Lord Ganesha

Of all the Hindu deities Ganesha must be one of the most recognisable ones. He is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. Newly he is typically shown with his forward right hand towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness; the forward left hand holding a delicacy, while the back hands hold an axe (or sometimes a goad) and a pasha (noose). Thank you Abhay for this colourful card :)

This is a post for Sunday Stamps - letter J. I was browsing trough my scans for joint issues, and came across this stamp on the right presenting Jarabe Tapatio. In joint issues there are representations of one topic by two different countries, and this way you get to see some sombreros and china poblanas alongside some more typical Indian issues. Jarabe Tapatio is internationally known as the Mexican Hat Dance; it represents the courtship between a man and a woman, with the woman first rejecting the advances, then eventually accepting them. A video of the dance would be nice to see wouldn't it...I'll have a search. And you can see more J-entries on Sunday Stamps here.

UNESCO - Place Stanislas, Nancy, France

This UNESCO site actually comprises three different squares, but I'll have to get there myself it seems, to be able to get all the postcards :D Here is the Hotel de Ville or the City Hall on Place Stanislas, a part of a carefully conceived project in the 18th century that succeeded in creating a capital that was both prestigious and functional. Thank you dear Sylvia for sending this card, but also for attaching these great stamps - which now I can present on Sunday Stamps :)

Today, for letter H - a Heart-shaped stamp, issued in 2000 for Valentine's Day. The French Post is not a stranger to issuing heart-shaped stamps, as are not many other national Posts (including Croatian), but this is one of the few ones I have received on a piece of mail. It is from a set of two dedicated to the great fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. I was wondering if he popularised the red lipstick? In my attempt to find out, I've learnt that it were possibly ancient Sumerian men and women who invented and wore lipstick first. Now that was about 5000 years ago!

I have actually struggled to find a stamp to present G last sunday, so I've skipped it. It seems I could have shown this cute stamp on the right as it is an image taken by the famous (baby) photographer Anne Geddes. It is from a set of two issued in 2004, this one is celebrating a birth of a baby girl, and there is one for a baby boy too. The same theme was issued in 2005 also. I have to say, exploring stamps for this blog has opened my eyes, the French Post prints some amazing issues, and they are plentiful! Its just that you never imagine it, mostly receiving the definitives on postcards.

Find more interesting H-stamps following this link.

Punta Arenas, Chile

Here you can see the largest city south of the 46th parallel, Punta Arenas. It is the capital of Chile's southernmost region Magellanas and Antarctica Chileana, and one of only two free ports in the country. As the kind sender Ramon mentioned, there are also Croatian landmarks in the city, as many have migrated there between the two wars.

There is not only Chile on these stamps, but also a popular comic book character Condorito, read throughout the whole of the South America - I am not entirely sure where I first 'met' him, but I think it might have been Ecuador, although he was 'born and raised' in a fictional Chilean town of Pellotilehue (and he is as old as my mum :)). I even bought one of the comic books as a souvenir, hmm now I wonder where i put it...And this is the third and the last entry for this week's Sunday Stamps, letter C! I guess I either skip it or overdo it *grin*

Titan Arum Flower, Indonesia

Amorphophallus Titanium or the Titan Arum is a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. Due to its odour, which is like the smell of a rotting corpse, it is characterised as a carrion flower and also goes by the name of corpse plant. I must say I am very intrigued by this and would love to see/smell it myself...once in a lifetime would be enough I'm guessing..!

