Corbière Lighthouse, Jersey

Believe it or not, the cards I shall post here today have been in my draft section since last July... I mean, maybe I could have waited until it reached the one year anniversary after all, as one of my greatest blogging 'achievements'...

How I ended up in that situation I'm not quite sure... but well, as you can see, haven't been the most regular blogger in the first place, so it shouldn't come as a surprise.

But lets cut the rant, now that these cards have finally deserved to see the light of the day... and for today the subject of postcards is Lighthouses! One of my all time favourite topics... and the favourite topic of many people out there :)

First is the Corbière Lighthouse from Jersey, which I ended up receiving twice... once as a swap with Martin and once as a surprise from Janek :)
It is located at the extreme south-western point of Jersey in St. Brélade. The name means "a place where crows gather" even though seagulls have long since displaced the crows from their coastal nesting sites.

The rocks and extreme tidal variation around this stretch of Jersey's coast have been treacherous for navigation and La Corbière has been the scene of many shipwrecks, including that of the mail packet "Express" on 20 September 1859.

As I said, I have received this card twice, and both came with lovely stamps.
The stamp above on the right is from a set of four Christmas stamps issued in 1999 (never would have guessed this was a Christmas stamp unless written on it). The one of the left is from a set of 6 transport stamps issued in 1998, with this one showing the Morris Bus.

Regarding the other two stamps - the one on the left is from a set of 8 Wild Flowers stamps issued in 2005, showing the lesser knapweed (Centaurea nigra). The other one is from 2007 from another set of Wild Flowers stamps, showing the Shrubby St. John's Wort (Hypericum androsaemum).

Fonds de Gras, Luxembourg

I started with a train card, so lets end it with a train card... and the funny thing is that this train card arrived without the address number as well - Agi couldn't have done it better, even if she had tried :D

The  card shows the "Train 1900" which runs between Pétange and Fond-de-Gras, on the former "Mining Line". The train line was opened in 1874 in order to transport the iron ore extracted from neighbouring mines.
Historically, the Fond-de-Gras was one of the most important mining centres in Luxembourg. A few years after the closure of the last mine at the Fond-de-Gras in 1964, a few volunteers worked to preserve part of the railway line with the aim of operating a tourist train on the line. The first train ran in 1973.

at first I thought this stamp showed a bottle of perfume so I was even trying to sniff it... will just have to add this to my list of nonsense-I-have-done.
It is in fact from a set of 3 stamps issued in 2015 representing the National Museum of History and Art.

So, the storm didn't come after all, but at least I have used the time wisely :D

Aginice, hvala ti na sve ove divne razglednice i markice! Nadam se da se vidimo opet, prije ili kasnije! :*

And thank you all for stopping by. Make sure to check again soon, or not so soon, for another just regular no-fairy update :)

Nick Cave

Well, one more celebrity for today and that is Mr. Nick Cave - I don't think any introduction is necessary here.

I had the chance to see him live last October in Belgrade, but due to the fact I got my ticket rather late, no good seats were left, so I had to watch it a bit from above. And at first I didn;t really mind that until the concert actually happened. Those who know me, know that I always always get tickets for the fan-pit section and always try to make it to the first row.
And now, one of the rare times I didn't, I was just helplessly watching how Mr. Cave was coming down and walking between the audience, and even worse, asking the first few rows to come up on stage and sing the songs with him. I was literally grieving out there :))

just so you know what I'm talking about :(

Now he would be playing again at the InMusic Festival this year, but most probably I won't be going. Too many good events this year, and not enough money for it all so I just have to be selective =/
But not complaining, cos at least there are some good events in the first place :)

Well, thank you so much for taking today's journey with me. Maybe it was of your likes, maybe it wasn't... but it was nice to share with you a little piece of my little wonderland.

Antwerpen, Belgium

The one before the last is a card from a mini meeting in Antwepen that took place on August 7th, 2015.

The card was sent by dear Valentina, who often surprises me with something in the mailbox :)
The card shows St. James' Church, a former Collegiate church in Antwerp, built on the site of a hostel for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. The present building is the work of the Waghemakere family and Rombout Keldermans, in Brabantine Gothic style. The church contains the grave of Rubens in the eastern chapel.

The guy on the left, Karel van de Woestijne, is from a set of 4 Culture Edition stamps issued in 1978, while King Albert should be from 1998.

