COVER N. 562 - ALGERIA

Postmark:Illegible 15.02.2025 

Posted on the 15th February; Received on the 6th March 2025

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The second cover that I got from Algeria on the 6th of March  came in a classy blue envelope , with some very nice stamps on it. Un grand merci Zidane.

I love flowers. In that I am no different than probably almost the full Humanity, since I still have to find a person who does not feel attracted to the amazing structures that especially now that spring is about to begin start to erupt out of plants, in a kaleidoscope of formats and colours.

In fact, one of the joys of my customary early morning walks is trying to spot any new and unexpected dots of colour sprouting from plants in the public gardens and woods where I exercise my habit.

In the beginning of March, for instance, I always keep an attentive eye for orchids, because I really have a soft spot for them. Luckily, in a public garden very close to the place where I live,  somewhat camouflaged under higher grass in a precise portion of one of the slopes that lead to the street above,  there is a colony of Ophrys bombyliflora which comes fully alive, this time of the year.

This has been a very humid end of winter and the colony is extremely vibrant this year, with loads of little orchids doting the grass with brownish/purplish spots of colour (although I bet that 99 percent of the people that pass by them will not be aware of their presence, since they are so small and delicate). 

I still haven't had the time to go and photograph them, something I hope to do in the coming days, but here's a picture I took a couple of years ago.

Back to the Zidane's cover... I got a little carried away by the beautiful stamps on it, but the point i was going to make was that even though I love all flowers, I am quite parcial to wild flowers, which I prefer to the hybrids we have in our gardens.

So, as a matter of principle, I usually find stamps dedicated to flowers that are illustrated with wild varieties, more interesting that those highlighting man developed varieties.

Not so in the case of the two 15 Dinar stamps, issued as a set on 05AUG2013, illustrated with a pair of carnations and a pair of petunias. These are trully beautiful, in my opinion.

The other interesting stamp on the cover, with a face value of 40 Dinar was issued as a single stamp set on 11NOV2024 and it showcases the typical potery of Bilder, in the region of Tlenicen, which is claimed to be the finest in Algeria.

This pottery is usually finished in  green, red, black white or yellow and is particularly known for the fine intricate decoration on it achieved with an extract of Pistacia lentiscus, a  shrub common in the Mediterranean basin.

The postmark, unfortunately is illegible in what concerns location information.