Panda bears on Taiwan stamps

Thank you Wei Yi for both cover and m/s, picturing panda bears. Very nice stamps!

Turkey

New cover received from Turkey - courtesy of Ahmet.

Slovakia (4/4)

I saved the best cover from Slovakia for last... :) Thanks again Róbert for your wonderful cover and excellent help with my WWF collection! The stamps picture the European Wild Cat (Felis silvestris silvestris).

The Wild Cat is extinct in most parts of Europe and today it can only be found in a few parts of Scotland, Germany and Slovakia. Its natural habitat is thick forest land. This fierce, handsome animal is heavier and larger than the domestic cat and although rarely seen, can be distinguished by its thick bushy tail. Its staple diet is mice, voles, rabbits, hares and small birds at night. Mating occurs in March and most litters, of between one and eight kittens, are born in May.

(www.pofis.sk)

Slovakia (3/4)

Third cover from Slovakia, once again sent by Róbert. Thank you for this splendid cover with golden stamp, picturing Ivan Gasparovic - president of the Slovak Republic.

Born on March 27th, 1941 in Poltár. He is married and has two adult children.

In 1959 – 1964 he studied at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University in Bratislava, and in 1968 was conferred a scientific degree of Candidate of Sciences and habilitated as a docent at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University. I

n 1964 he started to work at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Martin and later at the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office in Bratislava. Furthermore, in 1966 – 1989 he was also the Vice-chairman of the International Committee of the Czechoslovak Ice Hockey Federation.

Since 1968 he had been lecturing at the Department of Criminal Law, Criminalistics and Criminal Science at the Faculty of Law, CU. In 1989 he became a co-chairman of the Independent Slovak Lawyers’ Forum and in 1990 the Vice-Chancellor of Comenius University.

In 1990 – 1992 he served as Attorney General of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic in Prague. In 1992 he worked as a teacher at the Faculty of Law, CU and as a member of its Scientific Council. In the same year he was elected the Vice-Chairman of the Slovak National Council (since October 1st 1992 called the National Council of the Slovak Republic), and participated in the creation of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic.

In 1994 – 1998 he held the office of the Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic and was entrusted with execution of powers of the President of the Slovak Republic from March to October 1998.
In the same year he was a Member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Member of the Committee for Constitutional Law, Credentials and Immunity of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Member of the parliamentary delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. From July to October 2002 he was an independent Member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic.

In 2002 he founded the political party Movement for Democracy (HZD), becoming its leader. In the same year he returned to the Faculty of Law, CU as a teacher.

In 2004 he ran for the presidency of the Slovak Republic, and won in the second round of the direct election on April 17th, 2004. He was officially inaugurated as the President of the Slovak Republic on June 15th, 2004. During his presidency he was awarded an honorary doctorate by several prominent foreign universities, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts awarded the President of the SR with the position of Vice-Chancellor of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA). He is a holder of the highest foreign state as well as the highest national awards. His merits in the formation of the Slovak Republic were appreciated by the Order of Andrej Hlinka, First Class, and according to Law on State Awards, by the Order of Ľudovít Štúr, First Class, Milan Rastislav Štefánik Cross, First Class, and Pribina Cross, First Class. Ivan Gašparovič has been the President of the SR since June 15th, 2004.

He defended his repeated candidature for the position of the President in the presidential election on April 4th,2009. He was inaugurated into the second electoral term on June 15th, 2009.

(www.pofis.sk)

Slovakia (2/4)

This is the second cover I received from Slovakia last week. It's my second cover franked with the Europa 2009 - Astronomy serie, after the one from Switzerland. Thanks again Róbert!

On 20 December 2007, the United Nations 62nd General Assembly proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy. The Resolution was submitted by Italy, Galileo Galilei’s home country. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) is an initiative of the International Astronomical Union, UNESCO, and is also supported by Slovakia. IYA2009 celebrates the first astronomical use of the telescope by Galileo in 1609 - an event which had global implications. Now hundreds of telescopes both land- and space-based explore the universe 24 hours a day. Under the central theme ‘The Universe, Yours to Discover’ IYA2009 gives all nations the chance to participate in scientific discoveries and grandiose technical solutions. This year will highlight global cooperation for peaceful purposes - the search for our cosmic origin and the common heritage which connects all citizens of Earth. The coordinating body for the IYA2009 events in Slovakia will be is the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Tatranská Lomnica. Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences on the Earth. It originated in the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations, which used cardinal points basic orientation and time measurement techniques as early as the 5th millennium BC. As a branch of science it has developed from the 16th century thanks to the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton. The subject of study - celestial objects - is accessible to all, so astronomy may be regarded as an international science typical of close cooperation and effective specialisation by individual countries. Thanks to concentrated efforts in three specific fields - solar and Earth-Sun relations research; the exploration of comets, meteors and asteroids; and stellar and stellar systems research - Slovakia has a firm place in the international astronomical research community. Astronomical organisations in Slovakia can be divided into three categories: (1) Basic research – the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences; (2) Education – the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of Comenius University in Bratislava and the Faculty of Science of P. J. Šafárik University in Košice; and (3) Popularisation – the Slovak Central Observatory in Hurbanovo and other observatories and planetaria of self-governing regions, cities, and municipalities. Astronomy fans are associated in the Slovak Astronomical Society under the Slovak Academy of Science and Slovak Association of Amateur Astronomers.

