In: Coffee!

This beautiful drawing has been made by Eva, and she is right: I like coffee (with milk, no sugar), on both rainy and snowy days and any other days.



The cup of coffee came along with this owl, made of two coffee cups and a lot of coffee beans.
And with the explanation about different kinds of coffee you see below. Although I like coffee, I am not familiar with different tastes other than 'koffie verkeerd' (= 'cafe-au-lait' = 'cafe con leche') so to me the postcard / dictionary below is welcome study material :-)



Thank you very much, Eva!

Sunday stamps: December stamps

After 200 editions of Sunday Stamps hosted by Viridian, Viridian passes the baton on to Violet Sky, so fortunately the Sunday Stamps continue. This Sunday's theme is 'Christmas / Hannukah stamps'.

There are many Christmas / December stamps issued by the Dutch post, and I've received several beauties from overseas. However, this time I'll limit my contribution to one stamp I received from Spain (thank you, Eva!), and two I received from the United Kingdom (thank you, John!).

This Spanish one has been issued in 2013 and is multilingual: Gallego, Catalan, Basque and Castellano.



And these English two show what many people also in the Netherlands do: take a Christmas tree home, and send cards to family and friends (speaking for myself: I safe the christmas tree, but I do send cards, so I do not safe other trees...).

Sunday stamps: art on stamps

On 8 January 2011 Viridian started 'Sunday Stamps'. Almost four years later, today, it's time for number 200 which is the last one hosted by Viridian. Fortunately she will pass Sunday Stamps on to Violet Sky.

I joined rather late, with my first contribution 24th November 2013 (in two parts, to the theme 'singers'). Since then I posted stamps on an irregular base. And every time when choosing stamps to post, I felt and feel it's a joy to do.
It makes you regarding your stamps with different eyes. I've seen things I wouldn't have seen if I weren't 'forced' to search and look close by the challenging themes Viridian provided to us. And it was and is a joy to see what other people, from all-over the world, have found and shared via Sunday Stamps!
So I want to say a big 'Thank You!', to Viridian for hosting 200 extraordinary blog posts! (Each time that I'll see minerals or geology on a stamp, I will think of you (and not only then! :-) )
And also I want to say a big 'Thank You!' to Violet Sky, for giving us the opportunity to continue searching and regarding our stamps in this special way.

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Art on stamps'.
Although I consider each stamp as a work of art, I went through my stamps searching for 'official' art.
The Dutch post has issued many stamps on art, for instance last year a stamp sheet themed the Rijksmuseum (National Museum in Amsterdam), and a year before for the Stedelijk Museum (Municipal Museum of Modern Art). And I see that Eva has posted some wonderful Dutch stamps today (as many snail mail lovers do, also I love the paintings of Johannes Vermeer on letter reading / writing women!).

Out of many Dutch art stamps I chose just the following two, because they show both the art work and the artist.

Judith Leyster is a 17th century painter. History sometimes seems to exist of men only, and I didn't know that there were female artists before, let's say, 1900. So I was happily surprised when I learned (thanks to Viridian!) about this Dutch female painter by this self protrait on a stamp, issued in 1999.



Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is a Dutch graphic artist. Sometimes there is discussion about whether his works are 'art' or 'craft'. I think they're both. Anyway, his works are amazing, with some impossible constructions or 'infinite' patterned pictures.



From the Netherlands to Brazil.
The Brazilian painter Cândido Portinari (1903-1962) has made thousands of paintings, of which about 200 have been lost, and/or are inaccessible to the public, kept in private collections. One of the goals of the 'Projeto Portinari' (Portinari Project) is to locate the missing paintings of this painter who is said to have, throughout his life, movingly expressed the soul and the people of Brazil. To not have him forgotten, the Portinari Project was founded in 1979. And in 2004 the Correios, the Brazilian Post, helped to this search by issuing a serie of five stamps. This is one of them, named 'Marcel Gontrau', which has been painted in 1960.

Sunday stamps: Birds

The Sunday Stamps theme of the last day of November is 'Birds'.
The Dutch post has issued a serie of Dutch birds stamp sheets in 2011. Among them the Grutto, or Black-tailed godwit (see above), and the Koolmees, or Great tit (see below).



