Happy New Year 2011

I would like to wish You, Your Families and Friends a Happy New Year.

That 2011 can bring you all Good Health, Happiness, Success and Joy.

SINGAPORE – Cover from Singapore to Braga, Portugal

First Day Cover of the ‘Festivals In Singapore’ stamps issue posted on October, 20 2010.
(A very special thanks to my best friend Terence Wong)

Brochure

Postcards

Sent 26 & 29 of December 2010

Postcrossing cards, registered covers and cover sent to China, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Singapore.

TAIWAN - Cover from Taipei, Taiwan to Braga, Portugal

Registered First Day Cover of the ‘Bridges of eastern Taiwan’ stamps issue, posted on October, 20 2010.
(A very special thanks to my friend Kia Hsu)

To publicize the beauty of Taiwan’s bridges, Chunghwa Post has previously issued three sets of stamps in its “Bridges of Taiwan” series. These were released on April 12, 2007, May 12, 2008, and March 10, 2010, featuring the bridges of northern, central, and southern Taiwan respectively. Now this Post is following up with a fourth set of four stamps on bridges of eastern Taiwan. Their designs follow:
1. Lizejian Bridge, Yilan (NT$5): Spanning the Dongshan River, it is a single-arch bridge without any piers. Opened to traffic in June of 1992, the bridge has a total length of 148 meters, a width of 22 meters, and a top-of-the-arch height of 26 meters. Like a rainbow arching over green water, the bridge has become a Dongshan River landmark.
2. Taroko Bridge, Hualien (NT$5): The Taroko Bridge has five light-blue steel-arch spans over the Liwu River. The main spans are located in Xiulin Township, Hualien County. Opened to traffic in February of 2002, the bridge is 1,248 meters in length and 20.8 to 29.6 meters in width. The height of its tallest arch is 25 meters. Imbued with local character, the beautiful bridge has become one of Hualien’s most recognizable landmarks.
3. Hongye Bridge, Taitung (NT$12): Spanning the Luye River, Hongye Bridge is located in Hongye Village at 400 meters above sea level. Opened to traffic in March of 2000, the bridge has a total length of 133 meters, a width of 10 meters, and a height of 10 meters. The dark-red steel-arch bridge is beautifully set off against the surrounding mountain greenery and murmuring river.
4. Pudu Bridge, Hualien (NT$15): Spanning the Liwu River, Pudu Bridge, located in the Tianxiang recreation area of the Taroko National Park, is a cable-stayed steel bridge. Completed in October of 2003, the bridge has a total length of 88 meters, a width of 3 meters, and a height of 15 meters. Surrounded by strikingly beautiful green mountains and spanning a spectacular deep gorge, the beauty of Pudu Bridge is heaven sent.

FINLAND – Cover from Kälviä, Finland to Braga, Portugal

First Day Cover of the Finnish 2010 Christmas stamp issue, posted on November, 5 2010.
(Special thanks to my best friend Sini Linnanmäki)

Santa Claus and his reindeer is a very common pair all over the world. So it is only natural to have them both in Finnish Christmas stamps.
The designer, Tommi Vallisto, has succeeded to capture Santa's friendly expression and the expectant reindeer waiting for the Christmas sleigh ride!

Date of Issue: 05-11-2010
Type: Commemorative stamp
Denomination: 0.55€
No. of Stamp in Set: 2 self-adhesive
Size: 34.5 x 24.5 mm
Perforation:
Color: Multicolor
Process of Printing: offset
Protection of the stamp:
Printer: Posti, Finland
Designer: Tommi Vallisto

ALGERIA - Cover from Setif, Algeria to Braga, Portugal

Illustrated cover with commemorative stamp of 15.00 from the 2010 ‘Date fruit of Algeria stamps issue. Included also are stamps from the stamp issues Jewels of Southern Algeria and Mosques of Algeria. The cover was posted on November, 27 2010.
(Special thanks to my friend Ouari Khemissi)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_dactylifera

LATVIA – Cover from Riga, Latvia to Braga, Portugal

First Day Cover of the 2010 Latvian Christmas stamps issue posted on December, 3 2010. (Special thanks to my best friend Juris Tarvids)

UKRAINE – Cover from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine to Braga, Portugal

Cover with 2010 Ukrainian Christmas stamps and greetings postcard posted on December, 6 2010.
(A very special thanks to my friend Volodymyr Sulyma)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011

I wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of 2011 to all my friends and visitors.

