Manama, Bahrain: Bahraini Teapot Overlooking Grand Mosque

Traditional Bahraini Teapot overlooking Grand Mosque
Manama, Bahrain

This postcard is postmarked in 2002 with a U.S. Navy hand stamp (there was no stamp needed for military).

the sender writes:
Blistering Beautiful Bahrain! I'm very impressed.  The naval base seems to have everything you need - just small quantities.

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Manama is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 155,000 people. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is home to a very diverse population.

The Al-Fateh Mosque in the background is one of the largest mosques in the world, encompassing 6,500 square meters and having the capacity to accommodate over 7,000 worshippers at a time.  It is the largest place of worship in Bahrain.

Chester, England 1955

 Chester

Eastgate Street
The Cross
City Walls and King Charles Tower
Bonewaldisthorne's Tower
Suspension Bridge

Valentines Postcard - postmarked in 1955  with a Great Britain Queen Elizabeth II, Postage Revenue 2 1/2 D stamp

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Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 118,925 inhabitants.  It was granted city status in 1541.

Chester was founded as a "castrum" or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix in the year 79 by the Roman Legio II Adiutrix during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian. It's four main roads, Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate and Bridge, follow routes laid out at this time – almost 2,000 years ago.

Chester Cross (center of the postcard) is a junction of streets at the centre of the city of Chester.
The streets meeting at the junction are Watergate Street, Eastgate Street, Bridge Street and Northgate Street.

Langkawi Island in Malaysia and the legend of Mahsuri

Langkawi, Malaysia

Beautiful sweeping bay at Pantai Kok.

This was postmarked in 2012 with two Malaysia stamps.

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Langkawi, officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah is an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia.

The sender writes about the legend of Mahsuri that takes place on Langkawi on the back of the postcard...

Mahsuri was the daughter of a Malay couple who moved from their native Phuket to the island of Langkawi in search of a better life. She was the most beautiful in all of Langkawi and married the warrior Wan Darus. As was required of him, her husband had to go to war, leaving Mahsuri behind to fend for herself. It was during this time that Mahsuri befriended a young man named Deraman. The village chief's wife was jealous of Mahsuri's beauty. She spread a rumour that Mahsuri was unfaithful and was having an affair with Deraman in the absence of Wan Darus. Eventually the rumours grew strong enough that the villagers openly accused her of adultery. Mahsuri pleaded her innocence, but no one believed her.

Mahsuri was to be tied to a tree (or pole) and stabbed to death but it didn't work. After every execution attempt failed, Mahsuri told them to kill her with her family's kris (dagger). When she was stabbed, white blood flowed from the wound, signifying her innocence. Some birds flew above her to cover her body. With her dying breath, Mahsuri cursed Langkawi to have seven generations of bad luck. The kingdom was soon taken over by Siam. The villagers at Padang Mat Sirat burned their own paddy fields rather than let them fall into the hands of the Siamese.

Many locals of Langkawi believe the legend to be true, citing the decades of failed crops that followed Mahsuri's death. Langkawi was also attacked by Siam numerous times, the last invasion taking place in 1821. The field which was torched by the farmers is still known as Beras Terbakar or "burnt rice". It is only at the end of the 20th century, after the seven generations have supposedly come to pass, that Langkawi began to prosper as a tourist destination. The descendants of Mahsuri continue to live in Phuket, Thailand, and have on occasion returned to Langkawi to visit her tomb.

Malaysia stamp 2005 30sen

Tarian

Bharata Natyam

and

Tarian Kathak

(both are traditional Indian Dances)

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Malaysia 20sen stamp

2005

Tekuker

Spotted Dove

Streptopelia hinensis

The Backstreet Boys - 1999

The Backstreet Boys (Jackets)

unused, from 1999

The Backstreet Boys (Studio)

unused, from 1999

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The Backstreet Boys are an American vocal group, formed in Orlando, Florida in 1993. The band originally consisted of A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson. They rose to fame with their debut international album, Backstreet Boys (1996). They rose to superstardom with their album Millennium (1999) and its follow-up album, Black & Blue (2000).

Tea Crop in Munnar, India (postmarked on 12/12/12)

The sender writes that this is Munnar, Kerala, India

The postcard arrived completely folded in half  and then more creases on top of that.  I tried to fix it up a bit to make it look a little more presentable.

postmarked with two India stamps on December 12, 2012 with a special 'Once in a Millenium 12-12-12' postmark from Mumbai and signed by eight members of a postcrossing meet-up that took place on 12/12/12!!  (There is a link to Postcrossing on the right hand side of this blog)

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Munnar is a high elevation town on the Western Ghats, a range of mountains situated in the Indian state of Kerala.
The name Munnar is believed to mean "three rivers", referring to the town's strategic location at the confluence of the Madhurapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly rivers.