One of my most favourite birds picture is the illustration of two sea gulls by Sieb Posthuma.
He created these as part of the 20-stamps December stamp sheet of last year.
Every year an other illustrator or design bureau is asked to design the December stamps, and the new - 2014 - December stamps already have bene issued, created by other illustrators.

Sad to know that the famous children's book writer, illustrator - and designer of my all time favourite December stamps (an other of this sheet is the postman!) - has passed away last August.

Sunday stamps: Furniture

Today Viridian's Sunday Stamps theme is 'furniture'.

I thought that I couldn't add anything at all, but to my surprise I found an other furniture stamp, thanks again to Micu from Mail a Smile!

Hungary has issued several stamps showing a chair.
The ones with postage worth 5, 30 and 90 forint I've posted here, and Eva has posted beautiful furniture stamps today, among them the 40, 50, 100 and 300 forint stamps.

The one I'm posting here today is the 20 forint stamp, issued in 2001:



And still there are more Hungarian chair stamps, I learned by searching the internet. But so far I'm happy with these ones. See more furniture stamps via the links on Viridian's Sunday Stamps.

And does the following one count as a 'furniture stamp'?
It has been issued for the "Book's Week" in 2010, and the sheet itself is a bookmark. I've put a ruler next to it so you can see the size of this remarkable stamp. The stamp itself shows a famous Dutch author, who is sitting on a chair... made of books.

Sunday stamps: fruits of the forest

We have been away this weekend, so I wasn't able to scan and post my contribution to Viridian's Sunday Stamps on Sunday. Fortunately - possibly thanks to the time zone differences - I still could post, now that in our part of the world Monday has begun.
This Sunday's theme is 'Fruits of the Forest: Nuts and Berries'.

The first stamp I love to share is this one from Finland. The berry is called 'kruisbes' in Dutch, or 'kroezel' as my friends from the very south of the Netherlands say, in the dialect of Limburg. The Finnish name sounds intruiging to me: 'Karviainen', while in English this berry appears to be 'Gooseberry'.



And lucky me, a colleague happened to have several stamps from Turkey and gave them to me.
There is a serie about berries, of which Viridian already showed my favourite one: the Blackberry, 'Braam' in Dutch.



I think the berries of the 'Pyracantha' or 'firethorn' ('vuurdoorn' in Dutch) are not suitable to be eaten by us, humans, but they're a welcome meal to birds like the blackbird:

Sunday stamps: more chairs

Today's Sunday Stamps theme again is 'Anything you wish'.
The previous 'anything you wish' I choose for 'chairs' as a theme, inspired by the stamps Micu had sent me from Hungary.
And a few days ago I happened to have received two more chair stamps from Hungary! Thanks to Micu, and by the way, Micu has a beautiful mail art project by which you can send a smile. Every month Micu proposes someone who can use such a smile, sent via snail mail. If you want to join her project, please check 'Mail a Smile'!

Sunday stamps: professions

This Sunday Viridian choose 'Professions and trades' as theme for Sunday Stamps.

The Brazilian post has issued beautiful stamps on professions in 2005 and 2006. Here you see the manicure (manicurist), sapateiro (shoemaker) and costureira (tailor).



In our country there's a nation wide 'flea market' on King's Day in April. On this day everyone can sell his/her old stuff, and of course buy, too, all for small amounts. Last April I was looking for something else, when I suddenly found an old stamp collection book. With many empty pages, and I bought it to use it to have my own stamps organized. But I also was happy to find some old stamps in some of the pages. Among them this one from former West Germany. It has been issued in 1971 to pay attention to safety measures (you can see seven others from this serie here). And the profession shown is an important one. Thanks to construction workers we have warm houses, roads etcetera. While their hard work isn't that easy nor safe.



Also in this old album I found this stamp from Indonesia. I'm not exactly sure what kind of fabric she is making, but I think we humans can't live without the beautiful products made by fabric / textile workers.



And an other old stamp has been issued in Romania. Concerning Post, one of the most important workers for us snail mail lovers :-)



Last month the Dutch post issued a so-called 'postset', containing three postcards and a special issued stamp sheet called 'beroepen en ambachten', which means 'professions and trades'. How coincidental!
The stamp sheet shows a beautiful compilation of illustrations of professions: a blacksmith, postman, hairdresser (barber) and wooden shoe maker. The illustrations have been created by Rien Poortvliet (1932-1995). He was famous for the general public for his beautiful illustrations of animals (among them horses), old Dutch sceneries and 'drawn stories', for instance about gnomes. However, there was dispute whether his creations were 'art' or not. He finally found recognition as an artist when a museum of his works was opened, in 1992.

