Starfish, Cyprus

You are gone for a few months (that almost turned into a year) , you come back, and bang! Blogger has taken a whole new look on the inside!  Not some drastic changes, but just enough to make me lose focus on why I came here in the first place 😏

Somehow Sunday Stamps have always been like a great reason to come back, cos it gives me something in particular to look for instead of having to come up with it myself..

And today's theme is Deep blue sea... which turned out to be more difficult than I had initially thought, and all those stamps I had in mind, turned out I had already posted them before, but I said to myself it would be really a shame to be discourages by such a "tiny" detail :)))

So after quite some browsing, I spotted this issue and I was like, yep this is it! 

 

A nice set of Cyprus stamps from 2007 showing 4 different starfish, and all of them can be found in the Mediterranean Sea. 

The two stamps in the top row show the - 1. Antedon mediterranea or more commonly known as the Mediterranean feather star. 2. Centrostephanus longispinus, or more commonly known as the hatpin urchin.

The bottom row show the 1. Astropecten jonstoni, that doesnt seem to have a more common name in use, and 2. Ophioderma longicauda or more commonly known as Smooth Brittle Star. 

I dont recall having seen a starfish in real life. Maybe when I was little during our holidays at the Adriatic Sea, but I have no such memory. How about you? Ever encountered one? And what was it like?

Hope you are all safe and healthy folks, it is a crazy world out there as we all know it. 

And before you go, check out the other entries for today's Deep Blue Sea challenge :)

Coral Reefs, USA

Well we are already into our third week of the new A-Z round, and it is time for some C's today

And my C today is dedicated to these Coral Reefs issued by the USPS on 26th August 1980.
Four different beautiful Coral Reefs are featured, starting with the Grooved Brain Coral, or the Diploria labyrinthiformi, that can be found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Se. It has a very interesting maze-like appearance.
Next is the Elkhorn Coral, or the Acropora palmata, a prominent Caribbean reef-building coral, whose structure resembles that of elk antler.
The bottom stamps show the Chalice Coral (Echinophyllia aspera), it is a species of large polyp stony corals. It is a colonial coral which is partly encrusting and partly forms laminate plates or tiers. It is native to the western and central Indo-Pacific.
The last stamp is dedicated to the Finger Coral, or Porites compressa, which can be found growing on coral reefs and in shallow lagoons in tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.  

It may not be seen very clearly on the scan, but this cover with Coral Reefs stamps also comes in with a very appropriate cancellation from the Coral Gables Branch in Florida. (all thanks to Bryon and his cool postal experiments :)))

For more cool posts for the letter C, hop over to the Sunday Stamps' blog! 

ps. there is also the very cute dolphin stamp which nicely contributes to the marine life theme on the cover :))

Marine Life, Norway

Hello Sunday stampers...and everyone else!! Today was another one of those days when I thought I'd have to miss the Sunday Stamps' post due to lack of relevant material..but then as it often goes...I accidentally stumble across something that would fit in properly...so here we go! And I am sort of shocked to realize that these are the first EVER Norwegian stamps on this blog...

So here are three stamps of the Marine Life set issued in 2004.

The first stamp here shows the a Little Cuttlefish (or as its Latin name goes, Sepiola Atlantica), which is a species of bobtail squid found in the North East Atlantic Ocean from Iceland, the Faröes and western Norway to the Moroccan coast. (I copied this explanation from one of Bob's earlier posts, since he had this stamp featured too)

The stamp in the middle shows a Coronate Medusa (Periphylla periphylla), also known as helmet/crown jellyfish, represents an exception, very rarely found in the phylum Cnidaria: the medusae go through no polyp stage, thus presenting a "holopelagic" life cycle. The medusae strew fertilized eggs in open water and these develop directly into medusae, whose development rests entirely upon the egg's high yolk supply. The ephyra stage common among other jellyfish is not to be observed in P. periphylla.

The last stamp shows a Catfish (Anarichas lupus), which is a marine fish, the largest of the Anarhichadidae family. Apart from their unique appearance these are distinguished by the natural antifreeze they produce to keep their blood moving fluidly in their very cold habitat, involvement by both the male and female in brood bearing, and the large size of their eggs.

Well, Im far from an expert on the topic, so I just rely on what google has provided...I hope it hasn't let me down :)

for more underwater beauties, click on the button below...and enjoy your Sunday :)