF District - Terre Adélie -  and the other with the coordinates for the Dumon D'Urville base, where the mail is processed.

COVER N. 224 - FRANCE

Postmark: Fête du Timbre - Le timbre fait du vélo - 69 - Lyon - 11.03.23  

Posted on the 11th March; Received on the 16th March 2023

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Again Eric decided to generously surprise me with a great cover from La Fête du Timbre, which this year is dedicated to that most friendly and efficient manpowered vehicle: the bicycle.

Thanks a lot Eric, as always I couldn't be more grateful and I'll do my best to reciprocate as soon as possible, even though this year the Portuguese stamps issuing programme has been affected by a rather late start...

For a number of years, I was an assiduous user of an electric bicycle on my daily commuting between home and work. I would cycle up to the train station, get on the train to Lisbon, since the Tagus had to be crossed, and once arrived at the station, I'd cycle again to my workplace.

I was absolutely happy with that, come rain or shine: no more traffic jams, I had great fun riding, and apart from one or two punctures, a couple of  light falls  and having once been rammed by a car driver that was probably still asleep, all went exceedingly well, until the day my cardiologist told me cycling was out of the question, due to an arrhythmia condition I had developed (oh the joys of "maturing"....)

Anyway, I do think that bicycles have come to stay and even in hilly cities once thought to be uncycleable, like Lisbon, the number of those who pedal their way from here to there is increasing with each day that passes.

A sign of times, no doubt.... I still remember the days when bicycles were the vehicle of choice of the dispossessed,  the days when buying a car, even if  the simplest and the cheapest of them all,  was a day of celebration and infinite joy, since having one's own car was, in a way, synonymous with  achievement... going up the social ladder.... 

My father was  so happy when he finally managed to buy his first car,... I was already 6 and my sister 10... (although he quickly managed to wipe the smile out of his face the very next day, when he quite successfully "altered" the physiognomy of the luggage compartment door of his hard earned Austin mini 850 against the entrance of the bar that was located right across the street from our house.... luckily the tables that were usually there  full of retired man chatting over a beer, had already been stored for the day...).

Then, some years ago, someone had the idea of  marketing the bicycle as a radical sports implement.... the mountain bike was born... and so the humble 2 wheeler became a object of desire for the affluent, who immediately took to cycling  and to parading their expensive off road penny-farthings....

I digress, I know, but that's the beauty of stamps, I presume.... all it takes is a look at them and a train (or, should I say, a bicycle) of thought ensues...

La Fête du Timbre is an event that takes place each year since 1937, during which  French philatelic associations in close coordination with the Postal Administration organise several sessions and activities highlighting the role of the stamp as a vehicle for socio-cultural promotion.

For the occasion,  La Poste  issues philatelic products highlighting the chosen theme  for the year.

This year's La Fête du Timbre took place over the weekend of 11-12 March, and further to the  souvenir sheet on the cover Eric so kindly sent me, a very nice 1,16€ stamp illustrated with an electric bicycle was issued on the same date.

COVER N. 223 - SOUTH KOREA

Postmark: Gwanghwamun - Korea 07.02.23  

Posted on the 7th February; Received on the 14th March 2023

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And so the list keeps growing.... the lyrics of an old Pete Seeger song come to mind, even if applied to a totally different context: "inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow..."

Welcome to my philatelic garden, the Republic of Korea, and thanks a great lot, Park, for helping me tick another box.

Coleoptera and Lepidoptera rank in the top 3 of my insect loving scale, the other place being occupied by Odonata (damsel and dragonflies), so I was quite elated to see the stamps were used on this first Korean cover for my collection, 

The two 110Won  stamps, in fact, constitute a set issued on 07MAR1994, and as far as I could perceive this was the first iteration of annual two stamp series  dedicated to the protection of wildlife and plants, that ran until 1997.

The butterfly stamp depicts a Japanese emperor (Sasakia charonda), a member of the Nymphalidae family, distributed across Japan, the Korean Peninsula, China, northern Taiwan and northern Vietnam. 

The coleopter stamp is illustrated with a Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle (Allomyrina dichotoma), a member of the Scarabaeidae, distributed, according to wikipedia, along  Japan (Honshu, Kyūshū and other islands including Okinawa), Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula and eastern China.  Rhinoceros beetles feed on sap and fruit while their enormous larvae feed on rotten wood.

