POSTCARD N.237 - UNITED KINGDOM

Postcard dated of the 22nd July; received on the 29th June 2026

Postcard image: London -  Trafalgar Square by night

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I don't get that many mail from the UK, so it is always a renewd pleasure when a letter or a postcard from the largest country in old Albion drops into my letterbox. Many Thanks, Martyn!

It has been ages since I last was in London, but I had no trouble identifying the place in the photograph of the postcard, for the church of  Saint Martin in the Fields, with its colonnade and spire is one of those images that will be forever kept on one's ROM, once you inscribe it.... even by night, as is the case.

- Joe Mercer (1914 –– 1990) was a British football player, who went on to manage first Aston Villa and then Manchester City, a club that he would lead to take the 1967–68 First Division championship,  the 1969 FA Cup, the 1970 League Cup, and the 1970 European Cup Winners' Cup.

He was also one of the ten distinguished Brits that were honoured by Royal Mail in its Remarkable Lives set issued on 25MAR2014 in the form of two strips of 5 se-tenant 1st class stamps.

- The second 1st class stamp on the card is a Data Matrix Barcoded Machin part of the set of 4 (1st; 2nd; 1st Large; 2nd large) issued on 01FEB2014.

Unfortunately, the Postcard evaded the postmarking machine....

COVER N. 718 - UNITED KINGDOM

Postmark: Didcot (?) 16.05.2026

Posted on the 16th April ; received on the  22nd May, 2026

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It has been a while since I last got a letter from the UK, so it is good to see one flying into my mail box. Thanks a Lot Faisal.

- The stamp on the top right corner of the envelope is part of a set of  9 1st Class stamps issued on 15MAY2012 dedicated to British fashion designers. on this particular stamp the designer honoured  is Ossie Clark (1942 – 1996) whose creations made him a central name of the 60's fashion in the UK.

- The Black and White 1st class stamp was part of a 12 1st classs stamp set issued on 07JAN2014, themed on Classic Children's TV series.

The series highlighted on this particular stamp is Andy Pandy, an originally Black and White series that was first aired in 1950, with 26 episodes.

It went colour in 1970 with a total of 13 episodes, and in 2002 a revival set of 16 episodes was produced and aired.

The Postmark although hard to read seems to be from Didcot, in South Oxfordshire, England.

POSTCARD N.218 - UNITED KINGDOM

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 08th April; received on the 14th April 2026

Postcard image: The Red Arrows - reproduction of a stamp issued on 20JUN2024

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Oh the fumes.... the roar... the ballet like perfection of the 9 Hawks symmetrically aligned... Thanks a lot Hannah, I really like it!

The year was 1973. I was 13, then. The news on TV couldn't make me happier: The Red Arrows would be performing in Lisbon, over the Tagus near Belém.

I immediately put on a request with my father: Please, please daddy, please let’s go see them. Daddy said ok. we'll go.

Anticipation, anxiety.  I could hardly wait for it. 

Days later at school, during the break between two classes. Suddenly a glimpse of  red in the sky, getting bigger: the Red Arrows Gnats flying over my head, and then that  roar, I was bursting with enthusiasm. Tommorow as promised we'd go see the full performance.

Then the day came. I was ready to go. but then came lunch. and for some reason it took a lot of time for us four, my parents my sister and I, to leave home.

The day  was terribly hot, and even with the windows opened in our tiny Austin 850, I felt truly uncomfortable. The more so since everywhere I looked there were cars. all jammed up.  Everybody wanted to go the same direction but no one was moving an inch... the hour set for the performance was rapidily coming near, and still we did not move... and then it all went past and still we almost did not move... 

and then we returned home... 

and I cried a lot....

I would see the Red Arrows performing many years later at Montijo Air Base, already flying the Hawks, but I'll never forget the disappointment of that day when I spent most of  the afternoon sweating and crying, on the rear seat of that green Austin 850.

C. S. Lewis (1898 — 1963), was a prolific Irish author who is probably best remembered by his Chronicles of Narnia, comprising seven fantasy novels written between 1949 and 1954.