Thank you so much for thinking of me Valentina!  ❤

New York, USA

Another surprise card, this time from dear Agi and her last year's trip to the US....when I do the math, feels like she's seen half the world so far...I wonder when or IF i will ever achieve that (well whichever way you turn it, she will always be ahead of me anyways :)

The card shows a scene from the Central Park in NY, a place which I don't know, is inevitably mentioned in every single movie set in NY....or at least that's my impression of it :)

It is said to be the most visited park in the entire USA, with 40 million visitors in 2013.  With 341 ha in size, it definitely seems like there is plenty to do and see here.

the stamp is the 2014 Christmas one, showing the Evergreen Wreath.

Hvala ti puno Aginice! :*

Westport, Ireland

A card showing the Irish town of Westport, in the Mayo County. It arrived as a surprise from Lynda, for the FB Surprise Group.

With its urban population is around 5500 people, Westport is also a popular tourist destination and scores highly for Quality of Life.  It has won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition ( never knew competitions like this existed...we would score pretty low on it) three times in 2001, 2006 and 2008; in 2012 it also won the Best Place to Live in Ireland competition run by The Irish Times.

In the back, you can see the Croagh Patrick Mountain, which is a famous pilgrimage mountain.

Westport's name in Irish, "Cathair na Mart", has the meaning of "stone fort of the beeves".

An adorable stamp!! (quite expensive postage that is...)
It shows a very cute otter from a set of 4 definitives issued in 2015.

Thanks a lot Lynda! :)

Victoria, Malta

Silvan sent me this card from a philatelic exhibition in Malta.

I have previously shown a card from the citadel in Victoria - here you can also see it in the background, but also have  wider glimpse of the town.
Victoria is actually the capital of Gozo, the second island of Malta.....but it is funny how if you mention just Gozo, many people are simply lost...

Here you can see the special cancellation from the exhibition. The stamp is from a set of 3 issued in 2015, showing National feasts. This particular one is also a SEPAC issue.

Happy Birthday Mr. Gahan!!

In the spring of 1962, on 9 May, a baby came to this world that eventually grew up to a handsome man, started singing in a band and ended up changing my life forever. And that man celebrates his 54th birthday today!

Last year a man from down under asked me for swapping blank cards in an envelope...in general I reject those, but when I notice he had Depeche Mode cards for trade, my rule immediately became an exception :D And thanks to that today I can "toast" to Mr. Gahan's 54th birthday here on the blog!

Thank you Dave for all the energy and emotions ever conveyed through your or DM's songs and to the most fantastic performances on stage. However, as much as I appreciate your solo-career, nothing will ever come close to what Depeche Mode means to me :)

btw, if anyone has ever wondered the meaning behind my email address, this post may give a clue ;-)

from Gahan's last album with Soulsavers (my favourite song from it - it's what mostly resembles the darkness and beauty of DM)

Trains, Czech Republic

well, get ready for a longish post full of train cards from the Czech Republic, all coming with a whole variety of lovely Czech stamps....and you know, it was while selecting the cards for this post that I realized the huge number of Czech train cards I have received...my initial idea was like to post them all but that turned out absolutely inconvenient...so I decided to stick to a small part of it...

and first comes a card I received from Monika last year...
This illustration, showing the 220.1, the oldest locomotive in the Czech Republic, produced in 1858 and it was issued as a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first train to Prague Masaryk Station.

the stamp on the left was issued in 1995 in a set of two 'Homeland' stamps, with this one showing the Panska Skala, also known as the Lord's Rock, while the other stamp was issued in 2013, commemorating th 400th Anniversary of the Bible of Kralice.



Next is a card I received from Katka in 2012...

The modern blue and white one is called Pendolino and is considered as the fastest train in the Czech Republic (well at least it was when this card was mailed). The other one is a regular train (and as Katka says, not very comfortable), bearing the logo of Poštovní spořitelna, one of the banks in the country...so it is something like an advertisement train...

both stamps here were issued in 2011....the one on the left was issued in 2011 for the Children's Day, showing the Little Witch, a feature film by Zdeněk Smetana...the other one is from the Young Animals series and shows the European Hamster.


The title of this one translates into "Full Steam ahead into the New Year"...I don't know if this was meant as a New Year greeting card or what, but I do like the correlation :)

sent by Radana for the Favourites Tag in 2013, this card shows the 354 195, CSD Steam locomotive, manufactured in 1925 by ČKD (Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk).

a beautiful car stamp showing the Mercedes Benz 540, manufactured in 1936. the stamp is from a set of 6 Classic Cars stamps issued in 2012.


This steam engine was sent by Milan on the very last day in 2010 for the Czecho-Slovakia meets the world tag...

it shows the U 46.001 Steam Engine train on one of the few narrow-gauge railways in the Czech Republic, near the town of Jindřichův Hradec in South Bohemia.

