Sunday stamps: Geology and Landscapes

This Sunday Stamps' theme is Geology.

I choose the 'Bos atlas' stamp sheet, issued in 2012. The Bos atlas is a Dutch world atlas, named after Pieter Roelf Bos, the teacher who started this atlas in 1877.

It is not only a map / geographic atlas, but it also learns about culture, landscape, economy and geology of the different regions. So it's not only about what's above the ground but also what's in and under.

On the stamp sheet you can see very early publications and more recent editions (bottom left the 54th edition). And it's interesting to see how everything has been changing all over the years. Some for the better, some for the worse.



When reading 'geology' I'm thinking of minerals, stones. And thinking of my dear late grandmother, who collected minerals. After her passing away, many years ago already, I got some of the minerals which I cherish.

I've been looking for more Dutch stamps on geology but they seem to be rare. Maybe because our country has more to do with agriculture. However, many years ago in the south-east of the Netherlands, mining industry flourished, and on the internet I found this stamp of a mine worker obtaining coal.

Fortunately Viridian also included 'Landscapes' in the theme of today, and below you can see some Dutch landscapes. Mainly cultivated...

In: from Finland

Soms nodigt ook de achterkant van de Postcrossing-post uit om geplaatst te worden. Maar de 'postcrossing-wall' is alleen bedoeld voor de voorkant van de kaarten.

Gelukkig is hier plaats voor de extra's. Zoals bij een Finse kaart. In dit geval betrof het een dubbele kaart met envelop. Omdat ik geboren ben in het jaar van de Draak vind ik illustraties van draken altijd leuk. En Emilia uit Finland was zo attent geweest om onderstaande draken-sticker aan de binnenkant van de kaart te plakken. Ben er dus erg blij mee (zelfs al lijkt 't dier hier te verliezen!?).
Ook de postzegel op de envelop deel ik graag met jullie: een Finse Postcrossing-postzegel!

Sometimes I feel the urge to publish the backside of the Postcrossing-mail. However, the postcrossing wall is meant for the front side of a card only.
Fortunately here's a place for the extra's. For instance of a Finnish card, send by Emilia from Finland. It was a folded card in an envelope. Because I was born in the year of the Dragon I always like illustrations of dragons. And Emilia had been so thoughtful to add the dragon sticker on the inside of her card.
Also I'm happy to share the stamp on the envelope with you: a Finnish postcrossing stamp!

Sunday Stamps: Pets

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'pets'.
Searching in my stamps, there appeared to be a few stamps on this theme. Mostly cats and dogs, and three rodents.
The Dutch post company also offers the possibility to create your own personalized stamp sheet. At some higher costs you can have your own design printed. The stamps then can be used as a real postage stamp.

The stamp above was part of a serie of three, named 'Ten for your best friends' and showing cats, a dog and rabbits. Alas the last I've used, with no copy, but fortunately you can see it here.



This is the December stamps sheet of 2003. The stamp in the middle on top is showing a cat and dog, peacefully together.



Jip and Janneke, Annie M.G. Schmidt's creation, drawn by Fiep Westendorp, have two pets: the dog Takkie, and the cat Siepie, who you see here.



Nijntje, in English known as Miffy, has been created in 1955 by the Dutch illustrator Dick Bruna.
It's funny to see that this rabbit has a pet: the little she-dog Snuffie.



An other pet, or rather the main character in the stories created by the Dutch illustrator/writer Marten Toonder, is Tom Poes, a cat. He is a close friend of the gentleman Ollie B. Bommel, a bear who has a dog, named Joost. Not as a pet, but, as you can see on the left, as his butler.



An other famous pet is Tom, the cat from the couple Tom and Jerry. While we would think the predator always wins, in these stories it's always the rodent who survives, more than well.



Talking about rodents, a Dutch supermarket company has a hamster in it's advertisement campaigns. In 2012 the Dutch post company issued a stamp because of the 125th anniversary of this supermarket. And the hamster is part of it! That is, his gold coloured shadow, while jumping happpily on three of the stamps.



