Quo Vadis, Poland

I am a bit late with my entry for this Sunday Stamps' edition, but I was away for the day yesterday and just didn't manage to squeeze this post in, so here comes this post on a cold, gloomy, rainy Monday morning.

I was actually very intrigued to see what people would come up to when it comes to this not so popular letter Q - and I've seen quite some interesting posts.
The first idea that crossed my mind was of course, Qatar, but I only seem to have like one FDC from there, and a rather plain one, so in the end I decided to go with these 3 Polish ones (yeah, Poland again...) regarding the Polish version of the "Quo Vadis" movie.

Issued in 2001, the same year the movie was released (and actually  Poczta Polska was the sponsor of the movie, therefore the stamps I guess).
The movie was directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, based on the book of the same title by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero (1895), which in turn has been made into motion pictures several times. The central plot in the movie revolves around the love of a Roman patrician, Marcus Vinicius, towards a Christian girl (coming from the territory of modern-day Poland) set against the backdrop of the persecutions against Christians during the reign of Nero.
It was Poland's submission to the 74th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not nominated.
For the purposes of this post, I decided to watch the movie as well, even though I am not much of a fan of historical movies, plus definitely not ones that last for 170 minutes, and I can now guess why it was not nominated in the end - at times the movie feels like a joke. Good idea - poor execution. Esp the character of Petronius, portrayed by Boguslaw Linda - you can see him on the left stamp below, the guy in the background.
He simply seemed so detached from his character, so out of place in the entire story and all the scenes (I have only seen him in another movie before, the 7th part of the Dekalog series, where he kinda had the exact same attitude in the acting, but I guess in that setting, it suited him more...).
Then there is this scene where Marcus is running through fire - I couldn't tell if they were actually shooting a commercial here about some kind of men's cologne water, or he was trying to save Rome from the fire.
And since I see that scene on the right stamp below - the one where Lygia is lying asleep on a running bull - how on earth did her looong hair manage to sit so still, covering her breasts, during all that running and fighting - as if it was glued or something - seriously, some ridiculous moments in there.

The choice of female characters was right on spot indeed - regarding their appearance at least - they did have this divine and fragile beauty of goddesses (whether good or evil), that I guess was the idea behind it all.

So all in all, I really don't know if this movie deserved to find its place on stamps, even though if was sponsored by Poczta Polska - Polish cinematography is waaaay better than this, and one of my all time favourite directors is part of it actually - Krzysztof Kieslowski - not an ordinary kind of director and screenwriter, not one who was into blockbusters, but his movies have some different kind of depth and story-telling, esp his Dekalog series, and has indeed received a lot of awards for his work, not only for Dekalog but also the "Three Colours" trilogy, as well as The Double life of Veronique - you may give them a try :) (Poland should issue stamps commemorating him and his notable works instead, cos from what I know so far, no such stamps have been issued).

For more stuff on the letter Q - click this link

...and have a nice week ahead! :)

ps. maybe the other Quo Vadis movies are better executed (one of them is actually a silent film from 1912), but frankly, I dont feel like spending hours and hours of watching the same story all over again...

Passenger Locomotives, Poland

P could stand for many things, but my brain is like switched off from the creative-box today, so I just couldn't come up with something else than Poland or Portugal... or Papua New Guinea, but then I seem to have no stamps from there. so Poland it is... with one of my all time favourite subjects - trains!

Issued on 21 September, 2002 in a set of 4 stamps, featuring the Polish Steam Locomotives from Wolsztyn.

The Wolsztyn steam locomotive was built in 1907 and today it is the only place where an old steam locomotive can be seen every day.

There are museums and open air museums in the world, but nowhere else are they used for scheduled trains. Wolsztyn steamers run on routes to Poznan, Leszno and Zbaszynka.
There are three machines under the steam. Two for passenger trains and one for freight trains and maneuvers at the station in Wolsztyn.

The passenger car locomotive Ok1-359 - 1,10 PLN (first from the left),  was built at the Schwarzkopf plant in Berlin in 1917. After the war,  Polish service began. First it was stationed in Toruń later in Gniezno, Poznan, Międzyrzecz, and since March 1989 is based in Wolsztyn.

The Ol49-7 steam engine - 1,10 zł (secdon from the left) was constructed in 1949 in the  Fablok - Chrzanów factories and was produced until 1954. Today it is the most used steam engine in the Wolsztyn steam locomotive, used to run passenger trains.

Commodity Steamer TKi3-87 - 2 zł (third from the left) - This is the oldest steam engine from the Wolsztyn steam locomotive series. It was built in Konigsberg in 1908, as ordered by the Prussian Railway. After the war it was sent to Poznań. In 1995, after the renovation in Gniezno, it arrived in Wolsztyn.

Rapid steam locomotive Pm36-2 - 2 PLN (fourth from the left) - A steam locomotive called "Beautiful Helena" (after Ms. Helena Jones, who substantially contributed to its restoration), developing a speed of 130 km/h and constructed by the Chrzanów Railway Construction Bureau in 1936. It was an experimental steam locomotive to run light express trains with the Pm 36 mark. One of them, Pm 36-2, was the only survivor of the war and was exploited until 1965. In 1995, it was repatriated to Wolsztyn.



Sorry if at times the text sounds odd - couldnt find much information in English, so this is some kind of a proofread google-translated version from Polish texts.

For more interesting ideas under the letter P, click on the following link => Sunday Stamps

Easter, Poland

Hello Sunday Stampers, and everyone else...and Happy Easter to all you celebrating it this weekend (here Easter will be at the end of April)

For today's Spring/Easter theme, I've chosen this FDC from Poland with one of the three Easter stamps that were issued in 2012 (the other two come with a face value of 1.55 and 1.95 Zł.

