1951

The card is from a collection at the Turku Provincial Museum and it says on the back that the picture was taken in 1951.  The cars don't really look so old to me but since I hardly know one car from another, I'm not one to judge.

The sender tells me that trams haven't been running in Turku since 1972 when they were replaced by buses, and that there is very much more traffic these days.  That probably applies to everywhere.

A mausoleum in Kyrgyzstan

It was quite a challenge to find out about this card, first to find out where Kyrgyzstan is (to the west of China, south of Kazakhstan), then some detective work was required to find out what exactly this picture is.  On the reverse it says:

Ak-Taly mausoleums (gumbezs)

A Google search turned up only the same postcard and that same description, apart from one instance where it was described as a sand sculpture, possibly in Africa.  I decided it was unlikely and eventually found that Ak-Taly can have alternative spellings: Ak-Talas, Ak-Tala, Ak-Talaa.

Although the Kyrgyz people were mainly nomadic up until the 20th century, their nobles were given mud or adobe mausoleums.  They are unfortunately liable to erosion and weathering, resulting in the state shown in the picture.

There are some further pictures HERE but I have no idea what most of the text says, not even all that much of the English, though I'm fairly sure it's the same place.

The Synagogue of Szeged

A few weeks ago, Dóra,  a visitor to this blog, very kindly helped out with explaining the picture which should rightly be called Klatsch und Tratsch, but was translated as Visiting the Neighbours in Winter.  Since they we have exchanged cards and I have been very lucky to receive this card showing the cupola of the Synagogue of Szeged.

The synagogue was built in 1900-1903 and is the 8th largest synagogue in the world.  It can hold 1340 seats.  The cupola symbolises the universe.  The 24 columns are the 24 hours of the day.  The yellow-brown ornament with flowers is the earth and the blue glass windows with stars symbolise the sun.  At the centre of it all is the Star of David.  The four Hebrew words mean three concepts: the Torah, labour and charity.

During WWII, 6600 Jews were deported from Szeged but only 1500 returned.  There is a memorial to them in the synagogue.

You can see more of the building on YouTube.

Yunqing Terrace, Wulingyuan

I have a number of cards from the Wulingyuan scenic and historic interest area, to give it its full UNESCO World Heritage title.  This one shows the Yunqing Terrace.  The area extends over a large part of Hunan Province in China.  It's not only interesting because of the outstanding scenery, but also because the area has always been remote and inaccessible.  As a result it is virtually untouched and now protected.  It shelters a number of endangered species of plants and animals.

The stamp didn't arrive on the same postcard but does seem to show the same scenery.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Large shops, little shops, and advertising

Chichester East Street in the 1970s.  It would have met with the approval of my great-aunt Gladys, as noted on the back by my father.  She judged the worth of a town purely and simply on whether or not it had a Marks and Spencer shop.   Apart from that, though, the street doesn't appear to have been overtaken by the large chains. Yet.  At the far end you can see the Market Cross or Chichester Cross.  (See also City Cross, High Cross, or Buttercross in Winchester)

Another card from the 1970s but this one shows the smaller shops that struggle against the might of the big chains on High Streets these days.  There is a movement to encourage small shops back but how successful that will be in these days of little time and not much more money, I really don't know. 

To see this pre-1902 postcard in more detail, you will need to click on the image.  It shows crowds of people waiting to get into Blackpool Central Pier to add to the crowds already there.  That much is probably visible without magnification, but the advertising is harder to see.  The signs are:

Bovril is King in the Kitchen
Sames Pianos
Mothers try Pritchard's Teething Powder
Kaputine for headache (safe, apparently)
Boots Cash Chemists

Well, Bovril and Boots are still around today and so is Central Pier, but it looks very different today.

Do visit Sepia Saturday and see how other people have interpreted (or not) the theme this week.

One potato, two potatoes**

If I'm honest, I had no idea what this card was showing until I read the back:
Señor pelando papas, Cuzco (Perú).  Then I had to go to Google Translate to discover that means "Man peeling potatoes in Cuzco, Peru".  The few words of Spanish I know don't stretch to peeling potatoes.

It may seem a little strange that a man peeling potatoes would be the subject of a postcard but potatoes are enormously important in Peru.  They were first grown in southern Peru 7,000 - 10,000 years ago and there are now 5000+ different varieties worldwide.  Of these varieties, 3,000 are found in Peru and nearby Andean countries.  Potatoes, the third most important crop in the world, after rice and wheat, could be considered the first modern convenience food. 

