Fortune Favours the Bold

Thank you very much Merja. And the caption on the card is quite apt - Fortune Favours the Bold.

The Siberian Tiger

The Siberian tiger, also known as the Amur tiger, is a tiger subspecies inhabiting mainly the Sikhote Alin mountain region with a small subpopulation in southwest Primorye province in the Russian Far East. In 2005, there were 331–393 adult-subadult Amur tigers in this region, with a breeding adult population of about 250 individuals. The population has been stable for more than a decade due to intensive conservation efforts, but partial surveys conducted after 2005 indicate that the Russian tiger population is declining.

The Siberian tiger is the largest living felid and ranks among the biggest felids to ever exist. Thank you Sveta for this nice card.

Nostalgic Architecture

These three maxicards and the stamps on them represent a high level nostalgia. The three stamps feature memorable and beloved buildings all to be found in Mariehamn in past times. Former town architect Folke Wickstrom has drawn the motifs.

1. Originally, Societetshuset (a club house generally known as Socis) was a school building that was dismantled and moved to Mariehamn in 1870. From the start, the building served as a hotel, town hall and restaurant. During Socis' more than 100 years of existence it had several periods of golden days and many different owners. Regardless of many protests, the demolition of Socis was carried through in June 1975, the then town architect and current stamp artist Folke Wickstrom being one of the protesters.

2. Miramar was erected in 1890 as a summer house for Nicolai Nystrom, son-in-law of Nicolai Sittkoff, a well-known tradesman in Aland. Commandeered by soldiers during both World Wars, first by the Russians and later by the Finns, Miramar was turned into a soldiers' gambling home. In the 1930s, the house served as a dance palace and meeting place and was later to become a restaurant. Inspections performed by the authorities found inadequate fire security as well as spa and sanitary defects, and the house was demolished in October 1973.

3. The Badhotellet (spa  hotel). Launched as a spa resort at the end of the 1800s, Mariehamn was to become one of the most modern resorts in Europe. At the turn of the 20th century, the establishment was at its largest with facilities for hot baths and swimming, a restaurant with assembly room, a medical centre, a gymnasium, a doctor's house and a spa hotel. The end of the 1914 season also saw the end of the spa era as World War I broke out. The hotel burnt down to the ground in February 1916, probably due to an overheated heater.

This nice set of three maxicards was sent to me by my friend Ella.

Taiwan

An interesting mapcard from Taiwan. Very pretty stamps on it too! Sent to me by Shen.

The Barque Sigyn

Sigyn, built in Göteborg 1887, now a museum ship in Turku, is the last remaining wooden barque used for trade across the oceans. At the time she was built there were thousands of similar vessels, but she was one of the last ones built. She was quite small even for her time, considering she was built for long-distance trade, but well built and considered fast and beautiful. In these times the steam ships were taking over the most important routes; the Suez canal was already built and the Panama canal was planned. The tonnage of steam ships passed that of sailing ships in 1890, ten and thirty years later in Sweden and Finland respectively. On the other hand this was the time when big barques of steel were built. Sigyn was planned for another niche: the small size and small draught made her suited to also use small remote harbours.

The first decade Sigyn sailed on the Atlantic on tramp trade, mostly with wood (pine, spruce, pitch pine, mahogany, cedar), but also e.g. coal, probably sugar, once even hay. In 1897 she made one journey to Bangkok. After 1900 she sailed mostly in European waters.

As representative for "nautical circles" Otto Andersson, rector of Åbo Akademi, proposed 1936 the foundation of a maritime museum in Turku. A museum ship was needed and Sigyn was soon considered the best alternative. At that time there were only a few museum ships worldwide and Sigyn was to be the first in Finland. The picture on the card is a painting of the Sigyn by R. Chappel and is in The Maritime Museum of the Abo Akademi. This card was sent to me by Sipi.

Far Eastern (Amur) leopard

There is unfortunately only one leopard subspecies left in Russia – the Far Eastern leopard. A relation, the Middle Eastern leopard, used to live at the same latitude in the Caucasus. However, despite regular reports of tracks found and even encounters with leopards in the area, the species is considered extinct and there is no chance of reintroducing it. The Far Eastern leopard is also now facing extinction. The body of the Far Eastern leopard varies between 90 and 170 cm in length and up to 60 kg in weight, and its tail can reach up to 100 cm. This is the northernmost leopard subspecies, and the only one in the world adapted to survive long snowy winters.

