Scenic Railway, St. Kitts

Well since the plans for the rest of the day have been cancelled, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use that time for an update here, right?? And who knows, maybe it would end up as a good thing, these cancelled plans, since it looks like a storm is approaching... once again - been having those like on daily basis now, as if someone has pushed a button and switched climates on this planet...

 As promised last time, this update will be dedicated to one of my fairies, and this time it is my dear Agi... and this post also coincides with this time of the year, cos it is the time of the InMusic Festival, but unfortunately this year I couldn't go... so no missiles fired to some mailboxes around the world either =/

And will open this post with a great train card from St. Kitts.
The Scenic Railway in St. Kitts. takes the passengers on a 3-hour tour that makes a 30-mile circle around the beautiful  island , with 18 miles by narrow gauge train and 12 miles on sightseeing buses. Built between 1912 and 1926 to transport sugar cane from the island’s sugar plantations to the sugar factory in the capital city of Basseterre, today the “Last Railway in the West Indies” provides visitors an unsurpassed opportunity to experience the scenery and culture of this unspoiled country.

there are two fruit stamps on the card, tangerines and a sugar apple - should be from a set of fruit stamps issued in 2007 but I am not 100% sure about it....

this card arrived without the address number btw but I guess I have become well known throughout the years :)))

Korkyra Lighthouse, Croatia

It took me a while to figure out which lighthouse this is since the card bears absolutely no information - and after some extensive googling, seems like I have nailed it! I didn't dare bother Agi during the festival for such a trivial question :D

This is the Korkyra lighthouse (a very cool and for me, unusual name for something located in Croatia) built in 1871 on the island Vela Sestrica in south part of Pelješac channel.
As you can see, from the card, there are rooms as well which indeed you can rent, for around 460 euros per person per night, and in return you should get some peace and quiet - yeah, tranquility does come at a certain price unfortunately...

the stamp is from a set of 4 featuring castles in Croatia - this one shows the Mailáth castle in Donji Miholjac, considered one of the most well preserved castles in Croatia.

Haghartsin, Armenia

Next is a super cool card from Armenia - a country I would really like to visit one day.

 

This is the Monastery Complex Haghartsin -  a 13th-century monastery located near the town of Dilijan in the Tavush Province of Armenia. It was built between the 10th and 13th century; much of it under the patronage of the Bagratuni Dynasty.  

The largest building and the dominant artistic feature is St. Astvatsatsin Church  

 

the stamp is from a set of 7 Forget-Me-Not Flowers issued in 2015, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Back to the neighbourhood with this lovely card from Mostar (out of all the places shown today, the only one I can say I have actually visited myself too :D)

I've written about Mostar before and nothing new I could add here for the time being, but might as well go there again one day, so would share some of those new experiences... I may as well even jump from that bridge, you never know, haha!

Agi used two really nice stamps and the one on the right makes me hungry, even though I've just eaten. It was issued in 2015, celebrating the World Food Day (16 October) - didn't even know that such a day existed - I better note it down so I can celebrate it properly next time :)))
The other stamp is from 2013, issued for the Year of the Snake.

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 :)

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Hello guys! I hope the summer weather is treating you well. Here it is already getting scorching hot during the day and I am wondering how am I gonna get through yet another unbearably hot summer (well I always do but the struggle is real :D )

So kinda appropriately, lets start with a card from a country where it is simply hot throughout the year.

Sent by Glenn from one of his cruises in 2011, from Santo Domingo, the country's capital and one of its UNESCO whs.

The city is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, and was the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World. Santo Domingo is the site of the first university, cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress in the New World.

the stamp on the left may remind you of a slice of pizza at first glance... but it isn't :) It is a City Friendship stamp from a set of two, issued in 2009. The other one, is from 1999 from a set of two New Millennium stamps.

Thank you Glenn!

Kolka, Latvia

A surprise card from dear Liza, showing the Kolka Lighthouse in Latvia.

The Kolka lighthouse is on an artificial island which was created between 1872 and 1875. The original lighthouse was made of wood, and its light was first lit in June 1875. As the island settled into the sea, the current tower was built. It began operations on July 1, 1884. It has been automated since 1979.
It is said that the Cape of Kolka on the Baltic Sea is the most dangerous place for navigation, near the Latvian coast.

