A matter of life and Death Valley National Monument. Maximum cards / maxicards / dorincards from USA

"Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. 

Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America.^[2] 

Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location (36° 15' N 116° 49.5' W) of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet (86.0 m) below sea level. 

This point is only 84.6 miles (136.2 km) ESE of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m).^[3] 

Death Valley holds the record for the highest reliably reported temperature in the Western hemisphere, 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913—just short of the world record, 136 °F (57.8 °C) in Al 'Aziziyah, Libya, on September 13, 1922.^[4]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_valley

Maybe Gaddafi's bunker will break that record, as opponents turn up the heat...

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Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

Please visit:  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

! PPC (picture postcard / viewcard) mailed on 18 OCT 1907 (?) by an American (?) in Bucharest, Romania to Miss Amy Kingman in Providence, Rhode Island, USA! Also, I show you a maxicard with Vlad Dracula and Bucuresti (Bucharest)

Bucuresti [Bucharest]...Biserica Bucur [The Bucur Church]

Read about this church:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucur_Church

Handwritten message on the picture side:

 "This church according to legend was built by a shepherd named Bucur on the place where Bucuresti now stands -- Bucur, Bucuresti - see?"

What do YOU understand from this handwriting in English?

[Click, then click again - I scan such old postcards at 300dpi!]

I decipher: 

I'm going to write soon. 

Please do you so too [?].

Father hasn't been able to come on...knee [?]...of all my letter-writing...

"Guilty but recommended to mercy".

The stamp that I bring into spotlight today, "for the whole world to see" :) is the one below, showing (among other things) an image of the historical document that attests in 1459 the existence of the citadel of Bucharest, today's capital of Romania.

How did YOUR neck of the woods locality look like, some 500 years ago, if at all?

:)

Whose portrait is that, next to the document?

No idea?

Aw, come on!...:)

"Bucharest's history alternated periods of development and decline from the early settlements of the Antiquity and until its consolidation as capital of Romania late in the 19th century.

First mentioned as "the Citadel of București" in 1459, it became a residence of the 

Wallachian prince Vlad III the Impaler."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucuresti

The real Dracula = not a vampire.

Much worse: a strict enforcer of the death penalty.

Those were The Dark Ages, remember?

Not The Democratic Ages, or The Civilized Ages, like today, when everybody in the world behaves, and there's peace, love and harmony all over the world.*

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*Certain exceptions apply.

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Happy Sunday Stamps meme!

Please visit: http://viridianpostcard.blogspot.com/

Fox news from UK. Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) maxicard from UK

"Red fox kit, still in dark, woolly neonatal fur."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_fox

"Apart from its large size, the red fox is distinguished from other fox species by its ability to adapt quickly to new environments and, unlike most of its cousins, is not listed as endangered anywhere. 

Despite its name, the species often produces individuals with abnormal colourings, including albinos and melanists.^[6] 

45 subspecies are currently recognised,^[7] which are divided into two categories: the large northern foxes, and the small, primitive southern foxes of Asia and the Middle East.^[8]"

"Various taxidermied red fox colour variations."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vulpes_vulpes_colour_variations.jpg