Cover from Belarus

Nice cover from Minsk, Belarus - sent on 10 December 2088 and received on 15 December 2008. It features a nicely designed stamp dedicated to weaving (issued on 21/12/2007, in 42,000 copies, series of handicrafts) and two small definitives from the 9th Definitive Series presenting Birds of the Garden (2006) with Ficedula hypoleuca - Pied flycatcher (30 ruble) and Carduelis cannabina - Linnet (50 ruble), both with a print-run of 1,050,000.

Postcard from Saudi Arabia

One of the bunch of letters and postcards received at the turn of the year was also this interesting card with the picture of an antique shop seller, sent from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from the city of Khobar on the Persian Gulf. Since I cannot read Arabic I cannot decipher the date on which it was sent.

The trio of definitives of 100 halala shows the famous Kaaba in Mecca. From what I was able to find the stamp was issued in 1990. Thank you Ganesh!

Postcard from Slovenia

On 3 January 2009 Leonardo from Ljubljana sent me this lovely postcard of the town of Škofja Loka in the northwest of Slovenia (population 22,000), the most beautifully preserved Slovenian medieval town.

Not only the picture is beatiful, the stamp is great too! It was issued on 27 Noveber 2008 with a print-run of 70,000, and is part of an ongoing series dedicated to gastronomy, my favourite topic.

Well, the dish itself is called Zgornjesavinjski želodec, which is "Upper Savinja Valley Stomach Sausage" and is a traditional dry-meat dish. The Slovenian Post page adds: "It had a strong ceremonial importance during the time of Eastern, when the maturity of this product was at the level, which enabled the determination whether the procedure of production, ripening and drying had been correct. Even on weddings the guests waited with anticipation to receive slices of »želodec«. The circle of lovers of this extremely high quality meat product has spread through the development of tourism in this part of Slovenia since the second half of the 19th century. Even the English king George VI. was among the enthusiasts of zgornjesavinjski želodec; namely, he tried it in Plesnik in Logarska dolina. Nowadays, the »želodec« is a protected food with a »recognized geographical mark«, while its quality is to an important extent co-shaped by the annual competition in Rečica ob Savinji."

The other stamp in the 2008 gastronomy se-tenant issue is ubrnjenik (also referred to as »ubrnjenk, obrnek, obrnenk«), which is "a filling warm or cold mealy dish in the form of a dumpling, made of roasted wheat, buckwheat or corn flour, poured over by salted boiling milk, in which they stir whipped cream and butter or buttermilk." It really makes me salivate:-)

And a note aside, what a nice price for sending a postcard to Europe! 45 eurocent! Here in the Czech Republic we have to pay some 20 eurocent more (applying the current rate of exchange).

6-stamp cover from Russia!

Oh yes, this is what I like:-) An envelope full of various commemorative stamps with lots of history about them. I received this one on 11 December 2008. It was mailed from the city of Astrakhan in the delta of Volga in southwest Russia, on 29 November.

The small 0.50 ruble defintive bears the date 1998. The 5 ruble Plekhanov Russian Economical Academy stamp was issued on 9 February 2007 (in 720,000 copies). The 2 and 5 ruble black-and-white stamps commemorated (on 5 April 2005) the end of the WW2. They show the documentary war photographs: "Victory in Berlin" (2 ruble) and "Soldiers Throwing Captured Banners before the Kremlin Wall" (both print-run 200,000). The blue stamp with the Suyumbike Tower - the Kazan Kremlin - is dedicated to the city of Kazan in the Republic of Tatarstan and its 1000 years of existence; it was issued on 10 March 2005 in 200,000 copies. The red stamp from 2006 (issued on 6 March in 230,000 copies) shows the throne of Ivan the Terrible, the Tsar of Russia (1530-1584), from the collections of the Moscow Kremlin Museum.

Thank you, Alex, for this one; it has plenty of history and things to find out about Russia.