And this card comes with a lighthouse stamp too, showing the Akmenrags Lighthouse, issued in 2008.

Hvala ti puno Liza!!

Estação Júlio Prestes, Brazil

An official card from 2013.

BR-254435

This is the Júlio Prestes Station, a historic railroad station building in São Paulo in Brazil. In addition to commuter rail service, Júlio Prestes Station is also a cultural arts center, with a performance space and administrative offices for state-run arts programs.
The remodeled structure, originally built in 1938, has been on the state register of protected buildings since 8 July 1999.
 The train station is named in honor of the São Paulo governor (1927–1930) and Brazilian president-elect (1930), Júlio Prestes.
(There is also a Brazilian poet with the same name and initially I thought the station was named after him. Obviously I was wrong).

If there is a stamp you quite often see from Brazil, is the trumpet one on the left (along with a few other Brazilian stamps). Issued in 2002 in a set of 5 Instrument stamps.
The other one is from 2012, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Federal University of Paraná

Cats

And for the end of today, I left these four super cool cat cards sent by Bryon, cos I don't know if you know, but for a while now, a new adorable cat has been part of our family... again. And life just makes more sense.. again.

Cos what else could you do when you see this little terrified kitten in your backyard, abandoned by its mother, yet, she protects and feeds the rest of the three kittens from the litter. It gets you both angry and overprotective, and that's how yet another story had started and the Little Bullet took a special place in my heart in an instant (She is not so little anymore. In fact, quite big and heavy for a cat that hasn't even celebrated its first birthday, but that's what makes her more adorable too)

several months later:

I think it is obvious she has been well fed :D

This cat story has an additional recent kitten story, but about that, in a future cat-post :)

Now back to the cards - all these are from a set of illustrations titled Kliban's Cats

B. ‘Hap’ Kliban was born on January 1, 1935, in Norwalk, Connecticut. He began painting and drawing while he was in elementary school. As a teenager, he joked about wanting to join the Air Force to strafe civilians, something that epitomized the bizarre sense of humor that later characterized his cartoons and drawings

Three stamps from the set of 20 issued in 2001, representing American Illustrators. Here featured are: Robert Fawcett. N.C. Wyeth, and Edwin Austin Abbey.

In 1962, Kliban became a Playboy cartoonist, contributing cartoons until his death. He is best known for the book Cat, a collection of cartoons about cats drawn in Kliban's distinctive style. The cat cartoons were discovered by Playboy editor Michelle Urry and the 1975 book Cat was born. This led to several other books of cartoons ending with Advanced Cartooning in 1993.

Along with the Navajo Jewelry. some dinasourish stamps too coming from The World of Dinasours sheetlet issued in 1997. Shown here are Edmontonia, Camptosaurus and Corythosaurus.

Judith Kamman Kliban trained in fine arts where her main interests were landscape painting and photography.  In 1975, she moved west to San Francisco where she radically changed her lifestyle, and continued to pursue her ambitions as an artist and designer. Living in San Francisco she worked as an advertising agency art director and as a freelance designer. She also continued her painting and photography.
During the crazy mid 1970's, Judith met artist and cartoonist B. Kliban and began a deep and lasting friendship. They later married and enjoyed a wonderful creative and spiritual alliance. While Hap continued to create and publish other humor books and Playboy Cartoons, Judith ran the business and became the Art Director/ Designer and facilitator of all B. Kliban®Cats Licensing and Design.

The very well-known Tiffany Lamp and George Washington stamp, side by side with two Christmas stamps from 2004.

The husband and wife team ran the business as a "cottage industry," preferring to keep things simple, under control, and small.
Since B. Kliban's untimely death in 1990, Judith has continued to expand and strengthen B. Kliban®Cats. The positive changes have promoted growth and added more polish to the classic license, Cat. Judith works on creation of new Kliban concepts and calls upon the huge residual of work from B. Kliban's prolific artistic life. As a designer, Judith's wide experience in design and with Cat enables her, in a way, to continue even today her collaboration with her husband.

and more prehistoric animals on stamps here, these coming from 1989, featuring the Tyrannosaurus, the Pteranodon, the Stegosaurus, and the Brontosaurus - Correct name is Apatosaurus.

Big thank you to Bryon for these beauties, and to all of you as well for dropping by.

