POSTCARD N.180 - GRECCE

Postcard sent on the 26th April, received on the 15th May 2025.

Postcard image: Corfu. View of the Spianada from the Old Fortress, with the New Fortress in the Backgroundnteay Srey Temple

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Ravindra has been making quite a trip in Europe, passing through several countries. One of them was Greece, from where he kindly sent me this Postcard with a nice image from Corfu. Bohomȧ  sthoothi, Ravi.

Corfu... a name that is not that unheard of in my own household... for the time, it is on the "to do" list, and it'll still hold its place there for a while yet, but my wife and I have thought of journeying to Corfu, crossing the south of the Mediterranean,  as a long relaxing car trip when she finally gets off the bus after having so tenaciously dedicated her entire professional life to the sacred craft of spreading knowledge, as all teachers do. 

Until that day arrives, and if it is not tomorrow, it is not that far away either, we will have to keep our travels shorter, but Corfu is indeed a plan, and once there, If I still have the needed stamina, I might hike the Corfu trail... we'll see if all this ever comes to materialise, for life has the nasty habit of intruding in one's plans...

The New Fortress of Corfu, the highlight of Ravi's Postcard, was built in the 16th century, although doubts persist as to the exact dates of the beginning and conclusion of the works. Just like the Old Fortress, dating from the early 15th century, this mighty defensive fort was built  by the Venetians, who ruled the island, as part of the Serenissima, from  1386 to 1797,  in order to protect the urban areas that lay within its walls. 

As part of the Old Town of Corfu both constructions enjoys World Heritage Site status as recognised by the UNESCO.

Ravi used a Postcard Tariff  self-adhesive stamp with an image of the ilsand of Kythera, one of the Ionian Islands, the theme for one of several 10 self-adhesive stamp booklets issued in 2022. This particular stamp set was issued on 26APR2022

The Postmark hails from Corfu, ΚERKIPA, in Greek.

COVER N. 587 - INDIA 

Postmark:  Illegible 03.05.2024

Posted on  the  3rd May 2024; Received on the 16th May 2025

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More than a year. That's how long this letter from India took to reach my letterbox. In it, a circuit that was initiated in 2023, still it did get here and that's what matters. Thanks a lot Kiran! After all, it did come a long way, from the Northeast tip of India. I'm sure its ride wasn't an easy one...

Still, Kiran had sent me another circuit (Cover #416) on the 5th February,  also of 2024, and it arrived on the 28th of the same month, that is just some 23 days after expedition...

Anyway, as I said, It did get here and that's what matters.

Kiran again used on this letter the same beautiful  25 Rupee one stamp souvenir sheet issued on 02NOV2023 as a common issue for India and Mauritius, that he used on cover #416.

The stamp is illustrated with with images of the national birds of both countries - the Indian Peacock for India and the Mauritius Kestrel, for Mauritius. 

COVER N. 586 - FRANCE 

Postmark:  Musée de la Poste - La fabrique du temps Paris 27.05.2025

Posted on  the  27th May; Received on the 13th May 2025

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Merci Roland, for another cover with a nice cancellation mark. Those guys at the musée should know better than to get the cover double cancelled, but it is not your fault!

Pets. the best friends of humans, so it is said...

I have nothing against them, of course... it's their owners who sometimes baffle me....

I love animals... that's probably why I have some difficulties with pets. I understand their value as companions, helpers, healers, work mates, all the extraordinary things animals can do which help us humans in most dire and difficult situations... but then I see dogs locked in apartments for life, ferrets wore by the owner around the neck while strolling through the shopping mall as it were a live scarf, hamsters and birds locked in tiny cages or small fishes swimming round and round inside a glass bowl large enough to hold my fruit salad... and it gets me mainly sad...

Then there's that thing: dog owner; cat owner; pig owner....  animals should have no owners... they're part of the same world we live in... 

Don't get me wrong. I am an omnivorous fellow, I do eat meat, and I am aware that animals raised for meat producing are most times raised in appalling conditions all over the world. But that's another question and another problem altogether.

