Cover from Italy no. 11

The latest cover from the great Giovanni, with a miniature sheet issued on 8 May 2004, showing Castel del Monte in the Province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, and a herd of sheep, and a map connecting L'Aquila and Foggia, two points on the Tratturo Magno, the longest path in Italy used for transferring cattle or sheep from one pasture to another. Besides the sheet, the cover bears a special postmark used in Marsure (Provincia di Pordenone) on 8 September 2010, showing the sanctuary of Madonna del Monte commemmorated on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Apparition of the Virgin Mary. Grazie, Giovanni!!!

Cover from Singapore no. 4

Birds, birds everywhere you look, on this beautiful cover sent from Bras Basah in Singapore on 3 September 2010. 5c, 30c and 65c bird stamps on the right belong to a series of definitives issued in 2007, the Oriental Pied Hornbill (2004) is part of a series dedicated to nature conservation at Chek Jawa, and the left-hand stamp with Lesser Green Leafbird does not bear any date. The cover was issued on the occasion of the issue of the 10th series of the Care-for-Nature stamps, related to Sungei Buloh Nature Park. Thank you Johnny Lowis.

Cover from French Polynesia no. 2

Hello! I am back after, oh, two months! I was pretty busy (no weekends, no free evenings) translating Kraken, another great and truly mind-bending fantasy/horror book by English novelist China Miéville. I submitted the manuscript a couple of days ago, and now I am getting back to my old ways (hopefully:)

I have a huge pile of splendid envelopes and postcards waiting to be appreciated and admired... the first randomly chosen treasure being this exotic cover from French Polynesia, sent from Pirae, Ile de Tahiti, on 6 September 2010, with a 65F stamp from a 2008 series dedicated to marine life (shark), and two large colourful 100F stamps by Polynesian artists (Teurarea and T. Chan), issued also in 2008 as part of a paintings series. In the envelope I received some stunning postcards showing the beauties of French Polynesia, among them the islands of Mehetia and Rangiroa. Thank you, Magali!

Postcard from Slovakia no. 6

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A postcard which we sent ourselves this August during our stay in Slovakia, showing a part of the town of Vysoké Tatry (the municipality of Starý Smokovec). Vysoké Tatry (the High Tatras) are the highest mountain range in Slovakia (part of the Carpathian Mountains). The town of Vysoké Tatry was created artificially in 1947, and it is not a true town, but a conglomerate of separate and different settlements (originally separate villages), whose only common feature is that they are the main tourist resorts in the mountains. There are three cadastral areas and fourteen municipalities (the coats of arms of four of which are shown in the postcard, together with the coat of arms of the whole town).

The 33 eurocent Easter stamp was issued on 27 February 2009, in two forms, as a classic stamp in a sheet of 50, and in a booklet - my stamps is taken from there. The 10 eurocent stamp is a definitive showing a part of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Sedmerovec – Pominovce (issued on 1 January 2009), and the engraved T2 50g stamp (2nd class, up to 50 grams, currently corresponding to 40 eurocent) is a fantastic piece of art featuring an illustration by Einar Turkowski taken from the book ‘Es war finster und merkwürdig still’ (‘It was dark and eerily quiet’). The stamp commemorates the Biennial of Illustrations (competition of original book illustrations for children and youth) held in Bratislava. The reproduced illustration won the competition in 2007 (Grand Prix) and the stamp was issued on 14 August 2009, in 4,000,000 copies.

Cover from Serbia no. 2

A cover sent on 8 September 2010 from the town of Senta in northern Serbia, with a nice stamp reproducing the painting “The Young Woman in Pink Dress” (1930) by Paja Jovanovic (1859 - 1957), an important artist of the Serbian and world academic realism. The stamp was issued on 6 April 2009 (along with two others in an art series) on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the painter's birth. Thank you, Dunja!

Postcard from China no. 5

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Today I received this nice postcard with an aerial view of the city of Guangzhou (Kanton or Kuang-čou in Czech), the third largest city in China, the capital of Guangdong Province, located on the Pearl River.

The back side of the card has a printed stamp with the same view as on the front, and a large 300 fen stamp issued on 17 November 1994 in a souvenir sheet on the occasion of the 4th Congress of All-China Philatelic Federation held in Beijing on the same day. The stamp bears the marking 1994-19 (1-1).

Thank you, Jimmy!

Cover from Latvia no. 6

A brand new cover received from my friend Oleg, from Riga, Latvia, with two stamps with my favourite topics! The stamp with the Latvian flag was issued on 4 May 2010 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Proclamation of Independence in 1990, and the other stamp appeared on 23 August 2008 in the ongoing series called "Latvian fairytales". This one is called "The Silver, Golden and Diamond Horse", and part of its text is printed on the tab above the stamp (in Latvian). Thank you, Oleg, my new cover and the Krtek card will fly to you next week.

Cover from Italy no. 10

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Another surprise from the unrivalled Giovanni. The splendid Alfa Romeo Giulietta stamp (with a coupon from the "blocco mosaico") issued 20 March 2010 in the series "Made in Italy", commented earlier here. This time the stamp has been cancelled by a special postmark used in a mobile post-office at the Rho-Pero Fair (Province of Milano) on 26 June 2010. There is also a 5 eurocent self-adhesive definitive to cover the rest of the international postage, cancelled by a normal hand stamp.

Grazie mille, Giovanni!

Cover from Estonia no. 4

A cover sent on 13 June 2010 from Tallin with a great souvenir sheet commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Estonian National Opera, opened in 1906 as a professional theatre called „Estonia”, founded by the directors and actors Paul Pinna and Theodor Altermann. The stamp on the left features costume designs for Evald Aav's opera “Vikerlased” (Vikings), with music of the same opera forming the background of the souvenir sheet; the ballerina Helmi Puur in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake figures on the right-hand stamp. Issued on 27 March 2006 in offset, in 70,000 copies.

Thank you, Elina!!

Cover from Sweden no. 1

A cover sent on 18 April 2010 from Stockholm, with two stamps from a series of five (four self-adhesives in a block and one separate stamp) dedicated to allotment gardens and the joys of summers, issued on 26 May 2005. Thank you, Minna:)