I Saw a Ship a-sailing

After seeing Fabienne's post showing traditional boats in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam I decided to post this lovely junk I received only yesterday.

Junks were first in use about 2000 years ago during the Han Dynasty and evolved over time to be used in long sea voyages. They are still in use today in their modern form.

The English word 'junk' comes originally from the Chinese word 'chuán' which means a boat or ship.

The Sound that Isn't

I had never heard of Milford Sound until I received this postcard from New Zealand. I actually though the word 'Sound' was only used for bays in North America but it turns out there are 'Sounds' on every continent except Africa.

According to wikipedia:

In geography a sound or seaway is a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, and wider than a fjord; or it may be defined as a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land (see also strait).

This definition seems both pedantic and contradictory at the same time. You would have to measure the length, width, depth of the bay in order to determine if it was larger, deeper or wider than other bodies of water only to discover that it is allowed to be narrow as long as land is on either side.

Anyway it turns out that the usage of the word is inconsistent and although Milford is called a Sound it is too narrow and is actually a Fjord.

Milford Sound was a finalist in the New 7 Wonders of Nature contest

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Mysterious Places

I am late today and after seeing Sheila's blog I decided to also feature an ancient site - however a lot more is known about the ancient civilizations of South America than will probably ever be known about those of Africa.

Chichen Itza is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World although it is in fact really old - having been built around 600 CE (Common Era).

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A Rebirth

More than 2000 km south east of Moscow, where the Irtysh and Om rivers meet, is the amazing and beautiful city of Omsk. When Tanya contacted me about a trade I was astonished at the number of beautiful postcards she had and it was difficult to choose only three. However this postcard was definitely my first choice.

This is the info on the back of the card:

Omsk. The rebirth of the Uspensky Cathedral. 2007. It was built in 1891-1898. The Cathedral was demolished in 1935. Is in 2007 recovered.

I wondered why such a beautiful building was destroyed. Wikipedia added the info that it was 'blown up' but not why. In an article at the OmskTime website I found this (it is tranlated from Russian so please excuse Google ^_~):

The Cathedral is a unique historical monument, as during the Civil War, he was the main cathedral of White Russia, the Bolsheviks were therefore considered it their duty to destroy this holy Orthodox Russian people, as happened in 1935. Now the restoration of the cathedral was an act of repentance.

So only 37 years after completion the Cathedral was destroyed and then 72 years later it is rebuilt to the original design. Amazing! Despite everything that humans do to each other, we resiliently wait until we can rebuild.

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All Things Bright and Beautiful

My mom sent me this postcard in 2000 when she was away on holiday. She wrote 'Happiness is these 7 kids". They are all adorable. Children are the future.

I am starting a new meme called Our Wonderful World Tuesday. Do you love our planet? Every Tuesday display a postcard from your collection which shows our world's natural beauty or the diversity of our many cultures or mankind's achievements. Anything that shows that this planet is worth caring for.

I do not have any of these cute postcards published by 'Nouvelles Images' but they are on my wish list.

Lottery

If you participate in this first ever 'Our Wonderful World Tuesday' you are eligible to win this Mü & Me postcard by South African artist Daley Muller. If you also leave a comment you will be entered into the draw twice.

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