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.