Islands in the Sun

 

2007: Island Jewels

Head for the sunny beaches of Rottnest Island.  It is also the place to see lots of cute quokka.

Maria Island, Tasmania, not only long sandy beaches, mountains and wildlife it is a World Heritage Australian Convict Site. Deported as punishment and wake up in paradise, eventually. Kangaroo Island off the south coast of Australia, I wonder what we will find there😀

Green Island a coral cay at the heart of the Great Barrier Reef.

1980: International Conference for Tourism, Manila

The subtropical island of Madeira, "the pearl of the Atlantic", as the card suggests it has an abundance and variety of fruit, something it shares in common with

1955: Landscapes

the Caribbean island of Martinique. This island however has an active volcano, it and the surrounding forests are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Heading away from the islands to France where the 'Race to the Sun'  begins today, a classic cycling stage race from Paris through France's mountainous centre and which will eventually arrive on to the sunlit riviera of Nice on the 16th March.

2015: Extreme Sports

A cooling activity for the heat of high summer in Portugal, white water rafting.

Sunday Stamps theme - Warm Location Vacations - soak up the sun at  See It On A Postcard

Education for All

1999: Millennium - The Citizens' Tale

The Right to Learn

1953: People's Education Plan

brought into law

1955: Five Year Plan

and maybe a five year plan.  Books required and

1936: Tercentenary of Utrecht University

knowledge will be gained.  Here is Athene, personification of wisdom, and how appropriate that all these years later than the stamp Utrecht University today run a digital data portal to encourage interdisciplinary research into biodiversity called ATHENE. It is open to everyone both academic and citizen scientists.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Education - learn more at See It On A Postcard

Birds

 

1997: Bird Conservation

Room with a view for a White-tailed tropic bird, Bermuda is the farthest north it nests where the islanders call it - longtail

1959: Defintive

Travel way down to the bottom of the planet to meet the Brown Skua in Antarctica, the top avian predator;  watch out baby penguin

2003, 2004 and 2002: Birds of Portugal

Lets have a splash of colour. Here is the Western sub-alpine warbler, European bee-eater and a golden oriel. Love a brightly coloured bird

1969: Airmail - Taiga Bean Geese

but to make the heart lift then a skein of geese flying across the sky takes a lot of beating

1966: Protection of Birds

although at the moment am looking out for the arrival of the Swallows, reported in the south of the country so I'm on excitable high alert for these birds bringing the promise of long warm days ahead.

1977: Birds of Hortobagy National Park

Purple Heron in one of Europe's largest National Parks which offers many spectacular birding sights in the sky.  The sun sets

1960: Waterbirds

and the moon rises. The Black crowned night heron comes into its own at dusk and through the night 

1967: Birds of Prey

if lucky a barn owls cry might be heard in the still of the night.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Birds -  on the wing at See It On A Postcard

Portugal

 

2014: Year of Crystallography (Design - P Antunes)

I struck lucky with this stamp for the letter P , there are quite a few in the Patterson function. Not only solving my problem but in crystallography as  it solves the phase problem in crystal structure analysis of molecules containing heavy atoms. A bit of mathematical brilliance from Arthur Lind Patterson (1902-1966).  Portugal were very enthusiastic about the Year of Crystallography as they issued 5 stamps and a souvenir sheet.

1979: Europa - Post and Telecommunications

Only one P for Portugal on these stamps but the subject is one we all love - the post arriving.

 

Sunday Stamp II theme this week is - the Letter P - pop over for more at See It On A Postcard

Cityscapes

1967: International Tourist Year (Design - Cyril Bouda)

Time to take a city break and visit historic Brno. On the left is the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul on Petrov Hill which dominates the skyline and I think the building in the middle is the Town Hall clock tower. There sure are a lot of spires which I observe stamp designers particularly enjoy drawing. In this instance the designer is the illustrator and artist Cyril Bouda (1901-1984) whose own postal design life was celebrated on a stamp in 1989.  To cheat a little bit with a stamp I do not own here is a piece of Bouda's art

and who would not want to sit outside the Sans-Souci Bar in Nimes and enjoy a coffee or something stronger.

1961: Centenary of the City of Setúbal (Design - Candido da Costa Pinto)

If one wanted to combine the pleasure of city within reach of sandy beaches and a harbour front then travel to Setúbal on the Sado River Estuary and perhaps watch a pod of dolphins play nearby. The stamp features the city's coat of arms.

1994: The 1200th Anniversary of Frankfurt (Design - Ernst Kößlinger)

 Here the designer gets to combine old and new with both towers and skyscrapers in Frankfurt.

2003: German Cities (Design - Fiedler)

The beautiful facades of Görlitz town houses in Altstadt make an appearance on this German stamp.  In 1945 Görlitz had survived the destruction of the war but the redrawing of boundaries divided the city resulting in the left bank of the river being in Germany and the right bank in Poland so one can combine two countries united within the European Union in one visit.  The city has provided many film directors with locations including Wes Anderson's visual delight The Grand Budapest Hotel.

