International Philatelic Exhibition STOCKHOLMIA86

Souvenir card from the International Philatelic Exhibition STOCKHOLMIA86 held in Stockholm Sweden, from August 28 to September 7, 1986.

The stamp on this card is one of four issued in 1984 to popularise Stamp Collecting and as an advertisement for STOCKHOLMIA86.

Thank you Merja.

Cries and Whispers

Cries and Whispers is a 1972 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann. The film is set at a mansion at the end of the 19th century and is about two sisters who watch over their third sister on her deathbed, torn between fearing she might die and hoping that she will. After several unsuccessful experimental films, Cries and Whispers was a critical and commercial success for Bergman, gaining nominations for five Academy Awards. These included a nomination for Best Picture, which was unusual for a foreign-language film.

Cries and Whispers returned to the traditional Bergman themes of the female psyche or the quest for faith and redemption. Unlike his previous films, Cries and Whispers uses saturated colour, especially crimson. It was for the color and light scheme that the cinematographer and long-time Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

Merja gave me this maxicard the stamp of “Cries and Whispers”  from the miniature sheet commemorating Swedish Film History, issued on 10^th October, 1981.

Manly, Sydney

Manly is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 17 kilometres (11 mi) north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of Manly Council, in the Northern Beaches region.

Manly is most notable for its beaches which are popular tourist destinations. Manly features a long stretch of sand on the ocean side, that runs from Queenscliff Beach to North Steyne Beach and Manly Beach. This is followed by rock pools and sandy beaches called Fairy Bower and Shelly Beach. There are also a number of beaches on the harbour side of the peninsula. Norfolk Island pine trees are also symbolic of Manly and are a prominent feature of both the ocean and harbour beaches. On 10 March 2012, the 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) stretch between Freshwater Beach and Shelly Beach was declared the "Manly -Freshwater World Surfing Reserve". The Reserve was dedicated in a ceremony in Manly Beach by world surfing champion Kelly Slater accompanied by the Governor of New South Wales, Australia, Professor Marie Bashir.

Manly has Sydney Harbour on its western side with calm water, ferry wharf, a swimming area, the Oceanworld Manly aquarium, and sailing and yacht clubs. About 300 metres (980 ft) to the east is the Pacific Ocean and Manly Beach. There are more than 20 kilometres (12 mi) of cycle tracks that can be used to explore the area. The Manly International Jazz Festival is Australia's largest community-based jazz festival. It is held during the October long weekend public holiday, with various stages hosting continuous free public performances from midday until early evening. The BBC soap opera Out of the Blue was set in Manly.

This lovely card sent to me by Karen shows, an aerial view featuring Manly wharf in the foreground and the magnificent surfing beach in the background. I am not very sure, because, I haven't been there, but, is that the famous SCG seen towards the left of the picture?

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius  is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently is home to over 300 monks.

The monastery was founded in 1345 by one of the most venerated Russian saints, Sergius of Radonezh, who built a wooden church in honour of the Holy Trinity on Makovets Hill. Early development of the monastic community is well documented in contemporary lives of Sergius and his disciples. St. Sergius was declared patron saint of the Russian state in 1422. The same year the first stone cathedral was built by a team of Serbian monks who had found refuge in the monastery after the Battle of Kosovo.

It took 26 years to construct the six-pillared Assumption Cathedral, which was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible in 1559. The cathedral is much larger than its model and namesake in the Moscow Kremlin. The magnificent iconostasis of the 16th–18th centuries features Simon Ushakov's masterpiece, the icon of Last Supper. Interior walls were painted with violet and blue frescoes by a team of Yaroslavl masters in 1684. The vault contains burials of Boris Godunov, his family and several 20th-century patriarchs.