Celebrating the series,  British Mail issued on 22MAY2025 a set of 8 "1st Class" stamps each dedicated to one of the books in the saga (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was entitled to two stamps). 

The stamp on the left is illustrated with an image of "The Silver Chair", while the one on the right evokes "The Horse and His Boy"

COVER N. 672 - UNITED KINGDOM

Postmark: Royal Mail Southampton Portsmouth & IOW 06.12.2025  

Posted on the 6th December;  Received in December 2025

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Staying on the Season's festive mail theme I was once again rewarded with a fantastic card created by my friend and artist Fraser May, something which has been a long standing tradition that sees me every December waiting for his friendly card always full of humour and good spirits.

Thanks again, Fraser. Always a pleasure to receive your cards.

Fraser used the 3.40 £ stamp of Royal Mail's  5 stamp 2025 Christmas issue, (st; 1st large; 2nd; 2nd large; 3.40 £) dated of 04NOV2025. Illustrated with the three Magi. The other stamps in the set also carry Nativity related illustrations, namely an angel, Mary and the baby Jesus,  three shepherds and Joseph, Mary and the donkey.

The mechanical post mark carries te message "Welcome president Steinmeir State Visit 2025", highlighting the visit to England, at the invitation of King Charles III, of Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the last such visit of a German head of state to the UK having occurred in 1998.

Now on to the star of the show, Fraser's great Card:

I guess it needs a little explanation for those not fluent in Portuguese habits: our  traditional Christmas supper is boiled dried cod with potatoes, turnips, carrots and onions, and yes, a bit of parsley wouldn't go amiss... :-).

COVER N. 541 - UNITED KINGDOM

Postmark: Portsmouth 20.11.2024

Posted on the 20th November; Received on the 8th December 2024

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Well, it's that time of the year again. 

There was a time when next to the little Nativity Scene at our place we would put all the cards tat friends and family would send us with their kind wishes for the Season and the New Year. 

Then came email....

But, be it as it might, I still get one or two cards every year, and none more beautiful that those that my friend Fraser keeps sending, created by himself with his amazing drawing and humouristic skills.

Thanks again Fraser! I trully enjoy your amazing cards!

Fraser used one of the 5 "British cathedrals" stamps issued by Royal mails as the year's Xmas issue on 05NOV2024.

The 2.8 £ stamp is illustrated with the image of Westminster cathedral, a rather recent religious landmark at the heart of London, since the first stone was only laid in 5 years away from the end of the 19th century, i.e., 1895, the building being completed in 1902.

The mechanical postmark is rather blotched but it is possible to see that the letter was mailed from Portsmouth.

I can't resist showing Fraser's card here, which as usual is full of humour and actuality.

All the best dear friends!

COVER N. 370 - UK

Postmark:  Royal Mail Southampton Portsmouth& IOW 05.12.2023

Posted on the 5th December; received on the 13th December 2023

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I have taken a decision...call it a new year's resolution....

I am going to speed up things here a bit so that I can come to terms with the stash of covers I still have to post here on the blog.

So, not much talk, just the cover and some notes about the stamps, to see if I can catch up with my friend Mr. Postman, who happily keeps dropping great stuff into my mailbox.

Without further ado, let's end the Christmas 2023 section with a letter I got from my Friends Sylvia and Fraser. Thank a lot guys! Happy New Year!

The 2023 Christmas stamps issue of Royal Mail, dated of 02NOV2023, comprised five stamps on a souvenir sheet (2 x 1st; 2 x 2nd; 2.20 £), each one entitled with a line from a Christmas Carol.

The 2.20 £ on my letter illustrated with the three Magi Kings evokes the “We Three Kings” carol, written by  John Henry Hopkins Jr. in 1857, whose refrain starts with the lines of the legend in the stamp:" Star of Wonder, Star of night..." 

The mechanical postmark  from Portsmouth publicises the support of Royal Mail to the British Hearth Foundation.