Just for comparison here's a couple of pictures of the European counterpart (Oryctes nasicornis) - imago and larva -  that I took in the centre south of my own country.

COVER N. 222 - FRANCE

Postmark: 58 Clamency - Nièvre 10.03.23  

Posted on the 10th March; Received on the 14th March 2023

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5 days, including a weekend. Fast service from France to Portugal, no great deal, though, considering that the face of the cover is full not only of  notable pilots and aircraft but also with a bunny, and everybody knows that bunnies are fast creatures  😀

Thanks a lot Jean-Pierre for a great addition to the collection and also for the stamps inside. I truly appreciated it.

Not being a true connoisseur, whenever I think about French stamps, what immediately  comes to my mind are the classic beautiful recess printed stamps that were in use during the second half of last century, when I first did collect stamps. Today of course, La Poste maintains the tradition and there are still see plenty of these little gems seeing the light of the day, but designs and looks have evolved of course, as expected with any form of art.

So much so that receiving a cover such as this one can, in some way, be akin to a very enjoyable visit to a fine arts museum, as the pleasure I get from looking at such magnificent creations affixed to an humble envelope is much the same I get when I contemplate a beautiful painting hanging on a wall.

Stamps , left to right:

The year of the rabbit issue  began to circulate on 14JAN2023. It comprised  2 stamps: the one on this cover, meant for domestic service, lettre verte,  denominated at 1,16€ and the one meant for international service, with a face value of 1,80€, which was used on cover #203.

The absolutely wonderful 12 franc stamp celebrating the memory of Maurice Noguès,  one of the French  aviation pioneers who would play an important role in the development of civil aviation was issued on 13OCT1951. 

Charles Lindbergh, Lucky Lindy, and the unlucky but every bit as courageous and tenacious Charles Nungesser and François Coli are the subject of the 1,90 Frank stamp issued on 04JUN1977, celebrating the 50th anniversary of  both flights across the Atlantic. 

That of Lindbergh, the first nonstop flight across the ocean, on the 20th May 1927, West to East, along with the predominant winds, 33h30min of  solitary flying that almost ended up in the middle of the ocean when Morpheus took over and Lindbergh found himself skimming over the crest of the cold waves, and which came to a close with the most extraordinary landing at Le Bourget at night with an airfield illuminated by the headlamps of cars and absolutely packed with people. To this day, the fact that no one was hurt, ranks to me as great a feat as the crossing itself...

Charles Nungesser, the ace with the Jolly Roger painted on his Nieuport fighter in WWI,  the third highest scoring French ace, after Fonck and Guynemer. 

François Coli, an exceptional pilot and navigator. also honed in the hardships of WW1.

Together they would try to cross the ocean the other way, the harder way,  against the wind,  in a  Levasseur PL8.

On the 8th of May 1927, L'Oiseau Blanc, so was named their aircraft, took off from the same Le Bourget field where Lindebergh would land in less than a fortnight. It would be last  sighted over Ireland. After that, only the aviation gods and angels would know where its flight ended....

During the later days of the Franco-Prussian war, when Paris was already besieged Félix Nadar, the multi talented journalist, photographer, aviator, balloonist, had the idea of using hot air balloons for ensuring communications between the besieged population and the military forces beyond the enemy siege line, thus inaugurating what we now know as air mail. 

On 16JAN1971, La Poste issued a 0,95 Franc stamp to celebrate the centenary of this event. On it an hot air balloon rises to the sky in front of what looks like a governmental building, a Mairie, probably, while in the lower front corner the silhouette of mail bags and homing pigeons hint at the function the balloon is carrying out. 

The Museum of Art and Industry at St. Etienne is the subject of a stamp issued on 20FEB1960,

Created in 1899, the museum has  important collections of weapons. bicycles and fabrics.

Concorde, the most successful supersonic airliner that ever was.. (well the Russian counterpart, the Tu 144, only made 55 commercial flights, before the project was scrapped)....

As a kid I remember seeing it taking off at dusk, at Lisbon Airport. What a sight... the afterburners  like  giant Bunsen burners expelling long plumes of blue flames, the roaring noise  and I,  on the terrace of the airport. with my hand tightly grasping whatever was at hand, a stick maybe, impelling it forward, as if pushing the throttle levers forward.,...

The Concorde first took to the air on the 2nd march 1969, and to commemorate the event, La Poste issued a single 1 Franc air mail stamp on 03MAR1969.