Munnar is surrounded by the country's highest tea gardens. Layers and layers of tea estates, mountain mist, waterfalls and wildlife sanctuaries make Munnar almost surrealistically beautiful.

Munnar is also famous for the wild orchids locally called Neelakurinchi which blooms once in 12 years. During this time the entire valley turns violet.

India stamp 2009

Gangetic Dolphin (Platanista Gangetica) 5.00

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The South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is a freshwater or river dolphin found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. 

The Ganges river dolphin has been recognized by the government of India as its National Aquatic Animal.

India Stamp 2000

C. V. Raman 5.00

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Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, FRS (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in the world. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for the discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that is deflected changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect.

Mdina, Malta: The Old City

The Old City - Mdina
Malta

unused

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Mdina is a medieval walled town situated on a hill in the centre of the island that is the old capital of Malta.  The town is still confined within its walls, and has a population of just over three hundred, but it shares a border with the village of Rabat, and has a population of over 11,000.

Wedding Cake House in Kennebunk, Maine

Wedding Cake House With Frosting

Kennebunk, Maine

A cabinetmaker, George Bournes, gave this house to his bride in 1826.  The house has recently been restored to its former splendor.

Photo by John Alderson

postmarked in 2012 with a USA 32 cent 'Aloha' stamp

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Called the "most photographed house in the state" of Maine, the Wedding Cake House, known formally as the George W. Bourne House, is a historic house located at 104 Summer Street in Kennebunk, Maine. The home was built in 1825 by George W. Bourne (1801–1856), who later built a frame barn which he connected to the main house with a carriage house. In 1852, the barn caught fire and the carriage house was demolished to keep the fire from spreading to the house. Bourne, who during a European tour had been impressed by the Gothic beauty of the cathedral at Milan, rebuilt the carriage house and barn in what later came to be known as Carpenter Gothic style. Using hand tools, he crafted five buttresses with pinnacles on top of each. Then in order to tie the new structures in with the existing house, he added six buttresses with pinnacles to the house and then joined them together with intricate woodwork. His only help in doing this was Thomas Durrell, an apprentice ship's carpenter. Bourne spent the rest of his life adding to these embellishments.

A Few Electricity Puns

Sparky!  your mother and I are shocked at your current behavior!  Until you learn to conduct yourself properly, you're grounded!

Original Art by Dan Reynolds

unused, bought in 2012

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Fun Facts about Electricity:

Electricity travels at the speed of light - more than 186,000 miles per second!
A bolt of lightning can measure up to three million (3,000,000) volts, and it lasts less than one second!
Electricity always tries to find the easiest path to the ground.
Benjamin Franklin didn't discover electricity, but he did prove that lightning is a form of electrical energy.

If you had a light bulb on the moon connected to a switch in your bedroom, it would take only 1.26 seconds for that bulb to light up, 238,857 miles away.

The first central power plant ? Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan, built by Thomas Edison began generating electricity on September 4, 1882. Pearl Street had one generator and it produced power for 800 electric light bulbs. Within 14 months, Pearl Street Station had 508 subscribers and 12,732 bulbs.

In the past decade scientists developed the laser, an electronic appliance that emits a beam of light so powerful that it can vaporize a bulldozer 2,000 yards away, yet so precise that doctors can use it to perform delicate operations on the human eyeball, provided they remember to change the power setting from "VAPORIZE BULLDOZER" to "DELICATE."

Glacier National Park in Montana

Weeping Wall on Going-To-The-Sun Road, Glacier National Park

One of the many exciting stops along the spectacular Park Road is the famous Weeping Wall shown here amid melting snow banks and snow clad peaks.  During spring and early summer, runoff rills of foaming water cascade over the face of this rocky wall, creating a very unusual sight.

Photo by Dan Sample

postmarked in 1996 with 20 cent Harry S. Truman stamp

High above Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana, a lone mountain goat makes its stand on a sheer precipice, better to keep an eye on its domain and the many people who hike through it every year, hoping to catch a glimpse of these shaggy but incredibly sure-footed local residents.

postmarked in 1992 with 19 cent hot air balloon stamp

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Glacier National Park is located in the U.S. state of Montana, south from the Canadian borders of Alberta and British Columbia. The park encompasses over 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km2) and includes parts of two mountain ranges (sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), over 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals.

