Trinidad and Tobago

Postcard showing Carnival in Trinidad, the island's most important celebration and one of the largest Carnivals in the Caribbean. Many thanks to my Uncle Pierre and Aunt Ginette for sending it to me. – Despite the fact that the Caribbean is a popular place for holidaying Canadians, it's certainly one of the biggest black holes in my collection. Any Caribbean friends and readers, feel free to help me out. ;-)

Stamps from the 1990 definitive set featuring local birds. Pictured here is the bananaquit, Coereba flaveola, a common bird found in tropical South America and the Caribbean.

British Antarctic Territory

A crèche of emperor penguin chicks and their adult guardians in the blustery cold of British Antarctic Territory near the Weddell Sea.

Upper stamp from a 1982 set of six commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals. Lower stamp from a 2008 set of five featuring the aurora australis. 

China II

Another China postcard from the archives, this time showing the Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿) in the Forbidden City in Beijing, part of the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang UNESCO World Heritage site. The Hall was the site of public ceremonies such as enthronements and weddings. It is the largest wooden building in China and was originally built in 1406, although rebuilt following fires several times thereafter.

Stamp on the left is from a 1994 set of six featuring famous scenic places in China. Pictured here is Goddess Peak (神女峰), which is where the goddess Yao Ji is believed to be immortalized in stone, watching over the Yangtze River below. Stamp on the right is from the 1989 definitive series featuring folk architecture. Pictured here are traditional houses from Jiangsu Province in eastern China.

Greenland IV

Postcard from Greenland showing a man in a kayak. Kayaks were originally developed by the Inuit people of the Arctic, and the word itself is indeed Inuktitut, qajaq (ᖃᔭᖅ), meaning "man's boat" or "hunter's boat". The first kayaks were constructed from stitched animal skins stretched over a wood or whalebone frame – Inuit in the western Arctic used wood whereas those in the east used whalebone due to the lack of available trees in the tundra. They are most commonly made of modern materials nowadays, but continue to be used in traditional fishing and hunting practices.

Stamp on the left is from the 2012 definitive series featuring Queen Margrethe II. Stamp on the right is from a multiyear series on Greenlandic herbs featuring Fucus vesiculosus, or bladderwrack, issued in 2013. Bladderwrack is a common seaweed in the North Atlantic Ocean and was the original source of iodine, used to treat a variety of ailments.

Greenland III

Postcard showing mail delivery by dog sled, which are still routinely used during the winter in Greenland.

Two stamps from a 2012 set of three on aviation in Greenland. On the left, an S-61 Sikorsky helicopter, the most widely-used civilian transport helicopter. On the right, a DC-6 plane, which was actually featured in a previous post's stamp about air transport in the Antarctic!

Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands, the second of two new countries received today! Woot! The Faroe Islands are an archipelago in the North Atlantic halfway between Scotland and Iceland and are an autonomous part of Denmark. The islands are famous for having dramatic scenery and equally as dramatic weather. Card shows the high cliffs near the village of Trøllanes, on the northern island of Kalsoy.

Stamp depicts the northern prawn, Pandalus borealis, an important food resource widely fished in the Faroe Islands and elsewhere in the North Atlantic. The species is not considered overfished however, likely due to its short life expectancy and high rates of reproduction.

Åland Islands

Woohoo! On a roll with another new country, the Åland Islands, an autonomous Swedish-speaking region of Finland made up of a Baltic Sea archipelago between the two countries. Postcard show the Åland Islands flag, which is a Swedish flag defaced by a red cross symbolising Finland.

Stamp on left depicts the Boletus edulis mushroom, or porcino mushrooms as it is more commonly known in culinary circles. It is a common mushroom across the Northern Hemisphere and is highly regarded in many cuisines. Stamp on the right depicts, quite obviously, potato chips. A bit of investigative searching for the connection between the Åland Islands and potato chips revealed that the Åland Islands is, in fact, home to Scandinavia's largest potato chip company, Chips AB, established in 1969 to offset the decline in the the island's traditional economic mainstay, fishing.

Czechoslovakia II

A postcard from my archives of the Czechoslovakian spa resort of Mariánské Lázně in eastern, modern-day Czech Republic. The spa was popular with the nobility of Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs and features a wealth of fine architecture from the period. The spas hosted the likes of Goethe, Frédéric Chopin, Thomas Edison, Richard Wagner, King Edward VII of England, Russian Czar Nicholas II, and Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I, and many others. On the Czech Republic UNESCO Tentative List as a part of the West Bohemian Spa Triangle.

Groovy stamp from 1987 about atomic energy.

French Southern and Antarctic Lands – Terre Adélie

Postcard from Terre Adélie, the French claim in Antarctica, showing a group, or a "waddle" as they are known, of emperor penguins. Emperor penguins are the largest penguin species, with an average height of 1.2 metres. Their diet consists primarily of fish, but can also include crustaceans and squid. In hunting, they can remain submerged up to 18 minutes, diving to a depth of 535 metres!

Stamp of DC4 plane from a 2012 series of six showing the evolution of transport in polar areas. DC4s were initially produced during World War II and continued to be used in civilian service through to the 1960s.

Pitcairn Islands

Postcard from the very remote Pitcairn Island, located in the southeast Pacific Ocean between Tahiti and the South American mainland. The island is famously inhabited by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who accompanied them. With only about 67 inhabitants, Pitcairn is the least populous jurisdiction in the world. Seen here are the Saint Paul Rocks which form a natural pool, protecting swimmers from ocean swells.