As the monastery grew into one of the wealthiest landowners in Russia, the woods where it had stood were cut over and a village (or posad) sprang up near the monastery walls. It gradually developed into the modern town of Sergiyev Posad. The cloister itself was a notable centre of chronicle-writing and icon painting. Just opposite the monastery walls St. Paraskeva's Convent was established, among whose buildings St. Paraskeva's Church (1547), Introduction Church (1547), and a 17th-century chapel over St. Paraskeva's well are still visible.

The Lavra has a number of representative churches in its vicinity and throughout Russia. The Lavra's hieromonks have manned a number of sketes at remote locations (such as the Anzer Island in the Solovki Archipelago in the White Sea), as well as the Trinity Church on the King George Island in the Antarctic.

Thank you Marina for this nice Black and White historical card.

Chapel tomb of Paskevichs family in Gomel

The Rumyantsev-Paskevich Residence is the main place of historical importance in the city of Gomel, Belarus. The grounds of the residence stretch for 800 meters along the steep right bank of the Sozh River. An image of the residence is featured on the Belarusian 20,000-ruble bill. Other buildings on the grounds are the Russian Revival chapel with the tombs of Ivan Paskevich and his family, a winter garden (which originated as Prince Paskevich's sugar-mill), several subsidiary outbuildings, and a set of cannons captured by Paskevich's soldiers in the course of the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829). By far the most conspicuous landmark in the park is the Neoclassical church of Sts. Peter and Paul. It was commissioned by Count Nikolay Rumyantsev from architect John Clark in 1809 but was not consecrated until 1824. The church is the seat of the local Orthodox bishopric.

Thank you Kate for this pretty card.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park is a national park located in the north-central region of the U.S. state of Colorado. It features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra—and easy access to back-country trails and campsites. The park is located northwest of Boulder, Colorado, in the Rockies, and includes the Continental Divide and the headwaters of the Colorado River.

This nice card was sent to me by Dede.

Texel in Holland

Texel  is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark. The next island in the archipelago, to the north of Texel, is Vlieland.

The name Texel is Frisian, but because of historical sound-changes in Dutch, where all -x- sounds have been replaced with -s- sounds (compare for instance English Fox, Frisian Fokse, German Fuchs with Dutch Vos), the name is typically pronounced Tesselin Dutch.

 The municipality also includes the uninhabited sand bar of Noorderhaaks. The island of Texel, which received city rights in 1415, originally was made up of two islands, Texel proper to the south and Eierland to the northwest, which were connected by shoals. In the seventeenth century, the islands were poldered together. Today, Texel forms the largest natural barrier between the North Sea and the Wadden Sea.

The dune landscape on Texel is a unique habitat for wildlife. Texel is known for its wildlife, particularly in winter, when birds of prey and geese take up residence. About one third of Texel is a protected nature reserve. Popular with tourist. The island is wonderful for walking, swimming and horse riding. Thank you Ivon for this nice card.

The Wiesensee

The Wiesensee is an artificial lake, dammed up in 1971, in the Westerwald low mountain range. The lake covers about 80 hectares and lies in the area of Stahlhofen am Wiesensee's various centres on the lake's west shore, and Pottum on the north shore in the Westerwaldkreis. The community of Winnen borders on the lake to the southeast. The lake is a nature conservation area, and only parts of the water surface are open for recreational use.

It is a holiday and tourist destination. Several hotels, a luxury hotel and golf course lie near the shore. Many leisure facilities in the winter and summer make the Wiesensee attractive for athletes, young families and youth. Around the lake runs a roughly 6.5-km-long hiking path loop.

Once every year, usually in the third week of October, the lake is fished clean, and completely drained. On this occasion the fishing festival is traditionally held.

Every three years, the Vereinsring Pottum ("club ring") stages a Sommernachtfest ("Summer Night Festival") at the lake.

Thank you Benny for this card.

XIth German Gymnastic Festival in Frankfurt in July 1908

This is a reproduction of a historic postcard. Thank you Andre for this wonderful card.