Personally I prefer such cute Easter bunny stamps to the religious ones.
As for this issue, surprisingly, I couldn't really find some additional information...


For more spring/Easter motives, visit today's edition of Sunday Stamps.

Garden flowers, Poland

well, today is what they call, Women's Day...or Mother's Day...well, both refer to women of course, but when I think about it it gets a bit confusing...at school they give you tasks to draw/paint/write something for your mum for Mother's Day..but then you also need to bring flowers or buy a present for your teacher as well, and you may have teachers which may not be mum's...but if you exempt them from that gift-thing, they will get offended...so you really don't know in the end what you are actually celebrating...and unlike in many other parts of the world, here we do not pay even 1% of the attention to Father's Day compared to the craze today...the bars and restaurants are cramped with women, we have travelling tours organized for Women's Day, women leave work early coz of the holiday, stores are crowded with men and children...but Im sure that MANY people even have no idea that something like Father's Day exist...but that's why on 8 March they all do something for Women's Day...some because they do want to, but some in order their girlfriend/fiancee/wife/mother not to get bothered...and I must say I really hate such things done just for the kicks, but oh well :)

anyways, I've realized that for quite some time I've been posting here on Sundays only, and that I should actually pay the right attention to this blog at all other times as well.
So here it comes as a nice occasion to show these beautiful garden flowers' stamps from Poland...and, I mean, they are appropriate for today's day :)

this beautiful set of 12 stamps was issued back in 1964, all representing different garden flowers (and Im happy to have the whole set though im not quite sure if these could be considered CTO or used)

the order of the stamps is as follows:

20gr - Cyclamen,persian violet (Cyclamen persicum) - has fragrant bluish to dark lavender flowers
30gr - Freesia (Freesia hybrida)- has fragrant funnel-shaped flowers. Some of these are grown as ornamental plants.
40gr - Rose (Rosa hybrida)
50gr - Fernleaf peony (Paeonia tenuifolia)- they can live really long and one hundred year old peonies are not uncommon!
60gr - Regal lily (Lilium regale)- another long-lived plant, a trumpet flowered lily, native to western Sichuan in China which was introduced to England in 1903 by Ernest Henry Wilson.
90gr - Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale) - it is native to the Caucasus, northeastern Turkey, and northern Iran and they throw up a mound of finely cut, hairy foliage in spring.
1,35zl - Tulip (Tulipa gesneriana) - probably one of my favourite flowers...they are just so delicate! And well, you dont have to relate them to the Netherlands only. It is said that like many tulips that came from the Ottoman Empire, it could have originated in Turkey and has now become naturalised to south-west Europe
1,50zl - Daffodil (Narcissus incomparabilis) - frequently linked to the Greek myth of Narcissus, who became so obsessed with his own reflection that as he knelt and gazed into a pool of water, he fell into the water and drowned. In some variations, he died of starvation and thirst. In both versions, the narcissus plant sprang from where he died.
1,55zl - Tuberous begonia (Begonia tuberhybrida)- frost-tender plants that thrive where they receive bright light but little or no direct sun. My mum plants some begonias in spring (among other flowers), when you see all the pots on our terrace, you get this beautiful colourful pattern of flowers :)
2,50zl - Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) - probably native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years
3,10zl - Iris (Iris barbata) - takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species.
5,60zl - Camellia (Camellia japonica) - one of the best known species of the genus Camellia. Sometimes called the Rose of winter, it is is the official state flower of Alabama.

Im anything but a flower expert, so for the information regarding the flowers on the stamps I had to rely mainly on what google said to be right :)

And Happy Women's Day to all the women who feel like today it is their day....though Im the kind who'd rather be surprised with a present, a sign of love and affection any day of the year, not only when it is somewhat imposed :)

Cats, Poland

I had some hard time in choosing the stamps for today....I have some ADORABLE cats and dogs' stamps, and I didnt know which ones to show...but in the end, the choice fell on these Polish felines..

I am a huge cats and dogs' lover...I have been one since I was born...in the majority of pictures I have from when I was little, a dog or a cat is present too...i used to have a dog too, but someone had stolen him and unfortunately we never managed to find him...it was an adorable Collie, or more popularly known as Lassie...now I have two cats which I absolutely adore, but still, i long for a dog too...at least dogs are genuinely happy when they see you :)

as for today's stamps, this is a set of 10 Polish stamps issued in 1964. I dont have many details regarding them, but I can tell you that they are big-sized stamps (over 4cm x 5cm), that is, bigger than the usual, standard sized stamps...and from top to bottom, from left to right, this is what they represent (sorry for the disorder, but this was somewhat most convenient for the scan...)

50gr stamp - Siamese cat
1.55 zl  - European cat
2.50 zl  - European cat
6.50 zl - European cat
3.40 zl - Persian cat
40 gr - European cat
30 gr - European cat
90 gr - Persian cat
60 gr - European cat
1.35 zl - Persian cat

 Some additional info...the European cat is also known as the European short-hair and is said to have its origins in Sweden.
Persian catsis are a long-haired breed of cat characterized by its round face and shortened muzzle. Its name refers to Persia, the former name of Iran, where similar cats are found. I love these coz they are so fluffy and chubby! Adorable!!
Unlike Persian, Siamese cats are not so attractive to me...at least not all of them..probably coz of their face-shape and the big pointed-out ears. Makes them cold....The origins of the breed are unknown, but it is believed to be from Thailand, where they are referred to as 'moon diamonds'...

Hope you have a nice Sunday folks! Here we finally have some sun and some warm weather! (by warm I mean, 6 degrees...but it is lovely compared to all that snow and ice and freezing cold temperatures!)

for some more adorable companions, click on the button below...and if you dont have a pet, you can always adopt one and give them a chance for a new home and lots of mutual love...you'd be surprised how much pets can change your life..