wrapping the trees

So happy to be outside!

sunset

Cypress trees in Flat Lake at sunset from a photograph by Louisiana wildlife photographer, C.C. Lockwood.  Flat Lake is part of the one million acre river swamp of the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest contiguous river swamp in the US. Appropriately, Atchafalaya derives from Choctaw meaning "long river".

The stamp was issued for the 200th anniversary of statehood.

for Sunday stamps — nightviews

caturday

cat days
from Finland

finlandia

a different route 66
where in Rovaniemi is may get up to a high of 13°C today. a far cry from our unbearable 33°C in Toronto

1920s

Hong Kong street showing tram tracks but no trams.
Today, I imagine this street is very busy though I wonder if any of these buildings still exist.
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tomatoes and cabbages

I like to support the local farmers as much as I can and the farmer's markets are the best place to do that. If you find yourself in Indonesia, here is what you would call tomatoes (tomat) and cabbage (kubis)

in a garden

If I could be anywhere in the world right now?  

New Zealand comes to mind, for so many reasons.
Gardens are such restorative places, and NZ has many.

a 'one stamp' answer to Eva's question

murad

A sun cured tobacco making it more aromatic than smoke cured. (not that I would know — I've never smoked) Is that not one large carton of cigarettes?!  In the early 1900s their ads were created by Rea Irvin who would later become the art editor of The New Yorker.

st kilda

Life on St Kilda, a remote archipelago in the Outer Hebrides - 110 miles off the coast of Scotland and 40 miles from the next nearest island - in the rough Atlantic ocean, was never easy. The island had been occupied for millennia = though not by very many people - but by 1930 the last 36 inhabitants were finally evacuated. The National Trust for Scotland has recorded gales for 75 days a year with peak winds at 144 mph and peak waves at 52 feet. 

for Sunday Stamps - land and sea

flag

wrapped in the flag

KVIFF

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival          
the award is the Crystal Globe which has been given out since 1948
July 3 to July 11 ... but not this year :(
One of many thousands of events cancelled the world over

the miracle worker

Officially known as Church of St Nicholas the Miracle Worker, the Russian Church was built on the site of a mosque which was destroyed in 1882 after the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottomans by the Russians. The five domes are coated in gold and the bells were donated by Emperor Nicholas II. No word if he ever worshiped there.

hello

A quieter than usual Canada Day
The bears won't have to hide from the fireworks this year.

KGB

Hotel Viru, Tallin

Built in 1972 and the first high rise building in Estonia. From this angle, those two towers look awfully close together giving the whole thing a look of a double headboard and a bed.

In the Soviet era "any hotel that was appropriate for foreign visitors had to be appropriate to the KGB"

So this is also now a home to a KGB Museum.

liver bird

The symbol of Liverpool is the mythical Liver Bird. Here is one of the two that stand watch atop the Liver Building.
They are named Bertie and Bella. Not sure which one is shown here.

800

The Eisteddfod is held every August as a celebration of culture and language in Wales.

 Eight days of competitions in music and poetry.

This 844 year old tradition has only been cancelled once  – in 1914 – until this year.

for Sunday Stamps - anniversaries

people make

GLASGOW

Thinking of (my other city) Glasgow during this tense and sad time

angles of luxury

circa 1964
The Inn on the Park, a long ago luxury hotel in Toronto built in the early 1960s
sadly demolished and now a luxury car dealership (Lexus)

add ons

A medieval castle with a museum and inn.

The oldest parts built in the late 13th C with a rebuild and extension in the 15th C and an 'attic' added in the 17th C and the final renovations completed in the 21st C.  It really does look like one of those buildings which was added on to several times until the original is dwarfed.

vamp

Lya de Putti, a Hungarian silent screen actress

(1897-1931)

flying free

an argument?

It looks like these "two old ladies' have had their fill of each other.
We have finally moved on to stage 2 of re-opening so there's an opportunity to get out of the house!

father

This topic proved harder for me than I thought it might...

But, eventually, I settled on Canadian politician Tommy Douglas (1904-1986) who formed the first democratic socialist government in North America. He is best known as the father of universal health care. Back when such things were popular (2004), he was voted 'Greatest Canadian of All Time'.

You may know his grandson, the actor Kiefer Sutherland.

This stamp shows a portrait by Yousuf Karsh

for Sunday Stamps - father figures

watermelon

It's summertime!

American

One of the great features of the American Falls are the multitude of rocks at the bottom. They started as natural rockslides but in 1969 with concerns about too much erosion, the water was shut off so that geological engineers could investigate and stabilize the rockbed. They decided to keep the fallen rocks in place.

There was talk of shutting off the falls again in 2019 in order to repair the bridges to Goat Island, but that was delayed due to lack of funds. 

alice

a favourite book, and not just from childhood

camp nou

after 3 months of no play, soccer returned to an empty stadium

lounging

reading

 Alberto Pisa

Carl Olof Larsson

Unknown Japanese artist

fireworks

Festivals are a time for fireworks.  All of our festivals and fireworks have been cancelled and we wonder if the fireworks part will return. They have been falling out of favour these last few years, and they are prohibitively expensive.

With C19, they may end up a thing of the past and not as a way of celebrating things like the 25th anniversary of the Canadian flag                    (I don't actually remember this celebration?)

Fun fact: fireworks festivals in Japan started in 1733 after a really bad year due to cholera, crop failures and starvation. The festival was meant to memorialize the victims and to pray for an end to the epidemic. so not really a celebration. sadly, I have no Japanese fireworks stamps

So many students are graduating at this time of year with few celebrations except online (I'm seeing many lawn signs, which is nice)

Confetti has been a traditional way of celebrating the happy couple at their wedding - though that is now frowned upon - it does make an unholy mess. 

I suppose ribbons are still okay. I do love a beautifully beribboned present

for Sunday Stamps - celebrations

cape and table

Such a beautiful view of an impossibly natural beauty. And a city.

sultan

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building, named after the 4th Sultan of Selangor  (who died in 1898) was built in 1897, and designed by the Government Architect of Selangor, A.C. Norman.  Constructed entirely of brick, the building features gothic, Moorish and western infuluences. The clock tower is an imposing 41.2 m high

six feet

perce

a nice view of the rock, from the northwest,

but not one where you can see the 'pierce'.

for that view you must travel the peninsula counter clockwise and arrive from southwest

pavlova

Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) Photo from 1908 as Princess Aspicia in The Pharaoh's Daughter
The first ballerina to tour the world.

alaska is big

Amish stuff

Dutch Haven Family Style Restaurant - Gift Shop. US Rte 30, 8 miles east of Lancaster in Soudersberg Pa. Authentic Dutch Cooking served either family style or from the menu. Home of World Famous Dutch Haven Shoo-Fly Pie.

six legs

a praying mantis








and an ant










for Sunday Stamps

on the Baltic

Built in 1906

yellow

painting by Michael Warren