COVER N. 221 - PORTUGAL

Postmark: Crypto Stamp  Caravela CTT LIsboa 28.02.23  

Posted on the 28th February; Received on the 7th March 2023

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2023 - a Crypto Adventure

No, I am not the kind of guy who would ever waste a single minute of his life going after Pokémons with a  cell phone, and, for the moment, (never say never) I don't think I will ever enter into any monetary transaction that isn't based on what I've known and used since my parents first decided to give me a weekly allowance for my personal spendings, that is to say actual physical money (I know, I know, I do use  electronic money, in homebanking, for instance, but that can be afterwards converted into actual bits and pieces, i.e. coins and bills).

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And nostalgia kicks in again.... I still remember the day: a 20 escudos bill, received each Saturday, that would immediately enter the economic chain, converted in one black series FROG aircraft kit (17,5 escudos at the local store) and later at the bar of the Asas do Atlântico club in 5 caramels...

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Postal services companies have broadened their scope of business in  order to cater for the loss of revenue that electronic mail has generated in their balance sheets. In fact, at least here, you can go to the post office to buy a book, a lottery ticket, bank services, souvenirs... just don't go there to buy stamps, because most likely you'll come home empty handed....

In an effort to keep diversifying their offer and increase their revenues,  Postal Administrations have now started to issue what is labelled as crypto stamps.

Now this is a concept that I, to this day, do not yet understand to the fullest. 

What I know (or I think I know) is:

i) you buy a stamp that can actually be used for what a stamp is meant to do;

ii) other than the physical stamp you get a code to redeem  a virtual stamp that serves no purpose other than collecting, or trading;

iii) this virtual thing can be different from the physical in terms of rarity, and as such of inherent speculative value;

iv) the virtual stamp is therefore not a stamp, but a non-monetary asset that can be traded;

v) in order to buy a stamp such as this, you have to spend a ridiculous amount of  physical money.

But, in spite of all that, the inquisitive mind in me wanted to try and understand, so when CTT announced that they’d be issuing the first Portuguese crypto stamp I happily traded a physical bill of 10 € by a little box and 10 cent change.

After removing the physical stamp from the backing sheet and affixing it to an envelope that I sent away to be first day of issue  postmarked, i went home and read the instructions carefully.

Now these are much more complicated than the "lick the back of the printed paper  with your tongue, making sure it is moist but not overly wet, and press the thus activated item against the envelope face" that you'd expect for a stamp, and run for a full six pages of the bilingual instruction booklet.

After reading it carefully I turned on my computer and started the procedure.

All went reasonably well, but at times what I was reading was not exactly what I was seeing, but this is common place with computers and software instructions, so I did not worry too much.

The last step, after creating an account somewhere in cyberspace and a gallery where I would be able to collect my virtual stamps, would be to actually redeem the image of the stamp, using a code that I had to unveil by scratching the backing support of the physical stamp.

This I did and entered the code into the box where it should go, and so the redemption process started.... and so it went… on.... and on... an on...

Before I had hit the start  button, I had read that I had three opportunities to complete this action, so suspecting that something was not working properly  I decided to abort the operation and start anew....

I entered the redeeming code again and... to my utter dismay the computer screen informed me that "the code has already been used"....

So, there goes my pokemon stamp....lost in (cyber)space for ever, I guess... for all I know I might be the owner of the sole white Caravela crypto stamp that would pave my way for immense wealth....

As a consolation prize, a couple of days after, I received the first day of issue postmarked cover with a nice orange Caravela stamp, with a face value of 9,99 €, which is quite classy, to say the least, for a domestic, up to 20 g, sending....

In these days of fast and elusive cyber everything, and most especially after a cyberdisaster such as the one I reported  above, I was happy to learn, some days afterwards, while on a leisure weeked trip, that one can still get some solace. All it takes is a good look at the world around you....

So if ever I feel the urgent need to send some fast message,  I will not have to use any cyber stamp at all. All it will take will be a trip to the little village of Brotas,  not that far from Lisbon, They seem to have a telegraph somewhere, just the thing for an ... --- ...!

COVER N. 220 - USA

Postmark: Year iof the rabbit First day of Issue - San Francisco, CA 94188 12.01.23  

Posted on the 12th January; Received on the 9th March 2023

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There is such thing as perfection, in spite of common belief!