In: from the United Kingdom

Een prachtige zee met vuurtoren aan de Franse kust (Bretagne), verzonden vanaf de overkant, zuidkust van Engeland, door John.
Met op de achterkant een bijzondere postzegel: de gewone Elizabeth postzegel. Die had ik nog niet, en het is bijzonder dat John déze stuurt :-)

A beautiful sea with lighthouse at the French coast (Bretagne/Brittany), sent by John from the other side (South coast of England).
This card is also special because John added a regular stamp on the backside. A stamp I didn't have received so far, and adding a common stamp is unusual for John :-)
Thank you very much, John!

In: from Sri Lanka

Ravindra stuurde me twee mooie kaarten met interessante mooie postzegels vanuit Sri Lanka.
Op de postzegel hierboven een brievenbus! De zegel is uitgegeven vanwege de Asian-Pacific Postal Union Executive Council Meeting, eerder dit jaar.

From Ravindra I received these two cards with interesting stamps from Sri Lanka. The stamp above shows a letterbox! It has been issued because of the Asian-Pacific Postal Union Executive Council Meeting which took place in Sri Lanka this year.



Op deze foto zie je de Aukana of Avukana Boedha.
This photo shows the Aukana or Avukana Buddha statue.



En op onderstaande postzegel vissen, uit de familie van de koraalvlinders (vissen), in het Pigeon Island Marine National Park.
The stamp below shows fish from the Pigeon Island Marine National Park.



Thank you very much, Ravindra!

Out: to Morocco and the United Kingdom

'La sieste' heet deze foto uit 1972 van Paul Almásy. Gelukkig had ik twee exemplaren, zodat ik ze naar twee postvrienden kon sturen die (net als ik) van plaatjes van lezende mensen houden.

The name of this picture (1972) is 'La sieste'. It has been made by Paul Almásy. Fortunately I found two copies, so I was able to send it to both mail friends who like pictures of reading people (like I do, too).



Met op de postzegels allerlei bekende mensen: de bouwer van de eerste onderzeeboot Cornelis Drebbel, de DJ Armin van Buuren, 'De Zouaaf' door Vincent van Gogh, en de Nederlandse koning.

On the stamps some well-known people: Cornelis Drebbel, who built the first navigable submarine (in 1620), Armin van Buuren, the Dutch DJ, 'The Zouave' by Vincent van Gogh, and the Dutch king.

In: from Spain

Uit Murcia, de hoofdstad van de gelijknamige provincie in het zuid-oosten van Spanje, deze kaart. Op de Plaza de Santa Catalina heb ik ook de nodige voetstappen gezet :-)
Aan dit plein is ook het museum van de schilder Ramón Gaya (1910-2005).

From the south east of Spain, the city of Murcia to be precise, which is the capital of the province of the same name. I've walked this square, Plaza de Santa Catalina, several times. The museum of the painter Ramón Gaya (1910-20015) is also situated at this square.



Op de postzegel de beroemde gitarist/componist Paco de Lucía, die helaas in februari van dit jaar overleed.
The stamp shows the famous guitar player and composer Paco de Lucía, who sadly passed away in February of this year.

Sunday stamps: Chairs

This Sunday's theme of Viridian's Sunday Stamps is 'Anything you wish'.
There are so many themes so I always think it hard to choose one. Fortunately, thanks to Micu from Mail a Smile, I received some interesting stamps from Hungary.
They attracted my attention because of the fact that I hardly see this theme on stamps. Is that weird? Yes, it is, because many of us are spending a lot of time on this object (especially while writing letters and postcards): the chair!



Among Dutch stamps I found the chair you see below, called 'zigzagstoel', 'zigzag chair'. It has been designed in 1932 by Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld has designed more chairs which were very unusual in his time. Eight years before this 'zigzag chair' he designed the Rietveld-Schröder house, which now is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
This stamp is part of a ten stamps sheet, issued in 2012 because of the re-opening, after a long-term renovation, of the Stedelijk Museum ('Municipal Museum') of Modern Art in Amsterdam.



