Inge Löök - Grannies Having Fun Bobsleding

Inge Löök (real name Ingeborg Lievonen) is a Finnish artist born in Helsinki in 1951. She was once a professional gardener, but today she is most famous for her Granny postcards which so many postcrossers love and collect. I do too.

When she was a child, Inge lived with her family in a 7-storey building in Helsinki. In the same building lived two older women, Alli and Fifi, who later became the inspiration for the characters in her postcards. She says the women look nearly the same as their real-life models... but they have a lot more fun! Inge's look on life is one of optimism and happiness, and it shows on the pictures she draws. The grannies are always happy and having fun, and their motto is "Time is not money and spending it isn’t a sin". She has drawn over 300 postcards on different topics, and has also illustrated several stamps and children's books. Today she lives in Pernå, a village east of Helsinki.

Thank you Pia for this lovely card. The Grannies could easily bring a smile on the faces of the ‘grumpiest in the world’ - any time! They have on mine ;-))

Vantaa

Minna sent me this interesting card showing, firstly, the Helsinki Airport or Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, and secondly The Finnish Science Centre. These two sites have been pictured inside a fish, the tail of which is pictured on the City's Coat of Arms. Below are a few more details about these two important tourist destinations.

Helsinki Airport or Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is the main international airport of the Helsinki metropolitan region and the whole of Finland. It is located in Vantaa, Finland, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) west of Tikkurila, the centre of Vantaa, and 9.2 NM (17.0 km; 10.6 mi) north of Helsinki city centre. Originally built for the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, the airport served 14,865,871 passengers in 2011 and it is the fourth largest airport in the Nordic countries. It provides jobs for 20,000 people and there are 1,500 companies who operate from this airport.

The airport is operated by Finavia, the state-owned enterprise that operates Finland's airports. Helsinki Airport was chosen as the best airport in the world in the IATA 1999 survey on the topic. In 2006 the global airport customer satisfaction survey AETRA ranked Helsinki Airport one of the best airports worldwide and according to Association of European Airlines 2005 delay rates, Helsinki Airport was the most punctual airport in Europe.

The Finnish Science Centre. Heureka is a unique high-level cultural and educational institution that is among Finland’s most popular leisure time destinations. Its mission is twofold: on the one hand the Science Centre operates in the leisure time market, and on the other hand it performs important educational and public service tasks.

Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre opened to the public on April 28, 1989. Heureka attracts on the average 280 000 visitors a year. Apart from the main exhibition Heureka usually displays two temporary exhibitions. Total exhibition space indoors amounts to 3500 m2. During summer season an outdoor exhibition area, Science Park Galilei, is available. Heureka features also a modern digital planetarium. Heureka is open around the year and it operates fully in three languages: Finnish, Swedish and English. Located in the City of Vantaa next to Tikkurila train station and near the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

Lion Cape

Another view of the coastal maritime zone in Far Eastern Russia - The Primorski Krai. This cape is called the Lion Cape. A pretty scene indeed. Thank you Sveta.

South Harbour, Helsinki

Thank you Leena for this pretty card. What a nice picture the aerial view of South harbour makes. Amongst the many buildings in the background is the imposing Cathedral easily identifiable by its blue dome in the centre of the picture.

South Harbour is a bay and harbour area immediately next to the centre of the city of Helsinki, Finland. It is the largest passenger harbour in Finland, and 5.4 million passengers travel through it every year. Most of the harbour's traffic is to Stockholm, Sweden and Tallinn, Estonia, and cruises. In summer, there is a lot of small ship traffic.

White-tailed Eagle

Thank you Merja for this lovely maxicard of The White-tailed Eagle issued by Lithuania on 8.10.2011. Please note the lovely postmark also showing this big bird. This Eagle, also called the Sea Eagle,  Erne (sometimes Ern). The White-tailed Sea-eagle is a large bird of prey in the family which includes other raptors such as hawks, kites, and harriers. It is considered a close cousin of the Bald Eagle and occupies the same ecological niche, but in Eurasia.

The Barn Swallow

This lovely maxicard from Estonia was given to me by Merja. This stamp and the card was issued to celebrate the fact that the swallow was declared the The Bird of the Year in Estonia. 

The Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) is the most widespread species of swallow in the world. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts, a long, deeply forked tail and curved, pointed wings. It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In Anglophone Europe it is just called the Swallow; in Northern Europe it is the only common species called a "swallow" rather than a "martin".

There are six subspecies of Barn Swallow, which breed across the Northern Hemisphere. Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia. Its huge range means that the Barn Swallow is not endangered, although there may be local population declines due to specific threats, such as the construction of an international airport near Durban.

The Barn Swallow is a bird of open country which normally uses man-made structures to breed and consequently has spread with human expansion. It builds a cup nest from mud pellets in barns or similar structures and feeds on insects caught in flight. This species lives in close association with humans, and its insect-eating habits mean that it is tolerated by man; this acceptance was reinforced in the past by superstitions regarding the bird and its nest. There are frequent cultural references to the Barn Swallow in literary and religious works due to both its living in close proximity to humans and its annual migration. The Barn Swallow is the national bird of Austria and Estonia.

Maritime Romance

Thank you Sveta for this lovely card from the Primorski Krai (Russian Far Eastern Maritime Zone). Yes, it does portray a sense of Maritime Romance.