Taste of Sweden

The Swedish retail giant IKEA opens its first store in Nevada today, offering stylish, relatively inexpensive and self-assembly home furniture along those famous Swedish meatballs from its 42nd store in the U.S., located by the 215 Beltway between Sunset and Durango roads in Las Vegas. Deputy Chief of Mission for the Swedish Embassy Göran Lithell joined the company executives and local government representatives in the opening ceremony.

Postcard SE-47353 from Sweden shows steamboats anchored in Stockholm, Sweden during a winter evening.

Winter Solstice Festival

Postcard DE-3748381 from Germany arrived with a message "I love snow" on December 22 when meteorological winter starts in the Northern Hemisphere. However, there is no white Christmas in sight as the temperature at McCarran International Airport reached a record high at 22.8°C or 73°F today.

Winter Solstice Festival (冬至), one of the most important seasonal festivals celebrated in China and other East Asia countries during the winter solstice, falls on Monday, December 22 in 2014. Since the winter solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year, the festival celebrates the beginning of a period when the daylight hours are getting longer with an increase of positive energy pouring in from the sun. The favorite snacks during the festival are dumplings in the Northern China, wantons in the Eastern China, and red bean sweet rice cakes in the Southern China.

13th Winter Olympic Games, Lake Placid, NY

Outgoing postcard US-2814046 to the United Kingdom was a 14-cent stamped postal postcard, issued by USPS, for the 13th Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, NY from February 13 to February 24, 1980. A FDC on sale at SportStamps shows the first-day-of-issue date as January 15, 1980.

According to Wikepedia and Akdart.COM, the domestic postcard rate was 10 cents between May 29, 1978 and March 22, 1981. Therefore, I am curious why the postage on the card was 14 cents rather than 10 cents. Yet, there was indeed a 10-cent stamped postal postcard for the 22nd Summer Olympic Games in Moscow during the same period. If you know the reason, please leave your comments below.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

The monthly Bank of America's Museums on US program is held for this month on March 1 and  March 2, 2014. You can visit more than 150 arts, culture and educational institutions in the United States free with a Bank of America and Merrill Lynch debit or credit card. Las Vegas Natural History Museum, DISCOVERY Children's Museum, and Las Vegas Springs Preserve are the participating museums in Las Vegas. I took this opportunity to walk around the Springs Preserve and found the weather pleasant.

Postcard US-1650748 to Belarus was produced by the Springs Preserve, showing a Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus). It is a medium-sized blackbird with a pointed bill in adults. The adult male has a mostly black body but a bright yellow head and breast. The adult female is mainly brown with a dull yellow throat and breast. Their breeding habitat is cattail marshes mainly located west of the Great Lakes. They migrate to the south western United States and Mexico in the winter. That's when we can see them in Nevada.

Winter on Lake Michigan

Postcard US-2615869 to Finland shows a winter scene on Lake Michigan. However, when I bought this postcard during a layover at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport on August 27, 2013, I had no idea that the incoming winter in Chicago could be the 8th snowiest in history by early February, 2014. The unusual repeated arctic cold air assaults have over 60% of Lake Michigan frozen. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter "Biscayne Bay" is working to break ice on the southern Lake Michigan.

For Finnish people who are no strangers to a cold weather, here are the forecasts for Chicago and Helsinki in comparison.

Weather forecast for Chicago, IL

Weather forecast for Helsinki, Finland

2014 Winter Olympics Starts at Sochi

Postcard RU-2282790 from Russia shows the 2014 Winter Olympics that starts today at Sochi, Russia with opening rounds in Figure Skating (Team – Men Short), Freestyle Skiing (Ladies' Moguls – Qualification), and Snowboard (Men's Slopestyle – Qualification). The Opening Ceremony will be held at 8 pm local time (8 am PST or 11 am EST) tomorrow on February 7. There are 98 events to compete in 15 winter sports through February 23, 2014.

Finnish Winter Activities

Postcard FI-1968291 from Finland shows typical Finnish winter activities. Ice swimming in Finland is a tradition connected to the sauna culture where the activity of swimming occurs during the winter season, either in outdoor open water or unheated pools. Equally entertaining and challenging is Ice fishing where you try to catch fish with lines, hooks or spears through holes on a frozen water body. Skiing is another popular winter sport. However, due to recent warm weather, snows were melted in some parts of Central Finland, which makes skiing impossible.

Four Seasons in Japan

I received this thank-you card from Japan for one of my official PostCrossing card. It shows four major landmarks in Japan in four seasons.

Top-left shows the Kinkaku-ji Temple in winter; top-right is the Himeji-jo Castle in spring. Sunset at the Toji-no-toh Pagoda  shows on the lower-left; the famous Mt. Fuji and Kawaguchi-ko Lake in the fall is on the lower-right.