Croatian Wildlife

Croatian wildlife is not very diverse, but still a few interesting species can be found (and seen if you are lucky..!). I am particularly fond of these two FDCs which show deer and white-tailed eagle (issue from 1993) and loggerhead sea turtle and bottlenose dolphin (1995). These stamps, as from the 90´s, are not valid for current use. Grr. xD

Many many great stamps on this topic, check here!

Sunday Stamps #119 - Earth Day And Other April Celebrations.

At first this week's Sunday Stamps theme sounded tough...but in fact there are so many celebrations throughout April (or any other month!) its just that we are not aware of most of them..! I am now very thankful for the theme because I have already learnt a lot from other participants' posts :) However, I have been aware of Earth Day (April 22) since primary school, as our biology teacher was very keen to teach her pupils to treat Mother Earth kindly and thoughtfully. To celebrate this day, Croatian Mail has issued a lovely wolf stamp in 1994.

The back of the maxi card explains: The wolf (Canis Lupus) is a symbol of human's mindless destruction and negative influence upon nature. At this moment there are only 50 representatives of this species in Croatia, which points out the urgent necessity to protect them.

According to wikipedia, in the meantime this number has approximately quadrupled! I have never seen a wolf in my country, but then again I never ventured to their habitat...If you wonder about the postage, no its not 3800 kunas - back in those days we used trasition money called Croatian Dinar :)

And how does this FDC relate to April? Its a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) cover - I believe this international non-governmental organisation is well- known to all nature lovers out there :) Its the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1300 conservation and environmental projects. The official date of its fundation (or we could say its birthday) is April 29, 1961. The cover shows eland antelope (Taurotragus Oryx), a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. As I am not yet a full-blooded cover collector, when I buy FDC i mainly look for the year 1977 (you may guess - the year of my birth) and preferably december. And then again preferably animals :)

 And what would be the most numerable celebration (in April)? Birthdays! April (until the 20th) is the month of Aries, first of the twelve zodiac signs who is adventurous, energetic and quick-witted. It relates to the (relatively small) constellation in the Northern Hemisphere with brightest star Alpha Ari. I have found this singular stamp in my random philatelic collection...The set was issued in 1970. I love Zodiac stamps, i wish I had more!

And now you can click here and learn many new things about April celebrations..!

 

Animals Various

As we have a free choice for Sunday Stamps this week (and I have a limited range of stamps to show, but it would still be my choice!) here are some examples of my favourite theme - animals <3 These were sent to me for a special group in my 'home' RR by dear fellow postcrossers tinktink, ossuusso and newrule, I enjoy them very much, thank you!

The 1st one from Japan, showing pets - how awesome is the semi-shaped cat?!

The 2nd one from Estonia, a nice selection of native mammals.

The 3rd one from Malaysia, cool underwater creatures.

I hope there are more animal-lovers out there who will appreciate this..!

And now lets see what everyone else has in store for today...

                                                      

Animals In Germany

This set was issued while I was in Germany, and it inspired me for an animal group in my fav RR :) It is issued in relation to re-introducing wild animal species native to Germany, such as Elk and Lynx. In retrospective, what I am especially happy about is the cancellation with the name of the place it was sent from! Usually these only say 'Briefzentrum'. I have one out of tens of postcards with the name too.

Horses Of India

Another great cover for the animal group, representing four Indian horse breeds. Issued in 2009. Additional stamp is from the series 'Personalities', with Surendranath Jauhar. There is also a special sparrow cancellation, to raise the awareness that this little bird is actually not as common as it used to be...Thanks Sauj! :)