COVER N. 592 - FRANCE - SAINT PIERRE ET MIQUELON

Postmark: 975 - St. Pierre et Miquelon 20.05.2025

Posted on the 20th May; Received on the 26th June 2025

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It is always a pleasure to receive a cover from the small insular enclave encroached in  Canada's vast expanses of land and sea, where baguette and croissant are the proud norm. The more so since almost without exception, the stamps  are always rather beautiful and interesting.

Such is the case with this nice cover I got from Roman,  Dziękuję bardzo, Roman! 

- Tranchage de la Morue, (Fileting cod) reads the caption of the 0,85€ stamp issued on 22MAY2027, illustrated with a photograph of two fishermen preparing cod to be later salted and dried, I presume.

As a side note, this is something that I, as a Portuguese, can immediately relate to, since we are the number 1 consumers of dried cod in the world; so much so that the once humble (and far from that nowadays) main staple of fishermen and other working class families made its way up to our Christmas supper, wherein it has to take centre stage or else it simply won't be Christmas... 

The industrial remains of some "secas do bacalhau" (cod drying facilities) can still be found around here  (in fact I have one not more than a 10 minute drive from where I live), as a reminder of the days when the white luggers of the Portuguese cod fishing fleet would spend months in the treasonous waters of Newfoundland (same as the fishermen of Saint Pierre and Miquelon) and Greenland, until their holds would be filled with salted cod, that would then be sun dried in the drying facilities I mentioned above.

For a number of years Portuguese fishing vessels were barred from fishing in Newfoundland, and most of our cod is imported from Norway  these days, but  the ban was lifted this year, I've read, so who knows if there might be some Newfoundland cod on my table this coming Christmas...?

- Russulas have always caught my eye, ever since I started looking at mushrooms with a more inquisitory and photographic eye, on my walks in the woods nearby.

Although there are many colours for their caps, red, deep red and  very dark red, are quite common on members of these genus and you just can't avoid looking at them, since they so often contrast with the general appearance of the soil from where they pop up.

  

Since 2018, St. Pierre and Miquelon has been issuing an annual stamp illustrated with a local mushroom. 

The Russula peckii was the species chosen for the 2021 issue, with a face value of 1,28€, which began to circulate on 12JAN2021, and which can be seen on the cover.

and here's a Russula from my woods....