Kanaya, Japan

From the city of Shimida in the Shizuoka Prefecture. The Kanaya post office is in what was the town of Kanaya before it was amalgamated into Shimida in 2005. The stamps were originally produced for "Philatelic Week" in 1999 but were reissued in a different layout for the Phila Nippon stamp exhibition held in Tokyo of 2001.

Kanaya station is the terminus of the 40km Ōigawa railway line owned by the Ōigawa Railway company which specializes in the preservation and operation of steam locomotives. In the pictorial postmark is a Kawasaki C10 class locomotive manufactured in 1930. It is the only existing locomotive of this type and the oldest operated by the Ōigawa Railway company.

Malmö, Sweden

You can just barely make out the Malmö postmark on the middle stamp, under the round postnord postmark. The stamp on the right is from a 2016 set that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. In the middle is a stamp from a 2015 set about European honey bees. And on the left is a 2010 stamp from a set featuring marine life in the waters around Sweden. It was a joint issue with Canada.

Here are the joint isssue FDCs from both countries. 

Birds of France. And a snake.

Sent from the commune of Amilly, about an hour and half drive south of Paris. The Puffin stamp is part of the bottom third of a 2012 stamp sheet that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the LPO: Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux. Puffins can be found in France, on islands off the coast of Brittany. Upper right is a lesser kestrel (a small falcon) from a 2000 set about threatened bird species. And below that is a 2013 year of the snake stamp.

Lempäälä, Finland

On this cover from Lempäälä is a self-adhesive stamp sheet from 2012 with four stamps commemorating Sámi culture in Finland. The Sámi are the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia. This shape of this stamp sheet is the same as the footprint of the Sámi Cultural Centre that opened in Inari, Finland on January 9, 2012.

Oslo, Norway

The stamp on the right is a 2019 Europa bird stamp featuring a white-throated dipper: a small aquatic bird that can be found all over Norway. And on the left are a pair of tourism booklet stamps from 1998  featuring a scene from a fishing boat in Alesund.

USA OSIRIS-REx

Some OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return stamps from 2023 decorate this tidy cover from Alaska.

Italy's Zucchelli Station

Sent back to me from Italy's Antarctic station Mario Zucchelli via nearby US McMurdo Station. Signed by expedition leader Dr Gianluca Bianchi Fasani. I like the look of the colourful 2022 US Mariachi stamps on the yellow envelope.

Flowers from Finland

I know spring is coming when I start to get covers with flower stamps in my mailbox. Although it has felt like spring here off and on for the past couple of months. We barely had a winter.

New Zealand Queen Elizabeth II stamps

On this cover from Whanganui are stamps featuring the Queen of England and one of her mother.  Clockwise from upper left, a 2001 stamp from a set commemorating the Queen's 75th birthday. This particular stamps shows the Queen during a Royal visit to New Zealand in 1986. A stamp from a 2023 memorial set. A 1997 stamp commemorating the Queen's 50th wedding anniversary. And a stamp from a set issued in 2000 showing  the Queen Mother at age 7, from a set commemorating the 100th birthday of the Queen Mother.

Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, Taiwan FDC

On this first-day cover from Taiwan is a recent set of 10 stamps designed to "increase children’s interest in learning and their appreciation of the beauty of Taiwan". Each stamp depicts a Mandarin phonetic symbol with an image of a highlight from an administrative region, the name of which contains the phonetic sound represented by the symbol. 

Pro Juventute and Pro Patria

A pair of semi-postals from the 1980's make an appearance on this cover from Riva San Vitale, Switzerland. On the left is a 1985 children's charity stamp with the theme "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" and to the right is a 1987 national interest charity stamp showing an antique wardrobe. And the final stamp on the right is 2022 river landscape stamp that shows the Aare river near Rubigen in the Canton of Bern.

Spring Greetings from Osaka

Annual spring greetings stamps on this first-day cover from Osaka. On the left is are horsetails and on the right are violets.

Algerian Customs Agents

This FDC commemorates Algerian customs officers and the difficulties they face protecting the borders of Africa's largest nation.