POSTCARD N.121 - UNITED KINGDOM

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 31st October;received on the 8th November 2023

Postcard image: Batle of Britain Memorial Flight Avro Lancaster
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The most famous Avro Lancaster of them all, that of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the only existing flying example, makes a second appearance on this blog, this time courtesy of Karen, a fellow Postcrosser. Thanks a lot, Karen!

Vickers Armstrong built at the Broughton factory at Hawarden Airfield, where it was rolled out on 31 May 1945, Avro Lancaster B1 PA474 has been in the care of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (or RAF Historic Aircraft Flight, up to 1969) since 1973.

From that day on the aircraft has been subject to various restoration and improvement works that have made it possible to continue operating it at selected occasions, when onlookers have the opportunity to watch the only Avro Lancaster still flying on Europe (there's another in Canada) cross the skies, thankfully not to drop bombs anymore, and vibrate to the sound of its 4 Rolls Royce Merlins revving in unison. 

The postcard picture depicts PA474 as QRM of  61 Sqdn.

Karen used an up to 100g  label still of the Elizabethan period to mail me her postcard, which was mechanically cancelled at Birmingham (?, the cancellation mark is far from clear).

COVER N. 334 - UK

Postmark: Mechanical: Royal mail Lancashire South Lakes (?) 16.10.2023; Manual Illegible.

Posted on the 16th October; received on the 23rd October 2023

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River fauna on a poshy First Day envelope. Thanks a lot Muhammad.

Rivers are very susceptible ecosystems and a lot of times we do our best to ensure they have the worst time of their lives.... rivers are also biodiversity concentrators for many are the animal and plant species that thrive in and around them, from grasses to trees, from insects to large mammals and, of course, fish.

Recognising the role rivers play in support of wildlife, Royal Mail issued on a ten stamp set (5 x 1st class + 5 x 2nd class)  illustrated with photographs of notorious river dwellers of the UK.

The cover Mohamed kindly sent me is graced with two of the 1st class stamps, illustrated with images of  an European otter (Lutra lutra) an inhabitant of all Europe, parts of Asia and Northern Africa, and a brown trout (Salmo trutta), the most common member of the genus Salmo, which nowadays can be found almost in all latitudes given its introduction as game fish in non-original habitats.

Further to these two stamps the set includes stamps illustrated with photographs of  the following animals:  (2nd class) beaver; atlantic salmon; kingfisher; beautiful demoiselle; water vole; (1st class) grey wagtail; common mayfly; dipper.

COVER N.191 - UK

Postmark: 01.12.2022 (?)

Posted on the 1st December; Received on the 21st December 2022
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There was a time when the days before Christmas would see an influx of letters with Season's Greetings cards arriving in letter boxes. We, at home, would display them somewhere next to a Christmas decoration.

Christmas cards were also a relevant source of income for some well deserving entities, like UNICEF, who would sell thousands of cards to companies (ans also to individuals) therefore generating some revenue that could later be used for truly important actions like vaccination or food distribution in geographies that sadly would and still do depend on external help for a vast majority of the population.

Not anymore. Season's greetings, like any other type of messaging are nowadays almost entirely channelled through email and so the pleasure of receiving a nice card from a friend is almost gone, replaced with the immateriality of an image on a computer screen.

Not so with my friend Fraser, who year after year keeps designing and sending his amazingly witty Season postcards, like the one he again sent me last year ( strange thing to write.. last year was only a couple of days ago....)

So, Thanks a lot, old pal, I really liked your beautiful card, which I cannot go by without posting  here:

If receiving a Christmas card is something that is rated as a  "Critically endangered" species, receiving a card with a Christmas stamp as postage is even harder to come by, I think.  So I was quite happy to see that my letter from Fraser had been posted with one of the six self-adhesive stamp set issued on 03NOV2022, dedicated to the theme, with illustrations by Katie Ponder.

Of note is the fact that the (hard to read) mechanical postmark urges users to "Use your old barcoded stamps by 31 January 2023 or swap them for the new barcoded ones", that is to say "The Queen is dead, Long live the King", I guess....

