POSTCARD N.171 - RUSSIA 

Postcrossing Postcard sent on the 30th June, received on the 3rd December 2024.

Postcard image: A phantasy scene

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Cut and Paste, the miracle technology of the late 20th century....  I did paste, but I did not cut....

And so Post regarding Postcard 171 disssolved into cyber oblivion for ever, and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah.....

I am so sorry, but I will not try to reconstruct the post. Have to move on and time is a scarce comodity.

Here's the card, of which I remeber saying without any ill intention towards Olga who kindly sent it to me in the best of intentions, that post cards with phantasy images were not my preferred type of cards.

Still the stamps were totally to my liking and I also remeber having thanked Olga for her care and attention.

The 40 Ruble stamp was issued on 10MAR2020, celebrating the life of Hero of the Soviet Union - Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub (1920-1991), fighter pilot and triple Hero of the Soviet Union. the highest scoring WW2 pilot with more than 60 victories to his credit. It shows his portrait with a Lavochkin La-5 the type of aircraft in which he score most of his victories.

The 45 Ruble stamp, issued on 10MAR2023, celebrates a pedagogue on the bicentenary of his birth: Konstantin Ushinsky, (1823 - 1871) considered to be the father of Scientific pedagogy in Russia. 

Again the stamp is illustrated with his effigy with a classroom on the background.

As far as I can tell, the postmark indiocates that the card was mailed from Moscow.

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. 540 - SOVEREIGN MILITARY HOSPITALLER ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM, OF RHODES AND MALTA

Postmark: Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta -  Poste Magistrali . Giorno di emissione - 30º Anniversario Relazoni Diplomatiche con la Republica di Bulgaria 11.11.2024

Posted on the 11th November; Received on the 5th December 2024

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It is amazing how ignorant one can still be in a world where information is constantly colliding with our sensitive cells as if we were but a passive receiver of something I would call "infonemae", elementary particles of information.

I have heard of the Order of Malta before. I have been to Malta. I knew both had to be obviously linked. But I never cared to dig further. And I should have.... 

If I had done it, I would not have made a fool of myself when I thanked Eric for the great cover he so kindly sent me from the palace where the Order has the Seat of its Government - The Magistral Palace - which in conjunction with another historic building - the Magistral Vila - both located in Rome, Italy, and the upper part of  fort St. Angelo,  in Birgu, Malta,  in  practice coincide with its sovereign territory, although the order, in spite of having observer status at the UN,  cannot be considered as a state by itself... 

In truth, when I opened up my letterbox and saw a cover with a beautiful stamp bearing a legend that contained the word "Malta" and  two flags, one which I immediately recognised as the Bulgarian flag and the other I mistook for the Maltese flag, which I knew to be red and white, I thought to myself "Nice. It has been a while since I got mail from Malta and on top of that it's looks like a joint issue, great!"

So I wrote Eric a quick note (well not so quick for the message bounced a couple of times, I know not why), thanking him for my Maltese cover, and telling him how much I was happy to have it.

As usual, Eric answered me promptly and made me look again with due attention and a strongly blushed face to the cover he had so kindly sent me and which I had completely overlooked in detail....

And so I turned to the usual sources of information, and gathered that the origins of the Order of Malta, or in full, the  Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta goes back to the time of the crusades (well, that much I suspected, even before I confirmed it....), more precisely the 1st crusade, when, in 1099, the Knights Hospitaller order was founded, of which it claims to be the rightful successor.

The connection of the Order, which at present mostly acts in the field of international humanitarian assistance, with Malta dates back to 1530, when possession of the Mediterranean Island was granted to the Order by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

There it would be headquartered for almost  270 years until, in 1798, Napoleon, on his way to the Egypt campaign, occupied the Island, which would remain in French possession for two years, until 1980.

Expelled by the French occupants, the order members were scattered throughout Europe, although the official recognition of the loss of Malta by the Order  would only come in the Congress of Vienna of 1815, which lay the bases for modern day Europe (well, we all know what ensued next ….).

