Transportation - Sunday Stamps

For this week's transportation theme I tried to avoid stamps I've shown before. What I found I've tried to put into an age sequence.

Poland - Stagecoach

Switching to the rails I found this locomotive in Germany.

Germany

And this train in Mexico.

Mexico

I returned home to get on the buses.

Great Britain - Buses

I went by bus to Newcastle recently - it broke down before we were half way there!

For luxury you have to sail on an ocean liner (which I've never done).

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2

RMS Queen Mary 2

For other transport you need to sail off  to Viridian's Sunday Stamps 60

Games for Sepia Saturday

When I saw Alan's "Games" photo prompt I must confess it was snakes and ladders that I thought of first.

Indian Game of Snakes and Ladders

19th Century Gouache on Cloth by Jain Miniature

But closer to home I looked for what games we still had hidden away. Specially for today I dug out this from the top shelf of our hall cupboard,

Scrabble

 

This is a game at which I rarely beat my wife. I do better at a game of chance.

Yahtzee

The warranty slip inside the Scrabble box is dated 1993 but the Yahtzee must be much older than that.

Meanwhile there is not much point in just two of us testing our general knowledge.

Trivial Pursuit

I never was very good at the entertainment category and as the rules for this game are dated 1983 it shows how out of date it would be today.

The Scabble rules are still in pristine condition.

Of more interest is the pamphlet inside the box promoting Family and Adult Games.

Family & Adult Games

I'm just hoping you can read the names of the games. I confess to being "Baffled" by the "Battle of The Sexes" and would need to take a "Wild Guess" at what they are about. Most of all I must take note of the warning "Mind Your Language."

I guess I prefer outdoor games but I would have to travel to Scotland to play.

Noughts & Crosses in a small park at Kirn

By Thomas Nugent -

 (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License)

Other games in the park which looks across the Firth of Clyde to Gourock include Draughts and (where I started) Snakes & Ladders

Perhaps I should just check other games at Sepia Saturday

 

Greyish - Thematic Photography

When I saw the theme was greyish I immediately thought of battleship grey.

HMS Illustrious - 1940 Aircraft Carrier

 

 

This photo comes from my brother's photos taken during WWII. He served on the Illustrious in the Mediterranean  and may have been aboard when Swordfish aircraft from the carrier attacked the Italian fleet at Taranto.

Swordfish (I think)

Seaplanes also flew off carriers but this one seems to have lost its way.

Grounded - Supermarine Walrus

To add a bit of colour to our greyish theme I'll change to grey and green,

13th Century Parish Church, St Mawgan, Cornwall

Dedicated to St Mauganus and St Nicholas

St Mauganus was a Welshman so I'm told.

In North Yorkshire the best preserved ruins of a Cistercian monastery are those of Fountains Abbey.

Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire

I have nearly 40 photos of the Abbey but for this greyish theme you will have to be satisfied with one.

For other grey matters you need to pay a visit to Carmi's thematic photographic 185

Castles - Sunday Stamps

Back in 1955 this set of four stamps was issued.

Castle Stamps (1955) 

(Scanned from an old catalogue)

30 years later on the 18th October 1988 the Post Office released four new high value stamps featuring the same castle. These are the ones I have in my collection or so I thought.

Castle Stamps

The castles came  four different regions of Great Britain ; Carrickfergus (Northern Ireland), Caernarfon (Wales), Edinburgh (Scotland) and Windsor (England). The 1988 stamps had been based on photographs taken by Prince Andrew, Duke of York and were engraved and printed by Harrison and Sons Limited

Four years later in 1992 the set was re-released with enhanced security features. The original Queen's head was changed to a silhouette and an elliptical perforation was added half way up the sides of the stamp.If you look at my stamps you can see both the silhouette and the elliptical perforation

By 1995 inflation had taken its toll and the £1 Carrickfergus Castle design was replaced by a £1 stamp of the standard low-value Machin design. The Carrickfergus Castle was re-released as a £3 high value in 22nd August 1995. My stamps include both the £1 and £3 denominations

In 1997, the contract for printing the stamps was moved to Enschedé.  Enschedé had to re-engrave each design. Although the general appearance of the stamp barely changed, the individual engraving marks were completely different,

Apparently you can distinguish between the two printers by examining the letters 'C' and 'S' in the word 'Castle' where there are differences in the lower point of the 'C' and the lower tail of the 'S'. This is difficult to see on my scanned images. The £1 Carrickfergus must  be pre-1995 and be by Harrison and Sons. 

