Year of the Snake from Shizuoka, Japan

First thing I notice about this Year of the Snake self-adhesive souvenir sheet from Japan is the increased postal rates. They went up 30% last October. The 25g domestic letter rate is now 110 yen and the domestic postcard rate is now 85 yen. 

More Solar System stamps from Brazil

This is the third cover I've received from Brazil with solar system stamps on it. I think I'm one short of a whole sheet. On these stamps are Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. And in the label are asteroids Ceres and Hijra.

Pordenone, Italy

A nice pair of stamps from 2023 on this cover from northern Italy. On the left is a stamp commemorating the National University Library in Turin. And on the right is a stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Italian Order of Merit for Labour.

Namibia

Sent from Windhoek: the capital of the south-west African nation of Namibia. The souvenir sheet stamp shows the shape of the country in the colours of their flag. That little bit at the north-east corner that juts out between Zambia and Botswana, is known as the Caprivi Strip. It was acquired by the Germans when Namibia was known as German South West Africa. It gave them access to the Zambezi River. From there, technically, you could reach the Indian Ocean but you'd have to somehow manage your way around Victoria Falls. 

The butterfly on the 1993 stamp in the lower right is a Green-veined Emperor. And the minerals shown on the definitive from 1991 are wulfenite crystals.

Flower Stamps from Seoul

The South Korean stamps on this cover are floral commemoratives from 1993 and 1994, from a series that ran from 1990 to 1997. It took me a while to locate the source of the postmark: "SL. MMAA". It's a post office that operates at the Military Mutual Aid Assistance office building in Seoul's Gangnam district. The MMAA provides pension funds for military personal and civilian employees connected to the military. 

Barbary Squirrel, Algeria FDC

The stamp on this cover from Algeria is a depiction of a Barbary ground squirrel. These small stripped squirrels live in the Atlas mountain region between between the Western Sahara and Algeria.

Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain

Ciudad Rodrigo is a small walled city in the Spanish province of Salamanca. I would think the image in the postmark is that of the cathedral of Santa Maria but I can't say for certain. The stamp is from a series commemorating popular traditions in Spain and the subject of this 2023 stamp is the annual Carnival in Ciudad Rodrigo: a five-day bull fighting festival. Muito obrigado Pedro!

AAT Mawson and Davis Stations

These were both in my mailbox on the same day. I sent them back in September of 2023. The station postmarks were updated slightly a few years ago and these are the first examples from these stations that I have received. The Mawson cover looks good. And the Davis cover is ok  but the inkpad must have been dry in places or partly frozen or something. The slogan on the back of that one says "Davis Station. Riviera of the South"

I actually received two covers from Davis. I had learned that mail to India's Bharati station passes through Davis so I sent a cover to Bharati to be returned to me via Davis. It came back pretty much like the one pictured here with no additional markings on it. No indication that it actually went to Bharati despite the fact that I addressed it to that base and in the request letter asked if they could add any base-related stamps they might have. Guess none were available.

Unconventional Food Plants from Brazil

Three stamps from a 2024 set of six featuring unconventional food plants. Plantas alimentícias não convencionais (PANC) is a Brazilian movement that promotes propagating and foraging for unconventional food plants. Unconventional in this case meaning local (to Brazil) and not mainstream. These are plants you are more likely to find in a backyard garden, a market or a forest and not in a large grocery store. The examples on these stamps are mangarito (a tuber), Barbados gooseberry and malabar spinach.

Christmas in Germany

A Christmas card that came to me with postmarks from the Deutsche Post philatelic center in Weiden in der Oberpfalz. This year will be the 45th anniversary of the Weiden philatelic center: the only philatelic center in Germany. 

Despite the December 6th postmark, in a normal year I would have received this on or before the 25th. So I think we're still feeling the effects of last years postal strike. However I've also received mail this month from Canadian senders that only took a few days to get to me. Maybe this was in a storage box somewhere and it just took them a while to get around to it.

Critically Endangered Flora of Singapore

Three stamps from Singapore are from a 2024 set of four that depict flora of the Lowland Dipterocarp Forest. Dipterocarp forests are dominated by trees from the dipterocarp family. These tall dense hardwood forests promote a extreme floral diversity. At one time Singapore was covered by such a forest but now only small pockets remain. And with the destruction of these forests also went much of the biodiversity. Obviously. But what remains is protected and cared for. Some of the critically endangered plants in the remaining forests are represented on these stamps.

Brazil and the Solar System

More 2020 solar system stamps from Brazil. From left to right: the sun, Venus and Jupiter.