(Ján Svoreň www.pofis.sk)

Slovakia (1/4)

Thank you Róbert for this beautiful cover, the first one of 4 covers received from Slovakia in the past week.

Žofia Bosniaková was born on 2 June 1609 in Šurany. She was the third of the seven children of Tomáš Bosniak and Mária Kenderessyová. At the time of her birth, her father was a captain at the Castle of Šurany. With his family, he later moved to Fiľakovo to become a captain of the Fiľakovo fortress. At the age of seventeen, Žofia married Baron Michal Serényi and left for Světlov Castle in Bojkovice, Moravia. Because of her husband’s death in the spring of 1626 following a sudden illness, however, their marriage was short. Žofia returned home and entered into her second marriage with František Wesselényi. Thus her new home became Teplička nad Váhom, where she gave birth to her two sons, Adam (1630) and Ladislav (1633). She was a modest, deeply religious and kind-hearted woman, always eager to help. Her deep sympathy for the poor and suffering led her to found and sustain a poorhouse. She died on 28 April 1644 at Strečno Castle, where she and her family were then staying due to riots related to the uprising of Juraj Rákoczi. She was buried at Strečno under the castle chapel. In 1729, her body was found intact and deposited in a glass-lidded coffin in the church in Teplička, the Loretan Chapel of Virgin Mary, built for that purpose by Count Löwenburg. Her great popularity, which went beyond the area of Teplička, is one factor in her potential beatification. Remains of Žofia Bosniaková were burned by mentally unstable man on April 1st 2009.

The postage stamp represents the portrait of Žofia Bosniaková in clothes of her time and the castle Strečno. The areas of the sheet are filled with parish churches in Šurany and in Teplička nad Váhom on the sides. Right under these there are baroque ornaments from the parish church in Teplička. There are also located small bread loaves called „bosniaky“ which Žofia used to feed the hungry and the poor. Above the postage stamp there is the fragment Loretan chapel portal. Under the postage stamp is depicted the coffin with the remains of Žofia (status as of April 1st 2009). The FDC shows the castle in Šurany where Žofia was born together with her signature placed into ornaments of mass vestments which she embroidered herself according to the tradition. The FDC stamp represents the parish church of St. Martin in Teplička nad Váhom.

(Ján Vallo http://www.pofis.sk)

WWF cover from Macedonia

Thank you Ana for returning me my WWF stamps on an envelope sent from your country Macedonia. Unfortunately one of the stamps got a bit damaged during its journey to Belgium, but this is still a very nice cover for my WWF collection.

The bird pictured on these stamps is the Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca). (http://www.ornithologiki.gr/en/oiwnos/i10/enbasil.htm)

Czech Republic

Spain

Thank you Daniel!

France

Merci Emma pour cette lettre de France.

Beautiful cover from Sri Lanka

Many thanks to Ravindra for this wonderful cover + stamps sheet from Sri Lanka, picturing part of the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage. These stamps are simply awesome, and they will get a really nice place in my collection! :)

Croatia

Thank you Zeljko for this nice cover from Croatia with special cancel on count Josip Jelacic of Buzim (16 October 1801 – 20 May 1859).

The city pictured on the stamp is Sisak, where this special cancel was used. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisak)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Jela%C4%8Di%C4%87

Info

Now that the good weather is gone in Belgium, it's time to update my blog again. I start with a little announcement for those of you who will get a cover from me soon.

I went to Oostende last Saturday, to visit a temporary post office where you could get a nice 'Zeppelin' cancel. I prepared some covers with the stamps of the new Belgian serie on aviation history, of which one pictures a Zeppelin.

I gave my covers to the man who put cancels on the letters, and much to my surprise he returned me some 7 covers... and he refused to cancel them because the Zeppelin stamp was not on the cover. Apparently, he was allowed to cancel only Zeppelin stamps and not the other ones, although they belong to the same serie... If only I had known this sooner...

This means that some of you will get a cover with a normal cancel instead of a special one, although my intention was to get everyone a cover with a very nice Zeppelin cancel... I hope those who get a normal cancel will forgive me, I'll get a special one later. Know one thing: I was as disappointed as you will probably be...

Tomorrow I'll post one or more covers. Until then!

Slovakia + call for help

Thanks Robert for this nice cover picturing St. Nicolas' church in Trnava.

I would like to ask my Slovakian visitors if one of them can help me with these items for my WWF collection:

1. sheet of the 2003 issue 'european wild cat' on envelope sent to my address, and
2. a used copy of each of these 4 stamps

If someone can help me, please contact me :) Thank you!

Superb cover from Poland

Thank you very much Andrzej for this very very nice cover from Poland, franked with a new series picturing African animals. The stamp with the elephants is a really nice one, and very useful for the exhibition!


Also a big 'thank you' for the m/s included in this cover!