An international team led by biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society had captured a species last week that carries the dubious distinction of being the world's most endangered big cat: an extremely Far Eastern leopard. One of only 30 left in the wild, the animal was captured in a "trapline" -- a series of snares set out by scientists to temporarily catch big cats for genetic analysis. And this my friends was in 2006! Thank you Sveta for sending me this lovely card with the picture of this rare animal.

The Mandarin Duck

This is really a wonderful card Sveta. And I must thank you for the wonderful stamps on the envelope. 

Now lets talk about this great duck. Boldly colored and with unusual feather shapes, the drake mandarin duck is widely considered to be the most beautiful duck in the world. In Chinese culture, a pair of these birds symbolizes love, martial fidelity and relationship respect, all admirable qualities that these ducks demonstrate during the mating season as they work together to raise their ducklings.

These perching ducks prefer wooded habitat near inland lakes and rivers, typically with deciduous trees and brushy cover for adequate shelter. Mandarin ducks are native to eastern Asia and can be found year-round in Japan and Taiwan, with their summer range extending to include eastern Russia and Mongolia. In winter, migratory populations of mandarin ducks can be found in eastern China.

The Mandarin ducks are the most popular, well known and widely used traditional feng shui cure for love. Note the word traditional, or classical feng shui, which means that a cure is based on culturally specific images, symbols and overall historical use.

Does that mean that you should use the Mandarin ducks as a feng shui cure if you are looking to attract a love partner? It depends on you. The best answer is this: "Choose the Mandarin ducks as a feng shui cure to attract love only if you genuinely, completely and absolutely feel the energy of love and devotion when you look at them."

The adult male is a striking and unmistakable bird. It has a red bill, large white crescent above the eye and reddish face and "whiskers". The breast is purple with two vertical white bars, and the flanks ruddy, with two orange "sails" at the back. The female is similar to female Wood Duck, with a white eye-ring and stripe running back from the eye, but is paler below, has a small white flank stripe, and a pale tip to its bill. The Mandarin ducklings are almost identical in look to Wood ducklings, and appear very similar to Mallard ducklings. The ducklings can be distinguished from Mallard ducklings because the eye-stripe of Mandarin ducklings (and Wood ducklings) stops at the eye, while in Mallard ducklings it reaches all the way to the bill.

Still Beauty – Astafyev Cape

The Russian corvette  “America” became part of history for by discovering in June 18, 1859 the Nakhodka Bay about 85 km East of Vladivostok.   

Nakhodka Bay was discovered in 1859 by the Russian corvette "Amerika" ("America"), which sought shelter in the bay during a storm. The old name "Gulf of America" was officially changed into Gulf of Nakhodka in the heat of the Cold War in the late 1970s, only because it sounded as if it was named after the United States. Nakhodka is Russian for "a lucky find" or eureka. The name is a reference that for some act of nature, this is the only place on the Russian Pacific coast that the sea never freezes. As such, its harbors are superior even to those of a much larger port of Vladivostok. The first Russian settlement, the village Amerikanka, was founded in 1907 and named after the corvette.

The Cape at the eastern Nakhodka bay mouth was mapped as Mys (or Cape in English) Astafyev in 1859 in honour of the navigator of the “America”. Thank you Sveta for this pretty card. I had seen this cape during my visit to Nakhodka way back in history in 1968.

Turku Castle

Further to my earlier post on Turku Castle dated  Wednesday, May 09, 2012 I am posting another nice picture of the famous Turku Castle which is a monument of Finnish history situated in the city of Turku in Finland. Together with Turku Cathedral, the castle is one of the oldest buildings still in use in Finland. Turku Castle is the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. It stands as a national monument, on the banks of the Aura River, as it has done since the 14th century. My friend Barbara sent this nice card to me.

The Red Rock on Reineke Island

This Red Rock which looks like a sculptor’s masteroiece is situated on the  the small Reineke Island, which is located south-west of the Sea of Okhotsk between Shantarsky island and the Sakhalin Island, 5 km to the north of the mainland continent. Administratively it is part of the Nikolaev District of Khabarovsk Territory.

The island is the natural border between Udsky and Sakhalin bays. Both the island and the bay are named after the famous Russian hydrographer, vice-admiral and director of the Hydrographic Department Michail Reineke. And yes, this lovely card was given to me by Sveta from Khabarovsk.

The spotted seal

Sorry My Friend for disturbing you during your well earned siesta!