When Kaiser Wilhelm II made it known in summer 1905 that he would be willing to have the traditional singing contest transferred permanently to Frankfurt as well as having the 11th German Gymnastics Festival held there three years later, the municipal authorities lost no time in taking action. At a meeting of town councillors, funds were allocated for a general architectural competition. The invitation to tender was issued in April 1906 and was won just one year later by Friedrich von Thiersch, who designed a 6,000 m², daylight-flooded hall, suitable for playing host to all manner of exhibitions, musical performances and other events.   

Construction work began on 11 June 1907 and was supervised directly by Frankfurt City Council. Responsibility for marketing and operating the hall was given to ‘Ausstellungs- und Festhallen-Gesellschaft’ – known today as Messe Frankfurt. Exactly 13 months later in July 1908, the still-unplastered Festhalle hosted the opening ceremony for the 11th International German Gymnastics Festival. When the gymnasts had returned home, the construction was completed and officially opened on schedule.   

Sail Amsterdam

Sail Amsterdam is a Dutch maritime event held every five years for 5 days. In 2010, the eighth edition took place from 19 to 23 August. The next edition of Sail Amsterdam will be held fromAugust 19,2015 to August 23, 2015.

The event was first held in August 1975 during the celebration of the 700th anniversary of the city of Amsterdam. During the preparations was proposed to organize a nautical event in the port of Amsterdam, somewhat following the First Dutch Exhibition held in 1913 in Shipping Technology, which would be the focus of the harbour and the city. There were ships from around the world for this event 'Sail Amsterdam 700' invited.

After the success of 'Sail Amsterdam 700' it was decided in 1980 to organize a Sail Amsterdam to lead the organization in the right direction is the permanent organization Stichting Sail Amsterdam (SSA) was established in 1977. Since then it has succeeded the SSA to organize an event in 1980 , 1985 , 1990 , 1995 , 2000 , 2005 and 2010 .

This maxicard commemorates Sail Amsterdam 1995, held from 6^th June 1995.

In 2000 and 2005 there were more than two million people at the event, including 360,000 foreigners. In 2010, the buzz was with 1.5 million visitors a little smaller, partly because the event took a day shorter, but still belongs Sail Amsterdam's busiest public events in the Netherlands.

Thank you Dear Maria for this nice card.

The Pre-Columbian era Pottery

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the Early Modern period. While the phrase "pre-Columbian era" literally refers only to the time preceding Christopher Columbus's voyages of 1492, in practice the phrase usually is used to denote the entire history of American indigenous cultures until those cultures were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or centuries after Columbus's first landing. For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Hispanic America the term usually used is Pre-Hispanic.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era. Many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives.

The pottery shown on the card is that of a Jaguar Effigy bottle with Bridge Spout with Resist from Peru. Far North Coast Piura Valley. It is possibly of the Late Horizon/Early Intermediate period, Vicus 400-200 bc.

Resist is a coating that is put on pottery or ceramic to protect a certain area from paint or glaze. When the piece is fired, the resist will burn away and the area that it was put on will show with the paint or glaze surrounding it.

Thank you Billy for this interesting card.

Lake Teletskoye ("Golden Lake")

Lake Teletskoye ("Golden Lake") is the largest lake in the Altay Mountains and the Altai Republic, Russia, and has depth up to 325 meters.

Situated at a height of 434 m (1,424 ft) above the sea level, the lake is 78 km (48 mi) long and 5 km (3.1 mi) wide and lies between the mountain ridges Korbu and Altyntu, on the junction of the Sailughem Mountains and the Western Sayans. Its surface area is 233 km² (90 sq mi); however, due to its considerable depth (325 m, 1,066 ft), the lake contains no less than 40 km³ (9.6 cubic miles) of fresh water. Annual water level fluctuations are estimated at some 348 sm. The lake transparency is high, with the visibility of the lake water ranging from six to fourteen meters.

