3418 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Persimmons harvesting in Strunjan

Strunjan is a coastal town in the Municipality of Piran, situated between Piran and Izola, in the valley of the river Roja, along the saltpans and in the nearby hills. The favourable natural conditions of the peninsula of Strunjan, especially the sea climate and its leeward position, made it possible for man to settle here and develop traditional economic activities in harmony with nature. The local population cultivates grapes, produces wine, grows fruit and early vegetables.

3414 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Harvesting the smoke bush leaves in Piran

The European smoketree (Cotinus coggygria), also known as smoke bush, Venetian sumach, or dyer's sumach is a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae, native to a large area from southern Europe, east across central Asia and the Himalayas to northern China. The wood was formerly used to make the yellow dye called young fustic. From the Middle Ages onwards, the heartwood and leafy branches of smoke bush were widely used in Europe, especially Italy, for dyeing silk & wool (young fustic), often in combination with other yellows, such as weld, as the yellow shade from young fustic tends to have a reddish hue.

0346, 2027, 2227, 2513, 3396, 3412 CANADA (Alberta) / UNITED STATES (Montana) - Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (UNESCO WHS)

3396 Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is the union of the Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and the Glacier National Park in the United States. Situated on the border between the two countries and offering outstanding scenery, the park is exceptionally rich in plant and mammal species as well as prairie, forest, and alpine and glacial features. It has a distinctive climate, physiographic setting, mountain-prairie interface, and tri-ocean hydrographical divide.

2027 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park -
Prince of Wales Hotel on the shore of Waterton Lake

Waterton Lakes National Park was named after Waterton Lake, in turn after the Victorian naturalist and conservationist Charles Waterton. The park contains 505 km2 of rugged mountains and wilderness, and ranges in elevation from 1,290m at the townsite to 2,910m at Mount Blakiston. Overlooked by the historic Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton Lake is composed of two bodies of water, connected by a shallow channel known locally as the Bosporus.

2227 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park - Crypt Lake

Crypt Lake is a pristine alpine lake occupying a cirque that often has ice into August. Most of the area around the lake is covered in scree and/or snow, and hiking around the circumference of the lake requires approximately 45 minutes. The Crypt Lake Trail is one of the premium hikes in park. Wildlife can be spotted in the mountains towering above including mountain goat and bighorn sheep. The slopes along the Crypt Lake Trail serve as primary bear country. From Crypt Lake it is only a short walk to the edge of Crypt Falls with views over the valley below.

2513 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park - Cameron Falls

Located in Montana, Glacier National Park includes parts of three sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains (Clark, Lewis, and Livingston Range), with at least 150 named mountain peaks over 2,400 m, over 130 named lakes (from a total of 700), more than 1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals. Of the estimated 150 glaciers which existed in the park in the mid-19th century, only 25 active glaciers remained by 2010, and is estimated that all the glaciers may disappear by 2020 if the current climate patterns persist.

0346 UNITED STATES - Glacier National Park -
Clements Mountain

Clements Mountain (2670m), located in the Lewis Range, which stands tall over Logan Pass and above the Hidden Lake Trail. The peak was named after Walter M. Clements who had worked to set up a treaty between the Native American tribe Blackfeet and the U.S. Government for the purchase of tribal lands east of the continental divide which became part of the park.

3412

Today, Blackfeet Indian Reservation borders the park in the east. Like other peaks in Glacier National Park, Clement Mountain exhibits a classic "Matterhorn" shape. Foreground is dominated by a plateau covered with a species of monkey-flowers, perhaps Lewis' monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii), which is native to western North America, from Alaska to California and Colorado.

3395 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The preparation of healing plants in Piran

The use of herbal medicine is widespread in Slovenia, and on visits to rural areas you’ll often encounter drying rooms or tables covered with leaves and flowers, the specimens gathered from gardens or the wild, to be later stored in jars and turned into teas for various ailments or left to soak in alcohol for a certain pick-me-up. Information on the use of medicinal plants in Istria isn't available in the literature, but collection of plants is still an important and widespread practice in this region. "There is a healing flower for every illness", say the people, and who has had in the family elders from the country side knows this.

