Space Needle, USA

hey, here comes that famous Space Needle, and two cards featuring it, where this first Did You Know card, I have absolutely no idea whom I had received it from nor when I had received it...however, it does contain a number of information primarily about Seattle, so Ill type it for you since Im not sure how well the zoom works on the images here...if there is something incorrect, I ask the Seattleites reading this blog to kindly correct it...thank you ;-)

Seattle, named after Native American Chief Sealth, was founded in 1851 by 5 courageous pioneer families homesteading from Illinois.
Seattle's first industry was timber. Logs from the surrounding old growth forests were skidded down the steep and muddy hills to Henry Yesler's mill on waterfront. This area of Seattle became appropriately referred to as "Skid Row" and the phrase soon took on a new worldwide meaning when it became associated with the seedy activities nearby (have to interfere here but to me Skid Row is a rock band from the 80's of the last century)
Seattle's first buildings were constructed on wooden pilings just above the tide flats. At high tide, a flushing toilet would sometimes cause a gushing fountain in the street, After a fire destroyed most of the city in 1889, city engineers began leveling the hills and raising the waterfront streets. Half as much dirt as was moved during the digging of the Panama Canal was pushed into Elliot Bay. Seattle's past can still be seen on the underground tours in Pioneer Square.
In 1916 when a man named Boeing launched his first float plane, Seattle's huge aircraft industry was born.
The Space Needle, built for the 1962 Century 21 World's Fair, would later become an international symbol for Seattle.
Known for its majestic colourful landscape (and occasional rainfall?) - occasional?? SERIOUSLY??? - visitors are finding out first hand that "The Emerald City" upholds its reputation as one of the nation's most livable cities.

well, no stamps on this one but yet, quite educational...

anyways, moving onto the second Space Needel card....*cough cough*...ok the card is really lengthy so it has suffered its wears and tears...problem is I am not really sure if it arrived this way or the constant moving of postcard bags and boxes around had its contribution *feeling ashamed a bit*

But it is an AWESOME card...with even more AWESOME stamps, sent by one of those Seattleites ;-)

took you a while to scroll till here, no? =)
this is what the back of the card says: "This spectacular view of the Space Needle ® was "painted" with light from a helicopter rising first up one side and then the other side. This 600 foot structure is topped by a revolving 220 seat restaurant, which will make a complete rotation each hour and will afford the visitor a breathtaking view of the lakes, mountains and salt water surrounding Seattle.


Yeah, that's definitely something Id love to see, feeling like being on the top of the world!

btw, this commemorative series is sponsored by the SPACE NEEDLE ®

aaaand...ta-dadaaaa here are the absolutely fantastic stamps!! those who know how much Im into astronomy and everything space related will surely know why im so thrilled about these! I had to put them into extra-large, so I can admire them even more.

this entire block of stamps was issued in 1981, portraying the Space Achievement and Space Flights, like exploring the moon, understanding the sun and comprehending the Universe. Stunning stunning stunning!

And there is of course a matching stamp featuring the Space Needle, issued in 1962 for the Seattle World Expo.

And now of course, the biggest THANK YOU to Bryon the Seattleite for a treat to droll over! Cant express myself how much I love it!

oh btw, if someone is interested in more Space stamps, particularly USSR ones, I posted a couple yesterday on my stamps' blog, so if you want, you can check them out here

Moose, Canada

Well, my last card for today is one of those lovely "Did you know cards" that I received back in 2009...but Ive realized Im not the only one who has cards left pending from years ago, so I dont feel THAT bad about it :)

So here what the card has to say, in order to spare you zooming and staring your eyes out while looking at the screen.

The moose (so named in North America) is the largest member of the deer family Cervidae, distinguished from the others by the palmate antlers of its males. The great length of the legs gives a decidedly lanky appearance to the moose. The muzzle is long and fleshy with only a very small triangular patch below the nostrils; and the males have a peculiar sac, known as the bell, hanging from the neck. The typical moose stands about 1.9 metres at the shoulder, only the males have antlers. Moose are found in Canadian forests from the Alaska boundary to the eastern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is estimated that there is between 500 000 and 1 million moose in Canada. In Canadian provinces, collisions with moose are frequent enough that all new highways have fences to prevent moose from accessing the road. A moose's body structure, with a large heavy body suspended on long spindly legs, makes these animals particularly dangerous when hit by motor vehicles. Such collisions are often fatal for both the moose and the motorist.

and down to the stamps....there are three samples of the Captain Robert A. Bartlett stamp, issued in 2009, while the other one is from a set of five Beneficial Insects stamps, issued in 2007 and this one here shows us a Golden-eyed Lacewing.

Thank you for following and have a great weekend everyone!  

Canada

A card which captured me and i fell in love with on the very first sight!

And its so huge that i couldnt even get a normal scan...oh yeah, this card caused me loads of trouble till it got to see the light of the day, but it was worth it. I dont know why such a fascination with it, whether coz of the blue predominant colour, or just the image, or all of it together...
ive been fascinated with the igloos when i was little...i read about them, and it was just amazing to see that people live in ice-houses, and how can they not be cold inside there...this igloo here even seems to have more sq. metres than my own house :)

I hope you are able to read the text...if not, this is what it says: Igloo is the Inuktitut word for house, The snowhouse version is a dome shaped shelter built of snow blocks. As snow is an insulator, outside temperatures may reach -45 C (-49 F) while those inside may range from -7 C (19F) to 16 C (61 F) due to warming from body heat, Lining it with skins can raise the temperature to as much as 20 C (68 F). Large igloos are built as semi-permanent homes. Normally there will be one igloo to be used for special occasions and another that is used for living. An igloo may have up to five rooms connected by tunnels with a common outside access to reduce wind and heat loss. Up to 20 people may be housed in such a structure. When the heat from the kulliq (stone lamp) melts the interior slightly it later refreezes and contributes to the strength of this already structurally sound design.

the sender of the card said that every year she tries to make an igloo with her son but something always happens to it! wow! to try and make an igloo by myself...that would be a thrill! though it wont be possible to build it here, but would love to try it wherever conditions would allow! Anyone wanna make me company, and have fun?? :D

there are also loads of great stamps! the one with the bird comes from a set of two issued in 2009 under the Preserving the Poles subject. The Primary theme is Fauna (Birds - General)
Environment & Conservation (Global Warming). If you recall that large Canadian envelope i once showed you, both of the stamps can be seen there.
The small lady bug (or lady beetle) stamp comes from a set of 5 issued in October 2007 under the subject of Beneficial Insects.
The Huge stamp in between them is from a set of 4 issued in July this year, under the name of Roadside Attractions....and the last stamp (on the very left) is also from July this year (set of 4 stamps), showing Canadian Recording Artists, where here you can see Robert Charlebois.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here is a card that a really really love! I love educational and 'did you know' cards, and this is my first 'did you know' card and its a great great great one! I know you have all at least heard about Martin Luther King....but here you can learn a bit more about him.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin acted as co-pastor. Attending segregated public schools in Georgia, he was graduated from high-school at the age of 15 and received a B.A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished institution in Atlanta.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963, and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. One the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

As for the stamps, i think you are all more than familiar with the 94c. one :). I think that Kelly used another 4c one due to the postage rise in the US...im not sure how much have the prices gone up though, but until now, all the cards i had received had a 94c. stamp...so this is my guess why there is an additional stamp of 4c. on this card.