on top of the world

Sometimes you need to look up to find art 

I'm not sure what this creature is meant to be, nor how he got up there

goats are so agile

they're so cute when they're sleeping

sharing with Our World Tuesday

lace

In 2011, Russia produced a set of four stamps for  

lace making as part of an ongoing series for 
Decorative and Applied Arts of Russia.

 Each sheet had four stamps in the shape of a triangle

Because the delicate lace is so beautifully detailed, here are the full views of each sheet, courtesy of wikimedia with the region the lace comes from. 
You can click on each image for a larger view.
The designer was O. Shushlebina

Belyov          Vologda

Vyatka               Yelets

Bobbin lace is a method of making lace by braiding or weaving threads held on bobbins around carefully placed pins on top of a pattern to form holes.

There are two basic movements: the cross and the twist. Different combinations of these two stitches and the placement of the pins create different delicate designs in the lace.

find more L delicacies at Sunday Stamps II

Great Lakes

Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes that is wholly within the United States, although the state of Michigan has coastlines on four of the Great Lakes, plus Lake St Clair (which connects Lakes Huron and Erie, but is not officially a Great Lake) and has more lighthouses than any other state.

A dream driving vacation for me would be to visit all the lighthouses. 

As you can see from this postcard, there are a lot of them!

Around 150 in Michigan, and over 50 on Lake Michigan alone between Michigan and Wisconsin. 

There are several tours you can take

Marblehead (Sandusky Bay), Lake Erie; White Shoal Light, Lake Michigan, Split Rock, Lake Superior,  Holland Harbor, Lake Michigan;  Charlotte Genesee, Lake Ontario;  Marquette Harbor, Lake Superior;  Cheboygan, Lake Huron.

A few more lighthouses from each of the Great Lakes and the states of Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, New York. The only one of these I've seen is the Charlotte-Genessee lighthouse (the octagonal stone one under the U) in Rochester - the oldest (built 1822) surviving, and active, lighthouse on Lake Ontario. 

for other lighthouses on postcards, check out Postcards for the Weekend

trees and a view

It is the middle of October and we have only a small amount of fall colour

in May I took a photo every day to document the changing view. 

some days you couldn't see the lake or the horizon

but most of the time, my view included a tiny triangle of Lake Ontario and the town of Grimsby on the other side

now if you go back to the first picture you will see that the dead tree has finally been removed. I have a less obstructed triangle view for another year or so until the trees grow taller.

for Our World Tuesday

four kings

He ascended the throne to become George VI after the abdication of his elder brother, Edward. Named after his grandfather - Queen Victoria's husband - Prince Albert, Albert Frederick Arthur George was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 1936 to 1952.  He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth.



His full title was His Majesty Farouk I, by the grace of God, King of Egypt and the Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, of Kordofan and of Darfur. He was overthrown in the 1952 military coup d'état and forced to abdicate in favour of his infant son Ahmed Fuad, who succeeded him as Fuad II. He died in exile in Italy in 1965.

Fayṣal al-Awwal ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī al-Hāshimī was King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria for a few months in 1920 until the monarchy was abolished, and was appointed King of Iraq from 1921 to 1933 by the British government partly on the recommendation of Lawrence of Arabia whom he met during WWI and partly because of his conciliatory attitude towards  encouraging a pan-Arab nationalism.

King Bhumibol the Great was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty as Rama IX. Reigning since 1946 he was, at the time of his death in October 2016, the world's longest-serving head of state, the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history and the longest-serving monarch having reigned only as an adult, serving for 70 years, 126 days. A one year period of mourning was announced with a royal cremation ceremony to be held later this month.

Four Kings for the letter K for Sunday Stamps II

Diwali

Diwali - the Festival of Light - will be held from October 19 - 23. Its main theme is triumph of light over darkness. The main festival night coincides with the Hindu new year during the dark night of the new moon in the month of Karttika (October-November) Traditionally there are fireworks, and small clay oil lamps are lit (in India) and candles are lit (in Canada). This can be seen in the stamps with the Indian issue on the left and the Canadian one on the right.


The festival is also celebrated by Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains.
The only times that fireworks are allowed on residential property is Victoria Day, Canada Day, New Year's Eve and Diwali. Three years ago, on Diwali night, there was a massive fire that destroyed two homes and caused extensive damage to neighbouring homes in a community near me and the cause was determined to be improper use of fireworks. 

Canada Post is hailing this as an historic first ever joint issue with India and both countries are issuing each version. 

H - Hindu
I - India
J - joint issue

Join us for more stamps at Sunday Stamps

tree of light

Nuit Blanche is an all  night celebration of culture and contemporary art where the city becomes an open air art gallery

this daytime view of what turned out to be our favourite installation looked intriguing














but come the dark of night,
it all became clear

the light tree - or is it a cloud? - became a participatory event

and by pulling the chains the bulbs were turned on or off

it was all so enchanting

sharing with Our World Tuesday

at the zoo

While walking around the Winnipeg Zoo 
we could hear the roars before we saw the creatures

It was all part of the Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit

they didn't really look like the kind of creatures one might want to pet, and mostly it was only their heads and mouths that moved (so, no lunging at the onlookers!)

this guy is a Mojoceratops who is the size of a hippo

some, like this Quetzalcoatlus, looked a bit silly, or at least strange with its long stiff neck, oversized beak and no teeth. it apparently had a wingspan of over 15 metres - or 52 feet!

others did their best to look ferocious

Dyoplosaurus                                                   there were sixteen dinosaurs tucked into the forest and you walked along a looping pathway

oblivious to it all were these pronghorn and peacocks

and this nonchalant, sleeping tiger

now, he was a beast I wish I could have petted.

sharing with Jo's Monday Walk

multi-views

This card of Minnesota shows a map with the top right hand corner nicely framed by fall leaves. Nothing on the card says anything about it being known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes or which lakes are shown. Nor is there mention of why the Common Loon or Lady's Slipper are included (they are the state bird and flower).

For that kind of information you might need one of these postcards which I always find fun though I'm not sure I would call this a multi-view

A different sort of multi-view, what are known as large letter postcards, have a 'local' image inside each letter. This one from Canada (originally 1960, but in this case a reproduction) has generic pictures showing us as being all wilderness, and of course, the ubiquitous 'mountie on a horse'.

In Britain, black cats are seen as harbingers of good luck, so there were a lot of multi-view cards such as these produced in the 1940s and 1950s

though, every now and then, this being one from Scotland, a wee Scottie dog replaced the black cat

sharing the views with Postcards for the Weekend