All it takes to prove it is a look at the beautiful, neat and carefully laid out first day cover I got from Dennis. Everything was absolutely spotless. From the stamps to the postmarks, the addressing, the layout and even the cardboard backed protection sleeve in which it travelled across the Atlantic.

Full marks for everything, Dennis. Tanks a lot! (also thanks for the much appreciated aircraft stamps).

Now, that's class.....

Bunnies, the year of them....

It so happens that one of my family names is Coelho, so I'm counting on getting some positive dust from the side effects of the times, given that the year of the rabbit is predicted to be a year of hope, I read....

Funny thing about signs is that the personality traits of the natives of any sign are mostly, if not exclusively, good, if we are to believe the potted reviews of each sign that abound in web space  .... there's is probably no bad sign, so all the ogres  responsible for the human generated catastrophes that we witness year after year must all be signless people, I presume....

Anyway,

As I read on USPS's site, the colours chosen for the beautiful rabbit stamps - red, pink and purple - are considered to bring luck to the natives of the sign.... again, confirming my assertion that to have a sign is always a good indication of character, rabbits, according to the same source, are elegant, gracious and kind...

The Forever self-adhesive  rabbit stamp was issued on 12JAN2023.

To complete postage, Dennis most adequately used an "Additional Ounce" stamp, issued on 24JAN2021 also featuring a bunny, a  brush rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmanion).

It's also nice to see that only the new year stamps were cancelled with the first day of issue postmark, while the additional ounce stamp was given the day mark of the post office.

COVER N. 219 -  JAPAN

Postmark: Hodogaya Kanagawa Japan 15.02.23 

Posted on the  15th February; Received on the 27th February 2023

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1957, reads thee legend on the 10 yen stamp.....stamps can also tell a story of inflation, I guess... look at the size, the quality of the image of the geisha, the immaculate printing, an high end product overall. Now compare it with the round little thingy with a face value that is the octuple of the next door neighbour.... computer designed, computer printed, computer cut... a mass product that must have been comparatively much cheaper to produce (and I don't mean no disrespect to all those involved in its creation, but it suffices to put them side by side, right?)  but which boasts a much higher face value....

Thanks a lot Itoh, I would never think that in 2023, I would be receiving letters posted with 1957 stamps....that's 3 years before I was even around... at a time when I was mere speculation, I guess....

Today, Japan is also a prolific (probably the most prolific?) stamp issuer. Colnet lists no less than 469 entries for the Japanese catalogue in 2022... (although I'm sure there are some multiples in there too....) well, in 1957 these amounted to just 13, the year will less issues since the end of WW2...

Also of note is the fact that a lot of these stamps are designed around comics and cartoon, manga characters, children's toys, simple iconic stuff like food items, or greeting stamps celebrating the seasons of a moment in one's life..... really the type of themes that I think somehow spell MASS, GLOBAL;MARKET and not local, culture, tradition as I expect to see in a stamp. 

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people liking these themes and collecting all this stuff, but I really couldn't care less when my own postal administration issues stamps themed on  Lord of the Rings or Starwars licensed stuff (even if I have seen most of the films with great pleasure)....

Anyway, back to the over and to its stamps, left to right:

- 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 already mentioned 10 Yen stamp with a lovely image of a Geisha was the 1957 issue for a series that ran between 1955 and 1967 of 10 Yen stamps with images of characters taken from Japanese paintings. It began to circulate on 01NOV1957.

Minnie and Daisy came from a souvenir sheet with ten 80 Yen self-adhesive stamps dedicated to Disney characters. Issued on 02MAR2012.

COVER N. 218 -  GERMANY

Postmark: Taucha 04425 22.02.23 

Posted on the  22nd February; Received on the 27th February 2023

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A baby badger  found the way to my letterbox. Thanks a lot Thomas!

Now the funny thing is that the first (and sole) time I ever saw a badger alive was in Germany, which happens to be the country from where the letter originated.

One night I was ridding down a secondary road somewhere in the middle of Bavaria, when this large badger crossed the road forcing me to take some evasive action, which meant driving a bit on the shoulder of the road, so as not to step on his paws.

All the other badgers I have come across, unfortunately, haven't had the same luck  because they were all traffic casualties laying on the side of roads which I happened to be driving  or walking along.

Seeing such a beautiful animal dead on the side of the road is not the best sight, but this may be quite frequent, for  since that first encounter of the third kind in Germany,  I've already come across a handful of road killed badgers.