COVER N.164 - UK

Postmark: Mount Pleasant 12SP22  
Posted on the 12th Septemberf; received on the 15th September 2022
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A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

I still remember how impressed I was by the words scrolling in perspective on the screen to a vanishing point  somewhere in the infinite space.. who wasn't? That and the first time I went to a Theatre  - good old Tivoli, that is still used for performing arts but not for movies anymore, IIRC,- featuring the then novel Dolby stereo system that made the walls tremble and the chairs wobble. 

All this years after, people are still marvelled by the universe created by George Lucas and his team, which has naturally expanded, as has the real one, to absorb all the technical developments that have since appeared in the field of special effects, to continue to produce sequels and prequels and spin-offs and musicals and books and DVDs all sort of merchandise one could think of. 

George Lucas has really created a new parallel world, not in a galaxy far, far away, though... but right across the door, with its centre in the San Francisco constellation.....

and from this new world endless hours of joy and enjoyment would radiate, as if an inverted black hole would pulsate at its centre, not only because of Star Wars, but also because of the other phenomenon that was therein generated and which had an adventurous archaeology professor named Indiana Jones at its fulcrum (curiously enough, as we all know, majestically played by the same guy who drove the augustly decadent Millennium Falcon in the Star Wars Saga).

Thank you so much Simon, for a beautiful cover with an unbeatable frieze of heroes.. I can't understand C3PO and R2D2 having being left out, though. 😀

The First film of the Star Wars Saga premiered in 1977. Since then eight more, appearing in an order more consonant with commercial interest than with chronologic logic (no, I do not stutter…) have filled movie theatres around the world with hosts of fans, although these days many would probably commit the sacrilege of watching the film on the minimal screens of a smartphone or a tablet, at most....

Aside thought: Can someone imagine watching something like... say.... Lawrence of Arabia, on a smartphone, probably munching popcorn at the same time ....?

In 2015 "The force awakens", the first part of the trilogy that sequels the original trilogy (confused?)  was distributed for movie theatres around the world. With the Star wars craze thus rekindled, Royal Mail thought it would be a good commercial idea to launch a stamp emission dedicated to the theme and so on 10OCT2015, two strips with six se-tenant 1st class stamps were issued, one of them gracing the top of my cover.

Lef t to right we have The villain Darth Vader, The sage Yoda, who was the mentor of Obi-Wan Knobi, Obi-Wan himself, a Stormtrupper (the SS of the sidereal space). Han Solo (the mighty "driver" of the Millennium Falcon) and Rey, a she Jedi mentored by none other than Luke Skywalker himself.

The other strip includes stamps with the mugshot of Princess Leia, The Emperor, Luke Skywalker, Boba Fett, Finn and Kylo Ren.

The postmark on the stamps tells us that the letter was processed via the Mount Pleasant mail Centre,  London's central mail central.

POSTCARD N.55 - UK

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 31st December; received on the 11th January
Postcard image: Shropshire Union Canal - near Natwich
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Shropshire... the name rang a bell..yes, I have been to Shropshire County, but  I haven't seen the canal in the postcard which Nyssa kindly wrote me on the very last day of 2021. Thank you so much Nyssa!

I have been in the region not once, but twice, visiting and competing in Scale Modelworld - IPMS (International Plastic Modellers' Society) at Telford, which (and most of all, I should say) was also the occasion to meet good friends whom I've been exchanging electronic mail for quite a number of years.

Sadly, time always runs fast and I have never had the chance to visit the surroundings and I'm even ashamed to say that I have never found the time to go and take a look at the famous iron bridge....maybe next time...

Stamps

Once again I got a postcard without cancellation on the stamps... it's not the sender's fault, of course, but I can only think of pen cancellations as worse.... anyway:

I am not a Trekkie but I confess I saw quite a number of episodes of the original series on TV when I was a lad. Still I could not recollect the faces on the two stamps, issued on 13NOV2020 as part of a 12 Ist class stamp emission (2 se-tenant strips of 6) dedicated to the characters of the series. 