Soon after the establishment of the park on May 11, 1910, a number of hotels and chalets were constructed by the Great Northern Railway. These historic hotels and chalets are listed as National Historic Landmarks, and a total of 350 locations are on the National Register of Historic Places. By 1932, work was completed on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, later designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, which provided greater accessibility for automobiles into the heart of the park.

Glacier National Park has almost all its original native plant and animal species. Mammals such as the grizzly and mountain goat as well as less common ones such as the wolverine and lynx are known to inhabit the park. Hundreds of species of birds, more than a dozen fish species and even a few reptile and amphibian species have been documented.

The park has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1995.

 

Pomorie, Bulgaria

Pomorie, Bulgaria

This is postmarked in 2009 with 4 Bulgaria stamps (two of each you see below).

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Pomorie is a town and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, located on a narrow rocky peninsula in Burgas Bay on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is an ancient city and today an important tourist destination. As of December 2009, it has a population of 13,569 inhabitants.

 

Milking a Rattlesnake

Milking a Rattlesnake,

Ross Allen's Reptile Institute,

Silver Springs, Florida

Photo by Sam Adnre

unused Curteich postcard

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Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes. There are 32 known species of rattlesnake, with between 65-70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to Central Argentina.

Rattlesnake bites are rarely fatal to humans, if treated promptly. Between 7,000 and 8,000 people are estimated to have been bitten by venomous snakes in the United States each year, and about five of those die. The most important factor in determining survival following a severe envenomation is the amount of time elapsed between the bite and treatment. Most deaths occur between 6 and 48 hours after the bite. However, if antivenom treatment is given within 1–2 hours of the bite, the probability of recovery is greater than 99%.

The first step in the production of antivenom is collecting ("milking") the venom of a live rattlesnake. (As seen in the postcard above) The extracted venom is then diluted and injected into horses, goats, or sheep, whose immune systems produce antibodies that protect from the toxic effects of the venom. These antibodies accumulate in the blood, which is then extracted and centrifuged (spinning an object in rotation around a fixed axis)  to separate the red blood cells. The resulting serum is purified into a lyophilized powder, which is packaged for distribution and later use by human patients.

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Here is another postcard of a Rattlesnake ...

Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens

North American Wildlife

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox).

The western diamondback rattlesnake, also known as "coon tail rattler", is capable of delivering a fatal bite.  It is active late in the day and at night in the hot summer months.  It is found in arid and semiarid areas and has a life span of nearly 26 years.

Photographers - Alan & Sandy Carey

from 2010, has a 44 cent 'Archie' stamp attached

Kamnik, Slovenia

Kamnik, Slovenia

postmarked in 2007

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Kamnik is a town in northern Slovenia.  It encompasses a large part of the Kamnik Alps and the surrounding area. The town of Kamnik has ruins of two castles as well as many examples of historical architecture.
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Here is one more postcard of Kamnik...

Kamnik, Slovenia

The old part of town

Photo: Bogdan Kladnik

unused, but has writing on the back, from 2012

Kenya, Under the Sun

Kenya

under the African Sun

unused but has writing
from 2007

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Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator. It has a land area of 580,000 km2 and a population of a little over 43 million residents. The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and second among Africa's highest mountain peaks.

Kenya is famous for its safaris and diverse world-famous wildlife reserves such as the East and West Tsavo National Park, the Maasai Mara, Nakuru National Park, and Aberdares National Park.

Kenya is active in several sports, among them cricket, rallying, football (soccer), rugby union and boxing. But the country is known chiefly for its dominance in Middle-distance and long-distance athletics. Kenya has consistently produced Olympic and Commonwealth Games champions in various distance events.

Ragtime The Musical

Livent Inc's world premier production of "Ragtime", a musical panorama of America at the turn-of-the-century, tells the story of three remarkable families whose lives have become intertwined with major historic events and legendary figures of the period.

unused, bought in 2011

This opened on Broadway on January 18, 1998.  That night my husband and I were trying to get back to our hotel, The Waldorf  Astoria (in New York) after seeing a different show and couldn't get close because of all the limousines.  So we payed the cab and walked the last few blocks to see what was going on.  There were a lot of celebrities and photographers walking in.  We asked one of the photographers what was going on and he said it was the opening night of Ragtime the Musical and this was their opening-night celebration.  He told us to tag along with him and he would introduce us to a few people.  One of the first people we met was Julie Taymor, we had seen The Lion King the night before so I told her how much we loved the show.  (That was my first broadway show.  We saw the original cast, so it was quite a while before I saw another show that thrilled me like that one did!) We also met most of the cast of Ragtime, (they were all very gracious and took the time to say hello) and Jack Palance.  There were some others too, but I don't remember who.  After they were all past us, the photographer took us up to the party, but we couldn't go in, so he got for us one of the goodie bags that everyone got.  Inside the bag was a Ragtime program printed with a special seal on it for the opening night, a keychain, baseball, and some other odds and ends.  It was a wonderful evening.  Although I never saw the show on Broadway, our oldest daughter sang in it in a local community group.  I think having her in the show made it even better than the one in New York.  But that could just be a proud mama talking.  :D

