Sepia Saturday 140 - lillies

I do not seem to have any wedding related material to share for this week's Sepia Saturday and as I have the world's worst haircut in my own wedding photo, I won't be sharing that. However I did notice that the bride is holding some lillies, so I thought I would include in selection of lillies.

Easter Lily, Bermuda

Fountain and Lily Pond, Hampton Court Palace

Miss Lily Elise

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Sunday Stamps 84 - historical buildings of Hong Kong

After a break of a few weeks on account of my summer holiday in California I'm back in again for this week's Sunday Stamps, and am glad the theme is anything you wish as it means I don't have to get the grey matter up and running. The first day cover below is another of my Hong Kong first day covers, and features historical buildings.

First Day Cover, Historical Buildings, c.1986

The buildings shown are:

40c - Hung Sing Temple

$1.00 - St. John's Cathedral

$1.30 - The Old Supreme Court Building

$5.00 - Wan Chai Post Office

Check out my recent blog posting of Hong Kong Dragon Boats

Sepia Saturday 139 - bones

I'm back in this week after an absence of almost 4 weeks while I've been in California (more of which later as I update my In Search of Space blog during the week). I can't say I have many pictures of bones in my collection to follow this week's Sepia Saturday theme. Dogs seemed a more obvious theme, but as I have posted blog entries about dogs before, I decided to stick with my only vintage postcard which features bones. These are, I assume, bones from a whale jaw and as far as I can make out are still there today.

Jaw Bones, Teignmouth, Devon

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Sunday Stamps 79 - flags

Flags is another of those themes where I was sure I had plenty of suitable stamps, but to my surprise it actually took quite a lot of looking to find something to post for this week's Sunday Stamps. The three stamps below were issued in 1973 to commemorate Britain's entry into the European Community. The image of the Union Jack flag portrayed as a piece of a tightly fitting jigsaw puzzle is perhaps showing the test of time some 40 years later.

European Communities, c.1973

What I never knew before was that Great Britain tried to join back in 1960 but the application was vetoed by the then French President, Charles de Gaulle, who was concerned about the US influence.

    

Sepia Saturday 134 - oh baby baby

I can't remember if I have shared these carte de visite before, but they seem to fit well with this week's Sepia Saturday theme. Not sure about a date, but I would guess these go back to the early 1900's. The child in the first CDV looks quite alert and potentially mischevious, whereas the one in the second CDV does not look at all happy, with a stuck out lower lip.

CDV published by Beales and Sons, New Road, Spalding

CDV published by The Park Studio, Henry Spink, Preston Road, Brighton

    

You may also be interested in my vintage magazines blog or my In Search of Space blog

Sunday Stamps 78 - yellow

I found lots of inspiration for this weeks Sunday Stamps theme of yellow in my stamp collection, but eventually decided on this one. It's a yellow 4d stamp, showing the Jodrell Bank telescope, and was issued in September 1966.

4d Jodrell Bank

The stamp was issued in a set of four stamps commemorating British Technology. I only have two of the set, and if you'll all forgive me straying off theme slightly, I also wanted to share the second stamp in the set, which is an orange 6d stamp showing various British cars, including probably my favourite car of all time, the e-type Jaguar, as driven by Mrs Peel in the Avengers. The other two stamps in the series were a 1s 3d Hovercraft stamp, and a 1s 6d Nuclear Power stamp. Incidentally, the 6d cars stamp is featured in Simon Garfield's book The Error World: An Affair With Stamps where he writes about a rare, errored, version of the stamp which only included the e-type jaguar and not the three minis.

6d e-type Jaguar and 3 Minis

    

Postcard Friendship Friday 123 - Friends

I'm a bit late this week with my submission to Postcard Friendship Friday as I've been travelling with work and only just returned from India this morning. An enjoyable trip but not quite as exotic as it might first sound as it was mainly a short business trip, but fun nevertheless. However when I saw this week's postcard, I instantly knew the vintage postcard I would share ... seems to fit quite nicely with Beth's postcard and her thoughts about friendship. The postcard dates back to 1909 and the verse reads ...

Friends are treasures, old or new,
Priceless if they are only true,
Those who have them bear in mind,
In this world they're hard to find.

If new friends are silver, old friends are gold, c.1909

As usual, many more vintage postcards can be found on my web site