The characters on my stamps are Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the captain of USS Voyager, and Johnathan Archer (Scott Bakula) captain of  Enterprise NX-01,

COVER N.48 - UK

Postmark: (?); 01-11-21 
Posted on the 1st November; received on the 5th November
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The sea and its dwellers. In later years attention has been increasingly drawn to them, as the effects of global warming and climate change are felt at world level and impacts in habitats become ever more apparent.

We don't own the world, and even if we like to think we are invulnerable, comfortably occupying the top of the chain, that is not so at all (and our current concerns prove the point); we are its gatekeepers, instead... and we've been failing at our job...

As I write this, Humanity meets in Glasgow ... again... and the challenges are the same (if worst)...the clock is still ticking. Let's hope we live up to our responsibilities, Kid's are right: there's no Planet B and we must manage in a systemic way our relationship with the world, for we are the only species that can influence at will its general characteristics in a swift and decisive way.

Failing that, stamps like the ones in the cover I thank Faisal for having sent me, will be issued under sad series designations, like "Former forms of sea life" or "Once upon the time on a coast near you (when the coast was much farther away...)"

The two 1st class stamps used on the cover are part of a 5 stamp strip set issued on 22JUL21, dedicated to Wild Coasts : Wildlife of Coastal UK, that besides the Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) and the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) included the Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus), the Common Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and the Spiny Spider Crab (Maja squinado).

Unfortunately the postmark on the stamps was very poorly applied... twice and can't be read, so I wasn't able to decipher where the cover was sent from.

COVER N.25 - United Kingdom
Postmark: Windsor - 19JUN2021
Posted on the  19th july; received on the 21st July.
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Great Britain... It used to be part of a greater idea..., it's an island..., again. I still remember as a kid, in 1973, the TV airing a soccer match to commemorate the UK joining the Common Market... I don't know why I remember it, I'm not even a soccer fan, my own country was still ages from joining the EEC, but the fact is that I do remember it, as clearly as the day I woke up to find on the 7 o'clock news, again on TV, that the "No" had won.

People made the choice, one can only respect (although disagreeing with it...)

Anyway, Simon sent me this very nice cover, with three stamps that fit my bill for defining what makes a great stamp. Thank you so much Simon.

The three se-tenant 1st class stamps (domestic; up to 100g) were issued on 17SEP2009, in the company of another 3 stamp se-tenant set with an individual face value of 90p, dedicated to Royal Navy Uniforms of yore and today.

The beautiful images show a Flight Deck Officer from one of the three aircraft carriers operational in the UK in 2009 (HMS Invincible; HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal) marshalling an aircraft on the deck; a 2nd World War Royal Navy Ship Captain in 1941 attire, and a  2nd Officer of Women's Royal Navy Service, popularly and affectuously known as Wrens, in the closing year of the War to end all wars,  1918.

The very clear and carefully applied postmark lets us know that this beautiful cover was mailed from Windsor.

 POSTCARD N.4 - England - UK

Postcrossing Postcard posted on the 21stJ une; received on the 30th June.
Potscard image: Waves and time, near Thixendale, Yorkshire Wolds
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Landscape art. That I can remember, no such form of art graces the horizon in the country that I live in. And this beautiful postcard that Alan was so kind to send me, makes me wonder why. Surely we have the canvas and the frame readily available either in the hills of the North or the plains of the South. Hopefully one day I might buy a postcard with a view as beautiful as the amazing “Waves and Time” by Chris Drury, a whirlpoolish land sculpture that blends perfectly with the soft curves of the slopes of the valley it nestles in, drawing "the lines of flow of the glaciers which once covered the valley" one can read in the artist’s official website.

The nice aviation themed stamp of Tariff E (Europe, up to 20g, international Standard), with a picture of the tail of a Hawker-Siddeley Trident of British European Airways (BEA), one of the airlines amalgamated into the current British Airways (the other, of course, being BOAC - British Overseas Airways Corporation) is part of a 5 stamp set issued in 2002, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of jet travel.

The machine applied cancellation reads  Royal Mail North&West Yorkshire 21/06/21 21:23:09