Long Bay Beach, British Virgin Islands

Been having an "itchy" keyboard for days and weeks (ahem, have no idea if it is appropriate to use itchy in such an expression but oh well, you get my point). And as usual, so much going on, combined with my overall disorganization, leads to no blog posts, and postcards just piling and piling up....*sigh*...I don't know if those 'time management' training courses work, but sometimes I do consider signing up for one...
anyways, due to the above mentioned reasons I haven't been so active in the postcrossing world either...with some exceptions *cough cough cough* but I hope to get back on track in the following days...along with showing you the beauties arriving in my mailbox...and for today Ill start by bragging with this card I received like over a month ago...my very first written and stamped card from the British Virgin Islands!!!! Yaaaaay!! I received one from the US Virgin Islands long long ago...but it had to be years before the British ones could be added to the collection as well =)
and thats all thanks to Pat the world traveler! If I can't travel the world, at least Im happy and thankful to know people who can and who send me postcards from there!

Pat seems to have enjoyed and relaxed and maybe had a couple of cocktails at this beautiful Long Bay Beach on the island of Tortola, which is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands.
The BVI Tourism describes it as a mile-long stretch of white sand beach fringed with palms and sea grapes, perfect for a tranquil sunset walk. The eastern portion is lined with a resort and guest houses, while the western end offers peaceful solitude and ideal swimming.

It is not like it makes you dream of the ocean and sandy beaches at the end of October, is it...I mean why should you...you should enjoy the cold, gloomy, freezing days of autumn/winter....

and here comes the stamp....aaaaaaaaand, it is the Queen again...sometimes she is everywhere you turn to....this stamp is from a set of 4 issued in 2006, commemorating her Majesty's 80th anniversary.

Queen or no Queen, this card is a real gem for my collection and Im endlessly thankful to Pat for that!!

Fort St. Angelo, Malta

A surprise card from dear Silvan.

I don;t know who is the actual photographer, but this whole series of cards has been taken from the same angle and I must admit that sometimes I get the feeling that it is the one same place on all of them...coz the fortifications just simply resemble one another...I mean, they are forificarions after all =)

This one here shows us the Fort of St. Angelo, which is right in the centre of the Grand Harbour.
And the back of the card says....The most impressive fortified position in the Grand Harbour, Fort St. Elmo, was the centre of the fighting that took place in the Great Siege of 1565. The fort is nowadays in the hands of the Knights of St. John whose flag proudly flies from the ramparts.
For a moment I got confused, how come now the back of the card is talking about a different fort, but I guess they just wanted to give us this history example...cos Wiki tells us about this point in history when Fort Saint Elmo was the scene of some of the most intense fighting of the 1565 siege, and during the bombardment of the fort, a cannon shot from Fort St Angelo across the Grand Harbour struck the ground close to the Turkish battery. Debris from the impact mortally injured the corsair and Ottoman admiral Dragut Reis, one of the most competent of the Ottoman commanders. The fort withstood the siege for over a month, falling to the Turks on 23 June 1565. None of the defending knights survived, and only nine of the Maltese defenders survived by swimming across to Fort St. Angelo on the other side of the Grand Harbour after Fort St Elmo fell.

So now it is all clear :)

wow! a SEPAC stamp!! It was issued this year in a set of two animals' stamps. It shows a wild rabbit, which is considered as a protected mammal in Malta.

Thanks a lot Silvan!!!

Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, USA

Next comes a cool train card from West Virginia (a not so often represented US state on this blog...and this is just my second WV card here, so it does deserve to be shown)

I received this one for the NA x World RR from Angee...lovely card! Angee says that the Cass Railroad dates back to 1901 but that you can still take rides on it.
A ride aboard a Cass steam-driven locomotive is an unforgettable thrill. The park, located in Pocahontas County, offers scenic excursion trips that give train lovers a glimpse of the state's vast Potomac Highland wilderness area. Restored early 1900's Shay, Climax and Heisler engines, pictured here, make Cass Scenic Railroad State Park America's authentic operating museum of lumber railroading.

word of the day: lumber

we have three nice stamps here from which I see the top right one for like the first time....errmm, I think...I don't wanna be mistaken like I was with those Industrial stamps...once mistaken and you start doubting yourself forever and ever :P
It is a FOREVER stamp from this year that commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln signed on January 1, 1863.
The stamp next to it is from that beautiful Earthscapes' set issued in 2012...and I guess you are familiar with George Washington's stamp from 2011.

Tartu, Estonia

I decided to end today's update with this Estonian card

I've already written about Tartu, and here now we have these two cool statues...you may be recognizing the guy on the left...one of my all time favourite writers...Oscar Wilde!! While across is an Estonian writer called Eduard Vilde...and this installation is actually called "Two Wildes" and its author is some guy called Tiiu Kirsipuu.
These two have never met, but Tiiu seems to have been inspired by their similar last name and by the fact that they also lived at about the same time. Oscar lived from 1854-1900, while Eduard from 1865 till 1933.
I've never read something by the latter and I don;t know if some of his works can be found in English here (im like more than sure it is a no-no when it comes to Macedonian). But I would really like to read something coming from his pen...and if you have some particular book to recommend, would be happy to hear about it :)
Btw, I think I have whined before about the kitschy Skopje 2014 Project...and statues and monuments are a great part of it...makes my teeth cringe, for many reasons...if you care to see more and be all WTF, just click here...and I cant help it but make comparisons...the above pictures invokes admiration...the project in my hometown...erm, definitely a descriptive word that should be censored =)
But at least the tourists often have a good laugh about it, wondering where's the sense in all that...unfortunately, I do not have the answer...I just am appalled and frustrated.

and a stamp from this year's EUROPA theme of postal vans...Estonia issued two stamps for this occasion.

well, off to seize the rest of the day =)