3330, 3349, 3373 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The olive harvesting and manufacture of extra virgin olive oil in Piran

3330 The olive harvesting (1)

Posted on 03.01.2020, 11.01.2020, 19.01.2020
Native to the Mediterranean Basin, the olive tree is one of the oldest and more important domesticated crops raised by humans, and it seems that the olives were turned into oil since 6000 BC. Even today, after thousands of years, the olive oil is an important cooking oil in countries surrounding the Mediterranean, and it forms one of the three staple food plants of Mediterranean cuisine, along with wheat and the grape.

3349 The olive harvesting (2)

A blend of sun and sea breeze, along with the microclimate of the salt pans add a distinctly bitter and spicy flavour to the olives grown in Istria Peninsula, in the area between the Adriatic Sea and the Karst Rim, therefore also in Piran. As a result, the extra virgin olive oil from Slovenian Istria has a protected indication of origin, and the region was proclaimed the best olive oil region in the world in 2016 and 2017. The olive harvesting season extends from October to November. Carefully picked olives make their way to torklje, a special oil press from which oil flows.

3373 Manufacture by cold pressing, in the manual torklja press,
of extra virgin olive oil

 

3360 CZECH REPUBLIC (Ústí nad Labem) - Žatec, the Hops Town (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

3360 The Hop Museum in Žatec

Located in the northwest part of the Czech Republic, the historic town of Žatec is famous for an over-700-year-long tradition of growing Saaz noble hops used by several breweries. The natural conditions of the site are significantly influenced by the nearby mountains. Their slopes form a natural barrier against the western winds, and create what is called rain shadow, which markedly influences the climate in and around the town. The dry and relatively warm climate, combined with plenty of ground water, was found to be very favourable to the growing of hops. Žatec produces its own beer and hosts Dočesná, its (hops related) harvest festival every year.

3337 MALAYSIA - A roadside hut selling durians and rambutans

Named in some regions as the king of fruits, the durian is the fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio. There are 9 recognised Durio species which produce edible fruit, with over 300 named varieties in Indonesia, 100 in Thailand and 100 in Malaysia. It is distinctive for its large size, strong odour, and thorn-covered rind. The fruit can grow as large as 30 cm long and 15 cm in diameter, and it typically weighs one to three kg. Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the colour of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale yellow to red, depending on the species.

3147 ROMANIA (Harghita) - The virgin forest from Tinovul Luci Nature Reserve

Virgin forest is a natural woodland where tree and shrub species are present in various stages of their life cycle and as dead wood in various stages of decay, with a more or less complex vertical and horizontal structures. In virgin forests the dynamics inherent to living systems are connected to ecological properties of the dominant tree species, impact of other organisms and to the impact of abiotic factors related to the substrate, climate and to the complex of topography and water table.

3075 VIETNAM (Mekong Delta) - Đồng Tháp girls with lotus flowers

 

 

Vietnam has a strong affinity with the water. Actually, Vietnamese civilization sprung out of the Red River delta and Mekong delta where wet-rice cultivation along with fishing and rice planting was the mainstay of living. Is therefore naturally that the country's national flower is an aquatic one, namely the lotus (Nelumbo lucifera), especially that it is hard to travel through Vietnam during lotus season without coming across a pond or lake filled with them. Pink lotus is considered the supreme of all lotuses.

3053, 3059 TANZANIA - Ngorongoro Conservation Area (UNESCO WHS)

3059 Ngorongoro - Buffalos chasing lions

Posted on 15.05.2017, 21.05.2017

Located 180km west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) includes the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater,  the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera, and Olduvai Gorge, a 14km long deep ravine. It spans vast expanses of highland plains, savanna, savanna woodlands and forests, from the plains of the Serengeti National Park in the north-west, to the eastern arm of the Great Rift Valley.

3053 Ngorongoro - Zebra in Lerai Forest

The area was established in 1959 as a multiple land use area, with wildlife coexisting with semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists practising traditional livestock grazing (About Maasai I wrote separately, here). The area has been subject to extensive archaeological research for over 80 years and has yielded a long sequence of evidence of human evolution and human-environment dynamics, collectively extending over a span of almost four million years to the early modern era.