FRANCE – Cover from Paris, France to Braga, Portugal

Cover with parcel of the Sandro Botticelli souvenir sheet posted on December, 6 2010.
(A very special thanks to my friend Fatwa Abd)

(Christmas postcard)

(Portuguese 1996 Christmas postcard)

Among the works of Botticelli that is attributed to the period known icons of the Renaissance figure Printemps, a work created around 1482. He was placed in a surreal nature that allegory of spring whose figures are taken from classical mythology, Venus in the center, the Zephyr wind nymph Chloris and Flora right, Mercury to the left, the three Graces .... A work whose symbolism is more complex than it seems.

Date of Issue: 08-11-2010
Type: Commemorative souvenir sheet
Denomination: 0.87€ and 1.40€
No. of Stamp in Set: 2
Size: 143 x 105 mm
Perforation:
Color: Multicolor
Process of Printing: photogravure
Protection of the stamp:
Printer: La Poste, France
Designer:

ÅLAND – Postcard from Mariehamn, Åland to Braga, Portugal

Official Christmas greetings card posted on October, 8 2010.

SINGAPORE – Cover from Singapore to Braga, Portugal

Cover with Christmas stamp from the Festivals in Singapore stamps issue posted on December, 6 2010.
(A very special thanks to my best friend Terence Wong)

(Stamps issue brochure)

(Promotional postcards)

MONACO – Postcard from Monte Carlo, Monaco to Braga, Portugal

Official Christmas greetings card posted on December, 10 2010

SINGAPORE – Postcard from Singapore to Braga, Portugal

Postcard posted on November, 5 2010.
(Special thanks to my friend Terence)

LATVIA – Cover from Riga, Latvia to Braga, Portugal

Commemorative postmark of the 100 year of Latvia Republic over Latvian Christmas stamps from 1995 and 2008, in a winter scenario cover posted on November, 12 2010.
(Special thanks to my friend Juris Tarvids)

GERMANY – Cover from Ruhr, Germany to Braga, Portugal

Cover with a pair of stamps of 0.55€ from the ‘200 years of the Oktoberfest’ stamp issue, posted on September, 9 2010.
(A very special thanks to my friend Igor Adolph)

Typical Munich figures on a carousel
On 12 October 1810 was held in Munich, the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig, later King Ludwig I, instead of to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The official celebrations for the wedding lasted five days. Shiny and popular at the same time the celebrations were staged. The parade of protecting the national guard and protect the civil societies, illuminations and music, food and drink, trumpets and drums - a big party and bustle of the busy city center of Munich.

Even then as the "festival" designated event ended on 17 October 1810 with a horse race on a meadow near Munich, which was named in honour of the bride "Therese's Meadow".

In deciding that the audience-horse race the following year to repeat at the same time, there arose the tradition of "October-Festivals". Today the festival of the City of Munich is the largest folk festival in the world. Munich beer and hospitality, high tech rides and nostalgic carnival attractions invite you to celebrate.

The Bavarian Oktoberfest celebration and also a major international event. It reminds us of the execution and is open to new developments. Therein lies his secret of success for 200 years.

