COVER N. 525 - FRANCE

Postmark: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes 1824-1898 Premier Jour 69 Lyon 25.10.2024 

Posted on the 25th October; Received on the 29th October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

Un grand Merci, Eric, for another great First Day Cover, this time dedicated to a French painter who although not as resounding as those which made the first decades of the 20th century a true collectors' cards album, for he belonged to the precedent artistic generation, left his mark on many a public building not only in France but also elsewhere in the world.

Culture... in its many forms. Art... the precipitate of Man's existence... what's left after we have all gone... our intimate imprint as a society, our offer to the universe, should we ever make contact with other forms of life...

That's why it is so important to celebrate it and its creators. Some have spent lives of incredible hardship only to now fill the pockets of those that see in art nothing but "an asset"; some have managed to make do with the fruits of their hard work; some even have made it extremely well in their lifetime... but they all are or will one day be gone too, and what will be left is their sublime work.

Such as the huge canvases Pierre Puvis de Chavannes has painted for Marseille's Museum of Arts, which I had the pleasure of admiring in loco, or any of his other majestic paintings in the Pantheon, Sorbonne or the Library of Boston.

Born in 1824, in Lyon, and deceased in Paris, in 1898, Puvis de Chavannes would only climb the stairs of reconnaissance and admiration after a first success in 1961, when after several unsuccessful participations in the Salon de Peinture et de Sculpture, the French State bought his painting Concordia which can now be seen in the Musée de Picardie, in Amiens. So enthralled was the painter by his success that he offered France the companion work, Bellum, so as not to disrupt the conceptual link between the two paintings, allegories for War (Bellum) and Peace (Concordia).

On the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth, la Poste issued on 25OCT2024 the 2,58€ stamp on the cover, illustrated with a detail of his painting Le Bois sacré cher aux arts et aux muses, which decorates the monumental staircase hall of the Musée de Beaux-Arts de Lyon.

It should be noted that Puvis de Chavannes produced three versions of this painting, the other two being an original much smaller study, created in 1864 which won that year's Salon grand prize  and  residing currently at the Art Institute of Chicago and a large painting originally destined for the Sorbonne, finished in 1889 and which can now be seen at the Met in New York.

Fittingly, the First Day postmark was issued at Puis de Chavanne's birthplace, the city of Lyon. 

POSTCARD N.168 - GERMANY 

Postcrossing Postcard sent on the 26th October, received on the 29th October 2024

Postcard image: Moselle river somewhere in Germany

___________________________________________________________________________, 

UPDATE:

These are the days of wonder...said Paul Simon on his "The boy in the bubble" song... indeed they are.

While trying to conjure a few phrases together to fill the post pertaining to Stefan's nice Moselle valley postcard, I fired up Google Earth and tried to follow the course of the river from France and Luxembourg up to Germany, to see if I could find anything remotely superimposable to the image on the card. I confess I did not spend too much time on it and, maybe because of that, I was totally unsuccessful.

Well, turns out Stefan was indeed kind enough to take a look at my blog and read the post regarding his postcard and he kindly provided me with all the relevant information regarding the location in the image.

Quoting direct form his message, for which I could not be more thankful:

"If you're interested in the exact location of the view side:

49°48'40.67"N, 6°53'25.00"E

The town in the middle of the photo is Leiwen. The little village in the middle behind it is actually a holiday village (Eurostrand). At the foot of the right mountain range, the first village to come is Köwerich on the side of the slip slope, where I live. Diagonally behind on the side of the impact slope is Klüsserath."

So there we have it. Thanks a bunch Stefan. You do live in a fine place.

______________________

A very nice postcard from Germany with a view that clearly illustrates the importance of the Moselle Valey for Rieseling production in Germany. Danke Sehr, Stefan.

Stefan tells me that grapes have been cultivated in this region since the time of the Romans who left some quite remarkable landmarks behind such as the "Porta Nigra", at Trier, the oldest city in Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

David Bowie (1947-2016) is one of those names that need no introduction, so important was his contribution to popular music of the 20th century, as a performer, composer and musician.

Born David Robert Jones, David Bowie, as he would later be known, first hit the chords of fame with his well known song Space Oddity, in which he tells the story of Major Tom, an astronaut whose mission at some point seems to go awry.... but "planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do".... so maybe, in the end, Major Tom manages to go back into his capsule and return to our planet....