The International Potato Centre is located in Lima, Peru and there they hold the largest collection of potato varieties in the world.  They have a page of facts and figures worth reading.

**When I was a child we used the rhyme

One potato, two potato
Three potato, four,
Five potato, six potato,
Seven potato, more.

as a way of choosing who was "IT".

A post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Carolina on my mind

A beautiful card from a beautiful state, sent to me by Odie of The Simple Life. It shows dogwood blossom, the North Carolina state flower.  Odie has a wonderful post at the moment with pictures that show the most amazing views.

Lufthansa

I imagine this is an advertising card because it is published by Lufthansa.  It shows a Boeing 747-400.  That means nothing at all to me, all I know is that I like the image.

Fool's Cap

The Fool's Cap Map of the World.  It is thought to be flemish in origin and possibly from Antwerp, dated about. 1590 The official description is: A fool or jester with a world map in place of his face. World map on the cordiform projection, within the visor of a fool's cap.  Cordiform apparently means heart-shaped.

It makes me wonder why foolscap paper is so called. The answer, according to Wikipedia, is "Foolscap was named after the fool's caps and bells watermark commonly used from the fifteenth century onwards on paper of these dimensions".

The card was sent to me from the USA but the card was published by the British Library.

Bridal Veil Falls

I wonder how many waterfalls there are in this world called Bridal Veil Falls?   I know I have a postcard from New Zealand showing one of them, and in the comments I was told there is another in Ohio.

Here is a vintage style card showing the Bridal Veil Falls in California, in the Yosemite National Park.  It is, I believe, at its best in the spring when the melting snow makes it flow with a remarkable force as it seems to in the picture.

Taking a break

Coffee and cakes, what better way to fill a break?  I'll be taking a break myself but nothing as delightful as this, just a pause for a week. I'll be scheduling posts for that time but I don't expect to be able to take part in special days like Friendship Friday, Sepia Saturday.

Temple of Dawn at sunset

I know it's sunset rather than down because it says so on the card!  Presumably dawn would light the other side, and would be just as beautiful.  But not only is the card impressive, so are the stamps.

This is the entire width of the larger-than-average card and as you can see, the stamp almost covers it.  Sadly the circular stamp doesn't show up particularly well.  It should show a gold drawing of what I believe to be the seal of one of the 20 provinces of Thailand.

I was intending to link to a card showing the royal barges but while I was looking for it, I came across yet another unusually shaped stamp from Thailand.

The card itself shows the Wat (temple) Pratat Chaehaeng but almost more interesting is the stamp on the front.   It was issued as one of two stamps to commemorate the 60th Royal Wedding anniversary in 2010.  They were the first ever stamps to be issued with real diamonds, six on each.  All I can say is, someone has picked off my diamonds and replaced them with heart shaped pieces of silver paper.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

St Thomas' Church, Portsmouth

Looking for old cards with trees, I found plenty of views but none had much of a story to tell until I came across this one showing St. Thomas' Church in Portsmouth on the south coast of England. The card dates from somewhere between 1902 and 1909 because it allows "for INLAND communication" only. that regulation applied in the UK from 1902 but not in the rest of the world for a few years, France followed in 1904, Germany in 1905, with 1907 for the USA.

I didn't recognise the church at all and assumed that it had been destroyed, like so much of Portsmouth, during World War II.  A little investigation made me realise that I had missed an opportunity to visit it because it is now, greatly extended, Portsmouth Cathedral.

The original church dates all the way back to the early 12th century and was dedicated to Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury assassinated by Henry II in Canterbury Cathedral.  It was attacked by the French in 1337; it was closed for a time when the whole town of Portsmouth was excommunicated after the Bishop of Chichester was murdered in Portsmouth; it was damaged by cannon fire during the Civil War 1642–1651. The cupola on top was added in 1702.

It wasn't until 1927 that the church was chosen to be the cathedral for the newly created diocese of Portsmouth.  It obviously had to be enlarged but the work was suspended at the outbreak of war in 1939.

It survived the Blitz but the building works remained incomplete until 1991. 

I used to live in Hampshire and while there I did take this photo of the cathedral.  It's very different now, as you can see, but I like to think the large tree on the right could possibly be at least related to the one shown on the card.