Pets are not food but pets are also not human, so they should not be humanised to a degree that defies common sense. Dogs should not be carried on one's back in some sort of rucksack  as it they were babies... damn it, they have legs and feet, don't they?

Maybe it is me, but whenever in my morning walks I see people  talking to dogs as if they were actually babies, or children, or even grown ups  ( and I do see it all the time)  I find it oh so very strange... whenever I see a cat with painted nails, or a dog with a fancy hairdo...

As I said I completely understand that pets can fill an important void in one's life... just respect them for what they are, that's the sort of humanisation I think pets and humans do need!

In 2024 La Posts issued a series of four - one for each season -  Lettre Verte 20g tariffed "Collectors" sets,  dedicated to "Nos Fidèles Compagnons", (our faithful companions), dogs and cats. 

Each set comprised 2 x two different stamps, one illustrated with a cat and the other with a dog. The two stamps on the cover that Roland sent me are the Printemps (Spring) issue, dated of 02APR2024, which emphasized the benefits of animal therapy for sick or stress affected people.

The very nice pictorial cancellation of the Musée de la Poste in Paris was used to postmark the stamps.

COVER N. 585 - USA 

Postmark:  Manual: Sparta  WI-54656 9(?)98 USPS 01.052025 / Machine: Saint Paul MN 55 01.05.2025

Posted on  the  1st May; Received on the 8th May 2025

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Thanks a huge lot, Mark, for this cover and also for the one that came inside it. Truly appreciated it.

I had never received a  pre-stamped American envelope, so this makes a nice addition to the collection. 

Also it goes to show just how Mr. Postman is really my friend:  By mistake, of the type that can happen to anyone, Mark forgot to include the name of the street I live on in the address, which mentions only the door number.

Well by now, Mr., Postman must know that any envelope with interesting stamps on it has but one rightful addressee in the area, and that is me, for in spite of the faulty address, the letter made its way to my letterbox.

So a huge "Obrigado" also goes to Mr. Postman, who made sure I got Mark's letter.

Starting with the envelope itself, I looked over on USPS website and managed to discover that this particular pre-stamped envelope featuring a pre-printed “Forever”, American Flag stamp was issued on 15JUN2020.

The Lunar New Year "Forever" commemorative stamp is the 2024 issue, dedicated to the Year of the Dragon, which began to circulate on  25JAN2024.

The very interesting se-tenant block of four 6 cent stamps, was issued on 06MAY1970. The four stamps of the  issue, celebrating the American Museum of Natural History,  feature each a bald eagle;  an herd of elephants; an Haida ceremonial canoe (the Haida being an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, with populations both in the USA and Canada) and some dinosaurs, under the caption "The age of reptiles".

Two cancellations o the cover: one manual, applied at Sparta, Wisconsin and one mechanical, from Saint Paul, the capital of Minnesota.

COVER N. 584 - FRANCE 

Postmark:  1945 - 2025 Libération des Camps 1er jour 38 Fontaine La Poste 25.04.2025

Posted on  the  25th April; Received on the 8th May 2025

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Fitting that a cover like this one should knock on my door on VE day in Europe, after having been mailed on the 25th April (ANZAC day; Anniversario della liberazione in Italy and Dia da Liberdade, in my own country).

Particularly fitting, now that fascism 2.0 is slowly spreading like an ink blotch on wet paper.... 

Particularly fitting, now that a huge Camp de Mort is being kept and enforced live on TV, under the eyes of the world, to the total indifference of the same world.... children, women, men, young, old...no need for gas chambers here.... there are means just as effective and just as or even more cruel, for they prolong the suffering of the condemned, whose only sin is having been born: bombing; deprivation... of shelter, food, water, medical supplies....

Particularly fitting when terrorism is fought with terrorism!

Particularly fitting when unjustified aggression and invasion is again dotting fields of Europe not with poppies but with rows of white crosses...

Particularly fitting when Universities are persecuted, books are once again censored, Science is questioned...