The song was released in 1969, the year  Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon and just one year after the epic Kubrick Film from which it gets a strong inspiration.

Bowie would not only draw inspiration from movies but he would also participate in them, in fact in more than 30 of them. His role in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, comes to mind, as I write.

Bowie had a strong link to Berlin, a city where he would produce three albums that would become known as the Berlin Trilogy, of which no song is more famous than "Heroes", which would become a sort of a hymn for the events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.

On 03JAN2022, for the Musician's 75th birthday, and 6 years after his passing, Deutsche Post honoured him with the 0,85 € stamp on the postcard, featuring a very young Bowie playing guitar, although he was also a multi-intrumentalist who played keyboards and saxophone.

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

 

COVER N. 524 - FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour - 21.10.2024 

Posted on the 21st October; Received on the 24th October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

They called it "The longest day"... that was also the name of the book by Cornelius Ryan that I had on my bedside table when I was  a lad of  say 13 or so.... a time, for boys, when all wars are winnable, when only good prevails, when all soldiers are heroes,  when you'd want to be one of those heroes, when you never think that heroes are mostly remembered for having given that most precious possession for a cause...when focus on the future is achieved at the infinity mark on one's inner lens....

The truth could not be far from that, we all know, but sometimes there is no escape: for good to prevail,  force has to be corresponded by force, with all that this simple equation entails.... 

Lest we forget, they said in 1918. Well, by 1939 they all had forgotten and the mad dogs were on the loose again, their leashes held by the hands of a deranged lunatic, who drove the world to 6 years of the utmost brutality that has ever been witnessed, whose devious mind and those of his closest followers, conceived the unconceivable.... a final solution, they said....an euphemism for sheer horror....

And Man thought we would never see such lack of empathy, such cold, irrational behaviour, such barbarity.... and yet, we have plenty of examples in the past since then when this was not so... Even today as I read on the news that the people that once suffered horrors is the same that is bringing horror to others in a way that can never be justified or excused, or even conceived, after being also brutally and senselessly attacked, while those that promptly and justifiably so were fast to condemn the aggression coming from the eastern steppes, turn a blind eye (not to say, overtly support) on a politician who thinks himself above the laws of war and international respect and co-existence.

Peace talks... you'd have to be interested in Peace to talk about it. None of the sides seems to be so.

There was a moment in time. The leaders even won the deserved Nobel Prize, 30 years ago. Then they were eliminated by those they sought to protect... 

The longest day was not the 6th June 1944... the longest day is the history of Man, from the day it evolved from ape to man...in his relentless fight for freedom and his unabated will to deny it....

When will we ever learn?

Un grand Merci Eric, pour ce joli pli avec le bloc commémoratif des 80 ans du débarquement en  Normandie!

The 6th June 1944

The beginning of the end for the Second World War, and of the liberation of France and Europe, from the boots of the Nazi beast.

Lest we forget!

Highlighting this important anniversary, La Poste issued on 10JUN2024  the lovely souvenir sheet with a single 1,96 stamp that Eric use on this particular  letter.

The stamp features the image of allied soldiers  (American, British and Canadian, mostly)  advancing towards the towns of Sainte-Mére-Église, the first to be liberated on the 7th June,  Avranches (30 July);  and Metz (13 December).

It is difficult to devise in the stamp but the image of  the church of Sainte-Mère-Église does include the famous parachutist - John Steele -  dangling from its tower, in which his parachute become entangled. This famous image has been since permanently recreated on the spot by a  mannequin dangling from a parachute, which I had the pleasure of seeing quite a few years ago when I visited the area.

On the foreground of the stamp is a newer monument (or at least I have no recollection of it). The zero milestone of the road to freedom, implanted in front of Saint-Mère-Église Town Hall.

Is should be noted that this souvenir sheet highlighting operation Neptune, the landings in Normandy, is the companion to another beautiful creation by the same designer - Louis Genty - conceived to honour the 80 anniversary of Operation Dragon, the landings at the Cote d'Azur, which I mentioned on post regarding cover #521.

Monsieur Genty was also the artist behing the outstanding souvenir sheet on cover #458.

POSTCARD N.167 - RUSSIA 

Postcard sent on the 21st September, received on the 22nd October 2024

Postcard image: Immanuel Kant

___________________________________________________________________________, 

A surprise from Russia in the guise of a Maxim Card  dedicated to one of the lights of the Enlightenment, sent by The Flying Dutchman. Hartelijk dank, Eric, que é o mesmo que dizer: Muito Obrigado!

