Alphabet Soup

 

1964: 2500 Years of Bulgarian Art

A head from the 2nd Century and a 19th Century jug, one predating the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet and the other many centuries later.

1980: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Percy Bysshe Kelly once said  "We are all Greeks"  Western civilization has it roots in Greece and Hungary remembers their glory. Once the the huge seated figure of Zeus (435BC) stood in his temple at Olympia,  The Hungarians have romanized the famous names of Greece on the map and

1935: Air - Mythologies (Daedalus and Icarus)

it was the Romans who first called the country Greece but to the Greeks it is  Hellas. As can be seen the word written starts with the Greek letter epsilon (originally adopted from the Phoenician letter He -)

1995: Fish - Queen Angelfish

For something different, Cambodian letters or  Khmer script,. In this script words run together in a sentence. Similar to other colonial powers one can see where the French have been in the past on stamps.

1942: Free French Issue

New Caledonia's unique flightless bird, the Kagu. This 'Free French' stamp was issued to show solidarity with the French resistance and De Gaulle's campaign from London in WW2. There were 14 values and colours produced showing the bird, not in flight, but in a jump display showing off its underwing pattern. 

Sunday Stamps is exploring stamps featuring no English words - See It On A Postcard
 

Birds

 

2004: Migrating Birds

On last week's Sunday Stamps a lone bird flew past a lighthouse so here is the rest of the set with views of Alderney.

The FDC illustration increases the number of Yellow Wagtails to three, one of my favourite birds.

1988: Birds

Meanwhile in Bulgaria it is dinner time with a Yellow-legged gull and White Stork

A fishy treat for a Grey Heron, Peter Rabbit meets his end with a Goshawk and the Eagle-owl has found a country mouse.

Sunday Stamps is looking at birds - See It On A Postcard

Island Lighthouses

 

2004: Migrating Birds - Passerines

One of our earliest summer visitors, usually arriving in March, flying past Alderney Lighthouse. The Sand Martins will also be one of the first to leave and head south in September. No winter storms for these birds...

2016: Seasons

St Peter Port Harbour Lighthouse

2016: Lighthouses

The tiny island of Sark lighthouse at Point Robert, now automated, but when all lighthouses were manned perhaps

2014: The History of Manx Playing Cards

they would while away the time playing cards although a lone keeper would have to rely on a game of Patience. The playing card shows Bradda Head Lighthouse located on the Isle of Man's coastal footpath and Douglas Lighthouse with the ferry either making its way to England or Ireland.

Sunday Stamps is keeping a watch for Lighthouses at See It On A Postcard

Ocean View

 

1993: Christmas

I've always loved the calligraphy and sentiment on this FDC. The quote is from "End of the Golden Summer" a coming of age drama set in one long New Zealand summer by the playwright Bruce Mason which he toured as a solo performer all over New Zealand. It would become a ensemble play and later a film. The play is set on the fictional beach of Te Parenga but was actually written at Takapuna where it is now performed every Christmas Day. 

1993: Christmas (Designer - Kristine Cotton)

The stamps show a view of a New Zealand Christmas when the weather is warm, the schools and universities are out for the longest holiday of the year and it is time to head for the beach. The stamps show Christmas baubles, presents, sailing-boards and yes a Christmas tradition the British settlers brought with them steamed Christmas Plum Pudding, just what you need on a baking hot day!

1964: Health Stamps

 
New Zealand have issued many bird stamps, a tradition starting in 1988 with an emu. These are the only two I have that feature a beach where of course there will be gulls, these are Red Billed Gulls. Like their Herring Gull cousins I suspect they will not pass up the chance of a piece of Christmas pudding, or anything else vaguely edible. The Little or Fairy Penguin on the other hand is on a more healthy seafood diet.

Sunday Stamps asks for - A Favourite - See It On A Postcard

Glowing Red

 

1998: Birds

Its that time of the year, enter the robin

1965: Songbirds

or maybe a bullfinch

and a rock thrush.  I wonder where they live?

2011: The Happiness Tree

In a Happiness Tree of course.

1973: Copernicus

For more happiness look to the skies and December's colourful Geminid shooting stars.

Sunday Stamps theme this week - Red - See It On A Postcard

Birds on the Map

 

1988: Fauna

The Eurasian Hoopoe perched between continents

Ferruginous Pygmy Owl breeds in Arizona, South Texas, down through Mexico, Central America and South America.  The Vulturine Guineafowl is the largest of its species and if startled it will run with those long legs rather than fly. It can be found in Central African forests

2000: Birds

(200) - Wattled Starling a nomadic bird found in eastern and southern Africa but its range is expanding. Like all starlings can be found in large flocks and often nests with other starling species (500) - Common Starling, (900) Red Billed leiothrix goes by many names such as Pekin Robin and Pekin Nightingale and its beautiful song can be found in Southern China and the Himalayas

(4000) Bearded reedling, as the name implies, found in Eurasian reedbeds (1000) - the Guianian cock of the rock nests on rocky cliff faces and caves in the humid forests of South America, the nests are constructed of  mud and plants. In photographs it looks a brighter orange than the stamp. (1500) Alpine accentor (the latin word 'accentor' means a person who sings with another). A robin sized bird of Eurasia and North Africa nesting in bushes or rock crevices.

Sunday Stamps theme of - Birds - fly over to See It On A Postcard for more feathered friends.

