Sunday, July 3, 2016

A New Update, Finally

Well I'm finally back here with a new update with cards, this time. June is gone, Canada Day is past and all my troubles with the new computer, printer and scanner are all behind me. Now it's onward with new postcards and stamps. First up is a card from Greece. Strange thing, I've been at this card business for 10 years or so and this is just my 5th card from that country. Compare that to Belarus at 35, Finland at 92 and Poland at 32. I mean, I've got 4 from Antarctica and 3 each from St. Helena and South Georgia. Maybe the scarcity of cards from Greece has something to do with the economics of the country the last few years. Perhaps the cost of mailing a postcard is right up there with the cost of feeding a family. Maybe it's just too expensive. I'm sure someone will let me know. Comments ? My card wasn't sent by resident of the country but by a visitor. It's an interesting card in that just about everything one needs to know about the country of Greece is on the face of the card. Who needs Google ? From the card I learn the area, population, the capital , a list of famous Greeks and some history of Greece. Have a look.




Ana of the blog " My Wold of Postcards " visited Athens and sent this card . Hopefully she made it back home by now, as the trains were on strike in Greece apparently. You can check out her fine postcard blog right  here . Ana used 3 great water themed stamps from 2012 and 2015. The middle stamp is one of 10 in a Marine Life set issued in 2012. The other 2 , from 2015 are from a set 6 entitled Diving.





Next up is typical housing in Kaysersberg, Alsace-Lorraine, France. Kaysersberg is located in the north-eastern part of France and is the birthplace of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. A local specialty of the area is Pinot gris wine.




Dominique used a stamp from 2015. It is 1 of 6 in a set showcasing The Sixties. On it we see The France, an ocean liner / cruise ship which was launched on May 11, 1960.





Next up is a card from Phoenix, Arizonia, U.S.A. It's a great look at the Flag of Arizona. The flag represents the copper star of Arizona rising from a blue field in the face of a setting sun. It was designed by Charles Harris and was adopted on 1917.




A Postcrosser named Jaimee living in Phoenix sent this card . She used one of the 2016 Global Forever Moon stamps.





Now here's a card that arrived from Munich.   It shows one of  Kirk Reinert's illustrations called          " Dance of Joy " .  He is one of the leading illustrators in the themes of fantasy, horror and science fiction.



Finja used 2 self-adhesive, se-tenant stamps from 2014 showing Dresden.






One more card from Germany - this one gives a look at the Ruhr valley.




Jorg used a number of stamps on this card. On the left is a 8 cent additional value stamp from 2015. Then there are 2 Flower definitives, which we've all seen before. Finally on the right is a stamp celebrating Ernst Litfass , from this year . He was a German printer and publisher, and inventor of the free-standing cylindrical adverting column which bears his name in German. His columns gained some fame in a few movies - The Third Man, Gremlins 2 and Men In Black II , as escape routes to elsewhere. Litfass was tired of the unsystematic and careless posting of pamphlets, notices, and other materials on walls, doors, fences and trees and designed his columns to help clean areas up. I know of a few places this side of the pond that could use a few of his columns.

 

Just 2 more cards to go, so stick around.
This one is from Patrycja, a young Postcrossser in Nowy Sacz, in the south of Poland. The city of just over 83,000 , was founded by the Duke of Krakow on 8 November 1292. The town is one of the oldest in the region.




Patrycja used an Easter stamp from this year. It is 1 of the set of 3.





The last card today is a great Aviation related card. It's RA-07875, an Antonov AN-2. This was a Soviet mass-produced single engine biplane. It's also the largest single engine biplane ever built. The AN-2 was in production from 1947-2001 with over 18,000 built.



Ekaterina from Moscow used 2 stamps on her card. On the left is a definitive from 2015 , while the stamp on the right was issued in 2013 for the 18th IAP ( International  Association of Prosecutors )  Conference.

There you have it , today's update. Thanks going out to Ana, Dominique, Jaimee, Frinja, Jorg, Patrycja and Ekaterina for all these great cards.Big Thanks to you all.

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