Date of Issue: 09-09-2010
Type: Commemorative stamp
Denomination: 0.55€
No. of Stamp in Set: 1
Size: 35 x 35 mm
Perforation:
Color: Multicolor
Process of Printing: offset
Protection of the stamp:
Printer: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Leipzig
Designer: Michael Kunter, Berlin

CROATIA – Cover from Zagreb, Croatia to Braga, Portugal

Cover with stamps from the 2010 Croatian Christmas stamp issue. The two versions of the stamp are included – the traditional gummed stamp and the self-adhesive stamp from the 10 stamps booklet. Cover and Christmas postcard was posted on November, 25 2010.
(Special thanks to my friend Željko Vasilik)

Adoration of the Shepherds, Josip Biffel, Gallery “Šimun” of the Franciscan Monastery of St. Anthony, Dubrave near Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina Christmas lasts. Already for 2010 years the Child is born into its death and resurrection. Ever since the world has been counting time from this birth, the scene of birth was being complemented and enriched. Apart from the main characters, there appear and exchange also the episodists; metaphors gain bodies and the warm muteness of animals completes the human register. The spirit of time arranges the story, lavishing presents and deducing the story to essentials. The styles and epochs have been exchanging round the stall, but never disregarded it. Many painters and sculptors have brought the goodness of their lives, dear lineaments of their wives and children, their next of kins and even their own into the scene of birth. By one’s own experience or longing anyone could settle in this scene. It survived also the chase of narration in modern times. A new, sometimes stiff emotion has carried over the torches of Bethlehem into our time. The painter Josip Biffel (born in 1933, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1959 in the class of Đuro Tiljak, professor at the same Academy) is among many who bowed in front of the stall. He did it in a modern way, renouncing the tiny details and filling out the space of great extensibility by the magic of light. The blue darkness of the sky and the little cave, the caring Joseph and animals in it, the reflection of light across the distant country, the night behind the shoulders of modest characters who had heard the call and have come to admire the new life, the shine on the mother and child, on the crown of a magical tree dialoguing with heavenly voices and the unusual purple sent off by the night – so could maybe Biffel’s painting be translated into word. Biffel has not taken that much with him from his professor at the Academy, much more has he exchanged with his contemporaries, with Ivančić, Stančić, Lesiak…
A great part of his work he devoted to sacral motifs and especially to sacral spaces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Creation of space, investigation of its dimensions, rotating of horizons, compression or extension of deepnesses are main features of his poetics. Exactly his paintings concerned with space are probably his most own and finest works. And this space is filled with colours that carry light and darkness, that replace the description by their shine and glowing. The Gallery “Šimun”, housing Biffel’s painting together with seven hundred and twenty other Croatian modern works of art, from which also this year’s Christmas stamp comes, is the collection of the great Franciscan collector, Fra Stjepan Pavić. It is also one of the most beautiful collections of Bosnia and Herzegovina and also Croatia which contributes to understanding and defining of not only our but also universal homeland.
Željka Čorak

Date of Issue: 25-11-2010
Type: Commemorative stamp
Denomination: 3.10 kn No. of Stamp in Set: 1 Size: 35.5 x 29.82 mm
Perforation: 14 x 14
Color: Multicolor
Process of Printing: offset
Protection of the stamp:
Printer: "Zrinski" - Čakovec
Designer: Tomislav Vlainić
(Source : Hrvatska Pošta)

AUSTRIA – Cover from Wien, Austria to Braga, Portugal

First Day Cover of the Austrian Christmas 2010 stamp issue, inspired this year by the valuable manuscript document from Cistercian Abbey Rein Monastery, posted on November, 19 2010.
(Special thanks to my friend Edna Chin)

This year’s Christmas stamp issued by Austria shows part of an antiphonal of the Cistercian monastery at Rein in Styria.
The choral manuscript with precious initials dates from the second half of the 15th century and once served as a liturgical book for the hourly prayers of the local monks. The stamp shows the “classical scene” of the birth of Christ in the artistic interpretation of the early Renaissance. The history of Rein monastery dates back to 1129. St Bernard was still alive when the monastery was founded in what was at the time a densely forested valley, and Margrave Leopold the Strong brought the first monks here from Ebrach in Franconia. Monks of the Cistercian Order have lived here without interruption since this time, pursuing, alongside their spiritual work, agriculture and pisciculture. In addition, they were in high demand as craftsmen and industrious writers; over 400 manuscripts, numerous incunabula (including Johannes Kepler’s calendar table from 1607!) are carefully stored in the monastery library. Starting out from Rein, the oldest Cistercian monastery in the world, four further abbeys were founded: Wilhering, Schlierbach, the New Monastery in Wiener Neustadt and Sticna in Slovenia. Numerous Styrian princes are buried in Rein monatery. The basilica itself is without doubt one of the largest and most attractive churches in Styria. The originally three-nave Romanesque church was consecrated in 1138, and subsequently, particularly in the 18th century, further embellished by renowned artists and magnificent craftsmen – such that the Baroque basilica today radiates a beauty that is an invitation to celebrate and meditate. In summer 2006, restoration work on the Chapel of St Mary revealed the foundations of the former Romanesque chapter house. An extraordinary discovery was also made, the grave of Margrave Leopold, the benefactor of Rein and the founder of Styria. The oldest Madonna in the monastery was given a new worthy home here, where the monks of Rein gather several times a day to pray together.

