This and That: A Blog

  Thursday Postcard Hunt for this week is Architecture: Stations  Car Station, Swan Point, Providence, Rhode Island, USA postcard c.1908-1915   A car station was a trolley depot or streetcar shelter. The theater and tramway station in Laon, France  postcard c.1910-1914  The railway station in Vincey, France postcard c.1905-1910 Shelters is next week, the last of the Architecture theme.  

 Moving on from the alphabet, this week Sunday Stamps ' theme is Lighthouses.  Algeria 1937 Admiralty Building and  t he Algiers Admiralty, or   Peñon, Light  in Algiers. There was a lighthouse at this site as early as 1680. Germany 2004 The Greifswalder Oie lighthouse on the island of Greifswalder Oie in the Baltic Sea. USA 1981 From Sea to Shining Sea showing the Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Next week will be stamps relating to Children's Stories. 

  Q , that next to hardest letter of the alphabet ( X is the hardest).  That's the letter today for Sunday Stamps .   Q uail, a common Q .  This is the Gambel's q uail, native to the Sonoran desert of the U.S.  Or, it's  supposed to be Gambel's q uail, but it looks much more like California q uail, which I am familiar with. U.S.A. 1999, part of the Nature of America series. Q uoll, a lesser known Q animal.   Q uolls are carnivorous marsupials in Australia and New Guinea. There are six species, four in Australia, two in New Guinea. This is the Spotted-Tail q uoll, an Australian type.  I like this stamp, it looks like an underwater scene!  Australia 1997, from the Nocturnal Animals series.  I have another from the series for Y , equally looking like a tide-pool view. That's it, just the two.   Next week is R , an easier letter for me!

 J is the stamp letter this week for Sunday Stamps .  J ackrabbit (there are six kinds of j ackrabbits, which are not rabbits at all, but hares, this one's a Black-tailed) USA 1987 J ellyfish (black sea, a Giant Pacific j ellyfish also called a black nettle, not from the Black Sea at all) Bulgaria 1961 J umping Spider  (the smartest spiders, they learn from experiences and problem solve) USA 1999 K is next week.  

  F is the letter of the week for Sunday Stamps . F rigate Bird  Montserrat 1970 (the bird theme began that year, and ended in 1974) F rigate Birds always fascinated me as a child.  I had a series of animal books and wore out the F rigate Bird page.  I have never seen one "inflated," but have seen them in flight in Puerto Rico.  Huge,  their wingspans are 7-8 feet! They looked like  pterodactyls! F ox, another of the semi-postal benefiting the Moscow Zoo.  Soviet Union 1988 F lamingo USA 1992 Come back next Sunday to see what G animals I found for Sunday Stamps.

 The ephemera shoe box at St. Vincent de Paul was refilled! This time I got two 1985 Royal Mail (Great Britain) Presentation Packs.  $2.00 and $2.50   The first is Christmas Pantomime. From left to right the stamps picture Principal Boy (traditionally played by a girl), Genie, Dame, Pantomime Cat, and Fairy. They open to a page on the topic. Coincidentally, a few weeks earlier I got the Genie in a pile of world-wide stamps.  The postmark slogan reads "Be properly addressed," urging care in addressing outgoing mail.  There are other Royal Mail slogans along the same line. The second is commemorating 350 years of mail service to the public.  The stamps, left to right, are urban, rural, town, and village delivery.  In 1982 the USPS put out a series of state birds and flowers. I had few, until I found this, The Fifty State Birds and Flowers Mint Set!  It wasn't a steal at $12; about mid-range for what the asking prices are online.  Complete ...

The A to Z theme was so fun the host of Sunday Stamps  decided to do it again!  So this week is A stamps.  I've decided to make it harder on myself by using animals.  We'll see how that goes! A ardvark  Kenya 1966-1969 A merican Bison Hungary c. 1961 Budapest Zoo Animals series FYI, bison are not buffalo! Next week will be B stamps. 

 We've come to the end of Sunday Stamps and the alphabetical theme.  That means today's stamps relate to Z .  Z ip Code USA 1974 The five digit z ip code was introduced nationwide on July 1, 1963. Z odiac  Israel 1961 Libra, one of the twelve in the Z odiac I series.    Now that we've reached Z, what's up for Sunday Stamps?  Looks like an alphabetical theme again!  Great, there are so many options!  

 Sunday Stamps for the letter X X -Wing Starfighter for the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars universe.  U SA 2007  X -Ray Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) 1960 A semi-postal stamp with   3 đồng  for postage, and a surta x of  0.050 đồng.  Surta x es were often for charities, or public programs.  In the 1950s-1970s South Vietnam issued several semi-postal stamps to fund health related causes, in this case the Anti-Tuberculosis Fund. Next week is our next to last in the alphabetical theme with  Y .

  Sunday Stamps : V V ase, Still Life with Crystal Bowl , by Roy Lichtenstein (looks like a v ase to me!) USA 2023 V olcano, Galeras Columbia c.1954 V icuña   Peru c.1952 Only four letters left!  Next week is W . 

 S for S unday S tamps . S tar Trek with S pock's Vulcan S alute USA 2016 S trawberry Tree, a native Irish s hrub bearing edible fruit. Ireland 1979 S intra National Palace, former royal residence of the king (pre-1910), now a museum. Portugal 1972 Another of the beautiful Portuguese stamps.  S ea Turtle USA 2024 Come back next Sunday for T stamps.

Thursday Postcard Hunt 's last theme for the Colors of October is Hallowe'en or Black .    The Black Caldron in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Black Lake in the Bohemian Forest in the Czech Republic. Black Lake is the largest and deepest lake in the Czech Republic, and is of glacial origin.   1922 postcard And... for Hallowe'en, these two reproduction postcards from Etsy seller Small Kat Studios , both with black cats. What's in store for November, postcard wise?   Scenery/Landscapes.   Next week will be Scenery or Landscapes with Animals.

The  Sunday Stamps  theme this week is stamps of the letter M . M ask for Lunar New Year, Year of the Tiger USA 2024 M ask of  Busójárás , an annual celebration in M ohacs, Hungary.  Hungary c1973 M ushrooms Finland 2003  This was M, so next week is N . 

  L  is the theme of the week for Sunday Stamps .  L ynx, Eurasian  Czechoslovakia 1966 Part of the Game Animals series. L ove USA 2024 L ightning Bug USA 2018 L eopard Nigeria 1966 Come back next Sunday for M stamps. 

  Sunday Stamps theme this week is stamps relating to the letter J . J efferson Memorial, Washington, DC USA 1966 J ohann the Blind, Count of Luxemburg  and King of Bohemia, 1310-1346 Bohemia and Morovia (issuing authority German Empire) 1943 This is a "semi-postal" stamp.  Part of the value was for postage, the 250, the additional amount of 150 was a surcharge for   Winterhilfswerk ,  winter assistance for the poor.  J ade Phoenix Bird Taiwan 2019 Next week, K .