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Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty. The music includes marches, cakewalks, gospel and ragtime and the production is mostly sung-through.

Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in the United States in the early 20th century; African-Americans, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; upper-class suburbanites, represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York; and Eastern European immigrants, represented by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia.

Historical figures such as Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Stanford White, Harry Kendall Thaw, Admiral Peary, Matthew Henson, and Emma Goldman are represented in the stories.

Gone With the Wind

David O. Selznick's production of Margaret Mitchell's Story of the Old South
Directed by Victor Fleming

GONE WITH THE WIND

starring Clark Gable as Rhett Butler
Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland
and presenting
Vivien Leigh
as Scarlett O'Hara
Released on Jan. 17, 1939. MGM

postcard made by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2001

unused

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Set in the 19th century American South, Gone With The Wind tells a story of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era from a Southern point of view.

The film received 10 Academy Awards (8 competitive, 2 honorary), a record that stood for 20 years  until Ben-Hur surpassed it in 1960.  In the American Film Institute's inaugural Top 100 Best American Films of All Time list of 1998, it was ranked fourth, and in 1989 was selected to be preserved by the National Film Registry. The film was the longest American sound film made up to that time – 3 hours 44 minutes, plus a 15 minute intermission.

Mice on Cats Eyes

Mice on eyes

Foto: Josh Westrich

postmarked in 2012 with a Mittenwaldbahn stamp from Germany

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a few jokes for a fun postcard...

What do you call three mice that tried getting a cat in an ambush?
Three Blind Mice.

A mouse is in his mouse hole and he wants to go out to get something to eat,
but he's afraid there might be a big cat outside, so he puts his ear by the
opening and all he hears is "Bow Wow" so he thinks, "Well, there can't be a cat
out there because there's a big old dog", so he goes out of his mouse hole and
is promptly caught and eaten by a cat, who licks his lips and says "It's good to
be bilingual !!"

Germany (Deutschland) stamp 2012

100 Jahre Mittenwaldbahn (100 years Mittenwaldbahn) 75

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The Mittenwald Railway, popularly known Karwendelbahn is a railway line in the Alps in Austria and Germany . It connects Innsbruck over Seefeld (both in Tyrol , Austria) and Mittenwald to Garmisch-Partenkirchen (both in Bavaria , Germany).

Texas Word Search Postcard

Texas Word Search Postcard

The words are:
Dang, Fixins, Havta, Heck, Howdy, Recon, Nu-uh, Ya'll, Yonder

The answers are on the back.

Unused, from 2010

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A common strategy for finding all the words is to go through the puzzle left to right (or vice versa) and look for the first letter of the word (if a word list is provided). After finding the letter, one should look at the eight surrounding letters to see whether the next letter of the word is there. One can then continue this method until the entire word is found.

Another strategy is to look for 'outstanding' letters within the word one is searching for (if a word list is provided). Since most word searches use capital letters, it is easiest to spot the letters that stand out from others. These letters are Q, O, U, X, and Z.

Lastly, the strategy of looking for double letters in the word being searched for (if a word list is provided) proves helpful, because it is easier to spot two identical side-by-side letters among a large grid of random letters.

Penang Coastal Area, Malaysia

Coastal Area Penang

This postcard is postmarked in 2012 from Malaysia.

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Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. Highly urbanised and industrialised Penang is one of the most developed and economically important states in the country, as well as a thriving tourist destination.

Penang enjoys a year-round tropical rainforest climate which is warm and sunny, along with plentiful rainfall, especially during the Southwest Monsoon from April to September.

Malaysia stamp 2012

Tokong Cheng Hoon Teng, Melaka 50 sen

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The Cheng Hoon Teng temple is a Chinese temple practicing the Three Doctrinal Systems of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism located in Tokong, Malacca Town, Malaysia. It is the oldest functioning temple in Malaysia.