An other chair, in which we fortunately don't sit too often and which we like to avoid as much as possible, is the dentist's chair. Every time I visit the dentist I must think of how Mr. Bean treated the dentist's chair, which alleviates such visits a bit. So does this stamp (I love comics on stamps).
This stamp has been issued in 1984 as part of a 'children's welfare stamps' sheet. The design is by Dutch illustrator Joost Swarte.



And there are some more chairs to been seen on the terrace, in this famous painting by Vincent van Gogh:

In: from the United Kingdom

Eén dag voor Wereld Post Dag ontving ik deze bijzondere trein van John uit Engeland. John schrijft dat er bij de Londense metro een tweede stel tunnels is, speciaal door de Post gebruikt om post tussen sorteerposten te vervoeren. Op deze ansichtkaart zie je Mount Pleasant Station. De metro loopt van Paddington station naar Whitechapel, en verbindt zes sorteerposten en twee hoofdstations.

One day before World Post Day I received this very special train from John. He writes that in the London Underground there's a second set of tunnels used exclusively by the Post Office for sending mail between sorting offices.
This is Mount Pleasant station. The railway runs from Paddington to Whitechapel, connecting six sorting offices and two main railway stations.



En iedere keer verrast John me weer met prachtige postzegels. Hier een heel toepasselijke: de ondertunneling van de Londense straten.

And every time John surprises me with beautiful stamps. Here a very suitable one: showing the tunneling below London streets.
Thank you very much, John!

In: from Morocco / United Kingdom / Brazil

Twee mooie ansichtkaarten in één envelop, met brievenbussen, dus altijd mooi! Eva stuurde me deze vanuit Marokko.
Boven zie je Engelse brievenbussen op een postzegelvel. Deze is uitgebracht door de Royal Mail in 2009 en in hetzelfde jaar afgedrukt als ansichtkaart. Onder zie je een antieke brievenbus uit Brazilië (rond 1900).

Two beautiful postcards in one envelope, showing letterboxes, always a great subject!
Sent by Eva from Morocco.
The letterboxes above are from the United Kingdom. This stamp sheet has been issued by the Royal Mail in 2009, and printed as a postcard in the same year. Below you can see an antique letterbox from Brazil (about 1900).
Thank you very much, Eva!

Sunday stamps: Se-tenant stamps

This Sunday Viridian choose for 'se-tenant stamps' as the Sunday Stamps' theme.

Nice topic!
However first I had to look up what 'se-tenant' means. This term is used in philately for stamps printed from the same plate and sheet, adjoining one another, unsevered in a strip or block. They differ from each other by design, color, denomination or overprint.

According to the English wikipedia, se-tenants may have a continuous design, but this is not necessarily so (see also the example showed in wikipedia).
In contrary, according to the Dutch wikipedia continuation of design is a main characteristic of 'se-tenants'. 'Se-tenant' is translated into Dutch as 'doorloper', which literally means that the picture is continuing one in the other.

So I thought this one, according to the Dutch word 'doorloper' is not a real se-tenant:



Although according to the English description they are. Furthermore these two stamps form a continuing part of the story (and of course I love to show you these characters: the bear Ollie B. Bommel and the cat Tom Poes).

Via Postcrossing I received this beautiful se-tenant from China:



According to the sheet edge on bottom of the card (how I love it when people add these parts, too!), this Czech stamp must be part of a se-tenant sheet, too:



In the Netherlands, every now and then continuing stamps are issued.
Several of the so-called 'children's stamps' are se-tenants. I posted one here already.

The following stamp sheet obviously is a continuing picture (alas the sheet isn't complete anymore as I've used two of the stamps):



The se-tenant of the maps and 'Bos Atlas' I showed in January (see here).

Some other Dutch se-tenants:
'Day of the Stamp' (2012), showing former queen Juliana:



Stamp sheet commemorating 150 years of Blijdorp, the Rotterdam Zoo (in 2006). The sheet shows threatened species:



Six (from ten) stamps issued due to the 100 years celebration of the Royal Dutch Forestry Association:



Stamp sheet issued for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Open Air Museum (in 2012), subtitled '100 years tribute to the daily life':