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) one of the greatest philosophers of all times, was born and died (and lived all his live, it seems) in what was then Königsberg, Prussia, and is now Kaliningrad, the administrative capital of the Russian Exclave of the same name, nested between Lithuania and Poland.

On the tercentenary of his birth, Marka, the company responsible for producing Russia's stamps, issued, on 22APR2024, the commemorative 70 Ruble stamp used on the maxim card, equally issued by the same company, which Eric so kindly made sure I would receive.

Postage was completed with a 30 Ruble stamp  issued on 17MAR2021, part of a set of identical face value stamps dedicated to  Fedoskino miniature lacquer paintings, a type of folk art that emerged in the 18th century  in the city of Fedoskino, consisting of miniatures painted with oil paints on papier mâché.

The images on the stamps are those of lacquer boxes from the collection of the Moscow Regional Museum of Folk Art Crafts and besides Tea Party (1946) by V.I. Lavrov, which illustrates the stamp on the card, there are stamps featuring images of the following works: "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1971) by M.S. Chizhov; The Firebird (1959) by S.V. Monashov; and Ivan da Marya (1989) by Yu.V. Dotsenko.

The Very Nice maxim Card which is cancelled with a First Day postmark from Moscow, was mailed to me from the City of Saint Petersburg, as can be grasped from the Postmark cancelling the stamps actually used to post the card.

COVER N. 523 - SRI LANKA

Postmark: Headquarters P. O. Colombo Mail 10.09.24

Posted on the 9th October; Received on the 14th October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

UPO anniversary cover for World Post Day, from Sri Lanka. Thanks a lot Ravi!

 

The Universal Postal Union was created in 1874, in Bern, Switzerland, where it has been headquartered ever since, as the General Postal Union, with a view to harmonising international mail delivery. As of  1878 it changed its name to the current designation, Union Postale Universelle or Universal Postal Union, and in 1948 it became a body of the United Nations.

During its 1969 congress held in Japan, the Indian delegation proposed that the anniversary day for the Union - the 9th of October - should thenceforth be declared World Post Day. 

The proposal having been accepted, the 9th of October has become synonymous with celebrating postal services and their relevance, all over the world.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the organisation, so a lot of its members are issuing stamps  dedicated to the occasion, under the motto 1250 years of enabling communication and empowering peoples across nations, with their designs being basing in the official graphic resources created by the UN agency for the occasion.

Such is the case of Sri Lanka who, on World Post Day,  issued the two 50 rupee stamps  on the cover, cancelled with a postmark of this particularly significant date, from the central Post Office at Colombo.

.

COVER N. 522 - FINLAND

Postmark: Lempäälä 37560 Posti 08.10.2024 

Posted on the 8th October; Received on the 15th October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

A very carefully treated cover received in a protective bag.  Kiitos paljon, Esko! 

 

I can imagine that in such a northern latitude, the Sun and its warming light assume an extra importance that us, in the south, have always taken for granted. 

Thus, it is fitting that "The Glow of the Sun" be the theme chosen for a two se-tenant priority stamp set issued on 11SEP2024, one of which can be seen on the cover, illustrated with a nice sunset with some flowers on the foreground.

The second stamp on the cover was also issued on 11SEP2024, included in a five stamp set dedicated to popular Hobbies. Frisbee golf is the sport highlighted by the image in the stamp, the four other hobbies selected for being featured in the stamps being Hobby Horse Riding (quite an uncommon sport, if I may say so...); Trekking; Freeclimbing and Postcrossing.

COVER N. 521 - FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour - 07.10.2024 

Posted on the 7th October; Received on the 10th October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

Operation Dragon, such was the codename for the landing on the shores of the Cote d'Azur, which was conceived to be executed at the same time as operation Neptune, the landings in Normandy, so as to apply pressure on the German occupiers with a set of huge military tweezers squeezing from both sides. 

In practice, Operation Dragon would only come to be more than two months after Neptune, (which began on the 6th June 1940) on the 15th August, for the sheer scale of the operations imposed logistic limitations that had to be taken into consideration.

As a result of this operation, the liberation of important cities in the south of France, like Marseille, Lyon or Dijon, was achieved and by September the American and French combined forces coming from the south would join the allied contingents advancing from the west and finally progress into Germany, finally liberating France from the Nazi beast, one would have tought forever...