The spotted seal, also known as the larga or largha seal is considered a "true seal". It inhabits ice floes and waters of the North Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas. It is primarily found along the continental shelf of the Beaufort, Chukchi, Bering and Okhotsk Seas and south to the northern Yellow Sea and it migrates south as far as northern Huanghai and the western Sea of Japan. It is also found in Alaska from the southeastern Bristol Bay to Demarcation Point during the ice-free seasons of summer and autumn when spotted seals mate and have pups. Smaller numbers are found in the Beaufort Sea. It is sometimes mistaken for the harbor seal to which it is closely related and spotted seals and harbor seals often mingle together in areas where their habitats overlap.

The reduction in arctic ice floes due to global warming led to concerns that the spotted seal was threatened with extinction. Studies were conducted on its population numbers, with the conclusion, as of October 15, 2009, that the spotted seal population in Alaskan waters is not currently to be listed as endangered by NOAA.

Thank you Dear Sveta from Khabarovsk who has sent more than a dozen such beautiful cards of the Primorye, which I will be posting from time to time.

Fishing Boats

An extremely pretty card showing fishing boats from a coastal village in Malaysia. Thank you Li Foong for this nice card.

The MGB

This is that famous MG model The MGB. Launched in September 1962 (precisely 50 years ago) the MGB had an unprecedented level of comfort for a sport's car. It became the fastest selling MG of all time. Thank you Riitta for this nice card.

Chinese Junk

A junk is an ancient Chinese sailing vessel design still in use today. Junks may have developed from very early bamboo rafts which had a high stern. Cromagnon cave paintings on the Indo China coast show junk shaped doublehull vessels. Junks were developed during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) and were used as sea-going vessels as early as the 2nd century AD. They evolved in the later dynasties, and were used throughout Asia for extensive ocean voyages. They were found, and in lesser numbers are still found, throughout South-East Asia and India, but primarily in China, perhaps most famously inHong Kong. Found more broadly today is a growing number of modern recreational junk-rigged sailboats.

The term junk may be used to cover many kinds of boat—ocean-going, cargo-carrying, pleasure boats, live-aboards. They vary greatly in size and there are significant regional variations in the type of rig. To Western eyes, however, they all appear to resemble one another due to their most significant shared feature, their fully battened sails. My friend Iris sent me this wonderful card from Hong Kong. Besides the junk you can see the Victoria Peak on the Hong Kong Island and on the other side the commercial District of Kowloon on the mainland.

The Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size. A boar (adult male) weighs around 350–680 kg (770–1,500 lb), while a sow (adult female) is about half that size. Although it is closely related to the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrower ecological niche, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting the seals which make up most of its diet. Although most polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time at sea. Their scientific name means "maritime bear", and derives from this fact. Polar bears can hunt their preferred food of seals from the edge of sea ice, often living off fat reserves when no sea ice is present.

The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species, with eight of the nineteen polar bear subpopulations in decline  For decades, large scale hunting raised international concern for the future of the species but populations rebounded after controls and quotas began to take effect  For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a key figure in the material, spiritual, and cultural life of Arctic indigenous peoples, and polar bears remain important in their cultures. Thank you Xavier (from Montreal) for this lovely card, which shows a Polar Bear mother relaxing with her cubs.

Wind Surfing

Merja sent me this card from Limassol. I wonder where she is in this picture ;-))

Well what exactly is windsurfing? Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually 2 to 3 metres long, with a volume of about 60 to 250 liters, powered by wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and consists of a mast, 2-sided boom and sail. The sail area generally ranges from 2.5 m² to 12 m² depending on the conditions, the skill of the sailor and the type of windsurfing being undertaken.

The history of windsurfing began in 1948 on the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, USA when Newman Darby invented the sailboard, which, incidentally, he did not patent. In 1964, Darby began selling his sailboards.

Windsurfing can be said to straddle both the laid-back culture of surf sports and the more rules-based environment of sailing. Although it might be considered a minimalistic version of a sailboat, a windsurfer offers experiences that are outside the scope of any other sailing craft design. Windsurfers can perform jumps, inverted loops, spinning maneuvers, and other "freestyle" moves that cannot be matched by any sailboat. Windsurfers were the first to ride the world's largest waves, such asJaws on the island of Maui, and, with very few exceptions, it was not until the advent of tow-in surfing that waves of that size became accessible to surfers on more traditional surfboards. Extreme waves aside, many expert windsurfers will ride the same waves as wavesurfers do (wind permitting) and are themselves usually very accomplished without a rig on a conventional surfboard.

