Canada's free prepaid postcards

This is the postage-paid postcard that came in my mail last week. Canada Post distributed 13.5 million postcards to Canadian households as part of a campaign to get us to write letters to one another. I'm not sure if the campaign actually has a name. There are six different designs out there. Free to mail anywhere in Canada.

I was expecting something more like a postcard. Instead this was just a folded piece of heavy paper with one side being the detachable postcard. I wonder how many of these were recycled with the rest of the junk mail.

Japanese self-adhesive stamps

I was soaking some Japanese kiloware the other day and I was really impressed with how easily they all came off the paper. Particularly the self-adhesive stamps. I've removed self-adhesive stamps from Japan from paper before but never enough of them to really appreciate how well designed they are.

The adhesive layer is separate from the face layer of the stamp and the two are bonded together with  a water-soluble adhesive. The only reason I can think of for designing the stamps this way is so collectors can easily remove them from their sticky backing. It took no more effort to remove these stamps from paper as it did to remove the non self-adhesive stamps. They came off beautifully every time. 

USA Winter Scenes

FDC postmarked in Winter Park Florida: a small city just north of Orlando. The Winter Scenes Blue jay stamp is on the left. The middle stamp with bio-luminescent mushrooms is from 2018. They don't glow in the dark or glow under UV. Not magic mushrooms. Just shinny. And the stamp on the right is from a 1975 set that commemorates 200 years of postal services in the United States.

Canadian Crab Apple Blossoms FDC

Snow Mammals of Canada

Recent issue from Canada Post. These are animals found in Canada's arctic regions and all have fur that changes white during the winter months. From left to right, Peary caribou, Ermine, snowshoe hare, northern collared lemming and Arctic fox. Under UV light the animal's footprints are visible on each stamp.

Greenland - GREA ECOPOLARIS

ECOPOLARIS is a GREA (Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique) expedition to study Arctic ecosystems. GREA have been conduction Arctic expeditions since the 1970's. To help fund their missions they produce envelopes like this one and for a fee will have them sent to you from the expedition, decorated with signatures of expedition members.

Forest Birds of the Netherlands

 

Mushrooms from the Czech Republic

 

Porto, Portugal

 

Mariehamn, Åland

Sailing ships. From left to right, the brig Altai, the full-rigged clipper Mermerus and the 4-masted barque Viking.

Ahmedabad, India

Commemorating diplomatic relations between India and the Philippines. On the left, Ganges River Dolphins and on the right, Butanding or Whale Sharks.

Algiers, Algeria

On the left, centenary of the birth of Algerian musician Cheikh Abdelkrim Dali. On the right, famous Algerian-Lebanese singer Warda Al-Jazairia.