Un grand Merci, Eric pour ce splendide bloc!

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Provence landings La Poste issued on 14AUG2024 the souvenir sheet Eric used, comprising a single 1,96€ stamp, illustrated with several French soldiers (some from the African Colonies) looking  across the Mediterranean towards the soon to be liberated cities of Toulon,  Marseille, Lyon and Dijon, the last three represented by their imposing cathedrals, featured on the souvenir sheet.

Postmark from the Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour.

COVER N. 520 - FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour - 07.10.2024 

Posted on the 7th October; Received on the 10th October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

Canadair…. On first look it may sound strange, but the noun formed by juxtaposing a distant country’s name and the place wherein everything undulates, everything exists, as Mario de Sá-Carneiro, the famed Portuguese Modernist poet once put it, is a summer household name for the south of Europe.

Forest fires…. a consequence of climate change and  mismanagement of forest but also of natural causes or not so natural devious minds fuelled by the pleasure of seeing everything gown down in flames…..

Every year my country is plagued by this reality and the situation only tends to get worse for indeed climate is changing fast and the summers are getting hotter and drier with each year that passes. All it takes is a spark, and huge expansions of forest are decimated, property and life put at risk. The current year was one of the worst, with almost 150 thousand hectares of land affected by fires, with the loss of 9 lives, direct of indirectly due to the fires, not to mention property and  the horrific impact on fauna and flora.

Aerial means like helicopters, airplanes and drones are irreplaceable in their role as first line fire-fighters, and for large forest fires like the ones we unfortunately have to deal with, heavy water bombers are really a much needed tool.

Enter the Canadair, in its several guises: 215; 415 and now 515

Conceived in the 60s of last century right from the start as a water bomber by Canadian concern Canadair (which would in time be incorporated into Bombardier) the original type, the twin-engined 215, first flew in 1967 and was produced between 1969 and 1990. It has two 1,400 litres water tanks which can be discharged simultaneously or individually or in sequence, and be filled rapidly by means of rotatable scoops that direct the water into the tanks while the plane moves across a large body of water like a lake or a reservoir.

Introduced in 1993 and produced until 2015,  the CL415, has an improved water tank capacity, of up to 6,140 litres and more powerful engines, but it too has been superseded by the new DHC 515 (DeHaviland Canada now holding the manufacturing and development rights) of which the first units are now being built, with again an improved water tank capacity of up to 7,000 litres.

The Canadair, as the mighty workhorse will be forever known irrespective of manufacturer or type, has more than proved its worth with the Civil Protection bodies of several countries and I’m am very pleased to know that Portugal will finally have its own Canadair fleet (2 aircraft) by 2029, after years and years of contracting services and relying on the help of the European Mechanism for Civil Protection.

The contract for the acquisition of the two DHC-515 to be delivered in 2029 and 2030 was signed on the last 18^th June, both aircraft being paid for by Portuguese and EU funds, under the RescEU Programme. The two aircraft will be operated and maintained under the responsibility of the Portuguese Air Force, and they will be stationed at the Ovar Air Base, in the north of the country.

France has been an operator of the Canadair since 1967, first with a fleet of CL215 and nowadays with 12 CL415 which are based at the Sécurité Civile base of de Nîmes-Garons.

Their importance within the European Civil Protection Mechanism is quite relevant and I, for one, am thankful to France and the EU to have had more than once French Canadairs (or Pélicans, as they are also known in France) helping to dramatically quench forest fires here in my country. Merci, la France, Merci l’Union Européenne.

And Merci Eric, for this beautiful cover featuring the 1,29€ stamp issued by La Poste on 05JUL2024, dedicated to the Canadair of la Securité Civile, illustrated with a painting of a CL415 doing what it does best.

 

I love the care Eric had in composing this cover with the beautiful mosaic of Marianne Stamps (6 x0,10; 2 x 0,01 and 1 x 0,05 €) from the  23JUL2018 issue, so as to complete postage.

Postmark from the Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour.

COVER N. 519 - BRASIL

Postmark: ACC Beira Mar Shopping Florianópolis - SC 19.09.2024 

Posted on the 19th September; Received on the 3rd October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

I love the stamps on this Portuguese speaking cover. O meu muito obrigado, Lucia; os selos são lindos e uma boa forma de lembrar os laços inquebrantáveis que unem os nossos dois países.

Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral will be forever remebered for several achievements,  in the field of aviation and geography, the most famous of them all being the courageous first South Atlantic aerial crossing operated in the East to West direction, in 1922.

I've talked about this crossing and the stamps celebrating its centenary in the post pertaining to cover #172, so I'll just refer that the two 2.35 reais stamps illustrated with the image of the Fairey IIID (of which three were needed to complete the flight), the portrait of the aviators  and the Portuguese "Cross of Christ", to this day the insignia of  both the Helicopter Squadron of the Portuguese Navy and of the Portuguese  Air Force, are part of a se-tenant set of three, issued on 01AUG2022.

The remaining two stamps are part of the definitive sets, issued between 2005 and 2011, dedicated to Professions. The shoemaker, (0,20 R$) is part of the first set of three stamps issued on 30DEC2005, while the Manicurist, (1 RS) belonged to the second set, comprising two stamps, issued on 06NOV2006.

The Postmark indicates that the letter was mailed from a post office installed in a shopping mall - Beira Mar Shopping - in the city of Florianópolis, the Capital city of the State of Santa Catarina in the south of Brazil.

 POSTCARD N.166 - PORTUGAL 

Postcard sent on the 1st October, received on the 4th October 2024

Postcard image: Almada landmarks

___________________________________________________________________________, 

World Postcard Day began to be celebrated in 2019, thanks to the efforts of the guys behind the Postcrossing platform who thought that the 150th anniversary of the postcard - whose history, I read, began in Austro-Hungary - could be the perfect opportunity to start a tradition.

Ever since that year, World Postcard Day has been making its way into postal administrations special cancelation marks programmes and  I always make sure I post a couple of postcards, both on and off postcrossing, to some friends here and there, not forgetting, of course, to send one to my own self.

So here's what I sent me this year: a postcard with some landmarks of the municipality of Almada, wherein I live.

Left to right:

The monument of Christ the King.

Inspired by the Christ monument of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it was inaugurated in 1959. The statue, conceived by sculptor Francisco Franco de Sousa, has an eight of 28 metres and sits atop a 75 metre high pedestal, designed by Architect António Lino.

On the top of the pedestal further to the base of the statue there is an observation deck from which you get a fabulous 360 view of Lisbon and its surroundings on both banks of the river.

The mermaid 

Located at the entrance of the local shopping mall, I could not find any information regarding its author.

The 25th April Bridge

Linking Lisboa on the north Bank to Almada on the south bank of the Tagus, the  2,277.64 m long bridge, which nowadays serves both road and rail traffic, was designed by thge United States Steel Export Company and was inaugurated in 1966.

Os Perseguidos (The Persecuted)

A bronze sculpture by  Anjos Teixeira, inaugurated in1979, honouring all those that were persecuted during the years of the dictatorship.

The Cacilhas Ligthouse

The Cacilhas lighthouse was installed in 1886 in the Cacilhas dock, on the left bank of the Tagus. It is 12 metres high and it was decommissioned in 1978. It was re-implanted in a slightly different position as a public monument in 2009, after a spell in the island of Terceira, Azores, (1983-2004) where it replaced for the duration the old lighthouse of Serreta. 

Theatre Joaquim Benite

The second largest theatre hall in Portugal, the blue theatre as it is also known, was designed by architects Manuel Graça Dias, Egas José Vieira e Gonçalo Afonso Dias and is home to the Companhia de Teatro de Almada, one of the main Portuguese theatre companies, responsible for the famed  Festival de Almada, one of the most important European Theatre festivals.

The World Postcard Day cancelation mark, on a 0.65 € stamp of the set Vessels of the Portuguese Merchant Navy, issued on 29MAY2024, illustrated with an image of the liner Serpa Pinto, built in 1914 as the EMS Ebro, she served with the Portuguese Companhia Colonial de Navegação  from 1940 to 1955, when she was finally scrapped.

POSTCARD N.165 - PORTUGAL - R.A. AÇORES

Postcard sent on the 13th September, received on the 4th October 2024

Postcard image: the Seven Cities lagoon in S.Miguel island

___________________________________________________________________________, 

Another postcard sent me by The Phantom, from his recent stay in the Azores. This time from quite a special place: the Lagoa das Sete Cidades. Danke Sehr, Alex!

