1158 -1169 - A new selection

1158 -  A picture of the Minsk railway station sent to me by Inna from Belarus (BY-1099562). 

I don’t make a habit of sharing what is on the reverse of the cards but I would like to say that Inna has just gone through what I consider to be one of the worst experiences possible and I’d like you to think of her this Christmas and send her your thoughts.

  

1159 /1162 – From my Bulgarian friend Irina –

The wonderful stamps on the package from Irina.

 

1163 – From Lili in Slovenia (SI-87156)

More miniature works of art on stamps.

1164 – Tulips from – not Amsterdam but - Vladikavkaz courtesy of Dzantemir (RU-2206743)

This card had a whole collection of the 2009 Russian kremlin stamps –

Pskov Kremlin and Moscow Kremlin

Rostov Kremlin and Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

Kolomna Kremlin, Kazan Kremlin and Zaraysk Kremlin

1165 – From Carin, a postcrosser in The Netherlands (NL-2226015).

1166 – Christmas greetings thanks to a home-made card from Eva in Morocco.  (The star and tree open out).

 1167 – And more Christmas greetings from Renate in Austria.

A very artistic stamp of the St. Georgenberg Abbey, a Benedictine monastery at one time situated in Fiecht in Tyrol; a pilgrimage church still stands on the site of the original 1708 abbey.

1168 – A Neapolitan sunset photographed by Pasquale and turned into a postcard.

The stamps.

1169 – The beautiful Audrey Hepburn from Susanne, my German friend.

The stamps, one of which is suitably festive.

456 – Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

Card no 456 - Monica 

Small Tortoiseshell 

Country Card Sent From: Sweden 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Borås 

Date Received: 26th March 2013 

Distance Travelled: 695 miles 

Time Taken: 7 days 

This Small Tortoiseshell butterfly photo was taken by Monica and the card was home-made but it looks very professional. I wonder how soon we’ll see a Small Tortoiseshell here. With snow on the ground it is nice to have a reminder that Spring is around the corner.

Sadly the Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) is very much in decline in Britain. When I was young it was the most common butterfly to be seen in the gardens of Merseyside. In the last ten years we haven't seen a single one in our garden. To quote from http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/ it "is one of our most-familiar butterflies, appearing in gardens throughout the British Isles. Unfortunately, this butterfly has suffered a worrying decline, especially in the south, over the last few years. This butterfly has always fluctuated in numbers, but the cause of the most-recent decline is not yet known, although various theories have been proposed. One is the increasing presence of a particular parasitic fly, Sturmia bella, due to global warming - this species being common on the continent."

These were the stamps - small boats (they look like tugs) and a Golden Oriole.

The frank missed the stamps. I have decided some franks are so attractive they are worth including. It says Happy Easter which was also the wish sent to our family.