There is no doubt about the Windsor Castle stamp being by Enschedé because their design has the 'W' looking as if it comprises overlapping 'V's.

The sad thing to me is that these lovely castle stamps were discontinued and replaced in 1999 by small format Machins just showing the Queen's head.

As you may gather participating in Sunday Stamps this week has taught me things I didn't know about my stamps. Now you may check out others choices at Viridian's Sunday Stamps-59

Shoes - Sepia Saturday

I have never understood all the fuss about shoes (our theme for this week); they say you should put your best foot forward so I guess its a case of:

Yarm shop

This led to a bout of window shopping for shoes (female of course).

Buckles & Bows, Yarm

And the appropriately named -

The Shoe Box,Yarm

This shop is in a narrow wynd; its other window looks like this -

The Show Box window

The dress shop round the corner on the High Street sells shoes as well.

Shoe Stripes

These looked decidedly elegant compared with a shop in Stockton which was as empty as it looked.

Shoe Zone, Stockton

Not at all attracted to this I decided to look back in history and rejoiced in finding this 'gallant.'

Pepys & Lady Batten

By James Digman Winfield - 1861

The Diary of Samuel Pepys for Wednesday 15 November 1665 reads in part: "Up and all the morning at the office, busy, and at noon to the King’s Head taverne, where all the Trinity House dined to-day, to choose a new Master in the room of Hurlestone, that is dead, and Captain Crispe is chosen. But, Lord! to see how Sir W. Batten governs all and tramples upon Hurlestone, but I am confident the Company will grow the worse for that man’s death, for now Batten, and in him a lazy, corrupt, doating rogue, will have all the sway there. After dinner who comes in but my Lady Batten, and a troop of a dozen women almost, and expected, as I found afterward, to be made mighty much of, but nobody minded them; but the best jest was, that when they saw themselves not regarded, they would go away, and it was horrible foule weather; and my Lady Batten walking through the dirty lane with new spicke and span white shoes, she dropped one of her galoshes in the dirt, where it stuck, and she forced to go home without one, at which she was horribly vexed, and I led her; and after vexing her a little more in mirth, I parted..."

In Edwardian times there were other delights:

High Heels 1910-1917

By Jean Agelou (1878-1921) - source www.edwardian-delights.com

I'd better stop at this point before I develop a high (heeled) fetish and return to what I posted recently under Pairs. 

Spare pair of shoes up street lamp in Norwich, Norfolk

(by Keith Evans -- CC A-SA 2.0 license)

But my favourite shoes will always be these  that you've seen before.

Sam worn out by gardening

OK they may be boots but

So perhaps you should walk right over to Sepia Saturday 114 and choose some more shoes.

Curved - Thematic Photography

I've looked for different shapes than when we did Curves here in January last year.

Should you visit Cornwall there two places I recommend you see. First:

The Eden Project

How many curved items can you find?

Cornwall's cathedral is also not to be missed.

Truro Cathedral

And here's some curved furniture inside a Cornish home.

Curved chairbacks; curved sideboard

Moving to the USA I found this statue in Michigan.

Rochester, Michigan

I'll let you check out what's curved.

Meanwhile back in mainland Europe there's two curved places to check up on -

Planetarium - Bochum, Germany

Gardens in Monaco

Perhaps I'll finish gracefully nearer home.

Mount  Grace Priory, North Yorkshire

Now it's time for you to get behind the curved ball with our host at Carmi's Written Inc 184

Rotterdam's Delftsche Poort

My booklet of postcards by Weenenk& Snel included this photo:

Delftsche Poort

It is interesting to compare this with another older view.

Delftsche Poort - 1898

Viewed from the city, near the River Schie

There is a very depressing picture of what happened to this old city gate on 14 May 1940  here

I can find no later photos so it looks a though it no longer exists. Perhaps someone could let me know.