Wednesday, October 6, 2010

An Ahma, A Few Old Buildings and a Nice Beach

Here we go again with my usual 5 cards that have arrived in the past few days. They come from Finland, Romania , Finland again , France and Poland. Looks like it's Europa day on the blog.
The first card , from Finland, shows an Ahma. Known in Finland as an Ahma , it's a wolverine in these parts. It's not an animal one sees often, but I have seen one in our local zoo. The wolverine is a stocky and muscular animal, often resembling a small bear.Wolverines have a reputation for ferocity and strength disproportional to its size. They roam throughout Alaska, Canada, the Nordic countries of Europe , western Russia and Siberia.
The card was sent by a PostCrosser named Pirkko. She used a new stamp that she says was issued on the day she mailed the card. It is from a souvenir sheet , celebrating Autumn, and showing a moose. Interesting , also, is the fact that the stamp contains Braille symbols.

The next card, from Romania shows the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest. From looking at the card, I can safely say that is is one beautiful building. I would love to see it . According to the Guinness Book of World Records it is the world's largest administrative building, most expensive administrative building and heaviest building. It contains 1,100 rooms, 2 underground parking garages and is 12 stories tall. It is constructed almost entirely of materials of Romanian origin. included in those materials are one million cubic meters of marble from Transylvania, 3,500 tonnes of crystal, 700,000 tones of steel and bronze, and 900,000 tonnes of wood. In 2008 The Palace hosted the 20th NATO Summit.
The card is from Anca who lives in Bucovina which is located in the north of the country. Anca used 3 stamps including, on the left , a 2005 definitive from a set of 7 featuring pottery. The middle stamps was issued in 2007 and is 1 of 4 in a ceramics set. The larger stamp on the right is from a 2010 set of 4 featuring spiders.

Our third card today is again from Finland. It is a card showing the Turku Cathedral. This cathedral is the Mother Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. It is also a national shrine and considered to be the most important religious building in Finland. It was originally built out of wood in the late 13th century. It was consecrated in 1300 Later, more building continued in the 14th and 15th centuries using stone. The stamp is from a set of 2 issued in 2007 featuring antiques.

The card from France shows a picture by J.P.Guibert of a portion of The Palace of Fontainebleau. This one is not too shabby a palace , either. The palace and surrounding park were added as a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1981. The stamps are both from a 2010 booklet of 12 featuring Roman Art. Thanks to Frederique for this card.

And finally a card from Poland. It shows a beautiful image of a coastal beach scene on the Baltic Sea. Not a bad place to be right now. The stamp in the top left is from 2005 and is 1 of 2 definitives featuring architecture. The others are from 2001 and feature the architecture of farmhouses.

That is today's update . Thanks for tuning in and hope to see you back here again soon. Sounds a little like a newscaster signing off. Later.

1 comment:

Johan said...

Hi Glenn,The Netherland Antilles no longer exists and are fallen apart into Curaçao,Sint Maarten and Caribisch Nederland.
Are you going to put them on your wanted list?