1997: Definitives - Hong Kong Skyline (Design - Kan, Tai-keung)

The lights are coming on so it is time to go out on the town.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter C - for Czechoslovakia, cities and centenary - See It On A Postcard

Post Carriers

2013: Europa- Postman's Van

We've come to the letter P so it was irresistible for me to feature post.  Lisbon's iconic Belem Tower graces this miniature sheet featuring the Groupil G3 electric van both at rest and in action in what looks a very ergonomic side access for the postie.  The wonderful posthorn and rider symbol on the van reminds me of the days when transport of mail was more difficult

1963: Centenary of Paris Postal Conference

and the stagecoach is a perennial favourite with stamp designers for which must be an irresistible combination of horses, people, ornate carriages and speed.

1964: Stamp Day (Designer A Heidrich; Engraver: Barbara Kowalska)

This 18th Century Stagecoach is from a painting by Jozef Brodowski and I am not sure if this is the elder Brodowski or younger, I suspect the latter because of the horses that appear in his paintings. I wonder where the carriage is heading?  Perhaps it is Poznan

1960: Historic Polish Cities (Designer W Chomicz; Engraver Eugeniusz Tirdiszek

where you can see the stagecoach entering stage left as it powers over the bridge towards the cathedral's bell towers in an age when they could never have dreamed of something like airmail.

2014: Aircraft Serving the Azores (Designer Francisco Galamba)

The first civilian test flight to the Azores was a Boeing sea plane in the 1930s which was 'only' carrying mail but this is a propeller driven Lockheed Constellation from the 1950s at the newly opened Santa Maria Airport.

1940: Centenary of the First Adhesive Postage Stamp - Penny Black

So stick on your stamps

2010: World Post Day (Design Maciej Jędrysik)

and these guys will take and deliver.  The illustrator Maciej Jędrysik's webpage shows this stamp as part of the integrated set and a FDC of a tightrope walking postie here (page down half way). His front page with other illustrations is here.  

Sunday Stamps II is at the letter P - for Poland, Portugal, Post, Poznan, Plane, Propeller and Postage Stamp gallop over to See It On A Postcard for more things starting with the Letter P.  
  .

Western Shores

The wonderfully ornate Belem Tower (built in 1515) guards the entrance to Lisbon's harbour on this Maximum Card.  There will be no postal deliveries to the fort but Portugal's biggest urban centres  such as Lisbon and Porto have seen a postal vehicle silently gliding through the streets since 2011

2013: Europa - Postman's Van

which is the environmentally friendly electric Groupil G3 seen on the stamp issued to celebrate the Postman's Van, the cancel made me see the battery instantly and then notice it on the stamp.

Having sailed along the River Tagus and left Lisbon's harbour. given a wave to the tourists on the top of Belem Tower on the way past, then hugged the Atlantic coastline of Portugal and Spain it takes us ultimately to the calmer waters of the Mediterranean after calling in at its gateway, Gibraltar.    

2012: Europa - "Visit"

A popular stopping off place for cruise ships and yachts.

The stamps 10p and 44p stamps show aerial views while the 42p takes us to the top of the rock and the Moorish Castle's Tower (built AD711).

To plunge to the depths of St Michael's Cave with its stalagmites and stalactites (51p), out into the sunlight again and the (54p) Europa Point lighthouse, which at Gibraltar's most southerly location looks towards Africa. Lastly the 66p shows Eliott's Column in the Alameda Botanical Gardens.  The column was erected to the memory of George Elliot who commanded the British garrison and fortress during The Great Siege of 1779-1783 against the forces of Spain and France in the American War of Independence.

Sunday Stamps II theme - Western Hemisphere - Go West for more at See It On A Postcard     

Horses

Horses are a popular theme for GB stamps in a variety of guises, the latest in the long line of these favourites were the 2014 Working Horses set here shown on a FDC with a galloping Clydesdale.

The stamps show 1st - Riding for the Disabled, 1st - The King's Troop Ceremonial Horses (the 111 horses based in London are always seen on state occasions) and £1.28 Forestry Horses (my local logger uses Dales ponies).

88 - Royal Mews Carriage Horses, 88 - Dray Horses (the stamp shows the Hook Norton Brewery dray which regularly delivers beer barrels by shire horse in the village of Hook Norton in Oxforshire and for nostalgia fans there is also a Victorian steam engine in the brewery) Lastly £1.28 - Police Horses, of fascination to visiting foreign fan to football matches who like to have their picture taken with them. This is not the first time police horses have been on GB stamps but lets see a more famous mounted force,

the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Although the cancel is indistinct on this definitive stamp happily the year it travelled stands out.

1989: Horses

Poland issued a set of famous horse breeds, of which I only have two featuring a white Lipizzaner, the dancing white horses of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna and an English Thoroughbred, a breed that was also included in the Royal Mail's  1978 Horses set   

designed by the wildlife artist Patrick Oxenham. 

2009: The Lusitano Horse

The Portuguese Lusitano horse got a whole set to itself, known for its bravery and agility it is considered by Portugal to be a cultural living treasure.  The first stamp shows 'Working Equitation' which involves all sorts of maneuvers of horse and rider, the next is horse education which to my eyes looks like a high speed dressage. Lastly bullfighting, nothing gets killed in the Portuguese version.

The left stamp above says Alta Escola which translates as high school and I think  may refer to the Royal Riding School of Lisbon, established in the 18th Century. Lastly the Google translate of Atrelagem de competicao is the rather impenetrable 'coupling of competition'.  I think it is the sport of Carriage Driving.

Continuing the Portuguese theme here are a couple of cavalinho (little horse) definitive stamps from the 1950s which refer to both the horse and the small size of the stamps.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - horses - for more gallop over to See It On A Postcard