The Seven Cities lagoon is one of the many natural wonders of the Azores. It is a lagoon created by the  collapse of the walls of an ancient volcano thus forming a 2 x 4,2 km caldera whose 30 metres deep waters are separated by a narrow canal with a bridge thus forming a blue lagoon on one side and a green one on the other.

Legend has it that the colours of the waters of the lagoon are due to the tears of a shepherd and a princess who were madly in love but could not be married due to the differences in their social standings. The shepherd had green eyes and the princess blue, and they cried so much that they filled both sides of the lagoon with their tears....

In truth, the green is just the reflection of the forest trees that surround the green side, while the blue is the reflection from the sky, but I'd rather stick to the other explanation, if you'd ask myself....

Alex used a N20 (Domestic 20g) self-adhesive definitive stamp from the !st groups of definitives dedicated to Portuguese numismatics, issued  on 22APR2020, illustrated with the image of an Asse, a Roman bronze coin, from dating from the II-I centuries BC, this particular specimen having been found in Alcácer do Sal, a town on the banks of the river Sado, and one of the oldest European ones, having been founded by the Phoenician earlier than the year 1,000 BC.

The Postmark hails from S. Roque, a parish of Ponta Delgada, the Capital of the Administrative Capital of the Azores Autonomous Region, located in the Island of S. Miguel.

COVER N. 518 - SRI LANKA

Postmark: Headquarters P. O. Colombo Mail 10.09.24

Posted on the 28th September; Received on the 3rd October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

A circuit from Sri Lanka with a few more stamps from the Boy scouts and Girl Guides issue that was the theme of cover #484. Bohomȧ  sthoothi, Ravindra!vindra!

The Scout movement was, as it is well known, the brainchild of Sir Baden-Powell, who in 1907 oriented a first encampment for young boys in the Island of Brownsea, with 20 participants, in which he set the bases for what would become a worldwide movement aiming at the development of young boys and girls within a stong set of positive values.

Originally a boys only organisation, Baden-Powell would later found the feminine counterpart of the movement, the Girl Guides, in 1910 but things have slowly evolved and I believe that nowadays in most if not all countries both Scouts and Guides organisations  admit any children irrespective of sex to its ranks.

The three stamps on the cover are part of a ten x 50 Rupee stamp set dedicated to the Scouting Movement in Sri Lanka, issued on 21FEB2024.  The stamps have been issued both as a single mini-sheet with the 10 stamps or as 2 x 5 stamp souvenir sheets, one dedicated to Boy Scouts and the other to Girl Guides, the sheets being shaped cut in the format of both organisations emblems. 

COVER N. 517 - POLAND

Postmark:  66. Wrzesień Jeleniogórski, Pokaz kolekcjonersko-filatelistyczny Jelenia Góra 10.09.2024

Posted on the 12th September; Received on the 3rd October 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

A cover from Poland with a nice cancellation from a philatelic show which Roman tells me is held every August/September in the town of Jelenia Góra (Stag Mountain), in the southwest of Poland.

Dziękujemy, Roman!

Thanks to Roman's notes I understand that each year the local Philatelic Circle organises a show within the scope of a larger local event, called "Days of Jelenia Góra", for which a cancellation is designed, highlighting an interesting objet related to the town. 

This year, for the 66th philatelic show, the chosen landmark selected to be featured in the special cancellation was a monument to a young stag (the stag being of course present in the town's coat of arms) which is just one of several stag statues which, Roman tells me, exist in Jelenia Góra.

Stamps:

- Continuing, most appropriately, on the stag theme, Roman used a 3.9 Zloty stamp issued on 10MAY2023, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Polish Hunting Association.

- The 2 Zloty stamp on the right corner was issued on 14OCT2023, on the occasion of the  250th anniversary of the funding of what is considered to be the first ministry of education ever created: the Commission of National Education, established on the same date in 1773 in what was then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, its first chairman being the bishop of Vilnius, Ignacy Massalski, whose portrait illustrates the stamp.

- As I understand it The Pocztowy Dar Foundation is social responsibility organisation,  established within the scope of the  Polish Post, with the aim of providing social help for particular situations.

The 4.70 zloty stamp on the cover illustrated with its logo  is dedicated to it and was issued on 04DEC2020.

Further to the commemorative cancelation, the cover contains a regular postmark from the Jelenia Góra post office, dated of the 12, September.