Stamps from a 2009 set of two on the coconut crab, Birgus latro, a species of terrestrial hermit crab that lives in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Weighing in at an average of over four kilos, they are the largest land-living arthropod in the world. They are increasingly be threatened by human activity, having been extirpated from most areas of its range with a significant human population, including mainland Australia and Madagascar.

Macau

Another card from the holiday archives sent from Portuguese Macau before its handover to mainland China in 1999. One of Macau's most famous landmarks, this façade of the Ruins of Saint Paul's Cathedral is all that remain of what was once the largest churches in Asia. The cathedral was Built by Jesuits from 1582 to 1602 with carvings made by Japanese Christians in exile from their homeland and was largely consumed by fire caused by a typhoon in 1835. It is now a part of the Historic Centre of Macau World Heritage site.

Both stamps from a multiyear series on public buildings and monuments in Macau. Stamp on the left was issued in 1983 and features the same Ruins of Saint Paul's Cathedral as the postcard. Stamp on the right was issued in 1982 and features the Museum of Luís de Camões, the literary darling of the Portuguese language who spent a number of years working in Macau in the very earliest days of the colony.

Andorra – Spanish Administration

Postcard showing Llac dels Pessons in the Andorran Pyrenees Mountains near the border with Spain. Part of the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley World Heritage site that offers a window on the ways people have lived with and in the high Pyrenees over time. The World Heritage site covers over a tenth of the entire country! That must certainly be a record. :-)

Andorra is a bit of an anomaly, truth be told. It's a co-principality – the only one of its kind in the world, in fact. It has two heads of State, the Bishop of Urgell (the next town over in Spain) and the President of France (originally the Count of Foix, the next town over in France). "Double the pleasure, double the fun", I suppose they figured back in 1278 when this system was set up. It resulted in double everything else too: two school systems, two cinemas, and, yes, two postal systems, one run by Spain and one run by France! Andorra is in fact the only country without its own postal system. There are even two sets of letter boxes around the country, and of course only French-issued stamps can go into French letterboxes (and vice versa)! 

In general, I tend to see more Andorra postcards out there with French-issued stamps and I've always wondered why until I went to Andorra myself and stood in line for nearly 90 minutes to buy a stamp at the Spanish post office, whereas the French post office never had any lines at all!

Czechoslovakia

Home for the holidays and able to rifle through the postcard archives for another card sent by my Dad on his tour behind the Iron Curtain, which launched me on my postcard collecting quest. Seen here is the Old Town Square of Prague and the imposing Church of Our Lady before Týn in the background. Construction of the Church began in the fourteenth century and continued in fits and spurts until 1511 when the south tower was completed. Part of the Historic Centre of Prague World Heritage site.

Stamp featuring the Carpathian newt, Lissotriton montandoni, a common species in the temperate rivers, marshes, and ponds of Central and Eastern Europe.

Monaco II

Cliff-top photo of the Principality of Monaco showing Monte Carlo, its harbour and the Prince's Palace set on the rocky outcrop in the background. Almost the entirety of the country's two square kilometres can be seen here. Only Fontveillie, located behind the outcrop, is out of view. Monaco must surely be one of the few countries photographable in a single frame!

Engraved definitive of Prince Albert II, who is, of course, the eldest son of Princess Grace. She met Prince Rainier while in Monaco filming To Catch a Thief with Carey Grant. Very lovely hand cancellation quite in contrast to the rather unlovely dot matrix one on my previous Monaco card.

Maldives II

After trying for ages to get a card from the Maldives, I've now received two only a few weeks apart! And not only that, but the two postcards have the same photo of Male' Atoll. (Although this card is jumbo sized). I only have two other doubles card in my collection, and I always think it's a wonderful and crazy coincidence. Special thanks to My of the Maldives for agreeing to swap!

Foursaddle grouper, Epinephelus spilotoceps, a common reef fish that lives in lagoons throughout the Indian and West Pacific Oceans.

United Kingdom

Postcard in honour of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee celebrating 60 years of her reign, having been crowned on this day in 1952.

I received this postcard, her official Coronation portrait, a copy of which also hung in my high school foyer.

Traditional Queen's Head stamp featuring a rare, for Britain, and rather lovely hand cancellation mark.

French Southern and Antarctic Lands – Crozet

The Roche Percée off the coast of Possession Island, which is part of the subantarctic Crozet Archipelago, located halfway between Madagascar and Antarctica. The island is an important breeding site for seabirds and is also home to the French research station, Alfred Faure, which is where the card was postmarked. Alfred Faure is visited a few times a year by an oceanographic research vessel that delivers supplies and rotating crews of scientists, so this card had quite a journey to get there and back to me!

Set of two stamps from a series featuring minerals found in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands territory.

Japan

A blast from the past! I found this postcard inside a book a started rereading. It was the last postcard I sent from Japan before moving away. If you look closely, you can even make out the "Terminal 2 Narita Airport" cancellation mark on the stamp. It was quite an emotional move, but of course I found the wherewithal to send a postcard to Mum. :-)

A really quite lovely stamp issued in a series for the 1999 International Letter Writing Week featuring a classical Japanese print of 菊に虻 (Horsefly at Chrysanthemums) from the 1700s.