Date of Issue: 19-11-2010
Type: Commemorative stamp
Denomination: 0.55€
No. of Stamp in Set: 1
Size:
Perforation:
Color: Multicolor
Process of Printing: offset
Protection of the stamp:
Printer: Österreichische Staatsdruckerei
Designer: Adolf Tuma
(source: Austria Post)

Beautiful Christmas card

TAIWAN – Cover from Taipei, Taiwan to Braga, Portugal

Cover posted on November, 18 2010.
(Special thanks to my friend George Wu)

FINLAND – Cover from Kälviä, Finland to Braga, Portugal

First Day Cover of the Antiques IV: POP 1st class – the Golden time of plastic stamp issue, posted on September, 13 2010.
(Special thanks to my best friend Sini Linnanmäki)

The golden time of plastic!
60's and early 70's was the period when in the Nordic countries the main material for the innovative design products was plastic. Furnitures and even clothes were maid of different kind of plastic. Graphic designer Pekka Piippo has fitted this all in one stamp - a chair, a telephone, wall paper, Hifi Stereo by Salora, Go-go boots and the Palaset -shelf unit by Ristomatti Ratia.

Date of Issue: 13-09-2010
Type: Commemorative stamp
Denomination: 0.75€
No. of Stamp in Set: 1
Size: 34.5 x 24.5 mm
Perforation:
Color: Multicolor
Process of Printing: offset
Protection of the stamp:
Printer: Posti
Designer: Pekka Piippo
(Source: Posti)

Torronsuo National Park
Finnish new series of stamps depicting national parks will show different aspects of nature and the seasons of the year.
In the second issue in the series we travel to the Torronsuo National Park in the southern Finland.
Torronsuo Mire landscape has looked the same for thousands of years. Have a half-day hiking trip around Kiljamo or a one day trip to the southern parts of the park and outside the National Park in the traditional agricultural landscape of the village of Torro. Especially in the spring and the autumn, Torronsuo is a good place to observe the migrating birds, many of which stop to rest on the mire, for example cranes and geese.
In the stamp there is a wonderful, typical picture of a pine tree.
On the sheet there are ten (10) stamps.
The first issue in the series of Finnish National Parks was Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park representing the fjeld scenery.

Date of Issue: 13-09-2010
Type: Commemorative stamp
Denomination: 0.75€
No. of Stamp in Set: 1
Size: 34.5 x 24.5 mm
Perforation:
Color: Multicolor
Process of Printing: offset
Protection of the stamp:
Printer: Posti
Designer: Teemu Ollikainen
(Source: Posti)

Autumn
Miniature sheet of three self-adhesive stamps, depicting a well-cooked crab, a pair of mallard and the king of the Northern forests - an elk! On the background there is a typical Finnish lake landscape.

Date of Issue: 13-09-2010
Type: Commemorative stamp
Denomination: 2.25€
No. of Stamp in Set: 3
Size: 35.0 x 30.0 mm
Perforation:
Color: Multicolor
Process of Printing: offset
Protection of the stamp:
Printer: Posti
Designer: Asser Jaaro
(Source: Posti)

POLAND - Cover from Warsaw, Poland to Braga, Portugal

Cover posted on October, 20 2010.