In 1834 the Seat of the Order was definitively moved from Ferrara where it had been since 1826 to Rome, where it stands to the present day in the already mentioned Magistral Palace.

Within the prerogatives of its rather uncommon international juridical status, the Order of Malta can and does issue currency and stamps, the later being usable for correspondence franking to 58 countries, (Portugal included) under bi-lateral postal agreements, I suppose. The operational side of the services is carried out by Poste Italiane, under agreement.

As a side note, Eric mentioned that France does not have a postal agreement with the Order, and I suspect that Napoleon is to be blamed for that 😀.

As already mentioned, the 3,5€ stamp on the cover, issued on 11NOV2024,  illustrated with the flags of the Order and the Republic of  Bulgaria, over a map of the later,  was issued to celebrate the 30th anniversary of  formal mutual diplomatic relations, which were established on the 11th November 1994, the Order having opened an embassy in Bulgaria in 2005.

Although the stamp concept would lead us to think to be in the presence of a joint emission, I could not find on the list of Bulgarian issues for the year its counterpart, so my theory in this respect was decidely flopped....

POSTCARD N.172 - CZECH REPUBLIC 

Postcard sent on the 29th November, received on the 10th December 2024

Postcard image: Hluboká Castle

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Michal surprised me with another of his beautiful and always appreciated postcards. Děkuji mnohokrát, Michal.

This time he sent me a beautiful image from the Tudoresque looking castle of Hluboká, located in the town of Hluboká nad Vltavou, in south Bohemia.

For ease of explanation I'll quote directly from the postcard's legend:

"Originally royal castle from the 13th century, later reconstructed. The present neo-gothic appearance dates from  reconstruction in "Tudor Gothic" based on Windsor Castle and comes from the period of culminating romanticism."

In fact I wouldn't be surprised to see Henry the VIII chasing a potential 7th wife in the castle gardens, given the decidedly Tudoresque aura of the building.

Michal used a tariff E stamp part of a two same tariff stamp set issued on 12OCT2022 in celebration of LIBEREC 2002 European Stamp Exhibition and Polar Salon, held in Liberec between 13 and 16 October 2022.  Faithful to the theme of the exhibition, the stamp is illustrated with a bunch of stamp and letter carrying emperor penguins.

The companion stamp on the set can be seen here, on postcard 163 .

The postmark hails from the city of  Cesky Budejovice.

COVER N. 539 - USA

Postmark: North Pole,AK 99705 09.10.2024

Posted on the 9th October; Received on the 3rd December 2024

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Couldn't be more in season.... December has come and I'm already receiving correspondence from the North Pole.....😀

Thanks a lot A.W. both for the very carefully laid out cover  and the nice stamps inside. Truly appreciated it.

A. W.'s nice cover was purposefully sent on World Post Day, as the label affixed on the cover clearly points out.

The stamps used are part of the  twenty Forever self-adhesive stamps dedicated to Joel Sartore's  Photo Ark Project issued by USPS on 19MAY2023.

I took a quick look at the Photo Ark's website and by today 16,003 species have already been photographed and documented for eternity. Just as a curious side note, when I received the first cover using any of these stamps, in 2023, in June last year, the website counter showed 14,000, so a couple thousand  more have been added since.

The stamps feature photos in the classic black background Photo Ark scheme, of the following animals (clockwise from the top of the envelope):

- Key Largo cotton mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus allapaticola).

This rodent of the Crecetidae family is a subspecies of P. gossypinus, endemic to Key Largo, in the United States of America.

Urban development in its distribution area with the consequent habitat loss is the reason why this species is labelled as "At Risk" by the American Fish and  Wildlife Service.

- Black footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) 

Once declares extinct, this member of the Mustelidae family has been slowly making its comeback after the discovery in Wyoming of a residual population in 1981 and now more than 200 individuals exist in the wild. Still a number that does not prevent it from being classified by the IUCN as "Endangered".