3 stamps here (don't be fooled by the big one which came with the...well, I dont know if this is the vignette or the selvage but it comes as a nice addition - the stamp in question was issued in 2010, and it is from a joint issue with Luxembourg, commemorating the 700th Anniversary of the Succession of Luxembourg to the Czech Throne.
The one on the right is from 2000 from the Zodiac series, representing the Virgo, while the flower stamp is from a set of two issued in 2007.
It's been a while since I've seen Milan around, I hope he is doing fine :)



One from Radim for the June-November RR in 2012...

the card shows the IC 141 "Detvan" Praha-Zvolen train, which has just left the Ústí nad Orlicí station on 14 September 2006.
The 151014-8  Locomotovie (the Prague depot) in the Czech Railways was the only locomotive of this series, which had the advertising painting of Poštovní spořitelna in of 2006. Five other locomotives of the series 362/363 propagated also this company, while other vehicles were then given advertising stickers of this financial institution.

a stamp issued for the Olympic Games in London in 2012.




And a train card which I often confuse with the one above since they like bear the same colours and I often get to confuse them, but just now I realized it is because of that famous Poštovní spořitelna that they are advertising...

Sent in 2014 from someone called Erika or something...on behalf of Goran...and now I cant recall if I have ever figured out which Goran was in question here, since I know two who could potentially be involved in such a surprise...so I dont know now if i had ever thanked the right Goran...shame on me =/

from the back of the card:
Six red yellow locomotives (advertising colors of Poštovní spořitelna) were seen in 2006 on the Czech rails. It was three locomotives of the series 362, two locomotives of the series 363 and a locomotive of the series 151. The color scheme came from the Konting advertising studio.
On 13 September 2006, the locomotive 362121-6  Locomotive (from the Brno depot) was seen at the front of the fast train R 878 Brno - Česká Třebová, Praha near the stop Tatce.

and a fantastic Mucha stamp issued in 2010 in a set of two, commemorating 150 years since his birth !!


now comes a card that I dont know what did it actually go through on its journey, to arrive in such a condition in the end..

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This express steam train dates back to 1917, which for that time was considered as the company's largest and most modern machine and had its last journey somewhere in the mid-60s.

at least the stamps didn't suffer some greater damage....three nice ones...starting from the left, issued in 2010, from the "For the Children" series, here we have a stamp commemorating Helena Zmatlíková, one of the leading Czech female illustrators of children's books.
In the middle there is a Chrysantemum stamp issued in 2011, and at the right we have the Christmas stamp from 2011.


Hope you are holding on, since there are three cards left....

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an official card, showing the CD 715 001 (T426 001) rack diesel locomotive.

a nice stamp issued in 2013 commemorating Franz Kafka on a stamp which portrays a realistic-looking beetle. As a symbol of relentless metamorphosis, not always for the better, the beetle is set in austere, even unsympathetic modules.



Another card from Radim...

...where again you can see the Pendolino...

...and two nice stamps on the back..the one on the left is from the EUROPA issue from 1999 on National Parks, and here you can see the Šumava National Park. The other stamp was issued in 2007 and comes from a fantastic sheet on which the White Carpathian Mountains and Orchid Meadows Unesco Biosphere Reservation. On this particular stamp you can see the Ophrys holosericea.



aaaand as promised few cards above, here comes the last one for today..

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an official card sent by the Raab Family, showing the 310 006 Locomotive..

...which came with three lovely stamps (in case you have followed this post from start till end, maybe you noticed that all the stamps shown were different, no repetitions or such :)).
Anyways, the first stamp is from a set of three Old Aeroplanes, issued in 1996. The middle one was issued in 2003, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the First Electric Railroad Connection, while the last one is from 2000, showing a train from 1900 with a steam locomotive, service coach and carriages for passengers - it is from the set of two stamps for the Transport issue, comparing the Railway of 1900 and 2000.


so, no more trains for today, promise :D

Yuri Gagarin, Russia

well, apart from the Italian maxi card, some Russian cards of course...well a bunch of them actually....though I still have this feeling that I must have overlooked some :)

if you are not such a Gagarin fan, maybe you love Russian stamps....and this post has plenty of beautiful ones to show...
But before I get down to that, just wanted to show a picture of Yuri's night here in Skopje (it is an event organized throughout the world), and this time it was organized by the Russian Embassy here which I thought would be something spectacular, but was utterly boring but at least I got to meet some of my astronomy buddies and other friends....and at least pose for the picture with Gagarin....thanks to Iskra for the picture :)

and after the introduction lets get down to the cards....where for some I have NO idea how I have obtained them....yeah, blank cards....and the very first one is of such kind....