The stamp shows a creature I have never heard of before, or rather I thought so far Cuscus is only something you eat heh. But here it is, or more precisely a Black-Spotted Cuscus, which is sadly critically endangered...and difficult to spot in the wild, which resulted in this very stamp being the only image of it on Wikipedia. And that's a second C for this week's Sunday Stamps' A-Z challenge :)

Pink Anemone, Great Barrier Reef

It is actually because I came across Sunday Stamps that I thought to myself - it would be nice to post something again..! This sunday it is letter C's turn in the A-Z challenge, and I have managed to find quite a few fitting stamps on (some older) postcards; here from 2011 a beautiful underwater theme from dear Heather, who attached three Cocos (Keeling) Islands stamps; from the set of no less than 20, issued also in 2011 and titled (very aptly I might add) Colours of Cocos (Keeling) Islands. These show 1) a Giant Clam and a Soft Coral 2) Spotfin Lionfish 3) Pink Anemonefish - the latter also known as Pink Skunk Clownfish, and is matching the postcard perfectly :)

A few words also on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands...it is an Australian external territory in the Indian ocean, comprising a small archipelago halfway between Australia and Sri Lanka, closer to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The islanders do have a degree of self-government through the local shire council, while many public services (health, education, policing, etc) are provided by the state of Western Australia. The overall population is just over 600, mainly ethnic Malays. As the territory consists of two atolls made up of 27 coral islands, no wonder they need 20 stamps to show off what they've got..!

Life In The Nile Valley

As I've noticed its letter 'P' today for Sunday Stamps I thought of the pyramids, but hey lucky chance I got some Pharaohs as well :) Took a bit of digging to find out what exactly these were, definitives from 2002: Statue of Pharaoh Sesostris III, Pyramids of Sneferu (Sneferu was a founder of a great dynasty and had three pyramids built in Dahshur, all happening in the 2nd millenium BC), and Mask of the Pharaoh Psusennes I (made of gold and lapis lazuli). 

Postcard received for the wishlist tag - and I guess I had donkeys on my wishlist as usual :) Dear Farah thank you for this card, I haven't seen you for a while I hope all is well x.

 

Lappi Tastes, Finland

As the sender wrote: this card shows some wonderful delicacies from Lapland; sauteed reindeer meat, Finnish squeaky cheese (leipäjuusto) with cloudberry jam, and of course some coffee by the campfire. I must admit I am intrigued by the cheese! Thank you Virpi :)

The stamp shows the Linnansaari National Park, situated in the heart of the Finnish Lake District - on the Haukivesi Lake. A large part of the island is natural-state coniferous forest, with some herb-rich parts. The critically endangered Saimaa Ringed Seal inhabits the park.

Kiyomizu-dera In Autumn, Japan

Kiyomizu-dera is an independent buddhist temple in eastern Kyoto, a part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto UNESCO whs. The temple was founded in 788, and its present buildings were constructed in 1633 - there is not a single nail used in the entire structure. It was one of 21 finalists for the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.

I notice with perplexity that it has been over three years now that I have posted about Japan. Today I've chosen this card because of the Sunday Stamps theme: letter 'i'. Many Japanese stamps could be posted in relation as many are fabulous illustrations - but more specifically the top stamp was issued for the 61st Inter-Parliamentary Conference which was held in Tokyo in 1974 (I have to admit I'd never guess this stamp is that old). I don't really follow but the most prominent of the world's political issues, maybe I have heard of IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) before but I certainly didn't make a note of it. IPU was founded in 1889 and was the first permanent forum for political multilateral negotiations.

I love the fact that the stamp matches the view's autumn colours (thank you Yuko), as does one of the cancellations (I do wonder why there are two). The artwork is Passion (1934) by Kawabata Ryushi. More interesting (!) ideas for the letter 'i' hide behind the link for Sunday Stamps :)

That's Amore

It so coincided that I was looking into some older postcards to post today, and also came across Ana's entry for Sunday Stamps which is about letter H. In this case H stands for 'Hrvatska', which is the native name for our country Croatia. Some philately enthusiasts might be interested in the fact that the light blue stamp at the top is the very first stamp issued in modern-day Croatia, back in 1991. The rest of the stamps were issued in 1992, and I feel very pleased to have all these on postcards - them being from the time when my main hobby was writing letters rather than exchanging postcards. One of my penpals from Zagreb liked sending postcards with love theme...such postcards are hard to find these days, if impossible. 

I haven't participated in Sunday Stamps (link) for quite some time, today it was more of a lucky chance, I hope to make a habit of it again. I am sure there is more interesting H-stuff to check via the link, I mean I know there is ;)