Un grand Merci, Eric. Lest we forget!

In July 1944, Soviet troops found and liberated the first of the many Death Camps that the Nazi regime had installed throughout occupied Europe: Majdanek, in Poland.

It would take the allies almost one year to liberate all the Camps of Infamy, the last, on the 8th May 1945, would be Teresienstadt, in Czecoslovakia, famous for the "rich cultural life" prisoners had access to and participated in, as a Nazi cover up for the day to day atrocities and the appalling living conditions they had to endure.

Celebrating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Fields of Death, les Camps de Mort, La Poste issued on 25APR2025 the stamp on the cover, illustrated with a self-explanatory image of a fence and the legend "1945 Libération des Camps 2025".

Lest we Forget!

COVER N. 583 - JAMAICA 

Postmark:  Budva-Mogren19.04.2025

Posted on  the 19th April; Received on the 6th May 2025

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Well, we seem to be on some sort of a streak here: Another cover from Mr. Phantom, again dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first CEPT/Europa issue, and again another country added to my list.  Vielen Dank, Alex! 

Jamaica, the land of Reggae and a member of the Commonwealth, what implies that King Charles III wouldn’t look out of place in rastas, given that he is its Head of State, although the country obtained its independence from the UK in 1962.

As mentioned a propos the previous post concerning a Montenegro cover, several postal administrations of nom member countries of CEPT, issued celebratory stamps for the 50th anniversary of the first CEPT/Europa issues, occurred in 1956.

Jamaica was one such case, with this three stamp (60, 70 and 100 dollars) souvenir sheet, issued on 01JUN2005, each stamp carrying the legend Jamaica commemorates 50 years of European Philatelic Cooperation and the CEPT logo, as well as a small 50 logo evocative of the anniversary.

The Postmark was applied at Montego Bay Post Office, on the north coast of the Island.

COVER N. 582 - MONTENEGRO 

Postmark:  Budva-Mogren19.04.2025

Posted on  the 19th April; Received on the 6th May 2025

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Of all the countries I've been to, there's a little one in the middle of the Mediterranean that I found absolutely stunning and which gave me the opportunity of seeing something I had been thinking I would only see way up North of the continent.

The Ghost that Walks, the restless wanderer, passed through some time ago it seems, for I got this surprise cover from the country where I saw a fiord for the first time, if my memory isn't playing tricks on me. so Thanks a lot, dear Phantom, Danke Sehr, Alex!

Also, this cover is the opportunity to add another country to the fold, so I couldn't be happier about it. Double thanks, then, Alex!

One of the countries issued out of the disaggregation of Yugoslavia, in spite of its smallish size, Montenegro has got to be one of the most scenic and well preserved in terms of natural beauty, of the European countries.

As I mentioned above, I will never forget the day when I was coming slowly by the road into the mouth of the bay that harbours Kotor at its end... The huge mountains in front of me, and the water going in, cutting through them... "Wait a minute", I said to myself, "is this Norway...? damn it, this is a fiord!" How excited I was with this simple finding...

and after that, the long and winding road with not much than a single lane in width that goes up the mountain with some 20 +  elbow bends which led us to a fantastic viewpoint over the bay.... pity the day was so terribly hazy for photographs...

and what about lake Skadar, or Durmitor National Park, where I did some short and easy but nonetheless unforgettable hikes...

ah memories....

CEPT/Europa common issues have been around a long time. In fact, next year it'll be the 70th anniversary of the first CEPT issue which saw the light of day on the 15th Septembers 1956, in the then European Coal and Steel Community member states, namely  Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany.

The first half century of this emission was celebrated not only by the members of CEPT or  now PostEurope but also by several postal administrations all across the world.

Montenegro, which would only become a member of PostEurope in 2008, was one such case, issuing the imperforated souvenir sheet that Alex used on the cover, with a face value of 5.5 €,  on 03JAN2006, along with another souvenir sheet containing four more stamps allusive of the same anniversary.

The postmark hails from another beautiful seaside city in Montenegro: Budva.