- Vancouver Island Marmot (Marmota vancouverensis)

A rodent of the Sciuridae family, is one of the only 5 species of land mammals that are endemic to Canada.

After also having been in the brink of extinction, with only 32 adults in the wild in 2006, thanks to a continuous protection programme the numbers of  wild Vancouver marmots have been slowly rising, with 250 individuals being counted by the end of 2021. Still IUCN considers the species as “Critically Endangered".

Florida Panther (Puma concolor couguar)

Once thought to be a subspecies of the american cougar, genetic studies have led to the conclusion that  Florida Panthers are members of a cougar population inhabiting South Florida, with only 200 individuals believed to exist in the wild.

As a result of this reclassification, the Florida Panther which appeared as Puma concolor coryi in the IUCN lists as Endangered or Critically Endangered is no longer registered, but continues to be considered as an endangered species under the American Endangered Species Act of 1973.

Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi)

This subspecies of the grey wolf once inhabited areas of eastern and southeastern Arizona and western and southern New Mexico as well as fragmented areas of northern Mexico. 

Given their extremely now numbers at some point, American and Mexican environmental agencies collaborated to save the species from extinction and all the existing individuals in the wild (five in total,  four male and one pregnant female) were captured in 1976 and, once put in protection centres, these formed the nucleus for developing a growing population which led to 11 individuals being again released into the wild in 1988, in Arizona. 

By 2024, the total population numbers 257 individuals in the United States, 45 in Mexico and 380 in captive breeding programmes. 

The Mexican Wolf is considered to be “Critically Imperilled” in the NatureServe classification system.

The Postmark hails from North Pole, a city in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, in the state of Alaska, with a population of approximately 2250 inhabitants.

COVER N. 537 - CZECH REPUBLIC

Postmark: ORLI Praha 8 22.11.2024

Posted on the 22nd November; Received on the 3rd December 2024

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Děkuji mnohokrát, Ivan, for  another cover graced with the lovely nature history stamps the Czech Republic has been issuing for some years now. I really like them!

This year, the lovely natural history souvenir sheet was dedicated to "the young in our nature" and the stamps ares thus superbly (as usual) illustrated with paintings of juveniles of several mammal species, under the caring gaze of their mothers.

The sheet, issued on 04SEP2024, comprises 4 stamps (34, 27, 31, 38 koruna) and two vignettes. The 34 k stamp, on the cover features a lovely red squirell (Sciurus vulgaris), a common sight in much of Eurasia, in coniferous forests in northern europe and siberia and broad-leaved woods in western and southern Europe. 

In my own country red squirrels were extinct by the 16th century. Still they made a comeback, after the 80's of last century, when they started to be seen again in the forests up north, bordering the Spanish Galicia region. 

In Lisbon, following a successful intrductuon programe that took place in the 90s,  they can also be found in Monsanto Park, the city's largest green "lung".

The vignette attached to the stamps bears an image of mama garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) and one of her babies (its siblings must be hidding somewhere for litters have up to seven little mice). 

As usual, the frame of the sheet is also magnificently illustrated and on the particular piece attached to the stamp on the cover, further to papa squirell, a baby Eurasian golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus) rests in its nest under the protective watch of its father. Golden Orioles in Portugal are called papa-figos (fig-eater) for they love to feed on these sweet fruits.

Butterflies arfe also the kind of creatures that really tickle my fancy.... not only the gracefully fly  as if untouched by gravity, but most of the times their wings are absolute masterpieces of abstract art.

 Beginning in 2020, Czech Post has been issueing every once in a while a series of definitive stamps featuring butterfly illustrations (again, superb, in spite of their small size). The 1 koruna stamp  featuring  an Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines), a member of the Pieridae family which can be found all over Europe was issued on 15FEB2021; The 4 koruna stamp, issued on 07OCT2020 bears the illustration of a Colias croceus, a member of the Pieridae family present all over Europe and is a large part of Asia;  The 5 koruna stamp was issued on 18OCT2024, showcases a silver-washed fritillary (Argynnis paphia), a member of the  Nymphalidae family which is also a common sight in much of Europe and Asia, up to Japan.

