Weesp

Weesp is a town and a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It has a population of 17,533 (2010). Weesp lies next to the rivers de Vecht and Smal Weesp and also next to the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. It is in an area called the "Vechtstreek". It is only 3 km from the end of the Amsterdam metro, but the wide Amsterdam-Rhine Canal keeps it geographically separate. The town is surrounded by open grassland. In this picture card you can see two of the three pretty windmills in this town. The card was sent to me by Mardi.

Weesp is a popular stop for tourists. It has a protected historical centre with canals and many buildings dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Weesp has three full-size historical windmills. It features a bastion and fortifications that are part of the Defence line of Amsterdam and the Dutch Water Line. These structures have never been attacked, though. The scenic river Vecht and the small roads that line it attract yachters and cyclists. The Naardermeer area, the first nature reserve in the Netherlands, is at 15 minutes cycling distance from Weesp.

Christmas Stamps 2011

These three lovely maxi cards with the pretty Christmas 2011 stamps issued on 7.11.2011 were given to me by Ella.

The card on the top left has a stamp that portrays that The night is falling in the little town in the winter time. Just some lights in the attic rooms. The atmosphere is very traditional, enacted in modern way.
The second stamp is about The cheerful little boy elf has two lambs in the lap. The hat made of felt and the boots too; how about the beard?
The new stamp for the Christmas greetings is designed by Kaarina Toivanen.
Let the straw mobile swing! The girl elf likes to swing on the straw mobile, laughing and enjoying. A lovely Christmas-red stamp for cards and letters!

Card & Christmas Stamp 2003

This lovely postcard and stamp were designed and painted by the very well-known and popular postcard artist in Finland Virpi Pekkala. This stamp was issued as a Christmas stamp in 2003. This maxicard was given to me by Ella..

Sean Connery

Ksenia from Russia sent me this card featuring the famous James Bond 007. Who doesn’t know 007 or for that matter Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one of them being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award) and three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award). Connery is best known for portraying the character James Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983 (six "official" Eon productions films and the non-official Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again). In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Marnie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, Murder on the Orient Express, Dragonheart, and The Rock. He was knighted in July 2000. Connery has been polled as "The Greatest Living Scot". In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted "Sexiest Man of the Century".

Neil’s Harbour, Nova Scotia

Neil's Harbour is a small fishing village in northern Cape Breton Island, in Victoria County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located between Ingonish and Dingwall, just south of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Although the population is unknown, an estimate is between 200 and 404. The town has one operating church, which is Anglican, and one non-operational church, which was Presbyterian. There are a few cottages/summer homes in Neil's Harbour, but mostly there are local residents who work in the Lobster/Crab and Fishing Industry

The Canadian Coast Guard owns the lighthouse. Interestingly, the tower has served as an ice cream shop in the summer. Thank you Maria for this nice card.

Date of the Century

These three maxicards were sent to me by Merja on 11.11.11. A worthy keepsake indeed.

These are Christmas stamps for the year 2011, issued by Cyprus. The exceptional thing about these cards is the palindromic date of the Century 11.11.11.

The first card pictures the birth of Christ. It was taken from a fresco in the Cathedral of Saint John, in Nicosia (1740 – 1750). The other two cards display snow crystals in all their majestic beauty.

Romio’s Rock

Petra Tou Romiou (Rock of the Greek), or Aphrodite's Rock, is a sea stack in Pafos, Cyprus. Petra tou Romiou, a rock off the shore along the main road from Paphos to Limassol, has been regarded since ancient times as the birthplace of Aphrodite, goddes of love and fertility. This myth makes it a popular tourist location. According to ancient tradition, Aphrodite was born from the waves on the site off the coast of Cyprus. In his Theogony (178-206), Hesiod provides the following dramatic account of the event:

"Chronos took the great long jagged sickle; eagerly he harvested his father's (Zeus') genitals and threw them all off behind.... The genitals...were carried for a long time on the waves. White foam surrounded the immortal flesh, and in it grew a girl, her name is Aphrodite among men and gods, because she grew up in the foam (aphrizo).

Aphrodite was then escorted ashore on a shell by the soft breezes of the Zephyrs at the rocks known as Petra tou Romiou. This myth is, of course, most memorably depicted in Botticelli's Birth of Venus (on display in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence). A much older rendering of the event can be seen in a fine mural at Pompeii.

Homer's account of Aphrodite's birth is less dramatic. He said she was the daughter of Zeus and the fresh water nymph Dione, at whose bosom she would sometimes seek solace (Iliad 5.370-417). Petra tou Romiou means "the Rock of the Greek" and does not refer to Aphrodite but to another myth, that of the Byzantine hero Dighenis who threw the rocks at pirates to protect his lady.

It is said that in certain weather conditions, the waves rise, break and form a column of water that dissolves into a pillar of foam. With imagination, this looks for just a moment like an ephemeral, evanescent human shape. There is a long narrow pebbly beach at Petra tou Romiou that extends to either side of the largest rock and its satellites. Merja sent me this card with a fascinating story.