A Postcard a Day - Monday 5 Oct 2015 Map Monday: Friesland

Good Morning! Good Monday!

Hope you have all had a good weekend and are back to normal with renewed enthusiasm.

I have a long 'to-do' list today which includes going to the gym, having my bloods taken at the health center and getting together with my girl friends for a prayer meeting. Of course I have to get our 'daily bread' at the baker and go to the post office and order some stamps. 

It's Monday and on that day I usually make a menu for the whole week, so i know what sort of things to look out for when we do our weekly shop later today. We have our main meal in the day, so that meal needs to be cooked. We eat at 3 pm, after which we (my DH and I) go grocery shopping. My DH comes with me as I can't drive our 'truck'. I can't reach the pedals!

I have two cards to show you today. They both show a part of Friesland. Here is a map to show you where it is:

The brown bits are Friesland (Frisia). Most of it is in Germany and the western part is in the Netherlands. They have their own language. I go to Friesland occasionally as my two cousins live there. Frisian is the official language there and all the street signs are in both Dutch and Frisian. 

Here is what Wikipedia writes about Frisians:

The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal parts of the Netherlands and Germany. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia (which was a part of Denmark until 1864). The Frisian languages are still used by 500,000 speakers; dialects of Frisian are recognized as official languages in both the Netherlands and Germany.

The above postcard is a satellite photo of North Friesland (the northern brown bit on the top map).  I recognize the island that looks a bit like a letter T.

This card is Eastern Friesland. (The middle brown bit on the top map). Like North Friesland, it is part of Germany.

I don't have a map card of the Dutch part of Friesland (yet).

The stamps are beautiful:

The cellist on the left celebrates 50 years of youth orchestras and the stamp on the right features the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. (Restored 18th century gate & landmark with 12 Doric columns topped by a classical goddess statue)

Two lovely flowers on the left are the Tulip and the Tagetes (Marigold). The stamp on the right is part of a series of light houses. This one is the lighthouse on Fehmarn Island (Schleswig-Holstein).

The famous Flügge lighthouse on Fehmarn Island's south-western peninsula is striking. It's been operating since 1916 and is almost identical to the Neuland lighthouse on Hohwachter Bay. It's 37 m tall, and was originally yellow with a red lantern. Since 1977 it has been covered in characteristic red-and-white glass plating.

That's it from me for today. It has become a bit long so well done if you are still with me!

See you tomorrow when I link up with T for Tuesday.

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a day 3 August 2015, beautiful Ukrainian stamps

Good morning folks, Thanks for stopping by. 

It's Monday today. The beginning of a new exciting week, where anything can happen!

I have another card for you. I received quite a lot (12) last week. One of them from the Ukraine from Tatiana.

It is an image of Medzhybizh Castle. Tatiana writes on the back that she is an artist and has a website: www.tatianapetenko.kiev.ua 
I had a look and she is a gifted artist in my opinion.

She sent this card in an envelope, with two more cards of the same series of castles. On the back of these cards was a map of the Ukraine. I always find that helpful as my Eastern European geography is 'pants'.

I never knew/realised that the Crimea is in the Ukraine...

This is the envelope all this came in:

Beautiful isn't it! The large stamp set is about Odessa and its region. I've not been able to find out what the individual stamps represent, only the light house. It is the Illichyovsk Lighthouse on the Black Sea.

The small stamp is interesting. It commemorates 'The heavenly Hundred'.I had to look this up. Wikipedia says this:

 This is the list of people killed during Euromaidan events taking place in the fall and winter of 2013–2014. The list contains only confirmed deaths of Euromaidan participants, Ukrainian policemen and other killed by Euromaidan participants. There are currently near 130 identified deaths; most of them were civilian protesters. 18 police officers were also killed during the clashes.^[1]

Ukrainian sources often refer to the deaths protesters as the "Heavenly Hundred". On 21 February 2014, Verkhovna Rada recognized the perished protesters of Euromaidan as victims.^[2] On 21 November 2014 by Petro Poroshenko's decree the perished Ukrainian protesters of Euromaidan were posthumously awarded the Order of the Heavenly Hundred Heroestitle.^[3] Three non-Ukrainian citizens killed in the Euromaidan events were each posthumously awarded the title Knight of the Order of the Heaven's Hundred Heroes.^[4] 2015 "the Day of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes" was celebrated on 20 February to commemorate the deaths.

This is the whole sheet of stamps. I assume the list in the middle are the hundred names of the victims. 

Again, I've learnt something. Postcrossing is very educational, no wonder homeschooling families often do it.

Have a good Monday,

See you tomorrow,

Lisca