Sunday Stamps E3 - USA, Australia, Greece

The exploits of Norse explorer Leif Erikson are known through Icelandic sagas of the 13th century. USA - 9 October 1968 He's believed to have reached North America  c. !000AD and landed at Baffin Island. Labrador and Newfoundland. Earth Hour, when we are encouraged to switch of all lights for an hour from 8.30pm each year, was begun in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and has spread around the world. Australia - 11 March 2009 Earth Day is an event celebrated on 22 April with events held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It has been held since 1970. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2008 as the International Year of Planet Earth to increase awareness of the importance of Earth sciences for the advancement of sustainable development. UNESCO was designated as the lead agency. The Year's activities spanned the three years 2006-2009. Greece - 20 June 2008 International Day of Planet Earth. I wonder how many of us recognise the events commemorated by these stamps. For other 'E' related stamps visit Sunday-stamps-e. at See it on a postcard.

A-Z Challenge 2014 - 'N'

N - Norfolk/Norwich Terrier, Newfoundland

I knew nothing about either of these terriers until I looked them up, apparently the Norfolk is a variety of the Norwich Terrier. You can distinguish between them by looking at their ears.

A recently groomed Norfolk Terrier
(By Flillia; 6 April 2008; PD)

The Norfolk was recognised as a separate breed in 1960 and has dropped ears; the Norwich Terrier's ears are pricked,

You would have no problem identifying a Newfoundland from its size, A large dog weighing in at over 70kg, it hails from the province of Newfoundland in Canada where with its webbed feet and water resistant fur it was a dog favoured by fishermen.

Newfoundland Dog (Young Rüde)

(By Gunter Rott, January 2006; Newfoundlanddog at de.wikipedia; CC BY-SA 3.0)

These large dogs may be black, brown, white and black (Landseer) or grey. That Landseer 'colour' arises from a series of paintings by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer of the black and white Newfoundlands.

Lion, a Newfoundland Dog - 1824 oil painting

(By Sir Edwin Henry Landseer - ex Google Art Project)

Newfoundlands feature in poems and stories.

Boatswain, the pet of Lord Byron, became the subject of his poem "Epitaph to a Dog" and had a memorial built for him at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire after his death from rabies.

The Boatswain Memorial (inscription)

(By Steve Dufour, 7 Sept 2007 - original photo by Ray Treece)

In literature the pet dog of Edward Fairfax Rochester in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" was a Newfoundland named Pilot.

It should come as no surprise that J M Barrie had a pet Landseer Newfoundland (Luath) which was said to have been the inspiration for Nana, the nurse dog of Wendy, John and Michael in his classic story of "Peter Pan."

In the Beginning - Sunday Stamps

There are lots of inventions that we take for granted which would not exist without the men who were in it at the "Beginning." With so many to chose from I decided to chose a few who you could say are connected with our ability to communicate.

Great Britain - issued 1995

In the 1860s,  a Scottish physicist, James Clerk Maxwell had  predicted the existence of radio waves; and in 1886, the German Heinrich Rudolph Hertz demonstrated that rapid variations of electric current could be projected into space in the form of radio waves similar to those of light and heat. In 1888 an American, Mahlon Loomis demonstrated "wireless telegraphy." Loomis was able to make a meter connected to one kite cause another one to move, marking the first known instance of wireless aerial communication.

But it was Guglielmo Marconi who proved the feasibility of radio communication. He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. By 1899 he flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later received the letter "S", telegraphed from England to Newfoundland. This was the first successful transatlantic radiotelegraph message in 1902.

 One year later the Wright Brothers made the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903.

USA - issued 2003

There are several stamps commemorating that first flight but this was issued on the centenary of the flight that was the beginning of aviation as we know it.

The first non-stop transatlantic flight came in 1919.

Great Britain - 1969

The stamp shows a page from the Daily Mail newspaper and was issue for the 50th anniversary of the flight. Alcock and Brown flew a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber from St John's Newfoundland to Clifden in County Galway in Ireland. There was  a small amount of mail carried on the flight making it the first transatlantic airmail flight.

Now please fly over to Viridian's Sunday-stamps-105 for the celebration of other beginnings.