The special postmark, dated of 22.11.2024,  was issued in connection with an issue of  a booklet of personalised stamps dedicated to Eagles (Orli, in Czech). 

COVER N. 536 - BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES - SAINT HELENA, ASCENSION AND TRISTAN DA CUNHA

Postmark: Tristan da Cunha South Atlantic 17.09.2024

Posted on the 17th September; Received on the 28th November 2024

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Of all the remote inhabited places, this is said to be the remotest. Tristan da Cunha (or Tristão da Cunha, to put it right according to the nationality of the Portuguese sailor/explorer who first set eyes on the archipelago, in 1506, and chose to name it after his own self) is a group of 6 islands located in the South Atlantic, some 2800 km to the West of the African continent.

And if proof of its remoteness was needed, it would suffice to say that the circuit  which the letter I now received initiated is dated of February 2023, the day when Roland probably sent the letter to the postal services of the Archipelago in order to have it dispatched to me.... that is, 1 year and 9 months ago....

This notwithstanding, the journey from Tristan da Cunha to Portugal was rather swift, since it only took two and a half months.

I couldn't be more happy for having the opportunity to add this interesting piece to my collection. Mon très grand Merci, Roland, por cette surprise magnifique!

I can't even think of how living on such a remote place must be challenging, in a number of ways. The more so since up to 2003, I read, foreigners were not allowed to establish themselves on the island (and thus contribute to some genetic refreshment of the population, who share but nine family names). 

I remember, as a child, living in an Island with not that much population and few services (no television, no education past the 9th grade, no surgeries in the hospital, temporary absence of some food items, especially in the winter, whet the seas were rough and the island could not be supplied by ship, and so on) but we were but 1300 km from the continent AND we had an airport, what meant but a couple of hours flight to the mainland, something which, I understand, Tristan da Cunha, which lies more than double the distance from the continent, does not have.... and I don’t think there is any existing helicopter with that kind of range….

Still our species is composed of decidedly resilient beings and we can adapt to a vast number of  challenging living conditions, the more so when technology can really help bridge distances, but nonetheless there has to be a moment when all that remoteness exerts a tremendous pressure on you... I think of myself at 18 or 19, interraling through Europe; the ease with which my daughters now fly from here to the place they want to go to or visit.... no rail services in Tristan da Cunha... no low cost flights either....

Stamps, on par with lobster, are the most important sources of revenue from external commerce for Tristan da Cunha Administration, and the themes chosen for the issues do mostly reflect a connection with natural history or the history of the islands or its affiliation with the British Crown.

The 45 p stamp on the left is part of set of 4 stamps issued on 14JULY2021,  part of the "Shark" series, which add also another four stamp issue in 2020. 

The stamp is illustrated with a photo of a Bluntnose Sixgill Shark (Hexanchus griseus), a species which can be found in temperate and tropical waters all over the world and can measure up to 6 metres in length.

Ships play an important part on Tristan da Cunha life, as its main connection with the rest of the world. As such it is not surprising that this is also a theme quite well represented in the archipelago's issues.

The 10 p stamp is part of a thirteen definitive stamp set issued on 14DEC2020, dedicated to Modern Mail Ships. it is illustrated with a photo of MV RSA, South Africa's first antarctic supply ship, a  1572 gross ton vessel, built by the Fujinagata Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Osaka, Japan, launched on 28 September 1961. 

According to the date on the stamp, it provided  services to the Islands between 1963 and 1977. 

In 1980 MV RSA was transformed into a static training ship for merchant seamen and it was moored in Cape Town docks. It was later partially scrapped and then sunk, when asbestos was found to be present on it.

Further to the very clear local Postmark, the cover is marred by un unfortunate mechanical cancellation, applied probably somewhere in the UK, while in transit to Portugal.