Stamps

On 07APR2022, Deutsche Post issued the two 0,85 € stamp set that constitutes the 2022 issue of the baby animals series, statd n 2014, from which the baby badger on my cover comes. The companion stamp features a linx. 

The 0,05 € stamp,  is part of the "World of the letter" definitive set, first iteration, issued on 02_DEC2021. The stamp image represents a lotus flower made with letters.

The 0.10€ stamp comes from the "flowers" series initiated in 2005. It was issued on 08JUN2017 and it depicts a Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis).

The Postmark indicates that the letter was mailed from Taucha a town with a population of almost 16,000, in Saxony, in the vicinity of Leipzig.

COVER N. 217 -  FRANCE

Postmark: Métiers d'art Éventailliste- 1er Jour 10.02.23 - 26 Romans-sur-Isère

Posted on the 10th February; Received on the 27th February 2023

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Every now and then, my highly anticipated daily checking of the  letterbox is rewarded not only with the joy of finding one or more envelopes carefully addressed and stamped with bits of history and culture from around the world, which of course is the main  reason why I embarked on this cover colleting journey, but also with the extra bonus of finding a particular cover that stands out from the pack for a particular reason. 

This of course  is an highly subjective matter and has only to do with my own personal taste, since the reason for my considering a cover a bit more special than the rest can be due to a number of factors that might range from the quality of the handwriting on the address to the diversity and number of stamps used, the beauty of the stamps, the histories they invoke, or as in the present case, to the envelope being autographed by the authors of the quite attractive stamp that graces it ... nothing short of a treasure thus, Thank you so much Eric, for a very kind, appreciated and generous surprise.

There is probably no object that I can relate more to baroque musical soirées at le chateau de Monsieur le Comte than the hand fan which well powdered ladies in their corsets and round dresses would agitate frenetically  to ward off the annoyance of heat, inquiring or indiscreet gazes, the inconveniences of menopause,.. etc, etc

Gone are the days of hand fan communication between aspiring or secret lovers but the little portable "air conditioning" device has long since been an ever common and useful  companion in lots of places where the agglomeration of people coupled with the high ambient temperatures that are so frequent nowadays dictates the convenience of a wisp of air to freshen up. I know it because many were the times I begged my wife to lend me hers, at concerts, the theatre, etc.

Checking wikipedia for a bit of fan history I discovered that, as it often is the case, there is a Portuguese connection somewhere down the line. This time it is the fact that the Portuguese  were  responsible for the introduction in Europe, in the mid 16th, of the foldable fan,  originated in  Japan....

Anyway, hand fans were and are  a great tradition that has traveled from the land of the rising sun to southern Europe and then irradiated north and across the Atlantic to the new world and beyond, thus going full circle.

There are places where the manufacture of hand fans is elevated to an art status, with intricate woodwork, carving. marqueterie, exquisite paintings on the fan, precious materials and so on and so forth. Spain is one such case, and France another and in this latter country some specialist artisans responsible for the creation of  what are sometimes true masterpieces of utilitarian art are eligible to run for the title of Maitres d'Art,  a distinction bestowed on them by the state, provided they are well known in their trade and are willing to pass on their knowledge to an apprentice, since the application is submitted by a pair artisan/apprentice.

In 2016, La Poste inaugurated a series dedicated to les Métiers d'Art with two stamps, one dedicated to the stone sculptors and another to the jewellers. On 10FEB2023 the 13th stamp of the series was issued, this being the  1,80€ stamp dedicated to the artisans manufacturing hand fans - the Éventaillistes - that Eric used on my cover, cancelled with a first day of circulation postmark.

 As I said in the beginning, the cover is autographed by Fréderick Gay, the Eventailliste whose work is featured on the stamp, designed and engraved by the same hand that also autographed my cover: Sophie Beaujard.

COVER N. 216 -  SWEDEN

Postmark: Kristdala Posten 19.02.23

Posted on the 19th February; Received on the 24th February 2023

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Now that is a careful twist .... second time I see this on a cover from Sweden. On the plus side, it's like opening a collector's cards sachet... you only see what is behind after lifting the protective cover.... nice! Thanks  a lot Milthon.

Now, I have to confess: I'm not that particular about cats. Not that I hate them, and it's really not their fault, but their not my preferred beast. 

It has probably to do with a little trauma I got when I was a child in Santa Maria, Azores....