About 70 rivers and 150 temporary streams flow into the lake, the largest of them, Chulyshman River, supplying more than half of the lake's water. The lake is drained through a single outlet, the Biya River, which, after its confluence with the Katun River, forms one of Siberia's largest rivers, the Ob River.

The lake is surrounded by mountains of 600-1,300 m in the northern part and about 1,700-2,400 m (5,600 - 7,900 ft) in the southern part. Lake Teletskoe is included into Altaisky Nature Reserve. That reserve along with the Katun Natural Reserve and the Ukok Plateau Nature Refuge were listed as one of UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites under the name "Golden Mountains of Altai".

The Altay people have a legend about the name of the lake in their language, which means Golden Lake. According to this story, once, a rich man had a ingot of gold, which he wanted to use to buy food. He travelled around Altai, but could not find anyone who would sell him any food. Eventually, he threw the gold into the lake. This legend is the origin of the name.

Thank you Daria for this lovely card.

The San Francisco cable car

The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system. An icon of San Francisco, California, the cable car system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, or "Muni" as it is better known. Of the twenty-three lines established between 1873 and 1890, three remain (one of which combines parts of two earlier lines): two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf, and a third route along California Street. While the cable cars are used to a certain extent by commuters, their small service area and premium fares for single rides make them more of a tourist attraction. They are among the most significant tourist sites in the city, along with Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Fisherman's Wharf. The cable cars are the only mobile National Monument in the world, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The cable cars are not to be confused with San Francisco's heritage streetcars, which operate on Market Street and the Embarcadero.

Bev sent me this pretty card.

King Gustav III of Sweden

Merja sent me this card which portrays an Helmet from King Gustav III’s tournament armour in the 1770’s.

Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia who was a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

A vocal opponent of, as he saw it, abuses by the nobility of a permissiveness established by parliamentarian reforms that had been worked out since the death ofCharles XII, he seized power from the government in a coup d'état in 1772, ending the Age of Liberty and venturing into a campaign to restore royal autocracy which was completed by the Union and Security Act in 1789, sweeping away most of the last pretences of Riksdag rule. As a bulwark of enlightened despotism, his expenditure of considerable public funds on cultural ventures contributed to his controversial majesty. Attempts to seize first Norway through Russian aid, then to recapture the Baltic provinces through a war against Russia were unsuccessful, although much of Sweden's former military might was restored. An admirer of Voltaire, Gustav legalized Catholic and Jewish presence in the realm and enacted wide-ranging reforms aimed at economic liberalism, social reform and the abolishment, in many cases, of torture and capital punishment, although the much-praised 1766 Freedom of Press Act was severely curtailed through amendments in 1774 and 1792, all independent media effectively extinguished.

Nesvizh, Belarus

Nesvizh is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative center of the Nesvizh District (rajon) of Minsk Province and location of the Nesvizh Castle World Heritage Site. Its 2009 population is 14,300.

The Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh, Belarus (the one on the card) is an early Jesuit church and one of the oldest baroque structures outside Italy, influencing the later architecture of Belarus, Poland and Lithuania. Commissioned by Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł and constructed in 1587-1593 by Gian Maria Bernardoni, it contains graves of members of the powerful house of Radziwiłł.

Thank you Alexander for this nice card.

Nice - Bay of Angels

The Promenade des Anglais is a celebrated promenade along the Mediterranean at Nice, France.

Nice, the capital of the Côte d’Azur is beautifully curved round the Bay of Angels, desirable and as lively as you like. Its reputation for glamour is enhanced by an equal reputation for top-end scandal.  The clearest-possible light spangles the Mediterranean to create a setting for sybarites, and shadows for well-dressed decadence. These days, France’s fifth city has recovered some of its stateliness without in any way renouncing the hot Latin blood courses through its veins. And it’s bewitching at pretty much anytime of the year.

