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.

The Tiger's Nest

Taktsang is one of the holiest places in Bhutan the monastery is perched on a high granite cliff overlooking the northern Paro valley. This place is especially venerated because of its association with Guru Rinpoche, who is said to have flown to Paro Taktsang in the form of Dorji Drolo, mounted on a flaming dakini-tigress in the 747A.D. Guru visited Bhutan 3 times. His first visit to Bhutan 746 A.D from India was when he was invited to Bumthang to treat the Sindhu Raja, the ruler of Bumthang, who was seriously ill. The king was cured and was converted to Buddhism. He promised to return to Bhutan again to further propagate the Buddhist teachings. A year later, Guru was invited to Tibet by King Thrisong Deutsen to assist him in the construction of the Samye Monastery. He traveled to Tibet, by tantric powers, he cleared away the demonic forces that were disturbing the construction of the monastery, and so the monastery was successfully completed.

During this visit in 747 A.D to Tibet, Guru Rinpoche decided to visit Bhutan again with his Tibetan consort Khandro He travelled all over the country and blessed the people.
While in Singye Dzong inKurtoe, Guru is believed to have flown to Paro Taktsang in the form of Guru Dorji Drolo, the 8th and the final aspect that he assumed, mounting on a dakini-tigress. Before his arrival, the whole country was believed to have been inhabited by hostile evil spirits. On his arrival, he subdued eight categories of evil spirits and bounded them by solemn oath to be the protectors of teaching for all times to come. He also concealed various forms of Dharma treasures including 3 teachings of Yoga to be discovered later by his disciples called Tertons (Treasure Discoverers). According to his biography ‘Yidkyi Munsel’, he meditated there for 4 months and blessed this place as the best among the sacred places (Ney). The Tiger's Nest

Paro Taktsang (spa phro stag tshang / spa gro stag tshang), is the popular name of Taktsang Palphug Monastery (also known as The Tiger's Nest), a prominent Himalayan Buddhist sacred site and temple complex, located on the cliffside of the upper Paro valley, Bhutan. A temple complex was first built in 1692, around the Taktsang Senge Samdup (stag tshang seng ge bsam grub) cave where Guru Padmasambhava is said to have meditated for three months in the 8th century. Padmasambhava is credited with introducing Buddhism to Bhutan and is the tutelary deity of the country. Today, Paro Taktsang is the best known of the thirteen taktsang or "tiger lair" caves in which he meditated.

This lovely card with the pretty stamps, was sent to me by Shashi and Jyotsna from Bhutan during their recent visit there.

Kimon the Athenian

Merja sent me this nice scene from Larnaca in Cyprus, showing the monument to Kimon the Athenian. For those who are not familiar with Kimon, the next two paragraphs should tell you who he was.

Kimon was an Athenian general and statesman, a member of the distinguished Philaid family and the son of the great Miltiades, the victorious general at Marathon. Kimon first came to public notice when he tried to obtain his father’s corpse for burial. Militiades had convinced the Athens to put him in charge of a fleet which he used for his own private purposes. Returning to Athens, he was fined the enormous sum of fifty talents, which he could not pay, and so died in prison in 489. According to Athenian law Kimon was required to take his father’s place in prison until the fifty talents were paid, which it eventually was by Kallias, a very rich Athenian who married Kimon's sister Elpinike. Kimon was a passionate opponent of the Persians and met them in battle many times as general in the 470’s and 460’s BC. In the years following the defeat of the Persians at Plataia in 479 he and Aristeides gained the support of the Aegean islanders for the new Delian league. Kimon was commander of the Athenian naval contingent, and thus (since the Athenians provided most of the ships) the commander of the allied Greek navy arrayed against the Persians in the Aegean Sea. One of his earliest acts as commander was to seize the island of Skyros in 476 BC from the Dolopians, the native inhabitants (who were accused of piracy), and to settle Athenian colonists in their place. It was at this time that Kimon claimed that he had found the bones of the legendary Athenian king Theseus, which were brought to Athens with great ceremony. Shortly after this Karystos on the island of Euboia was forced to joined the Delian League, and the island state of Naxos, which had seceded from the League, was put under siege and forced to return, the earliest actions which showed that the League was no longer a voluntary association. Both actions were almost certainly carried out under the command of Kimon, who now had the most influential voice in Athenian foreign policy. Domestically, Kimon led the aristocratic opposition to Themistokles, the leader of the democratizing forces in Athens. The death of Aristeides (probably about 468) and the ostracism of Themistokles (in 470) left Kimon as Athens' most influential leader for several years.

Kimon's greatest military success was the Eurymedon campaign in 467, when he destroyed the Persian fleet on the south coast of Asia Minor. Kimon’s next achievement was the expulsion of the Persians from the Chersonese in the northern Aegean, and its inclusion in the Delian League. The combination of these various victories put the Persians permanently on the defensive. Kimon’s efforts against Persia were eventually crowned by the famous peace of Kallias (448), named for Kimon's brother-in-law and chief negotiator for the Athens. This treaty imposed humiliating conditions on the Persians, that no Persian satrap would approach within three days' march of the coast and that no Persian ship would sail into the Aegean controlled by the Athenians.