Outer Space - Sunday Stamps !!

If you are forever mooning about then this is the stamp for you.

USA - 22 February 2016

If space travel is your thing then which of these alternative planets would be your destination?

USA - 31 May 2016

You have seven to choose from excluding the Earth, of course; all with the attraction that no-one else has been there yet.

This stamp sheet, with two blocks of eight, shows views of our planets taken from different space missions explained on the back.

NASA's Messenger spacecraft took the view of Mercury in 2011-2012 and used colours to show chemical and other differences between the surface rocks.

Data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft in 1991 mapped the details of the surface of Venus in simulated colours.

Earth's image was created by an imaging radiometer on the NQAA/NASA Soumi NPP satellite during its orbit of our planet in 2011.

24 images of Mars taken on one day in 1999 were combined by a camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor.

The NASA Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer shows a 2004 image of Jupiter in pastel colours. Infrared shows up the layers of clouds that make up the planet's atmosphere.

Variations in the colour and brightness of Saturn's rings were shown by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera in one of a sequence of images taken in 1998.

The atmospheric features of Uranus were obtained using an infrared filter on Hubble's Imaging Spectrograph and the Advanced Surveys Camera in 2003.

The oldest image on the stamps is that of Neptune, taken in 1989 by NASA's Voyager 2 and shows the 'Great Dark Spot' that later disappeared from view.

For other spaced out views please visit the links to be found at Sunday-Stamps-II-111.

Footwear -Thematic Photography

I have had some queer looks this week through studying peoples feet, even being asked on one occasion whether I hadn't anything better to do. 

I was taking this shot at the time - 

in the Flea Market i was even asked, 'Well, are you buying anything?'

In the end I decided just to stay at home. I even manage to find a pair of long lost shoes,

On another rack I even found an old pair to 'match' Carmi's.

These are the 'gardening' shoes depending on the time of the year. Top right are my 'retired' golf shoes.

Elsewhere I sneaked a picture in the 'holy of holies' - well part of it at least.

In the end I decided it would be safer to just shuffle off to bed.

Books and Authors - Sunday Stamps II

Young Folks, a magazine for children, serialised a story between 1881 and 1882. The story was credited to 'Captain George North.'

On 14 November 1883 Cassell & Co published it as a book in the author's name.

Another Young Folks' story appeared in May/July 1886, followed by a second book.

Ill health in his later years caused the author to travel in the South Pacific and spend time in the Gilbert Islands, Tahiti and New Zealand. He eventually settled in the Samoan Islands where he built a family property which became his home for the remainder of his life.

On 29 April 1969 Samoa commemorated the author and his book on the 75th anniversary of his death.

I remember reading both of those books when I was boy.

I know the story of Stevenson's third book published in 1886. You all must know it as well.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

It has also appeared as 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and as just 'Jekyll and Hyde.'

The fourth book of Stevenson on the Samoan stamps was an unfinished novel, set in the Napoleonic Wars, cut short by his sudden death in 1894 from a cerebral haemorrhage.

Weir of Hermiston - (1896 Chatto & Windus)

Robert Louis Stevenson's tombstone rests atop Mount Vaea in Samoa.

Weir of Hermiston can be read as a virtual book here. Hermiston is a suburb of Edinburgh. In 1907 the city of Hermiston, Oregon was named after the book.

For other authors and their works check out Sunday-Stamps-II-110. where there is another Scottish connection.

Messy - Thematic Photograpny

Sometimes nature is so messy like this fallen tree with its roots out of the ground.

But at least it can disguise the mess it made.

Other bits of trees are used by farmers to stop a mess getting worse.

At least the barrier they create makes the fly tippers look somewhere else.

Natures strong winds cause a problem and create a messy outlook for me to sort out.

The messy mass against the fence tethered by a green line is a honeysuckle bush. Its metal support has fractured and lies at an angle rather than standing upright.

I guess it's human nature that creates scenes like this - the nearest I could find to something messy like Carmi's at Thematic-Photographic-397.

Winter sports - Sunday Stamps II

There's a Nordic slant to my stamps this week once you've been to winter sports at Bariloche in

Argentina - 17 June 1971

and to see a bobsleigh team for 

San Marino - 15 December 1955

at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

In Norway you could partake in ski sports at Hjemland

Norway - 15 Jan 1975

I don't remember seeing a skier dressed like that!

I only remember the football World Cup in 1966 so would not have been aware of the World Speed Skating Championships held in Gothenburg that year.

Sweden - 18 Feb 1966

I've managed to find four different winter sport disciplines so check out Sunday-Stamps-II-109. to enjoy others.

Out the window - Thematic Photography

We have had no snow so far this winter although we are forecast for some this week.

2010 was different however with snow in November. Out my office window this was the view.

Some of you will no doubt recognise that wall.

In January it had been much worse,

I frequently get shots from our lounge.

Coal tit on the feeder

However two of my favourite pictures from 2016 were taken in Michigan.

You can't get more 'out the window' than Finn wanted to be.

For more way out shots please check in at Carmi's Thematic-photographic-396.

Winter white - Sunday Stamps II

Last year on 6 January, Royal Mail issued a set of stamps commemorating what Sir Edmund Hillary described as 'The Greatest Survival Story of All Time'.

During an attempt to be the first to cross Antarctica, Shackleton and his crew were 80 miles from their destination when their vessel, Endurance, became stuck in sea ice and after four months was crushed.

28 men were left stranded on the ice for another six months having dragged three boats and provisions from the ship.

You may read more about Sir Ernest Shackleton's and the crew's heroic actions leading to their rescue here.

For other winter white scenes check out links at Sunday-Stamps-II.

Letters - Thematic Photography

Sometimes you need a good memory to know what certain letters represent surrounded as we are by trade marks and advertisements of all shapes and sizes.

This is just the job on a 

Memory Stick

Sometimes however you may not see the wood for the trees.

Perhaps the person who discarded this was not as clever as he thought.

And what would you think about the ability of the driver of the car with these letters on their number plate.

To see what other letters have caught the attention of of TP fans check out Thematic-photographic-395.

Free choice - Sunday Stamps II

While trying to catalogue my stamps I have had some problems, some of these applied to Mexico.

One stamp in particular proved hard to date until I found a Stanley Gibbons catalogue.

Mexico - 1895

The image is not very clear - perhaps this is not surprising considering the age of the stamp. The Statue of Cuauhtémoc dates from eight years earlier in 1887. 

Cuauhtémoc was ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521, making him the last Aztec Emperor of all.

In the late 1990s/early 2000s I used to pass his monument on Avenue Reforma in Mexico City on the way to my hotel. I never knew who it represented.

Monument of Cuauhtémoc

Yet another lesson I've learnt from stamps.

To see what others have chosen to start the new year check out the links at Sunday-Stamps-II-107.

Happy New Year!