Endangered

 

1995: Endangered Species

Sadly the United Nations are not going to run out of threatened species to feature on their regular issues of endangered fauna. Here we have Black Rhino, Golden Parakeet, Red-shanked douc and Arabian Oryx which in the 1970s became extinct in the wild. They were saved because there were large numbers  in zoos and private reserves and from these they were reintroduced into the wild in the 1980s.

1984: Endangered Antelopes

A young bongo, vulnerable to predators like pythons, leopards and hyenas.  As adults their predator is human.

1993: The Caspian Seal (Design - V Khartvig)

The threat to the Caspian Seal is environmental. A unique species that it is thought became 'landlocked' in the Caspian Sea when the ice of the last ice age retreated about 11 thousand years ago.

2007: Rare Animals (Design - A Moskovets)

The Oriental Stork has the advantage of wings although habitat loss and, in the rice growing regions, the use of pesticides, means it is on the IUCN Red List

1986: Europa - Nature Conservation (Design Ken Lilly)

Well that was all a bit gloomy so here is a Barn Owl whose numbers have increased and is now moved on to the more optimistic Green List.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Endangered or Vulnerable Species - See It On A Postcard

Yellow

 

1947: Flowers (Design - Hans Fischer)

The joy of early spring flowers, I like how this stamp hints at the darkness of winter and the bright yellow of sunny days ahead. This is an Alpine Primrose which I read is now a rare resident of the limestone Alps.

1968: Flowers

Fast forward to summer and the Heliopsis which I love and is sometimes unkindly called the false sunflower so

2000: Millennium - Tree and Leaf

here is the real thing although most spectacular when there are hundreds of sunflowers in a field.

2008: Grains (Design Beatrice Wurgler) + 2007: Birds (Design - Eva Weber)

Golden fields of barley are wonderful in a different way with their quiet rustling in the warm winds of summer. If one walked through the fields a Great Tit might be spotted although is more likely to be seen in woodlands and at the garden feeder.

2013: Europa - Postman's Van (Design - Gunter Gamroth)

Yellow is a popular postal colour and how inviting this image is, it makes me want to jump into the driving seat.  The vehicle is Lloyd Electrowagen of 1911 used for parcel delivery in towns and suburbs.  The German Postal Service continued to use electric vehicles until the 1960s, indeed some of them were so robust that they had been running for 40 years. Today Deutsche Post return to that era in spirit as they hope to have 60% of their vehicles running electrically by 2030.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Yellow - visit See It On A Postcard  

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Coastal Choice

 

1994: Tourism (Design - Colleen Corlett)

A sunny start to the day but a chill in the air  so what will it be - the beach or

2006: Bids (Design - Jeremy Paul) - Peregrine Falcon

a cliff top walk?

1983: Seabirds (Design - J H Nicholson)

Dip in the sea

Manx Shearwater

or bird watching.

1954: Views (Design Albert Decaris; Engraving Pierre Munier)

Atlantic coast or dream of the warmth of Spring in the Mediterranean. 17°C in Ajaccio today. 

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Beaches of Coast -Sea  See It On A Postcard

How Green

 

1946: Local Motives (Design J Douy; Engraver WV Paris)

Where is our dancer's gaze?

1960: Butterflies and Agricultural Products

Perhaps seeing one of the local butterflies fluttering by, I don't know what the Malagasy call it so will have to stick to its scientific name - Acraea hova.  It lives in forests so the stamp has a nice leafy green background.

1973: Fauna

Next a species that is green, the Golden-fronted Leafbird, also an inhabitant of forests

1990: Birds

But for all over green it has to be this pair of Green-rumped parrotlet found in northeastern South America and the island of Trinidad.  I wondered why it was called a parrotlet and then saw its size - 4.7 inches (12cm) long.

1958: Mongolian Animals

Lastly a very green goat.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Green - See It On A Postcard

Snow

 

2001: Aurora Borealis (Design - Bjarne Reisto)

Snow laden trees stand sentinel under swirling skies

2008: Christmas (Design: Jenny Burman)

Snowy winter fun sledging down hill. Making a snow lantern, ooh I thought what is that?  So for anyone like me wondering, here are two cute kids making one here

2004: Winter Birds (Design - T Niemi)

The birds, like us, are glad that winter is retreating. but on the stamps it is still winter - Great Tit and Yellowhammer. Then we have the Pine Grosbeak, common in Scandinavia but if one of these is spotted in the UK it would lead to a twitching frenzy the last one to make the watery crossing showed up in the Shetland Islands a few years ago. Striking birds, as indeed is the Bullfinch

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Winter Snow - See It On A Postcard

Black Birds

 

1985: Native Birds

A conservation success, in 1980 the Black Robin had the smallest population of any bird species due to non-native predators. Today there is a stable population of about 300 on two New Zealand islands.

1998|: |Pro Juventute

No such problems with the Great Crested Grebe, estimated to have a global population of over a million.

1970: Birds

Common Black Hawk, also known as the Crab Hawk for its food choices are -  crabs, crayfish and amphibians. It hunts low along streams and sometimes wading in the water.

St Vincent have Queen Elizabeth on their bank notes and stamps so like us will be seeing many changes. 

1987: 40th Anniv of Wedding of Queen Elizabeth and 150th Anniv of Queen Victoria's Accession

The Queen and the christening of Prince Charles, we will have to get used to calling him King Charles. Weird to hear the national anthem as God Save the King at her Remembrance service in St Paul's Cathedral this week  She had a unique relationship to St Vincent as in all her duties  relating to the islands she spoke an acted as their constitutional monarch - Queen of St Vincent and the Grenadines and not as Queen of the UK.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Black - See It On A Postcard