Foreign postage and friends. . . . . . .

When Loree won my little travel guessing game earlier this year, I found her

 some small mementoes from South America. . . . . . .and mailed them

 off to her home on the amazing island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.

Yesterday, tucked in with our usual bills, special offers, ads, post cards from

people who want to buy our house, and numerous cruise/travel brochures etc.,

was a pale blue envelope with this delightful 'Summer' scene Malta stamp.

Although no longer the avid stamp collector I was in childhood, I continue to

 keep beautiful stamps, cutting them from envelopes and storing them in a box.

This now old fashioned means of personal communication, a hand

 written envelope with a post mark and a delightful stamp, may be coming

obsolete. . . . . . . . but for me they are gifts I cherish.

Loree's beautiful thank you card is perfect too, the type of card one doesn't want

 to hide away but rather buy a little frame for and hang on the wall, or stand on the

 dresser forever.

This is such a perfect card for me, the color blue and dainty white roses.

Thanks so much for the sweet thank you notecard.
Visit Loree here in Malta at Sincerely, Loree

One final bow. . . . . . . . . . . .

The best news of the entire week for me was that Ringling Bros. stepped up

 to the plate at long last, not only following through with a promise to remove

 their touring elephants from the circus by 2018, but doing it much earlier!

 The last performance of tricks and synchronized dances occurred last Sunday

 in Providence, Rhode Island.These beautiful and amazing creatures will now

 be moved to a Florida conservation center where they can live and breed in

 an environment a little kinder and more natural.

We all know how sad it is to see such huge animals being made to exist in small

 areas and perform tricks which can maim, even kill them. Elephants are not built

 to stand on two legs!

Here in these older posts you can see me spending time with both Asian (in Thailand) 

and African (in Botswana) elephants, learning the proper way to care for and treat

 these gentle giants. . . . . . they are the most wonderful animals in every way.

Both these locations cared deeply for their elephants. There were no performances

of any kind - these animals enjoy their farm work and have time off to do what 

elephants enjoy doing - mostly eating I think!

Elephants I viewed in the bush at Mala Mala, S. Africa in 2012

I was surprised to find these vintage circus posters stamps just last week. 

Several are colorful and fun, but two depict performing elephants. I wonder if

 they will become collectors' items some day, when making animals

 perform for people in inhumane ways is no longer an issue.