Be sure to drop by soon for another fairy-day post. Who is it gonna be this time? Well, you have to wait and see :)

Now I am off into some big shadow... like the basement maybe.

Nutmeg, Grenada

So if something may be concluded here is that I am incapable of even making a post a month... and beats me why. Believe it or not, these cards have been hibernating in the draft section since the end of April...what happened between the 'I will do an update today' and 'The update is being done' I cannot tell... only that time simply flew too fast... as usual. If I could have at least squeezed this in last night, I would have counted one for May, but no, just when you are compelled to do it, something or someone has to interfere with your plans, and there you go, welcoming June, which already feels too hot and makes me dreadfully anticipate July and August, temperature-wise.


Anyways, less chitchatting and more productivity ain't hurt, no? So let's see what do we have for today...
And today would be what may be called, Glenn's day, since all the cards featured today have been sent from Glenn throughout the years (being that he had just returned from another super cool cruise, I really need to catch up with his cards here :)))

The first card comes from Grenada, showing a nutmeg or Grenada's Black Gold, considered one of the main export spices used to make preservatives, medicine, seasonings, jams and drinks.
I have to say I rarely use nutmeg when cooking (said the one who rarely cooks in the first place), but it does have this kind of specific taste and smell so I  just never feel confident enough to experiment with it, even though I do like experimenting with food, during those rare times you may find me in the kitchen :D)

A while ago I watched this video about cashew processing (talking about manual labour here), and boy is that one tough job to do! I absolutely love love love cashews, but it never would have occurred to me that the process may be so tedious. So i just was curious to see if there is something similar about nutmegs- well, they don't come even close to the cashew, but here we go:

so as you can see, this card was sent... long ago. Shows just how much up-to-date I am with posting my cards, but as they say, better late than never.
The stamp is from a set of 8 butterfly stamps issued in 2006, with this one showing the Cream-spotted Tigerwing (Tithorea tarricina pinthias)

Panda Bears, Hong Kong

Next are two extra adorable panda bears from Hong Kong

To my great regret, I didn't manage to see the Pandas neither in Hong Kong nor in China, but it is on my list, and hoping to go back to China sooner or later, I do hope to see these lovely creatures. I've been also thinking of applying for a job as a panda bear caretaker - at least I won't need to know Chinese in order to be able to talk to them :)

Isn't this just way better than any office job out there... or just any job involving people :)

Two stamps on the card, and very conveniently, one of a panda bear too, issued in a set of 4 in 2008, in order to present the new giant panda bears in the Ocean Park in HK. The other stamp is from 2012 from a set of 6, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of stamp insurance in Hong Kong.

Costa Rica

From Hong Kong we move on to Costa Rica, to another one of the, 'oh it has arrived so long ago' cards.

The card shows an ox-cart, which is like way more beautiful than the usual ox-carts one is used to seeing. It makes you wonder if this is indeed used in everyday life or is it just like a museum exhibit.

But, the ox carts in Costa Rica indeed have a long, deep history in economics and the arts. These carts are not just a means of transportation; they represent the spirit of a country and even though  these days they are mainly used as ornaments there are still some places in Costa Rica where the roads are too rough for modern vehicles, or where the locals just can’t afford a car and these are the places where genuine use of ox carts is still prevalent. The art of hand-painting each ox cart is a tradition, and a symbol of a people, that has been passed down through the generations, and is a skill that some possess even today. 

The colours are just so beautiful and vibrant and all those small details as well.

I like buying souvenirs when I travel, but if I ever have the chance to go to Costa Rica, hopefully I won't come back with an ox-cart :D

the stamp here is actually a kind of a sticker, which has been used as postage since 2007. So unfortunately, cannot give any further details about it.

Trains, Alaska

A bit north now, where we have not one, not two, but three train cards from Alaska! I actually have quite some more train cards from here, but will leave those for another post.

First is the McKinley Express, which as like all Alaskan trains, takes you through stunning landscapes and sceneries. (Blogger keeps underlining my 'sceneries' with red. For a while I thought that I must have been dreaming that scenery has its plural, but it probably is blogger in the middle of some kind of nightmare.

as for the stamps, we have 3 copies of the Toleware stamp from 2007 and the se-tenat stamp from 2012, commemorating the 2012 the 100th Anniversary of the Cherry Blossom Festilval, Washington D.C.

