Saturday, February 23, 2013

Sunday Stamps # 111

Hello and welcome, on this sunny yet wintry day (Here in the USA) to Sunday Stamps # 111, opening as usual on Saturday evening, to allow more time for everyone to post.  After all, it's Sunday already in Australia and in Asia!


Our theme this week: Space. Human exploration, planets, moons, or the aurora borealis and other phenomena.

I picked this theme because of the amazing sky show in Russia of a fireball and sonic boom, on the same day that an asteroid was going to fly by Earth, but not hit us.  Thank goodness no one (I believe) was killed, though some were injured by flying glass.

Anyway, on to stamps.


I have been lucky enough to see the aurora twice.  I do not live very far North, but during two episodes when the Sun was very active, I was able to catch the aurora at my latitude.  Wonderful, though not with the colors you see here.

What colors of Space have you to share??

Theme next week:  Open, anything you wish.

Viridian

Sepia Saturday Feb. 23

Good morning or good afternoon to you.

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt is an image of an unknown family.  From my perusing of antique stores here in the Midwest USA, I have picked up some unknown family groups also.  It is sad but true that photos leave their albums, or never get in an album.  And it's true that photos do not stay with the family, and end up at auctions or antique stores.


This photo is from Fairborn Indiana but there is no information on the back as to who this mother and daughter may be.  What pulled me into this photo is the real love and happiness shown here.  It is one of my favorites.

Please visit this week's Sepia Saturday for more unknown photos from the various contributors.

Viridian

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Sunday Stamps #110

It's February and that means it's time for the Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year. In fact I should have had this theme last week, as for 2013 the New Year was celebrated on February 10. However, my Chinese students tell me that the celebration is a month long, so I should be OK.



Above: Stamps of a bridge and of the Brown Eared Pheasant, recently received on a postcard from China. According to Wikipedia: "Due to isolated population, deforestation and still hunted although legally protected by China, the Brown Eared Pheasant is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. "

The Lunar New Year stamp for the USA has firecrackers on it.  I wonder if China or other countries issue a stamp for the New Year?  I hope someone can enlighten me. (Remember I am not a stamp collector - just a stamp accumulator!)

Wasn't it amazing, yet scary that on the same day an asteroid narrowly missed Earth, and a meteor exploded above central Russia?  Luckily no one was killed in Russia, though there were a number of people injured, mostly by flying glass.  And I heard on one news report that if the asteroid came by 15 minutes earlier (or later, I can't remember) we wouldn't be so lucky.  This event leads me to the announcement of next week's theme:

Theme next week: Space. Human exploration, planets, moons, or the aurora borealis and other phenomena.

Viridian

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Sunday Stamps # 109

Welcome to Sunday Stamps # 109! This is my third post in two days, as I have been participating in Postcard Friendship Friday and in Sepia Saturday.

Theme this week:   Love, hearts, and flowers, in anticipation of Valentine's Day.


A stamp from Japan, with hearts and doves on the left, and


This year's LOVE stamp, from the US Postal Service.

Please join me with some love-ly stamps of your own this week.

Viridian

Theme next week: Lunar New Year, and Chinese stamps, a bit after the fact.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Sepia Saturday February 8

For this week's Sepia Saturday the prompt image is a street scene with plenty of snow.



Snow is in the news in the eastern USA but is not affecting me in the midwest USA. So it's off to American Memory at the Library of Congress to find some images of snow.

 
Snow scene, with a man and women in a horse-drawn buggy in front of a house, Kearney, Nebraska.
 
This image is from Prairie Settlement. "This digital collection integrates two collections from the holdings of the Nebraska State Historical Society, the Solomon D. Butcher photographs and the letters of the Uriah W. Oblinger family. Together they illustrate the story of settlement on the Great Plains. Approximately 3,000 glass plate negatives crafted by Butcher record the process of settlement in Nebraska between 1886 and 1912. Butcher photographed actively in central Nebraska including Custer, Buffalo, Dawson and Cherry counties."
 
This must have been a chilly ride!  Note the large hat worn by the lady.
 
Please visit other Sepians and see what has snowed down on everyone.
 
Viridian

Postcard Friendship Friday Feb. 8

Hello and welcome to my sometimes contribution to Postcard Friendship Friday

Below is a Postcrossing card I sent to New Zealand.


It is part of the exposition grounds in San Francisco, early 1900's.  It went to a retirement home, with residents ages 70 to 100 years old.  They, like me, are exchanging cards with people all around the world.

I am linking up with Beth at the Best Hearts are Crunchy, for Postcard Friendship Friday.

Viridian

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Sunday stamps #108

Welcome to another weekend, and Sunday Stamps #108.   It is a quiet and snowy weekend here in the midwest of the USA, and Summer seems far away.  But this week we will pause and consider one aspect of warmer weather - insects.


Insects are not all bad.  This taxonomic group includes bees and butterflies after all.  And nameless green beetles on what looks like a dandelion flower.

It is JBS Haldane (British geneticist and evolutionary biologist) who is credited with this quote about beetles and God:

"The Creator would appear as endowed with a passion for stars, on the one hand, and for beetles on the other, for the simple reason that there are nearly 300,000 species of beetle known, and perhaps more, as compared with somewhat less than 9,000 species of birds and a little over 10,000 species of mammals. Beetles are actually more numerous than the species of any other insect order. That kind of thing is characteristic of nature."

This is sometimes misquoted as "an inordinate fondess for beetles."


Now here is a spider on a stamp from Lithuania.  There are a number of webpages in Lithuanian on this spider, and trusty Wikipedia comes through,  telling me this is the Ladybird Spider.  The females are larger than the males, and it does not appear to be poisonous.

Please join me this week with a contribution!

Theme next week:  Love, hearts, and flowers, in anticipation of Valentine's Day.

Viridian

Sepia Saturday 162

Welcome to my contribution to Sepia Saturday. Gosh if you wait until Saturday you are at the end of the list!
The prompt image this week is of Western Union bicycle messengers.  What caught my eye was that young boy, with bare feet, and it got me thinking of other boys working, in that time period of the early 1900's.

August 1904: Image of a newsboy holding newspapers and standing next to a paper stand on a commercial street in Chicago, Illinois. A pedestrian is visible in the foreground.

 
From the Chicago Daily News archive, part of American Memory at the Library of Congress.
 
As this collection points out, selling newspapers was one of the few jobs young boys could get.  Some significantly added to their families' income.  On the other hand, many of the boys worked on the street instead of going to school, and child labor laws did not exist in this era.
 
See information about the work and photographs of Lewis Hine for more information.
 
Still, this photograph is a window into early Chicago.  I love the outfit and hat that the woman is wearing!
 
Viridian

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