Apparently Ronald Reagan once said, "A tree's a tree.  How many more do you want to look at?".  You can find out how many more there may be at Sepia Saturday.

No sugar but plenty of spice, and all things nice

I like to think of myself as an adventurous cook and, needless to say, eater, but I recognise only about three quarters of this beautiful array of spices.

I can see green, black, white and mixed peppers; green and black cardamoms; saffron; paprika; red, green and dried chilli peppers (or however you prefer to spell it); cinnamon and mace; star anise.  Then it all becomes a little vague, not to mention hard to see.

Maybe you aren't supposed to try to identify them  but I would have liked a list on the back of the card.  It is one of the very sought after Nouvelles Images cards, best known for their multiple images on one card though they do have a much larger range.  I tend to associate these cards with France but this one came from the Netherlands.

A post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Kastelholm castle

I love the look of this castle, so very different from the medieval castles I know from other countries.  In France they often look like fairytale castles but this one is so solid, massive and so impressive.

Kastelholms slott, to give it its Swedish name, was originally built on a small island surrounded by moats.  It is on Åland, the main island of the archipelago of the Åland Islands which consists of over 6000 islands or islets.  It is an autonomous region of Finland where Swedish is spoken.  It is separated from Sweden by only 38 kilometres (24 miles) of water.

The castle was built in the 1380s, but severely damaged in 1599.  It was repaired but burned down in 1745. It has - obviously - been reconstructed and restored, and now is a major tourist attraction.

Keulen or Cologne

A card showing an old style poster by Willy Sluiter, advertising trains to Keulen (Cologne) in Germany.  The original, created in 1944, is in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. 

Usedom

The summer holidays are going to come to a crashing halt in the England and Wales when the A Level results come out this week and the scramble for university places starts.  That happened last week in Scotland.  The autumn term starts at the end of August or the beginning of September, depending on where you live. 

In France the schools go back in the first week of September but there I stop.  I don't know what happens in other countries.  I think some parts in the USA have already gone back to school.  Does the southern hemisphere work right through?  I suppose they must have their long breaks in their own summer.

The card shows a small seaside town, Heringsdorf, on the island of Usedom.  The island, in the Baltic Sea, lies on the border between Germany and Poland and is an extremely popular holiday destination.  It was very popular with the German Emperors which earned it the nickname "Bathtub of Berlin".

Map of Africa

A lovely old-style map of Africa.  There is a little German writing on it which I think says "Der Amazonen Papageij mit weissen Kopf"  If that is what it says, it means "The Amazon parrot with white head". What that has to do with Africa is anyone's guess.  I suspect some artistic licence.

Rural Ukraine

Within just two weeks I was sent these two cards from Ukraine.  They are numbers 10 and 11 from a series on rural life.  One had these beautiful stamps:

Each of the three large stamps comes from a mini-sheet.

Updated in case Bob returns this way.  The lighthouses are:

Sanzhiiskyi
Tendrivskyi
Tarkhankutskyi
Pavlovs'k Range Front
Illichivsk South Mole
Khersonesskiy

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

The life and loves of Elsie Back

As a birthday present one year my father was given a collection of postcards that had been put together, as far as we could tell, by Miss Elsie Back.  This postcard was the first in the collection and although it was unwriten, we take it to be Elsie.

Elsie received many cards addresses to her in various parts of Kent, mainly between Canterbury and Ashford.  Because the cards were addressed c/o, it looks as though she may have been in service.

Then there were cards from Sid or, more often, Sidder, including one addressed to Mum and Elsie, the top one of the next three.  Sid and Elsie were clearly already "an item" by then.  It was sent from Genoa in 1917 where it looks as though Sid was sent during the First World War.  I have already once blogged about it, the second of these cards.

Eventually.....

... cards addressed to the Newtons

First to Mrs S Newton in 1926, then to Master J Newton in 1930, then to E and the boys in 1934 where Sid is happy to hear that J likes school.  The first son was James or Jimmie, the second was Peter.  During this time the Newtons moved house a number of times but never very far from their origins.

The last one I have is dated 1956 and addressed to both Elsie and Sid, back in Shalmsford Street near Canterbury, the same road where Elsie lived when she was Miss Back.  I hope they had a long and happy life together.

Find more romantic or other stories at Sepia Saturday.