Stop Obesity: Use a Bike to Run the Television

Too much TV and not enough exercise can lead to obesity.  The number of obese children in this country has now tripled in the last 20 years.  But if the balance is right then who says they can't watch TV.

Designer: Emma Banks and Candi Brown

This is a free Boomerang advertising postcard from the United Kingdom.

I don't think there would be any obesity anywhere if you had to peddle a bicycle to run your electronic toys.

Great postcard!

unused, from 1996

Landscapes of Ireland

Ireland: 

The unique beauty of Ireland's landscape and its rich historic literary and artistic associations have long made it a favourite resort for tourists.  Encompassing a wealth of natural beauty within its modest dimensions, Ireland boasts a landscape which is as much diverse as it is gratifying  The scenic grandeur is set off by Ireland's position.  Standing in the path of both the prevailing westerly winds of the Atlantic and the warming currents of the Gulf Stream, Ireland enjoys an equable climate which gives the country its unique fresh appearance.

postmarked in 2012 from Ireland

Rice Farmer in Nong Khai, Thailand

Farmer nongkhai

some information from the sender:

I'm currently visiting Nong Khai, a Thi-Lao (Thailand and Laos) border town in northeastern Thailand.

This cards shows the typical harvesting of rice.  Scenes like this still exist not only in Nong Khai (where this card is from) but all over southeast Asia and Taiwan.  We have straw hats too like the one worn by the farmer on this postcard.

This is postmarked in 2012 with a Thailand 'Ao Maya 15' (From the Seaside Series) stamp.

House of the Future in Disneyland, California

Disneyland
Magic Kingdom

House of the Future - Tomorrowland
The all plastic House of the Future, ultra-modern in exterior design as well as interior furnishings; in the background, Disneyland's Matterhorn.

unused

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The Monsanto House of the Future (also known as the Home of the Future) was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, USA, from 1957 to 1967.

The attraction offered a tour of a home of the future, set in the year 1986, and featured household appliances such as microwave ovens, which eventually became commonplace. The house saw over 435,000 visitors within the first six weeks of opening, and ultimately saw over 20 million visitors before being closed.

The building was so sturdy that demolition crews failed to demolish the house using wrecking balls, torches, chainsaws and jackhammers, the building was ultimately demolished by using choker chains to crush it into smaller parts. The reinforced polyester structure was so strong that the half-inch steel bolts used to mount it to its foundation broke before the structure itself did.

Hudhuranfushi, Male Atoll, Maldives

Maldives
Hudhuranfushi - Male Atoll

photo: Michael Friedel

postmarked in 2012 with a Maldives fish (dolphin or whale) stamp

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Hudhuranfushi (formerly known as Lohifushi), in North Male Atoll, has been completely rebuilt and upgraded. The island has excellent beaches and a superb house reef ideal for diving and snorkelling. Surfing and wind-surfing are catered for on the opposite side of the island.

Hudhuran Fushi in local Maldivian language means “Island of White Gold”.

Tupelo, Mississippi, Birthplace of Elvis Presley

Elvis' Birthplace - in Tupelo, Mississippi.

postmarked in 1989 with 15 cent 'Buffalo Bill Cody' stamp

I must say, this is one Ugly postcard.  It's gloomy outside, and it's so dark! I'd like to get a nice postcard of his birthplace.

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Elvis was born on January 8th, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, then moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13.

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Elvis Presley

Television Series: The Avengers

The Avengers

unused

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The Avengers is a British spy-fi British television series created in the 1960s. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry) and his assistant John Steed (Patrick Macnee). Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. Steed's most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish and assertive women: Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and later Tara King (Linda Thorson).

Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity. The Avengers ran from January 7, 1961 until 1969, screening as one hour episodes its entire run.

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Female partner Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) debuted in the series, in October 1965. The name of the character derived from a comment by writers, during development, that they wanted a character with "man appeal".  In an early attempt to incorporate this concept into the character's name, she was called "Samantha Peel", shortened to the awkward "Mantha Peel,"  Eventually the writers began referring to the idea by the verbal shorthand, "M. Appeal", which gave rise to the character's ultimate name. Emma Peel.

Rice Terraces in The Philippines: UNESCO World Heritage Site

 Another Philippine Wonder

The famous rice terraces of the Mountain Province is a breathtaking sight well worth the many hours spent to see them.

postmarked in 2008 with two 'Pigeon' stamps from the Philippines

The sender writes, 'I have been in their place and the view is magnificent.  Our ancestors built this structure for 200 years, 2000 years ago.

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Streams and springs found in the mountains are tapped and channeled into Irrigation canals that run downhill through the rice terraces.