Rio 2016

These stamps were issued to represent the transition of the summer Olympic games from London to Rio de Janeiro. The stamps were printed in 2012 but due to a licensing dispute, were held off sale until earlier this year.

Shizuoka, Japan

From Shizuoka, Japan. The postmark on the right is one of several city landmark postmarks available in Shizuoka. This one is of an Exhibition Hall in Oguro, with Mount Fuji in the background (I'm pretty sure you can't actually see Mount Fuji from the entrance to the hall). The New Year stamps on this cover are lottery stamps. In addition to the usually New Year stamps issued each year, special stamps are also produced with lottery numbers on them. Early in the year, Japan Post draws numbers and awards prizes for lottery winners.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

This was sent to me on 8 June from Buenos Aires and at the time their international letter rate (small, simple) was $29 pesos. A little less than a month after this was sent the rate was increased to $37 pesos. That's expensive. It costs me half that amount to mail a similar letter internationally from Canada. Postal rates in Argentina seem to have gone up a lot lately. I was planning to send some covers to Argentine Antarctic bases this year but when I saw the postal rates I decided against it.

The large stamp shows the Néstor Kirchner Cultural Centre which opened in May of this year. Named after former president Néstor Kirchner, the building used to be an old Post Office before being turned into the largest cultural center in Latin America. The $6 stamp is from the "festivals" series: "Fiesta Nacional de la Noche Más Larga". The day of the longest night being winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. And I believe the last one is a "regular use" issues from 2014... something to do with graduating from University.

Dutch Orchids

The stamps on this cover were issued by Post NL in 2014. They are from a sheet depicting wild orchids that grow in the south of the Netherlands in an area known as Gerendal. A description of each orchid appears in the sheet margins. Too bad there is no postmark :(

Lighthouses from Gütersloh, Germany

From Gütersloh in northwest Germany, featuring the recently issued 2015 lighthouse stamps. Deutsche Post have been issuing stamps in this series every year since 2004. Both of these German lighthouses are on lakes. The Moritzburger lighthouse sits at the end of a jetty the juts out into the Grand Pond: one of the ponds that makes up the Moritzburger Pond area near Dresden. It's really just a decorative lighthouse, constructed to mark some historical event.

The Lindau lighthouse sits at the entrance to the Lindau harbour on Lake Constance in southern Germany. I've actually been to Lindau and have seen the lighthouse there. It was quite a while ago but when I was there I took this picture. In fact, it's currently my computer desktop image. The city on the other side of the lake is Bregenz, Austria.

Lijiang, China

I can just barely make out the characters for "Lijiang" in the postmarks. Lijiang is a city in southwestern China in Yunnan province. It is known for its "Old Town" which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Lanškroun, Czech Republic

Mountain Rescue Ireland

An FDC I recently acquired from the Irish Republic. I never get mail from Ireland but I was there very recently.  I should have sent myself something.

These stamps, which were issued by An Post on 4 June 2015, commemorate 50 years of the Mountain Rescue service in Ireland. The Mountain Rescue association consists of 12 volunteer rescue teams whose members are dispatched to assist hikers or climbers in distress.

Erich von Drygalski postmark

A philatelic postmark from Germany which I believe was commissioned by Arbeitsgemeinschaft POLAR PHILATELY eV, to commemorate 150 years since the birth of Erich von Drygalski.

Drygalski was a German geographer and polar scientist who led the first German expedition to the Antarctic in 1901. They discovered new land before returning home 2 years later. Half of their time away was spent trapped on an ice sheet. This is an aerial photo of their ship, Gauss, taken by a balloon used during the expedition.

450th Anniversary of Rio de Janeiro

Took me a while to realize that the faces on these stamps and the envelope are made of the numbers 450.

50 Years of German-Israeli diplomatic relations

Pori, Finland

From Pori, Finland, with a Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät stamp on it. PKN is a Finnish punk band whose members all have some degree of developmental disability. They represented Finland in the 2015 Eurovision contest but didn't make it to the finals.