3055 ROMANIA (Bucharest) - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 14 May 2017

For the postcard realised on the occasion of the 28th meetup of the Romanian postcrossers, that took place in Bucharest on May 14, Mihnea Răducu (who usually deals with this) chose a peony, maybe because it blooms in this month, but mainly because Romfilatelia has recently issued the series Flowers, National Symbols, and one of the stamps depicts even the peony, Romania's national symbol flower. Peony (Paeonia peregrina) is a species of flowering plant in the peony family Paeoniaceae, native to Southeastern Europe and Turkey.

0974, 2388, 3042 SINGAPORE (Central Region) - Gardens by the Bay

2388 Gardens by the Bay - Aerial view

Gardens by the Bay is a park found on reclaimed land in central Singapore, adjacent to the Marina Reservoir, which consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden. It is an integral part of a strategy to transform Singapore from a "Garden City" to a "City in a Garden". The final construction cost for the project, not including the price of the land but including an access road, drainage works, and soil improvement, will be within a $1.035 billion allocated budget.

0974 Gardens by the Bay - The Supertree Grove

Supertrees are tree-like structures that dominate the Gardens' landscape with heights that range between 25m and 50m. Actually they are vertical gardens that perform a multitude of functions, which include planting, shading and working as environmental engines for the gardens. They are fitted with environmental technologies that mimic the ecological function of trees - photovoltaic cells that harness solar energy, just like how trees photosynthesize; and collection of rainwater, exactly like how trees absorb rainwater for growth.

3042 Gardens by the Bay - Panoramic view (310x105mm)

Over 162,900 plants comprising more than 200 species and varieties of bromeliads, orchids, ferns and tropical flowering climbers are planted on the Supertrees. There is an elevated walkway, the OCBC Skyway, between two of the larger Supertrees for visitors to enjoy a breathtaking aerial view of the Gardens. A food and beverage outlet is planned atop the 50m Supertree. At night, the Supertrees come alive with a light and music show called the OCBC Garden Rhapsody.

0241, 2930 THAILAND (Sukhothai) - Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns (UNESCO WHS)

0241 Sukhothai Historical Park - Wat Mahathat

Posted on 08.06.2012, 18.01.2017
The golden age of an empire contains the seed of his downfall, and the Khmer Empire wasn't a exception. During the reign of Jayavarman VII (1181-1219), the empire reached its maximum expansion (its territory covering the current Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, southern Vietnam - Champa, and part of Malaysia), but also a cultural and spiritual peak. His successor, Indravarman II (r 1219-1243), completed some temples, but as warrior he was less successful, withdrawing from many of the provinces of Champa, and in the west being pushed back by the Thais rebels, who established the Kingdom at Sukhothai.

2930 Sukhothai Historical Park - Buddha image
in the ruins of the ordination hall of Wat Mahathat

Thais (free men), known then as Siameses, weren't natives of the region, but they came from the north, maybe from the Chinese Province of Guangxi, and assimilated many elements of classical indianized civilizations of the Southeast Asia. The Sukhothai Kingdom, located in north central Thailand, existed from 1238 till 1438, and had the capital to Sukhothai, now at 12km outside of New Sukhothai, about 427 km north of Bangkok. The modern national Thai history comprises the history of this kingdom, Sukhothai being considered the first national capital, followed by Ayutthaya, Thonburi until Rattanakosin or today Bangkok.

2922 UGANDA - Matooke

 
Matooke, also known as ebitookye in south western Uganda, and ibitoke in Rwanda, is the fruit of a variety of starchy banana, commonly referred to as cooking/green bananas. The fruit is harvested green, carefully peeled and then cooked and often mashed or pounded into a meal. In Uganda and Rwanda, the fruit is steam-cooked, and the mashed meal is considered a national dish in both countries. Bananas/plantains were a common staple crop around the Lake Victoria area of Uganda, and in the West and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania.