The Challon Heads

 I got this whodunit specifically as it has a stamp theme throughout the telling.  Alfred Chalon was an artist who did a sketch of a young Queen Victoria as she stood in regal pose at the top of the House of Lords staircase.  I am no longer amazed at the number of references I keep coming across as to where we were supposed to be this last month, like standing on the stairs at the House of Lords.  YadaYada. Anyway the Chalon sketch was turned into a painting that became the basis for many stamps from all manner of british colonies.  In the story, ransom demands were being made with stamps attached from Van Diemen's Land.  The whole murderous drama involved a stamp collector, a forger and a million dollar stamp. The stamp references were very factual and led me to investigate one of my stamps a bit closer. See below.

This is the only one I have that is featured in the book

Plate 77

 I have not wanted to get into the microscopic detail of stamps. The Penny Red which replaced the Penny Black is an example.  Millions of these stamps were printed requiring lots of printing plates.  Now plate 77 turned out to be a dud. They printed just one sheet of 240 stamps as the tester and found that most were skewed with badly aligned perforations, however 10 or so stamps were ok and survived after the plate was destroyed. The plate numbers are visible in each stamp in the scrollwork on the leftside.  

These days there is a website database that can help identify these plate numbers. OK I gave it a try. It knows the position of each stamp on the plate and has a zooming feature.  I have one penny red only and turns out, it is from Plate 71.  Close but no cigar, as the latest one from plate 77, was auctioned for a half million pounds some years back.

this is my stamp and the image sent back from the database. You can see the 71 on the left.

Whales Wont Wait

 We heard reports about whales off the bluff three days ago. There was debate about going out to see in a complete fog blanket. It lasted all day but it seems that was only us on the bayside while the oceanside was clear with frolicking whales winding whorling water wheels.  So we were late to the party yesterday but the Sun was out. I was so rugged up and sweating as soon as we got on the path up to the cliff tops. We could see to Torquay one way and the Heads the other way and not a whale anywhere in between. It was a good walk along the tops and back to Diver Dan's old spot for a sit down. It happened to be happy hour, so good timing.  A toast to the coast.

MoonFace

 James was doing his own archealogical dig at a renovation of a school he is working on.  The refurbishment meant opening up a brick pillar and inside was an old marble stoppered bottle. The base had been broken off and was probably left there by one of the workers last century. It would not have been kids, as these bottles were prized for their marble inside the pinched neck.  This one is from GC Meader who ran the Franklin Carbonated Water Company.  Most of the bottle is readable including a cool Moonface  logo which was the company trade mark.  The bottle still rattles with its marble intact.

Stamp News

 Nothing like a fogged in day for a stamp session or two. There will be a delivery of boxes today so I am clearing out some space. There is also the depository where unrequired stamps build up for a year or two before being stashed somewhere else out of sight.  The latest version of this weighs just under 11kg and is full to the brim. There must be at least 50,000 stamps in there. As for stamps that are required, I did find a couple of envelopes which I have kept. There is one addressed to Miss Rosemary Valintina Pereira care of the Kenya Extract Co., Colony of North Borneo.  Now that conjurs up a vision of empire and prim ladies in bamboo hats.  The other one was a letter thrown off the cruise ship ORIANA in 1975. There is an island there that collected biscuit tins, out of the water, from passing ships and delivered them to the next mail ship. The service ended in 1983 when an airstrip was built.  To quote that famous postman Newman, "The mail never stops".

OverBoots

 When is a good time to start riding after an appendectomy?  For me it was today but only for half an hour. I went down to the nearby boat harbour to check out the views.  The main problem was my fingers.  We have been dealing with a fingerologist recently who says I should get some arthiritis gloves. They keep in the warmth but allow the finger tips to protrude for activity. Now that sounds a lot like bicycle gloves and my fingers were getting numb anyway. Nothing a warm basin of water can't fix.  I also put on the overboots which helps the next part that freezes, being the toes.  You could also just wait for the Sun to come out.

Beach Comb No 488

Can't let a calm morning go without getting across with the trusty bag to pickup what ever has washed in. I need the walking as my exercise is only just starting to ramp up. I also need to get back on the bike as well.  I started this effort close by the water and squelched thru some deep wrack to get a bucket lid and a kind of a hoop to go with it. I got quite a few plastic bags in here and normally I don't go this deep. Further along it cleared out but there was plenty of lids, rope pieces and small plastics. By the time I got back the coast care guys were down getting the water quality samples from the creek and also a few floating bottles. They always appreciate my bag full of flotsam. The jetsam gets jettisoned and the flotsam just floats.