In the early 70's (of last century, of course), for a lad of 10, living in the little island is the middle of the Atlantic was nothing short of  an euphemism for freedom and discovery, a sort of rite of passage from childhood into an intermediate stage between adolescence and adulthood that really had to be lived to be perceived. Those were probably the happiest days of my life so far.... I had a fishing rod, a band spearfishing gun, a bicycle, soles of feet that were as thick as hooves due to walking barefoot on rocks and lava and packed earth... in short, like DiCaprio, I was King of the World, even though I didn't have a boat... nor a sweetheart, for that matter....

Those days, the island was supplied with imported food stuff from either its next door neighbour, São Miguel,  or from the mainland. But only when the sea conditions would allow it, and I remember the days when there were no potatoes, or there was no sugar, or there was no this or that. I also remember that whenever fresh locally unavailable fruit was imported, everybody had the same desert... and I can't resist a little story:

There was this little boat, a Raínha dos Açores,- the Queen of the Azores -  property of the airport, used for Search and Rescue. Every now and then, leisure trips would be would be organised with the aim of not only using the boat, but also providing some leisure for the airport community.

My sister and I were on one of those trips, once. The trip would be a circumnavigation of the island, something that would take the best part of a day, with stops here and there for the obvious dip into the Atlantic, lunch and so on.

The journey started calmly with the Rainha dos Açores cruising leisurely along the Southern coast of the island on a flat, absolutely calm sea, and everybody was merry, relaxed and enjoying a perfect day (with sangria and all, Lou....)

The supply ship had arrived from the mainland a couple of days before with a load of big, juicy red plums. so everybody had them for snack and desert after lunch.

In the afternoon, the trip would take the boat right across the northern coast, exposed to the wind and so the flat sea of the morning gave way to some trepidation that would evolve into pretty rough see-saw ridding on the way back.

The joyful faces of the morning began to change colour.... normally one would expect them to turn redder, due to the influence of UV, but strangely enough,  though, face complexions started to exhibit an uncommon greenish hue...

Strange noises erupted from bodies perched on the railguards and in a matter of minutes, the small rear deck where the once merry sailors danced and sang, became covered in a brownish red slimy carpet... 

The Plums.....

As William Carlos Williams had put it, they had been indeed delicious, so sweet and so cold, but they had now morphed into something completely different and the image of the brownish red covered deck would stay with me to this day. Luckily I do not get seasick, so I could enjoy the day to the fullest, but my sister, poor darling, was one of the unwilling contributors to my still having a vivid memory of a different day at sea.

Back to cats, and my trauma.

In such a difficult environment regarding the supply of fresh stuff, everybody had a little vegetable garden on the rear of the house and on top of that my father also kept a couple of  little pens with a few chicken and rabbits.

Now, rabbits are prone to multiplication, as everybody knows. and one day one of the does, which I happened to have a large soft spot for, since it had been given me by a school colleague, gave birth to a bunch of little creatures that I discovered in a corner of the pen in their nest, and boy was I happy about it...

Came night, and as I lay on my bed, turning the pages of one of the Karl May's novels that were my trusted companions, those days, I noticed that, outside, there were sounds of a somewhat out of the ordinary "catine" activity. I didn't care much about it, though. Stray cats were as common as flies in the area and every now and then they would make sure their presence was noted...

The next morning, just as I got out of bed,  I went to the pen to check my treasure.... and oh, the terror.... the bloody cats had managed to drag the little creatures through the chicken wire of the pen door and had killed all but one of the little rabbits....a couple of the corpses were still inside the pen...

I cried the hell out of me, for a long while.... 

Every since that day I guess that my relation with cats has been marred by this memory, although of course I have long since put it in context... after all stray cats have to feed themselves... it's the natural course of things....

Anyway, just don't count on me to spend time looking at silly cat videos and say nice things about the protagonists.....(come to think of it, I feel the same towards any other animal... I guess I love and respect them to much to  rationalise their behaviour against a human framework of reference, as it now seems to be so trendy....)

On 25AUG2022 PostNord Sverige issued a set of 5 self-adhesive no face value (standard domestic letter) stamps dedicated to "My cat". Two of these grace my cover, featuring images of "Cornelius", the brown one, and "Fili", the white.

The postmark indicates that the cover was posted in Kristdala, a less than 1000 inhabitants community located in the SouthEast of Sweden, not very far from the Baltic sea.