Finally the personalized stamp of Snuitje, one of the two guinea pigs (cavias) who live in my place. On this picture she's less than 2 months old. Since they're in our house, I (1) prefer vegetarian pets (so our herbivores will have nothing to fear), and (2) I am wondering why we, humans, are keeping pets, animals, as a kind of prisoner at all. I imagine that our pets would prefer to live with a large, large family somewhere in the wild, instead of being dependent of our care and time. But it is as it is, and both Snuitje and her roommate Cato seem to be happy with us.

Sunday stamps: Olympic stamps

Deze zondag zijn de Olympische Spelen onderwerp van Sunday Stamps.
In 1992 werden bovenstaande postzegels uitgegeven, ter waarde van 80 guldencent per zegel. Zoals je ziet heb ik er twee gebruikt, en ik was eerlijk gezegd vergeten welke sporten op de ontbrekende postzegels zijn afgebeeld. Gelukkig is het complete vel terug te vinden op deze site. En het oorspronkelijke ontwerp, dat heel anders is, staat hier
Meer Nederlandse sportzegels vind je, met ook een commentaar op bovenstaande zegels, op het Postzegelblog.

This Sunday the theme of Sunday Stamps is 'Olympic Games'. The stamps sheet above was issued in 1992. The stamps were 0.80 gulden cents each. As you see, I've used two of these. I had forgotten which sports were pictured on the missing ones, but fortunately the complete sheet you can see on this website (which is quite different from the original design which you can see here).
More Dutch sports stamps are gathered here.



Hierboven een meer recent vel, uitgegeven in 2012, ter ere van tien Nederlandse Olympische gouden medaille winnaars.
Above you see a more recent stamp sheet, issued in 2012, in honour of 10 Olympic gold medal winners from the Netherlands.

Hieronder een Olympische postzegel uit Wit-Rusland, die achterop een van m'n Postcrossing kaarten zat:
Below a stamp from Belarus, which I found on the back of one of my received Postcrossing postcards:



En ik kocht ooit een partij postzegels om te gebruiken voor mail art. Ook hiertussen zitten verschillende Olympische postzegels, uit uiteenlopende landen:

And some time ago I bought stamps to use for mail art. Among these stamps also some Olympic stamps, from various countries:

Out: to the USA

[please scroll down for English translation]

Een heel mooi post-project is dat van PostMuse uit Amerika. Onder de naam 'Orphaned Postcard Project' ontfermt zij zich - en wij, postliefhebbers, met haar - over weeskaarten.
Je kunt ook meedoen met dit project. PostMuse heeft tal van kaarten uit de hele wereld die nog niet beschreven zijn. Als je iets weet te vertellen over zo'n kaart, of over de plaats, of iets anders naar aanleiding van de kaart, kun je de betreffende kaart opvragen, beschrijven en weer terugsturen. Vervolgens blogt PostMuse erover.
Hierboven een glimp van de mooie envelop die PostMuse maakte. Waarin onderstaande kaart zat. Van de prachtige provincie Drenthe. Daar komt een van mijn favoriete zangers, Daniël Lohues, 'weg' (= vandaan). En vooral: we hebben daar een heel mooie vakantie doorgebracht. Het contrast tussen de rust en ruimte (en schone lucht!) van Drenthe en het gebrek aan rust en ruimte (en fijnstof en andere luchtverontreiniging) in onze eigen omgeving is groot.




A very nice mail project is the 'Orphaned Postcard Project' by PostMuse from the USA. She takes care for 'orphaned' postcards, and gives us, snail mail lovers, the opportunity to do so, too.
You can join this project. PostMuse has several postcards from all-over the world who are still empty so far. If there's a postcard which has a special meaning for you, and on which you can write something, about the card, about the place or anthing that has to do with that card, you can request it for adoption. When PostMuse has sent the card, you can write your message on it, put a postage stamp on it and send it back to PostMuse, who then will blog about it.
On top you see a glimpse of the beautiful envelope (and stamps) PostMuse had sent me. Inside this, there was the postcard you see above.
It shows parts of the beautiful province of Drenthe, in the east of the Netherlands. One of my favourite singer-songwriters has been born there (Daniël Lohues).
The reason to 'adopt' this postcard is, that we've spent a beautiful vacation there, in which I noted the clear contrast between the nature, fresh air and relaxed people we found in Drenthe, and the unrest, urbanization, polluted air and stressed people in the region where I am living.