Found it in the 2010 pile, and it says it was issued by the State Institution of culture of Moscow, "The Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics".....other than that, it says "Yuri Gagarin - the first cosmonaut of the planet fulfilled the age-old dream of the Mankind about flight to space. On April 12th, 1961 spacecraft 'Vostok' with Yuri Gagarin on the board, made one Earth orbit and successfully landed. The era of manned space flight has begun.

well, as I said, it is blank, so no stamps nor any idea who sent it to me....


Now, when it comes to the next one, I have two copies of it, one received for the WOTM in 2012 from Alexandra, and the other one as part of a swap from Ekaterina in...unfortunately I cannot read the cancellation...

but both are written and stamped, so a few words about the stamps now...

on the first one we have one of the Russian Kremlins' stamps from 2009 (the Moscow Kremlin) and the other one is from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2011, for the Olympic Games in Sochi, showing Krasnaya Polyana, the only ski-resort at the Black Coast.

on the other card we have another of the Russian Kremlins' stamps  (the Rostov one) and three more - there are two stamps from the set of 5 issued in 2005, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of A.I.Mikoyan...and the one on the right, issued in 2008 in a set of 4 stamps showing the Decorative-Aplied Arts of Dagestan.



next we have another blank card from 2010...with a smiling Yuri! ♥

now this one is not a maxi-card, even though at first glance it may seem so...

the sender, Natalia, had designed it herself, and she says this was her first designer's experience with a retro photo....well done Natalia!! And thank you for sending it to me! :

and she used nice stamps too....two more of the Russian Kremlins (haha, maybe by the end of the post I will have them all :P) - here you can see the Zarask Kremlin and the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, and also a fantastic stamp issued in 2010, showing the Curonian spit...and if you actually touch it, you can feel the rough sandy-surface!


Next is probably one of the most iconic Gagarin pictures, where he is holding a dove...but in general there is a trend of famous people being photographed with doves, promoting peace and all...

blank card unfortunately...



another one with this super-charming Gagarin smile :D

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received this one as an official from Elena in 2014 (I also have a blank copy, so if anyone is interested, let me know).

and among the three stamps here, we also have a matching one with Gagarin!!! Issued in 2009, for the 75th anniversary since his birth...we also have one of the 2008 definitives, and one from one of my favourite Russian cartoons with Karlson - it comes from a set of 4 cartoons' stamps issued in 2012.


Ok, i think we are like half-way through, and next comes a card dear Maria sent me in 2010

It was indeed issued to commemorate April 12th, and the world's first spaceman!



Next is probably one of my favourite Gagarin cards where you can see him in the company of Gina Lollobrigida at the Second Moscow International Movie Festival in 1961

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Received it from Polina in 2011, when Russia still had 6-digit IDs :)

On the stamp you can see another one of the Kremlins - the Ryazan Kremlin.


A card I received in 2012 from Anna for the wishlist-tag...

The English translation on the back of the card says "Long Live the Son of the Communist Party"!
I don't know how come the translation has the word 'communist' in it...or maybe it is understandable it refers to the communist party...but I do somewhat disagree with such wilful addition/omission of words..

anyways, the card comes with a nice stamp issued in 2011, showing the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve.


this next card is from the same series as the one above...an official received last year, sent by Larisa and Anastasia...sisters I guess :)

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the English translation says, "We are creative and friendly and clever, we're making space to be peaceful forever"! 

which word means 'clever' in Russian here? 

one more Kremlin stamp :D it shows the Astrakhan Kremlin. There is also one from the 2008 defintivies and one Sochi stamp from the set of 15 issued in 2014, showing all the different disciplines.


The next-to-last....

...received from Irina for the (no-more-existing) Favourites RR.
I wonder what's going through Gagarin's pensive head here....

A gorgeous stamp with Orcinus Orca from the set of two whales' stamps issued in 2012....and another 2008 definitive.


And this last card for this post, and today came as a surprise from dear Katya in 2013

another pensive Gagarin-look....probably before take-off :)

Here you can again see the Moscow Kremlin and another beautiful stamp issued in 2013 in a set of 3 Contemporary Russian Art stamps.


Sorry Yuri for the delay in this post....but I hope it still counts :)

and wishing you all a nice weekend....yeah sorry, that would be all for today, but I just wanted to make one update dedicated to Gagarin...I will try to come back soon with a new regular kind of update...promise! :)