Registered cover from the Czech Republic no. 2

Received on 5 January 2009, a registered letter posted in Líbeznice near Prague featuring a big miniature sheet issued on 12 September 2008 in commemoration of the Praga 2008 World Stamp Exhibition, in a joint issue with Austria (and its Wipa 2008), print-run: 200,000.

The theme is common for the two countries as it shows a carriage of the express mail operating between the cities of Brno (South Moravia) and Vienna in 1750. The image comes from the collections of the Postal Museum in Prague. There is also a small definitive from the zodiac series: virgo - 2 CZK, the total thus reaching 37 CZK, which is the current rate for domestic registered letters exceeding 100 grams.

As is typical for these miniature sheets, the stamp in the centre is engraved, and the rest of the picture is printed in offset

Postcard from Slovakia no. 2

We spent the turn of the year in the east of Slovakia, and I took advantage of the change of currency (Slovak koruna to euro) to prepare a postcard featuring stamps of the three different types of denominations currently in use in Slovakia.

The old koruna is represented by the 1 SVK definitive stamp with the coat of arms of the town of Dubnica nad Váhom; the universal "code" denomination can be seen on the beautiful engraved stamp presenting the wooden church of Hervartov in the Bardejov District (T1 100g corresponded to 18 SVK) with the coupon depicting (this time only in offset) another UNESCO protected wooden church in Ladomírová. The new currency is represented by two brand new definitives issued on 2 January 2009 (the date the card is postmarked) showing the St. Marguerite Chapel near Kopčany (District of Skalica) and a detail of the romanesque church in Boldog (District of Senec). The new euro definitives are also engraved and were issued in a print-run of 2 million each.

The wooden churches souvenir sheet was issued on 9 October 2008 with a print-run of 100,000. Both churches from the stamp and the coupon are also shown on the front of the postcard, together with 3 others of these fairy-tale buildings, all of them located in villages of the eastern Slovakia.

Cartography cover from Bulgaria

Another great cover from Bulgaria, from Lilia:-) Received at the end of December and sent on 18 December 2008 from Sofia (zip 1900).

The miniature sheet of 1 lev was issued on 28 February 2006, with a print-run of 16,000, and shows a golden sextant on the background of some Antartic islands. It is dedicated to the 10 years of Bulgarian Antartic cartography... and I love it. Pity again that here in the Czech Republic, and in many other places, souvenir sheets are so expensive. This Bulgarian one corresponds exactly to the tariff for sending light letters abroad.

Postcard from Gibraltar

I received this great postcard sometime at the turn of the year (when I was not at home for a week). It shows the main sights of Gibraltar and features the 44p Christmas stamp from the 1988 emission, a painting by G. Key, age 8. The card is postmarked (which is not so normal for common mail sent from the Rock, as Mónica, the sender, claims). It was sent on 6 December 2008, and thus took quite a long time to get here, but the postmark is not legible to the point of identifying the date.

New Czech stamps - January 2009

Issued today, on 2 January, are these two commemorative stamps from the series Personalities (Osobnosti). After the last year's Czech personalities, this year the two men are of foreign origin: Louis Braille, French, 1809-1852, and Charles Darwin, British, 1809-1882. The print-run is 1 million (Braille), and 800,000 (Darwin), both stamps are classical engravings made by Jaroslav Tvrdon.

Cover from Portugal no. 2

Beginning a new year of sharing nice philatelic material with the world, I would like to wish all my friends and colleagues all the best, strong health, peace of mind and plenty of happiness.

Continuing with covers from Portugal, I'd like to present this nice letter received on 16 December 2008, again from CTC Lisboa, sent on 12 December 2008 (thank you, Paula).

It features two out of the ten Lighthouses of Portugal series issued in 2008 (19 June): Farol Esposende and Farol Montedor, both with the nominal value of 30 eurocent. The rest of the postage are made by three interesting definitives: 2 x 3 eurocent Masks of Portugal (from 2006) and the already discussed peto-verde of 2003.