At one time referred to as "surfing's ginger haired cousin" by the sport's legendary champion, Robby Naish, windsurfing has long struggled to present a coherent image of the sport to outsiders. Indeed, participants will regularly use different names to describe the sport, including sailboarding and boardsailing. Despite the term,"Windsurfing" became the accepted name for the sport, participants are still called "sailors" or "board heads" and not "surfers"

Town Hall of Somero

Somero seems to be the flavour of the season. And Ella takes us to the well planned and nicely decorated Town hall there. What goes on in that august building between elders is anyone's guess. But, whatever the do, they do in wonderful surroundings.
On the wall one can see the Coat of Arms of the City. And, in the fore ground is a statue of the "Settler"or "The Pioneer Farmer".

Lighthouse and a little church on the rock in Bolshoy Utrish

In this postcard sent to me by Maria, are shown a lighthouse and a little church on the rock in Bolshoy Utrish (Big Utrish), south Russia, on the shore of the Black Sea. Between the seaside village of Bolshoy Utrish and Sukko, a rural locality serving as a resort, sprawls across the Bolshoy Utrish protected area, which stretches for 12km along the coastline and is closed on the north ridge Navagir. Sukko lies in the north of the Abrau Peninsula, in the valley of the small Sukko River, wedged between the westernmost spurs of the Caucasus Mountains, otherwise known as the Markotkh. 

The lighthouse, is located on an island and appears to be abandoned and deteriorating. The date when it was put into use is unknown, but probably is 1920, because the station was established in 1911. It's a round cylindrical masonry tower with a gallery and a band of sculptured faces around it at about a quarter of the height, and a small red lantern on top.  

Somero Church

The Somero Church is built on a small hill. Georg Theodor von Chiewitz designed, styled the red-brick church. The church was built in1859 .

Church organ and the Zachariassen organ were made in the year  1880 . Organ changes were made ​​in 1960 - and 1970's. The player is a valuable example of a Finnish history.

 This card which Ella sent me depicts the Lutheran Church of Somero. The Chaple is to the left. This picture must have been taken more than 20 years ago. Now there are many trees between the Church and the river.

Lutherans are Christians and they are found throughout the world!  They represent the world's third largest block of Christians and are the oldest Protestants.  There are nearly 70 million Lutherans living on every continent, speaking hundreds of languages.  In the USA alone there are more than 12 million Lutheran Christians.

Zaporozhian Cossacks

The Zaporozhian Cossacks, or simply Zaporozhians  were Ukrainian Cossacks who lived beyond the rapids of the Dnieper river, the land also known as the Great Meadow in Central Ukraine. Today most of its territory is flooded by the waters of Kakhovka Reservoir.

The Zaporizhian Sich grew rapidly in the 15th century from serfs fleeing the more controlled parts of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth establishing itself as a well-respected political entity with a parliamentary system of government. During the course of the 16th, 17th and well into the 18th centuries the Zaporozhian Cossacks became a strong political and military force that challenged the authority of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Tsardom of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and its vassal the Crimean Khanate. The Host went through a series of conflicts and alliances involving the three powers before falling into the Russian sphere of influence and eventually being forcibly disbanded in the late 18th century by the Russian Empire, with most of the population relocated to the Kuban region in the South edge of the Russian Empire, where the Cossacks served a valuable role of defending the Empire against the fierce Caucasian tribes and in return had a great degree of freedom granted by the Tsars.

The name Zaporozhtsi comes from the location of their fortress, the Sich, in Zaporozhzhia, the ‘land beyond the rapids’ (from za‘beyond’ and poróhy ‘river rapids’).

This card showing three comical characters from Ukranian folklore Oko, Gray and Tur, were famous for their bumblimg and tumbling ways, but, they invariably did what they wanted to do J. This card was sent to me by my friend Irina from Kiev.

Somero

Somero is a municipality of Finland, located in the province of Western Finland and part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of 9,268 (31 January 2012)^[2] and covers an area of 697.68 square kilometres (269.38 sq mi) of which 29.9 km² (11.5 sq mi) is water.^[1] The population density is 13.88 inhabitants per square kilometre (35.9 /sq mi). Somero is unilingually Finnish.

Somero has been known as a trading place as early as 14th century. The municipality was officially founded in 1867. The municipality of Somerniemi was joined into Somero proper in 1977. Somero moved from the province of Häme to the province of Turku and Pori in 1990. Currently it belongs to the province of Western Finland. Somero became a town (kaupunki) on January 1, 1993.         

This pretty card sent to me by Ella shows an old Windmill which is part of the Somero Museum. There are many buildings from the 17^th and 18^th centuries that form part of the Museum.