cat and a cradle

 the extra 10¢ above the .85¢ domestic rate from these whimsical cats goes to support the Canada Post Community Foundation which supports community projects for children.

although none of these children slept in an 18th century cradle like this one, maybe their great, great, grandparents did.

the cats were issued in 2017 

and the cradle is from 1983 as part of the historical artifacts series

sharing with Sunday Stamps for the letter C - cats, cradle, community, children

Linc

This  'A'  stamp was all ready for last week, but it seems Olympic fever took hold and it wasn't until late that I realized I never actually posted it.
But, no worries, for Mr Alexander is being honoured by Canada Post for Black History Month.

"I'm proud of being black, but my role in Canada is to serve all the people. I'm a Canadian. Period."

Lincoln Alexander, who died in 2012 at age 90, was a big man (6'3"), full of humour with a booming voice who seemed to be friends with everyone across all social groups and political parties.

Among his many accomplishments were some notable firsts: the first black Member of Parliament, the first black federal cabinet minister, and first black Lieutenant Governor. He was arguably the most popular and beloved Lieutenant Governor of Ontario - he was even voted as the greatest Hamiltonian of all time by a poll in the city he spent most of his life.  He had buildings, schools and even a highway named after him which he found particularly amusing as he never had a driver's license. The Lincoln Alexander Expressway is always called the Linc, just as he always wanted everyone to call him.

For Sunday Stamps, a combo A & B

issued February 2018

zamboni

There are seven Canadian teams in the National Hockey League and in 2014 stamps were issued with each team's logo on the Zamboni and centre ice.

The Zamboni is an ice resurfacer that was first manufactured in 1949 by a guy named Frank Zamboni. (Zamboni is the trademarked name for the ice resurfacer, but I'm sure, no matter what brand or make is used it is known as a 'Zamboni' - rather like facial tissues are always called Kleenex.)

The NHL requires two machines to resurface the ice between periods. The ice is resurfaced before the game, after warm-ups, between periods, during playoffs, and when the game is over. With two resurfacing machines, it takes three minutes to complete the rink, each making four full passes up the ice. With one, it takes between six and seven minutes with eight full passes up the length of the ice. Before the machine was invented, it used to take over an hour with several men using scrapers, towels, hoses, and squeegees.

sharing the letter Z with Sunday Stamps 

river on hilly lands

Although this stamp is  from China, the horses made me think of Mongolia. And sure enough, it turns out this river is in Inner Mongolia. 

Outer Mongolia is what we now know as simply Mongolia. Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of northern China. 

This is how to spell the full name in Mongol script 

 I was all set to use this stamp for R, but when I looked into finding the name, it turned out that this winding river is called Xilinguole, in the Xilinguole Grassland National Nature Reserve which covers an area of 10,786 square kilometers. The name Xilinguole means river on hilly lands in Mongolian. (though it looks pretty flat in this view)

find more X at Sunday Stamps

vines of wine

Weinanbau (or Weinbrau) is how you say viticulture in German. 
Viticulture is from the latin for 'vine'.
And here we have a stamp of a grape vine, 
in celebration of German wine making. 
In the shape of Germany!

This wine business has been going on for over two millennia as celebrated in this stamp of a woodcut from the 1309 textbook Rucelia commoda by Petrus de Crescentiis showing the steps in winemaking - planting, harvesting and aging.

for the letters V and W