The other two cards show trains in Skagway, and on this one the Thunderbird Diesel crosses the  Glacier Bridge.

More toleware stamps here, as well as one from 2012 commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Louisiana Statehood

Skagway is said to be one of the busies, exciting stops along the Inside Passage but it seems that these train lines mainly serve people who are on some kind of a cruise already and if a free seat remains, a regular mortal passenger may as well enjoy the ride.

and here we have an Inverted Jenny stamp (of course, not the very original one, but the one reissued by USPS in 2013 as a commemoration of the 1918 24¢ Jenny Invert airmail stamp error that shows the blue Curtiss “Jenny” airplane flying upside down within the red stamp frame.

Vietnam

So just one more card for today... yay, can't believe it I made it through the entire update! But it kinda helped keep my mind off things so probably that is what got me going...

Vietnam, another place that was on my list during my life in China... and still is of course.
The card is supposed to show a bit boat carrying smaller ones. Ok, I know I am shortsighted but it took me a while to actually figure this picture out... you have to watch vertically instead of horizontally....to see the smaller boats...

two nice stamps here, where one is a lighthouse! It is from a set of 4 Lighthouses of Vietnam issued in 2013, and this one shows the Binh Thuan. The other one is from 2008, commemorating the Lady Triệu rebellion, who was a female warrior in 3rd century Vietnam who managed, for a time, to successfully resist the Chinese state of Eastern Wu during its occupation of Vietnam.

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's cards, stamps and videos!
Thank you for stopping by (accidentally or on purpose), and thank you Glenn for all these cards shown here, and for the dozens more that still wait to be displayed!\

Happy June to you all!

Donald Barthelme

Recently I won a lottery where I could choose a Classic Writers' card.
There were indeed plenty of writers to choose from which really put me in front of a tough decision, until while scrolling, I noticed this card had the name of Donald Barthelme, and I immediately knew this was going to be my lottery prize!

Frankly, I had no idea how he looked liked, so if it wasn't for the caption, I would have completely ignored this card.
An American short story writer and novelist known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction  (April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989), that I first encountered while at university, when I had the chance to read his story The School. One of the best short-stories I have ever read! Unfortunately back then the internet didn't have as many things as today, so not that many stuff could be found online (though sparknotes existed, which made university life so easier :P) Anyways, as I said, not many things could be found online so I only managed to find just another story by him, called "The First Thing the Baby did wrong" - hilarious!
And somehow after that I just kinda forgot about him (yeah, shame on me), until I actually won this lottery, which made me google him back and forth, and of course, now way more stories have been published on the internet - making me realize what I have been missing all these years.
However, now I'm kinda saving money to order at least some of his books cos I'd really like to have them in my collection - will worry later about lack of space :)


If you would like to read both these stories, just click on the links below

The School
The First Thing the Baby did wrong

And totally unplanned, this post coincides with Donald's birthday, who would have turned 87 today... and also if my dearest grandmother was alive, today we would have been celebrating her 81st birthday! I really really miss her! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Amour

Well today is kind of a themed day with no viewcards, but related to some cultural stuff, if I may put it that way and I wanted to share with you some stuff or better say people I admire or like or appreciate in any sense and next up on the list is a movie by one of my favourite directors, that is Michael Haneke

An Austrian guy whose movies are not that light and often weird and explicit whose work often examines social issues, and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. I cannot say I have a favourite Haneke film, I have liked all the ones I have seen so far (and I think I've seen like 90% of his work). Some I like more, cos they are more dramatic usually (like Funny Games (the Austrian, NOT the US version) or Benny's Video , some are not THAT dramatic, like The White Ribbon or his latest, Happy End but none of  them leave you indifferent.
And some years ago I received this card for his film Amour, another great movie by Haneke which I watched just like a year ago but which really swept me away... cos it was just so relatable. I won't be giving out any spoilers, but this movie just reminded me of my grandmother cos it made me realize all the things I could have done for her while she was bed-ridden but still alive, but I didn't... and it all got me really really sad and depressed, questioning myself why I took things for granted, why hadn't I thought of doing this or that, did it all mean I didn't care enough for her and I was just selfish, trying to stay away from the entire situation cos I thought I couldn't do anything, while I actually could?