COVER N. 516 - MOROCCO

Postmark: Meknes CD 20.09.2024

Posted on the 20th September; Received on the 3rd Ocftober 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

The Marathon.... I can't even imagine what it is like to run for over 42 km... for me running is mostly pain, intermingled with boredom and suffering... I love to walk, at my own pace (which is not that slow...). Proof of that is that everyday my first routine is to go out after breakfast and walk for about 1,5 hours. I find it therapeutical, and invigorating, and I do get pleasure out of it, something that running completely excludes from the equation, as far as I'm concerned...

All this because a while ago I completed my daily walk and am now in front of the computer with a letter that I received from Morocco with that country's official FDC for the 2024 Euromed issue, this year subordinated to the theme Sports of the  Mediterranean. Un grand Merci, Pierre!

Now that I look at it in more detail, I don't know if the runner wearing Morocco's colours (same as Portugal’s, by the way) sprinting at the head of the race to the finish line is a marathonist but even it was just a 100 m race, my thoughts regarding running would be the same :-)

Anyway, the painting reproduced on the 9.80 dirham stamp issued on 08JUL2024, as indicated in the first day postmark, is quite nice and colorful and  is a fitting homage to all Moroccan running athletes, like Soufiane El Bakkali, who won gold in the 3000 m obstacles race in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

COVERS N. 514/515 - UKRAINE

Postmark: Karmatorsk / Slovyansk 23.08.2024

Posted on the 23rd August; Received on the 25th September 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

After a week of trekking in the south (which will in time be reported about in my other blog, as usual), I return to these pages to comment on two letters from two cities in the Donbas region of Ukraine, which we have sadly become used to hearing about in the news as they  have (and still do) suffered heavily the effects of Russia's unjustifiable aggression and occupation.

It is a matter of wonder and absolute respect for those that ensure it,  that in times like this, public services, like the postal service, still carry on their essential functions.

My utmost respect for these Ukrainian Civil Servants and also my warm thanks for the person who, on behalf of Alex, sent me these two official and rather special first day covers, which were issued under the motto "Все буде UA" (Everything  will be UA).

Issued on the 33rd anniversary of Ukraine's independence, the "U" tariff  self-adhesive stamp wherein the yellow and blue national colours prevail, bears the shape of the country, with the "Все буде UA" legend written on it under the image of a mother holding a new born baby, an obvious allegory for rebirth and peace.

Reconstruction is also the obvious idea behind the UA letters in the envelope, designed as two habitational buildings being recovered from the effects of the aggressor's bombardments.

The Kramatorsk cover, on top, also carries  2 "F" tariff stamps which are part of the definitive series issued on 29SEO2021, dedicated to coats of arms of the cities of Ukraine. The coat of arms presented is that of the city of  Kremenchuk.

Postage on the Sloviansk cover was completed with four U tariff stamps of the set of two definitives issued on 27SEP22 dedicated to traditional Pysanka Easter eggs, in this case painted in the characteristic fashion  of the Lviv area.

The Sloviansk cover also features and additional postmark with the inscription "Донбас - це Украіна" (Donbas is Ukraine)

COVER N. 513 - CZECH REPUBLIC

Postmark: 10 00 Praha 18.09.2024

Posted on the 18th September; Received on the 23rd September 2024

_________________________________________________________________________________

A very neat Cover from the Czech Republic with a beautiful postmark. Děkuji mnohokrát, Ivan.

Prague's Botanical garden formally came into being on the 1st January 1969, in the  Troja - Podhoří area. Today it occupies some 50 hectares being open all year to the public to visit its exhibition grounds which include varied nuclei devoted to flora not only of the Czech Republic but also of the whole world.

On 10APR2024  Česká pošta issued a three stamp souvenir sheet illustrated with fern species from Prague's Botanical garden. The 31 Koruna stamp on the cover bears the image of a Dipteris Conjugata,  of the Dipteridaceae family, native from tropical and temperate Asia, northern Queensland in Australia and some islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Karel Svolinský (1896–1986) was a painter, graphic artist, illustrator, set designer and university teacher who was also responsible for designing and engraving several stamps issued by the then Czechoslovakia.

On the 120th anniversary of his birth and the 30th of his passing, Česká pošta issued the 13 Koruna stamp on the cover, graced with his effigy and a reproduction of one of his beautiful illustrations.

The postmark carries a coat of arms which at first I believed to be that of Prague, but on close inspection I could not match it to the image I found on the internet...can anyone help?