brought to you by the number 2 ...

From my collection, it seems the Dutch have been the ones to favour stamps with only the denomination printed, though these stamps from around 1899 have a bit of flourish to them.

and from 1946 (l) to the more sedate 1976-82 version (r)

so, when this stamp arrived in my mail this week, I assumed at first it to also be Dutch. 

There is no date on this German stamp, but I believe it to be a 'supplemental 2 cent' stamp for use with older issue stamps when the price increased in 2015.

which is far easier to deal with than our 22¢ supplemental stamp!

for more numbers and letters on stamps, check out Sunday Stamps II

Marianne and Marguerite

I wanted to find a stamp of a famous French person and the first one I came across (because I don't have many French stamps) was this 2014 Marguerite Duras issued on the 100th anniversary of her birth. She died in Paris in 1996, but was born in Saigon.

I didn't know much about her, except that she wrote "The Lover", of which I've seen the movie but not read the book.  She was already 70 years of age when she wrote that book.  She had also written many plays, films, novels, essays, reviews, interviews, and screenplays.  The Lover is now known to be highly fictionalized although when it was first published she claimed it to be completely autobiographical. 

From a NYT article,  Truth, in the Durasian universe, is a slippery entity.  After "The Lover," Duras said, in Le Nouvel Observateur, that the story of her life did not exist.  Only the novel of a life was real, not historical facts.  "It's in the imaginative memory of time that it is rendered into life."

After having spent a good portion of the morning reading about her life, I don't think I much like her.  And apparently, she both awed and angered the French.  She was an alcoholic, a Communist and a Résistance fighter and by many accounts she was also a vain, provocative and difficult woman.

As for the stamps, the Duras stamp was designed by Sophie Beaujard and engraved by Claude Jumelet.
The Marianne stamp has been a definitive in varying forms since 1944.
Marianne is a symbol of Republican France,  she is liberté egalité, fraternité
This is a 2012 version designed by David Kawena and Oliver Ciappa and according to abelard.org she is based on comic strip and manga drawings. The image is based on Inna Shevchenko, an activist and leader of the feminist group Femen, though previous images have been based on actresses such as Brigitte Bardot, Mirielle Mathieu and Catherine Deneuve.

find more famous people at Sunday Stamps

Sultans

Older stamps seem to be the best for finding monochromatic colours and these ones were issued between 1957-1961

Three stamps from Selangor, a state of the Federation of Malaya, each with a portrait of Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah (full name Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Alauddin Sulaiman Shah)

He was the Sultan between 1938–1942 (with a break during the Japanese Occupation) and again from 1945-1960.

with a rice field

 showing copra, which is the dried fleshy bit of the coconut used to extract coconut oil

and this one showing a tiger

I have three of these and each one has a slightly different shade of 'violet'

It seems the tiger was a popular image and was used for the other states as well though each with a different image in the medallion. In the bottom plates of each the left shows the coat of arms and the right the value.

The stamp for Penang has in the medallion the coat of arms while the one for Trennganu (now known as Terengganu) has Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin (full name  Almarhum Sultan Sir Ismail Nasiruddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Zainal Abidin III). His reign as Sultan lasted from 1945-1979.

see more monochromatic coloured stamps at Sunday Stamps II

chrysanthemummies

The annual Mum Show has a different theme each year

this year it's 

there are over 200 varieties of mums on display

an old hearse from a local funeral home

music anyone? we may need a new pianist

boiling up trouble ... or making pumpkin soup?

which is scarier ... the mummies, or the spiders?

tiny town on Hallowe'en night

mummies identifying some of the varieties of mums

for OurWorldTuesday

Tobermory

Following last week's walk to the caves, I drove on further to spend the rest of the afternoon in Tobermory.




Tobermory is the end of the road. It's the farthest point on the Bruce Peninsula and the Niagara Escarpment and is the end terminus of the Bruce Trail, an almost 900km hiking trail that starts in Niagara.
It's also a seasonal town that pretty much closes down during the winter months but is always packed with campers and tourists during the summer.

This sign is new, and like in a shopping mall it lists everything you need to find on the few streets.  And, surprisingly for a non-shopper, I always quite enjoy poking around in all of these shops and galleries. There is a nice complement of touristy and general merchandise for sale.
I had to chuckle at the LCBO (our government run liquor store) being listed under 'amenities' rather than 'shopping'.

As you walk into town, straight ahead is Little Tub Harbour

where on the left hand side you can pick up one of your boat tours

and over on the right hand side are more shops plus the walking trail

and there, not quite able to hide, is the Chi Cheemaun, taking on cars to ferry over to Manitoulin Island – a two hour journey. I took the opportunity to find a bench and wait for it to leave. 

It was a bit of a wait (the ferry can hold up to 240 vehicles) but as it was so hot, somewhere around 40C, I  was extremely happy to just sit and watch.

okay, sit and take dozens of pictures. I was ridiculously pleased at the timing.

Chi Cheemaun means Big Canoe in Ojibway.

some of these bobbing heads are people on a scuba dive lesson. diving is a big thing here - lots of shipwrecks, and even underwater caves

Let's turn around and head back towards town

across the road we find this guest house, The Lightkeepers Cottage

a sculptural bench with attached planter for Jude 

(just because)

the back is in the shape of Bruce County.

and even sculptural rail posts – each one is ruggedly individual

and just beyond is the cairn

Jo may end her walks with a refreshing cup of tea, but this is where I was headed

a couple of doors down, for Anabel, is the library

more shops and an art gallery tucked in the corner

seeking shade wherever you can!

as I was walking back to my car, I noticed a new building

 will replace this older cottage style one. 

 not quite as charming, but I'm sure the space is sorely needed.

In case you're wondering, the Flowerpot is a type of sea stack on an island about 6km away. They are what is left of a cliff after being battered by rain, wind, waves, ice, and time. There are currently two of them on the island, and they look like what is at the gateway sign (first picture).

if you so desire, amble on over to restlessjo to find other walks from around the world

two by two

some cute Swiss barnyard animals, two by two - chicks, calfs, piglets and lambs, with a silhouette of mom in the background. all issued in 2013 and designed by Judith Brunnwald (of which I could, sadly, find no information)

some more farm animals, this time working two by two

this 2005 stamp features the art of Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1936)

painted in 1892.

plowing the fields in eastern Galicia was one translation,

ploughing the fields in Ukraine is another.

(and here I thought Galicia was in Spain, apparently there are two of them)

the stamp is designed by Andrzej Pągowski who is mostly known for his posters, but he has also designed billboards, logos, cd and magazine artwork as well as "co-operating with the Polish Postal Service – designing stamps, sitting on the committee which evaluates projects, and searching for new designers".

for more farms and farm animals, check out Sunday Stamps II