Two that never passed.

  The Caracca, a Portugese ship, which is depicted in this Maltese stamp released in 2006. It was popularly known as the Gran Caracca Di Rodi. It was an awesome war machine in it's time weighing in at a supposed 2000 tons, having six decks(two below the waterline), being coated in lead and thought to be unsinkable(not the last ship to have been thought so). Christopher Columbus used to watch this ship as it waited ashore when he was a little boy.

 The Bremen, a German built passenger liner, is depicted on this German stamp released in 2004 which is the 75th anniversary of it winning the Blue Riband, which was an unofficial award given to passenger liners in regular service crossing the Atlantic in record time.

JimmyB

Samurai warrior outfit mystery.

 Yesterday I mentioned in my blog that I had begun reading "The Western Way of War". Naturally I came across this stamp of Japan and instantly thought it'd be a great stamp to post with a tie to my previous days. It certainly is, but I just can't seem to find it in my catalogue. Maybe seem to is the wrong wording. I can't. If anyone knows when this was released and any interesting info, I'd appreciate a comment directly on this blog. If not and you'd prefer to comment in one of several groups I'm in I'll simply update my post below(as usual it seems) and credit you for the info.

Update... Kudos too Gordon Lee Groves from the group "Stamp Collecting" on Facebook for this identification....... It's one of five designs from a pane of ten stamps commemorating the 400th Anniv. of the Edo Shogunate. This 80-yen stamp depicts the Armor of Ieyasu Tokugawa. It is not watermarked and should be perforated 13x13-1/4. It was issued May 23, 2003. The Scott number is 2856c.


I feel much better now........

JimmyB

Greece, Before and After

 Two Greek stamps, one is off a cover I have and the other is from a my recent mix purchase. One pre Eurozone and one post. I kind of like both of them, the first is a 1967 release of a children's painting set of which there were 4 and the second is a 1983 depiction of a view in ancient Greece. Today I read the Preface of Victor D. Hanson's "The Western Way of War, Infantry Battle in Classical Greece" and based on that, it appears to be a good read I'm in store for.

JimmyB

Attica! Attica! Attica!

 Sorry if the title doesn't seem to match the postal card, but it actually does. On the back side is an invite to a family reunion held at Attica Hall. I thought it would add something to what to most is just an ordinary postal card, but it's the first forever postal card I've gotten and it was printed in 2012. Go ahead and look at my past posts if this one wasn't your cup of tea, though I think it's pretty cool. Someone at work this past week shout "Attica! Attica! Attica!" and it all just kind of cohesed in my mind.

JimmyB

George loves Flowers

This post is for George, a very very good friend and neighbor who loves and adores flowers more so than anyone I have ever known and who has been having very serious health issues and for one reason or another refuses to seek the immediate health care that he urgently needs. I believe if he doesn't seek immediate help his time may be short. I hope you see these George, I'm done telling you to go in and I'm not bringing flowers to your funeral(if you don't seek medical help). I'd be more pleased if you'd go in though, so you could recoup from what needs to be done and we can sit on my porch together and watch what's going on over a beer or more.  It really doesn't matter to me tonight about when in the hell these stamps were issued but I feel obliged to say 2003 and 2004.

JimmyB

Conversion

 This guy, Jose de Anchieta, is credited with saving the souls of the native Brazilian Indians thru Catholicism in the 1500's. He did a pretty good job considering the strength of the Catholic Church in Brazil today. This mint 1954 release commemorates this Spanish Jesuit missionary on the 500th anniversary of his founding of Sao Paulo.

JimmyB

Give a Hoot!

 This barking owl was featured on the Creatures of the Night sheet released in 1997 and released as a single at the same time. Here's a clip of one barking at a zoo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9IttXj0o30 These owls are found in Australia which is not a surprise seeing as it's featured on an Australian stamp. They are also known as blinking owls as though no other owls blink.

 Austria released this barn owl stamp in 2009. Barn owls are the most widespread owl in the world and can be found almost anywhere except for the poles. They were even imported to the Hawaiian Islands to help control the rodent population.

JimmyB