Not to this day have I found an answer to these questions, but it is unfortunately true that we often don't see things in this light while people are still alive, and once we do when they are gone, it is just too late...and if there is something true about me is what has been said in this video...and I've been trying to work on it, but for some reason, it hasn't been going that well... why, I really don't know.
Do you find yourself in the same position or you handle these relationships the way they should be handled?
Btw, Anna Akana is one of my favourite public figures, since she is really harismatic, funny, and most of all, I often relate to the things she talks about and puts them in perspective for me, and you know, often it is easier to deal with issues when somehow someone else puts it in words like this.

Totally unplanned, but I am really glad this post ended up being done just for my grandmother's birthday!

My Neighbour Totoro

Time for some cartoon stuff...I think that one is never too old for cartoons and I still enjoy watching them. Well at least some kinds of animated stuff... like those produced by the Ghibli studio (and I found out that just yesterday one of its co-founders, Isao Takahata, had died at the age of 82 - I am starting to find the timing of my posts today a bit freaky now...if you haven't watched The Grave of the Fireflies, I recommend you do so, a really heart-touching story!

But today's card ain't related to Takahata, but to another one of my all time favourite directors, and that is Hayao Miyazaki - for me, the God of anime! :)
And the card above shows a scene from the first Miyazaki movie  I have ever watched and which made me want to watch everything by Miyazaki eventually, that's My Neighbour Totoro.

What I love about his work is that it all deals with humanity and teachers children good values, how to be human and a good person in general, how to love life and be grateful for what you have.
Much better than a number of dumb cartoons and animations shown nowadays =/
It is said that what makes his work so great is his - heart. Cos you can indeed easily see when something has been done from the heart and when you truly believe in it.

Do you watch cartoons? Any favourites? And of course, do you like the Miyazaki ones? :)

Btw, do you know on which date Totoro was released? April 16th... and it will be exactly 30 years this year since it first saw the light of the day.

Jim Parsons

Well, you already know I love Big Bang Theory and even though it is not as fun as it used to be, I still don't miss out an episode. Lately it has actually become like some sort of ritual to enjoy my Friday morning coffee with the latest episodes of both Big Bang, and Young Sheldon.

And to a great extent I love the show cos of Sheldon, played by Jim Parsons. It has got to be one of my favourite TV characters ever and I often wish I had a friend like Sheldon. Life would be much for fun, cos regardless how annoying he could get, you just can't not love him! I do know some similarly annoying people but they are far from lovable :)))
I guess I should blame it on his charisma too, for me one of the most charismatic men out there (some other guys on the list would be Morten Harket, Brian Molko, Rafael Nadal and Jean-Benoît Dunckel).

Anyways, there are a lot of hilarious quotes by Sheldon, but the one on the card makes it to top 5 for sure, and that's why I was sooo thrilled when few years ago, one girl had it for swap!

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.

Guadalajara. Mexico

Well, it seems like it is about time to say a few words here... yeah, been some silent few weeks, and as you have all experienced it in life, time just flies so fast, you know, the same old excuse of always :D
Well, we'll start this week (even though it may be like the only post for the week), with another fairy-dedicated post, and this time the random.org went for this Seattle guy that by now you are all fairly familiar with.... yep, it is Mr. Bryon!

It was more than a difficult task to decide what to choose from his pile of cards, so I guess I'll have to do more fairy posts in the future (as If I was so diligent about regular posts in the first place).

But anyways, lets get started and see a small part of Bryon's missiles on my mailbox ;-)

And first is up a card from Mexico's Guadalajara, where in the front you can see the Cabañas Cultural Institute with its copper dome, where its main attraction are the murals by José Clemente Orozco, which cover the main entrance hall.
Then there is the large Plaza Tapatia, covering 70,000 m2 and it says that this plaza ends at the Degollado Theatre, inaugurated in September 1866. The big question here is, find the theatre in the picture if you can :))

Speaking of Guadalajara, besides being named the American Capital of Culture for 2005 and hosting the 2011 Pan American Games, it is also the birthplace of Guillermo del Toro. If you still haven't seen his last masterpiece The Shape of Water, then I wholeheartedly recommend you to do so. Beautiful and heartwarming piece of art, with stunning performances, esp, the one by Sally Hawkins.

the stamp was issued in 2016, for the Closing of the International Year of the Light.