Challenge: One Stamp

If you could be anywhere else right now ... Where? Say it with a stamp. Only one!

I would choose a non-crowded Greek museum, for instance.
 

Sunday Stamps | Between Land and Sea

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps is Land and Sea. That makes me think of... lighthouses, of course!

I'm showing today some lighthouses sheets that I have got by snail mail, but inside envelopes. So, they remain mint.

Nieuwe Sluis is a lighthouse located near Breskens, a harbour town in the province of Zeeland, in the south-western Netherlands. It is the oldest remaining cast-iron lighthouse in the Netherlands. It was built in 1867 and became a monument in 1982. Since 2010 it no longer serves a nautical purpose and in October 2011 the light went out permanently.

The minisheet was issued on 27 April 2010. Have you noticed the high face value?

Argentinian minisheet issued on 18 March 2006, featuring four lighthouses:

-Primero de Mayo (in the Antarctica);

-Año Nuevo (1902);

-El Rincón (1925);

-Recalada a Bahía Blance (1906)

And a stamp booklet entitle Lighthouses of the Adriatic and of the Danube, issued by a country not longer existing: Yugoslavia. Most of these lighthouses are in Croatia nowadays.

Little Truths on Envelopes

Send with Love

Official Boredom Relief Package

Once this was mine, now it is yours.

A Giant at New Brighton

I had got some postcards featuring the New Brighton lighthouse in England, like this one or this one. I have even been there. But I saw no giant!

Giant at New Brighton
Photography by Lisa Roberts

Postcard sent by John (the UK)

Sending Birds

Watercolour pencils bird
Sent to Alan (UK)

Watercolour bird
Sent to Phillip (the USA)

Naomi's template + colours pencils
Sent to John (the UK)

Colour pencils
Sent to Fabienne (France)

Happy, Happy Post!

So many postal details on this letter from John (the UK)! (Forget the pen cancellation).

Channel Islands Box Green (1852-3)

One of two surviving Channel Islands boxes installed in Guernsey. It was one of the first pillar boxes to be introduced in the UK as an experiment in the Channel Islands in 1852-3. Anthony Trollope, who at the time worked for the General Post Office oversaw this trial. The success of these boxes triggered the introduction of pillar boxes on the Mainland later in 1853.

 

The Illustrated London News. 

Oct. 24, 1874

The fifteenth quarterly meeting of the friends of the Post Office Orphan Home was held in the library of the Eastern Central Letter-Carriers' Office yesterday week. Mr. W. Powley, the treasurer, occupied the chair; when seven orphans (children of letter carriers) were taken charge of by the committee and placed out with foster parents until they arrive at the age of fifteen; and weekly allowances were granted to the mothers of three children until they arrive at the age of five years, when they will be taken charge of by the committee.

1857 1st Nat. Standard Wall Box (Tintagel, Cornwall)

&

George V Type Wall Box

1980

Ballyroney, County Down, Northern Ireland

The illustration of this postcard is reproduced from a stamp designed by Terence Millington and issued by Royal Mail on 12 August 1997. Actually, I had got that stamp:

This was really...

So, thanks to the sender and...

Let's Talk Loneliness

Let's Talk Loneliness

A postmark for The New Normal...

South Carolina Morning, 1955

...And a couple of Edward Hopper on paintings which reflects also the New Normal, with all those "Stay-at-Home" activities and times.

New York Interior, 1921

Postcards sent by Bryon (the USA).

Las bicicletas son para el verano*

Zeus, a Spanish bike from 1979

Same day last week, I got two postcards featuring bikes, from the USA and the Netherlands. Plus a letter from the UK about a kid learning how to ride a bike.

The Zeus postcard was written on 22 April, postmarked on 23 April, and arrived two months later: on 22 June. Do you think it came by bike?

Nijntie/Miffy, by Dick Bruna

-----

*This is the title of a famous play by Fernando Fernán Gómez. Las bicicletas son para el verano means 'Bicycles Are for the Summer'

Sunday Stamps | Pennies

Sunday Stamps is today about Anniversaries.

2020 marks the 180th anniversary of the Penny Black. The stamp knows as Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public stamp system. It was issued in May 1840, and features a profile of Queen Victoria.

Reproductions of the Penny Black, Twopenny Blue and Penny Red were meant to be part of the big London 2020 stamps shows. The fair was cancelled, but the stamps were issued anyway.

This is the whole sheet:

Image taken from Linn's 

Love

Big postcard sent by Micu (Hungary).

Playing around with Circus Lettering

Letters sent to Imma (PC), Phillip (the USA) and Laura (the UK).

Stamps Joy

Sending

It is a pleasure to see where the trip of your letters started, isn't it?

This letter was the unexpected prize of a giveaway I took part in through Twitter. If you are on that platform and you like stamps, Philatelovely is an interesting account to follow.

Arrived!

And a second one from John:

Reptiles

"Why shouldn't a woman run a reptile house? Women
 are at work in my country, and the rest of the world,
in all types of work and professions." 

Joan Beauchamp Procter  (1897-1931) was a zoologist. This postcard designed by Rachel Ignotofsky highlights her top achievements: "Discovered a new species, the peninsula dragon lizard" ; "Considered an expert in herpetology"; "Designed the most advanced reptile house of its time".

It was sent by Phillip (the USA). It arrived on a big mail day, i.e. along with no less than eight pieces of mail. Among them, another postcard featuring a reptile. I love these little coincidences in the mail box.

 

Märchen, by Suzan Visser

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Open with a Smile

Sticker on the back of an envelope from the UK :)

Sunday Stamps | Dad's Army

Dad's Army is a BBC television situation comedy about the antics of a British Home Guard unit during the Second World War in the fictional seaside town of Walmington-on-Sea. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on the BBC from 1968 to 1977.

Royal Mail marked the 50th anniversary of this enduring and hugely popular sitcom with a set of eight Special Stamps.

This is a Sunday Stamps post. You can go there to see other Father Figures on stamps.