East Coast Village in TaiwanFishing

Tobey sent me this pretty picture from Taiwan. The picture is of a fishing village on the East Coast. Tobey also affixed very pretty stamps on this card.

Icebreakers of Finland

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most normal ships lack: a strengthened hull, an ice-clearing shape, and the power to push through ice-covered waters. Finland depends heavily on her icebreakers to keep the sea lines of communications open. It is well known that seas around the Finnish coast are frozen even in normal winters at that latitude. No wonder they are so good at winter sports.

On 7 September 2005 The Icebreakers stamp booklet featuring Finnish icebreakers Urho, Otso, Fennica and Botnica was issued. The ships represent the last three generations of Finnish icebreakers. Each stamp shows the name and building year of the icebreaker, and also the name and building year of the sister ship. The four stamps of the booklet illustrate the 24-hour operation of the Icebreakers - the top stamp on the left depicts morning, the one below it depicts daytime ops, the picture on the top right indicates evening and the one below it nighttime ops. The oldest of the vessels in the stamp booklet, 30 years this year, is the icebreaker Urho. Otso was built in 1986. The ship is more modern in terms of technology and in particular more cost effective than Urho. Fennica, built in 1993, is the first multipurpose icebreaker in Finland. In the winter the multipurpose icebreakers sail in domestic icebreaking duties. In the summer they have offshore duties in the service of international oil and gas industry. The newest of the ships depicted on the stamps is Botnica. It was built in 1998 with advanced multipurpose icebreaker technology.

Graphic designers Ari Lakaniemi and Susanna Rumpu designed the Icebreakers stamp booklet. The stamps are based on photographs by Matti Lehto (scale models), jarmo Vehkakoski and jouni Klinga (background pictures). The price of the Icebreakers booklet is 2.60 euro. The stamp booklet contains 1st class non-denominated gummed stamps. My dear friend Merja sent me this lovely set of four maxi cards with the stamps on them.

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

Auschwitz or Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–1945), was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I (the Stammlager or base camp); Auschwitz II–Birkenau (the Vernichtungslager or extermination camp); Auschwitz III–Monowitz, also known as Buna–Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps. Auschwitz had for a long time been a German name for Oświęcim, the town by and around which the camps were located; the name "Auschwitz" was made the official name again by the Germans after they invaded Poland in September 1939. Birkenau, the German translation of Brzezinka (birch tree), refers to a small Polish village nearby that was mostly destroyed by the Germans to make way for the camp. During the last Great War, the very name Auschwitz brought about nightmares to allied soldiers who were perhaps hundreds and thousands of miles away from this notorious place. I for one shocked when I studied it almost thirty years later when I was involved in a project at the Staff College.

Auschwitz II–Birkenau was designated by the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, Germany's Minister of the Interior, as the place of the "final solution of the Jewish question in Europe". From early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over Nazi-occupied Europe. The camp's first commandant, Rudolf Höss, testified after the war at the Nuremberg Trials that up to three million people had died there (2.5 million gassed, and 500,000 from disease and starvation), a figure since revised to 1.1 million, around 90 percent of them Jews. Others deported to Auschwitz included 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma and Sinti, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, some 400 Jehovah's Witnesses and tens of thousands of people of diverse nationalities. Those not killed in the gas chambers died of starvation, forced labor, infectious disease, individual executions, and medical experiments.

On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops, a day commemorated around the world as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 1947, Poland founded a museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, which by 1994 had seen 22 million visitors—700,000 annually—pass through the iron gates crowned with the infamous motto, Arbeit macht frei ("work makes free"). Many suspected what was happening inside the gates, but, now the true horrors were laid bare before the whole world. Pawel sent this card to me.

Helsinki

This pretty scene from Helsinki was sent to me by my dear friend Ella.

