Squidfest

Squidfest is held in Holyrood Newfoundland during the last week of July. I should have sent this to the postmaster there a little later and maybe have had it cancelled while the festival was on.

AAT MacQuarie Island Cover

Clam Festival

I enjoyed the recent Canadian Marine Life stamps so much I though I'd send some out on a few covers. This one if from Economy, Nova Scotia. Apparently they used to hold a Clam Festival there. Not sure if they do any more. Sea Otters like clams so it seemed like a good stamp to have under a Clam Festival cancel. My compliments to the postmaster there for a nicely cancelled cover.

Hacked Website

I discovered that a "change" was made to a number of my websites (but not this blog) on June 6 that I have just learned about. It appears this change would have attempted to convince viewers of my sites to download a malicious pdf file but I'm really not sure what it looked like. My virus scanner caught it for me every time. I hope nobody was affected by this attack. I've removed the offending code and contacted my service provider. I'm going to have to keep a closer watch over things for a while - hate it when this stuff happens.

Centenary of Akira Kurosawa's Birth

This stamp commemorating the birth of Akira Kurosawa was issued by Monaco on 24 February 2010. I assume the issue had to do with Monaco having hosted an exhibition in May of 2010 dedicated to Kurosawa's work. Being a fan of Kurosawa and samurai movies, I had to add this stamp to my collection.

TAAF Cover - Iles Glorieuses

TAAF Cover - Juan de Nova

After a couple of months, received this cover back from the island of Juan de Nova. Juan de Nova is part of the "Iles Eparses" which is administrated by TAAF. Wish I had left more room on the front for the cachet that was placed on the back but I wanted to get that particular grouping of stamps together on a cover. Made sense to get the 2010 Juan de Nova stamp on a 2010 Juan de Nova cover.





Of course, the real question is, was the cover actually cancelled on the island? The cancels are dated May 18 which was only 16 days ago. That's quick delivery from such a remote location.

Marine Life from Sweden

Here is the Swedish side of the joint Sweden-Canada issue Marine Life.

Canada / Sweden Joint Issue

Canada Post has issued a joint commemorative stamp issue with Sweden about Marine Life. The stamps were deigned by Martin Mörck and engraved by Lars Sjööblom. The two Canadian stamps feature Harbour Porpoises and Sea Otters. The Swedish issue consists of four stamps, two of which feature the same animals on the Canadian stamps. The issue consisted of a souvenir sheet and an 8 stamp booklet. The booklet is gummed which is something Canada Post has not produced since 2004. The perforations in the booklet also include elliptical perforations which is a common thing in Swedish gummed coil and booklet issues. It was nice to see Canada Post doing an engraved issue. Even better that it was a joint issue with Sweden.

A Little Late for Christmas

Received this cover back from Greenland the other day. The "Santa Claus" cancel was available at the Greenland Post philatelic center during December 2009. I sent this to them sometime around the end of October. The cancel says 31 December 2009 and it arrived in Canada on 4 May 2010. So where did it get held up? I suspect it didn't get cancelled in Greenland on 31 December but instead was either delayed getting there or was misplaced and actually cancelled much later - perhaps even a few weeks ago. Mail between here and the east coast of Greenland can be a little slow in the winter but it's not usually that slow. At least once this year I've purchased stamps from Greenland Post and they arrived within a month of placing the order.

Luxembourg 2010 Save Biodiversity

Post Denmark's Self-Adhesive Frenzy

Last year, Post Denmark started producing self-adhesive stamps. And this year they seem to have gone mad with self adhesive fever. All of the issues that came out this March were self adhesive except for the Nordic Coastlines souvenir sheet although the individual stamps in that particular series are self adhesive. Even the wavy line definitive were not spared. After over 100 years of wavy line stamps, the latest additions are available as self adhesive only.





All have simulated perforations and are on perforated paper with fairly wide margins. The wavy line issues look good next to the last of the gummed issues but the paper has a bit of a shine to it, which I suppose should be expected in a self adhesive. It’s a first for Post Denmark and it looks like they’re having fun with it. But I think the Ribe anniversary issue would have been better on gummed paper.