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!

Greenland II

Happy Birthday to my blog! Wax on, Daniel-san – Postcards turns three today. It doesn't seem so long ago that I uploaded my first card showing two Greenlandic children performing the kunik, the traditional Inuit greeting. It seems only appropriate that I should have another card from Greenland for a birthday post, and with perfect timing received this one just last week. 

Card show's Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (and of Greenland), in traditional Greenlandic dress. She was crowned in 1972, but had not initially been expected to become sovereign due to Salic law preventing the crown from passing to a woman. A constitutional amendment was passed in 1953 to allow this after it became clear that her father, King Frederick, was unlikely to have any male heirs.

A woman after my own heart, Margrethe is an accomplished translator and contributed to the Danish translation of Lord of the Rings. You go, girl! 

Stamp on the left is from the 2012 definitive series, again featuring Queen Margrethe II. Stamp on the right commemorates the Queen's Ruby Jubilee of 40 years on the throne.

Greenland

This card shows the national costume from East Greenland and is actually a reproduction of the photo used on a stamp design which won Greenland first prize for most beautiful Europa stamp in 2004.

Hybrid stamp slash postal rate sticker.