Lighthouse at Vallisaari Island off Helsinki

This pretty picture is of the Island of Vallisaari and the quaint little lighthouse on it. The island is off the well known Soumenlinna Fortress about which a lot has already been written on this blog. In the background can be seen the Island of Lauttosaari. All these islands are near Helsinki, the Capital of Finland. It may be of interest to some that a violent explosion took place on 7^th September 1937 at the army's weapons loading unit on Vallisaari island which destroyed the magazine and much of the nearby infrastructure. 12 people were killed and dozens wounded. The shockwave caused earthquake-like tremors 5 km away in Helsinki. The explosions continued for a day and a massive black cloud rose above the island. People fled in panic to mainland. Many of the dead were buried near Piper's Park on neighbouring Suomenlinna island, where the memorial stands today. My Dear Friend Ella sent me this pretty card.

Ayia Napa Monastery

The monastery of Agia Napa is located in the homonymous village in Ammochostos District. The village got its name from the “Icon of Virgin Mary of Napes”, which means “the Saint of the woods” and thus, she was named “Agia Napa”. This is how the village got its name, Agia Napa, “Holy Forest”.

There is not sufficient evidence as to when the Monastery was originally founded. The cave, the hiding place and the well, all testify to the existence of the Christian community, from the time of the Byzantine era. Agia Napa was given its name before 1366. The Monastery though, as it is today, is a building of the 15th century, when Cyprus was under the sovereignty of the Venetians. According to local tradition, in the cave that has now become a church, the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary was found by a hunter. The hunter’s dog was first to see the glowing icon and began barking, insistently calling over his master. A considerable number of believers started visiting the holy place of the cave, as soon as they heard about the discovery of the icon. The icon had probably been placed in the cave during the period of iconoclasm (7th-8th century) and thus, it was rescued. In the 14th century, the remaining half of the cave was built into a church. Another tradition mentions that the daughter of a noble Venetian family took refuge in the cave out of obstinacy, because of her parents’ refusal to allow her marriage with a non-aristocrat. It is said that around the year 1500 the wealthy Venetian built the church, the cells and a flourmill, on her own expenses. (The flourmill was probably installed in the Monastery during the period of the Turkish domination). A women’s Monastery and a Roman chapel were gradually created. The right aisle of the church, right after the entrance, operated as the Roman chapel. The enormous sycamore tree of the Monastery, which is found next to the reservoir, is said to have been planted by the Venetian woman. When the time of her death approached, she built the stone, vaulted monument. She wished to be buried in this monument, next to the dew of the reservoir. On the northern side of the courtyard, there is a fountain with the shape of the head of a wild boar. Above that, the two-floor building is standing, in which the Venetian daughter initially lived.

Up on the hill, on the west side of the church, there is a small, ancient church, that again according to tradition, the Virgin Mary lay down for a while to rest. By the grace of the Virgin Mary, couples who are infertile and women who are experiencing difficulties during pregnancy, arrive at the monastery everyday to pray for help and request to gird the miraculous belt of the Saint of Agia Napa. The monastery is a particularly graceful place, where anyone and everyone with faith, can find comfort and spiritual peacefulness. Our loving All Holy Mother, everyday opens her arms to us all, in order to take away our worries and troubles, no matter how severe they seem to be. The Virgin Mary everyday prays for us, for the salvation of our souls. My dear friend Merja gave me this maxicard.

Birds of Prey of Cyprus

These three maxi cards show three of the Birds of Prey in Cyprus. These three stamps are part of a set of six stamps. The birds are from the top The Owl. The owl is a night bird about 22 cm long. It can be seen in many areas like forests, farmlands, farms as well as in populated areas. It feeds mainly on rodents, reptiles, small birds and insects. It lays 3 to 6 eggs in crevices of cliffs, in holes of buildings or in heaps of stones, during the April – June Period. Then we have Eleonora’s Falcon shown at lower left. This is a medium size bird of prey about 38cm long. It feeds mainly on small birds as well as on insects. It lives in flocks and builds its nest in cavities as well as on rocky islands. It lays 2-3 eggs about the middle of July, so that at the time of growing of the young birds, there is plenty of food, because this period coincides with the birds’ migration. And finally , we have another view of the Eleonora’s Falcon in flight. These lovely maxi cards were given to me by my Dear Friend Merja.