The Bay of Angels (Baie des Anges) has surprisingly nothing to do with angels of heaven who made this paradise, but it were the angels from the deep, the angel sharks from the sea that used to live here until the 19th century that gave their name to the bay of Nice. These angel sharks -Squatina angelus- had 2 fins that looked like 2 angel wings for the Mediterranean fisherman. Nowadays they have been disappeared completely.

Thank you Sophy for this very pretty card.

Mozart

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. 
Theresa sent me this card.

Jefferson said.........................

“I find friendship to be like wine,

raw when new,

ripened with age,

the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial”

-Thomas Jefferson-

Suit of armour, from military counselor Henrik Klasson Fleming's (1584-1650) funeral

The picture on the card is that of a suit of armour, from military counselor Henrik Klasson Fleming's (1584-1650 funeral, which is in Mynamaki Church in Finland.

Thank you Merja for this nice card.

Greetsiel - Ostfriesland - The Harbour

Hanna sent me this beautiful card of Greetsiel which  is a small port on the bight of Leybucht in western East Frisia, Germany that was first documented in letters from the year 1388. Since 1972, Greetsiel has been part of the municipality of Krummhörn, which has its administrative seat in Pewsum. The nearest railway station is at Emden, about 15–20 kilometres (9.3–12 mi) away, and the two towns are linked by a bus service.

Although originally just a small but picturesque fishing village, Greetsiel has become a major tourist attraction. In December 2006, it had 1,534 inhabitants, but the number of people living in the village significantly increases during the summer months and over the Christmas holidays.

Greetsiel's harbor is home to East Frisia's largest fishing fleet. Around 25 cutters have at times anchored here. Shellfish fishers, excursion boats, Dutch Tjalken and a sailboat harbor complete the picture.
The harbor itself is not affected by tides. By means of a lock on the Leyhörn, which was built at the beginning of the 1990s, ebb and flow have lost their effect.
In the past, ships that came from the inland used the sluiceway to enter upon open sea. Traffic from Greetsiel to the islands was very busy.

Nasturtium flowers.

My dear friend Ella sent me this lovely card showing this little girl tending to her nice little garden which is full of pretty Nasturtium flowers.

Now the Tropaeolum, commonly known as Nasturtium literally "nose-twister" or "nose-tweaker", is a genus of roughly 80 species of   annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants. It was named by Carl Linnaeus and is the only genus in the family Tropaeolaceae. The nasturtiums received their common name because they produce an oil that is similar to that produced by watercress.

The genus Tropaeolum, native to South and Central America, includes several very popular garden plants, the most commonly grown being T. majus, T. peregrinum andT. speciosum. The hardiest species is T. polyphyllum from Chile, the perennial roots of which can survive underground when air temperatures drop as low as −15 °C (5 °F).

Plants in this genus have showy, often intensely bright flowers, and rounded, peltate (shield-shaped) leaves with the petiole in the centre. The flowers have five petals (sometimes more), a three-carpelled ovary, and a funnel-shaped nectar tube at the back.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter says Ella on behalf of the 'Grannies';-))

Bavaria

Hendrik sent me this card with a picture of a typical Bavarian scene in the mountains.

Pottenstein

Pottenstein is a town in the district of Bayreuth, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 23 km southwest of Bayreuth, and 26 km east of Forchheim. The city of Pottenstein, altitude 350–614 m AMSL, with its nearly 1,500 inhabitants, is a nationally acclaimed climatic health-resort in Franconian Switzerland. It nestles at the convergence of the Püttlach, Weihersbach and Haselbrunn valleys surrounded by high cliffs and at the foot of the 1000-year-old castle, which has played an important role throughout the city's history. The scenic landscape and nature offer a wide spectrum along with unique features such as the Devil's cave with its fascinating stalactites and stalagmites.

The thousand years old castle of Pottenstein, located about sixty meters above the small town of Pottenstein (founded in 1348), gives a beautiful and characteristic view of both landscape and town.

Hendrik who lives in those parts sent me this pretty card.

Russian Painting

Galina sent me this card with the pretty painting on it.