Sausages on Hot Stones

'Makkarra', or sausages, which for instance can be cooked on the hot stones in the sauna are very popular in Finland.  Nakkimakkara or literary knock-sausage is popular and pretty much the same as wiener-sausage or frankfurter.

Sausage in natural casing, especially suitable for barbecuing/grilling. Regular barbecue sausages are mainly made with pork, but also a variety of other meats may be used, like chicken, reindeer, salmon,etc. Besides using various meats, the sausage meat may be flavoured with different spices, herbs, peppers, cheese, etc. Nowadays also vegetarian "sausages" are available for grilling. Barbecue sausages are popular "junk food" in Finland, especially in summertime when outdoor grilling is widely practised.

After a sauna session, there’s a customary light meal of sausages (like the one shown on this card sent by Merja), beer and soft drinks, or coffee and pastries.   Tourists might gain a deep understanding of how integral, even holy, the sauna experience is to Finns, whose humour and easy-going charm practically guarantee a fun evening.

Lake Baikal

My friend Tatiana from Irkutsk sent me this card with a view of the famous Baikal. 

Lake Baikal meaning "rich lake" is the world's oldest lake, at 25 million years (possibly older), and deepest, averaging 744.4 m (2,442 ft).

Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water.

At 1,642 m (5,387 ft), Lake Baikal is the deepest and among the clearest of all lakes in the world. Similar to Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal was formed as an ancient rift valley, having the typical long crescent shape with a surface area of 31,722 km² (12,248 sq mi). Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is also home to Buryat tribes who reside on the eastern side of Lake Baikal, rearing goats, camels, cattle and sheep, where the regional average temperatures vary from a minimum of−19 °C (−2 °F) in winter to maximum of 14 °C (57 °F) in summer. Lake Baikal is nicknamed "Older sister of Sister Lakes (Lake Khövsgöl and Lake Baikal)".

Prairies in Canada

Rolf sent me this interesting card showing grain elevators in the prairies in Canada.

The Canadian Prairies is a region of Canada, specifically in Western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the  provinces of Alberta,  Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are partially covered by prairie(grasslands). In a more restricted sense, the term may also refer only to the areas of those provinces covered by prairie. Prairie also covers portions of northeastern British Columbia, though that province is typically not included in the region in a political sense.

The word prairie usually refers to a type of grassland, and true prairies occur only in the southern reaches of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Contrasted to this are other biomes such as the boreal forest taking up the majority of the Prairie Provinces, or the aspen parkland.

However "the prairies" may also refer to all of the Interior Plains region within Canada, in contrast with the Rocky Mountains and Canadian Shield, and is a continuation of the Great Plains region of the United States.

It may also refer to all of the farmland in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, a definition based on human use, which includes all of the aspen parkland biome.

Autumn Colours in the Primorye

This really is a very pretty card. What a lovely picture - Autumn Colours in the Primorye. Thank you very much Sveta.

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.