Sunday Stamps: Hearts

Today Sunday Stamps theme is "Hearts and flowers for Valentine's Day". Although Valentine's day was the 14th of February, I think it is never too late to show our hearts and to be and feel connected. In fact, it should be every day like this :-) So I am happy that Viridian choose to extend Valentine's day this way.

There have been issued several heart stamps in the Netherlands. Alas most of them aren't in my house anymore (but it's also nice to know that they travelled into the world :-)
Fortunately Hawwa is so kind to show some Dutch heart stamps too, among other beautiful heart stamps from all-over the world. You can enjoy them in Hawwa's Mail Adventures blog (for instance here, and here).



Isn't it a nice idea that we can see hearts everywhere? One just has to look well.
So an island can be heart-shaped. Is it coincidental that the post company emphasized the heart by putting the cancellation stamp around it?

And even our own hands can create a heart:



And I happened to have received this card a few days ago, thanks to PostMuse (who attended the Ex Postal Facto event). And besides the great Ex Postal Facto rubber stamp print, she added also postage stamps.. showing a heart!

Out: to the USA

In het kader van het Weeskaarten-project ontving ik deze kaart van het Nederlands Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem.
Toevallig staat uitgerekend deze molen ook op een van de postzegels van het postzegelvel, dat in 2012 werd uitgegeven ter gelegenheid van het 100-jarig bestaan van het Openluchtmuseum. Èn toevallig dat ik deze postzegel nog had, want het postzegelvel was inmiddels aardig geslonken, van tien naar vier zegels!
De andere molenpostzegel laat een vergelijkbare standerdmolen zien en komt van een postzegelvel uit 2013 over molens. Grappig trouwens dat de standerd molen in het Engels 'post mill' heet.

For the Orphaned Postcards Project I received this postcard of the Open Air Museum in the city of Arnhem. How coincidental that I had kept a stamp of exactly this corn mill so far, from the stampsheet which was issued in 2012 for the 100th anniversary of the Open Air Museum! I am happy to add it to the postcard. The other, similar 'Standerd mill' is from a 2013 stamp sheet on Dutch windmills.



En deze postzegels zaten op de envelop waarin PostMuse mij bovenstaande kaart stuurde, zie links de post-postzegel!

And these stamps were sticked to the envelope in which PostMuse had sent me the orphaned postcard. See the stamp on the left, it's postal themed!

In: from Switzerland

Als je veel post verstuurt, kan het vaker gebeuren dat een kaart niet aankomt. Maar geen man overboord. Zodra Postcrossing aangeeft dat een van mijn kaarten 'expired' is, probeer ik het meestal gewoon nog een keer.
Omgekeerd is het ook leuk om te merken dat mensen moeite doen voor mij. Zo ontving ik deze postcrossing kaart van Monika uit Zwitserland. Bij het registreren zag ik dat ze een heel andere kaart had geüpload, en die vond ik leuk genoeg om in mijn 'postcrossing wall' te laten staan. Maar deze vond ik ook ontzettend leuk, want zeg nu zelf, hoe vaak zien we vuurtorens op 2046 meter hoogte boven zeeniveau?!

When you send a lot of mail, the chance of not-arriving of some mail becomes higher. It's all in the game, so as soon as Postcrossing tells that a sent postcard is 'expired', I usually have a second try and send a new card.
It's nice to see that other people act similar. This way I received this postcard from Monika from Switzerland. When I registered this card, a totally different postcard appeared at my 'postcrossing wall' automatically. That one was too nice to delete. And this card is great and worth showing, too. However, at the Postcrossing wall there's no room for both of them. So I decided to post it here.
I think it special: how many times do we get the opportunity to see a lighthouse at 2046 meters above sea level?

Thank you very much, Monika!

Sunday Stamps: Chinese and Taiwanese stamps

It's Sunday, so time for Sunday Stamps!

The 31th of January the Chinese New Year began - it's the Year of the Horse, now - and for this occasion Viridian choose the theme 'Chinese and Taiwanese stamps'.

Thanks to Postcrossing I received several stamps from China and Taiwan. And due to my wishlist - 'Dragons', as I was born in the Year of the Dragon - I received some beautiful Dragon postcards, too. Most of these postcards I'll show on an other occasion.

So today I'd like to share Chinese and Taiwanese stamps with you, and one from Hong Kong, from where I received a beautiful Year-of-the-Dragon card, too.
However I'll start with this backside of a (dragon!) card, which shows two great rubber stamp prints concerning Chinese New Year: The Year of the Dragon, 2012, and the previous year, the Year of the Rabbit:



Even the 'Airmail' is a stamp!
Guangxi from China made my day with sending this card, not only because of the Dragon on the front side and the friendly Happy New Year wish on this backside, but also due to the wonderful stamps, as I love rubberstamps a lot.

And of course you can see a Chinese postage stamp top right.

Secondly I'd like to share these stamps with you, which I received from Taiwan. For me, as a animation movie fan, the Finding Nemo stamp is a delight. And note: top right there's a Chinese New Year stamp, of the Year of the Dragon!



The New Year stamp above has been sticked on the card. Below you can see the same stamp, which is a little different: it has been printed on the back of a postcard:



And this is the postcard the stamp belongs to:



Concerning postcards-and-suitable-stamps, Canada has issued a 'Year of the Dragon' postcard and similar stamp. The postcard I'll show on an other occasion, as said. However, I couldn't wait to show the wonderful Year of the Dragon here!



An other beautiful Dragon postcard came from Hong Kong. With beautiful stamps, too, no dragon but a rubber / cancellation bridge stamp and an Olympic (summer games) stamp:



More stamps from Taiwan:









More stamps from China:









The stamp with the world / round probably show two of the elements (although I'm not sure: I found other stamps of this serie here, which show water (I think) and.. a tree..).



More nice bird stamps:





And architecture:

In: from the United Kingdom

Deze kaart met toepasselijke postzegel ontving ik van John, die het bijzondere verhaal erbij schreef. In 1816 ontsnapte een leeuw uit 't circus. De leeuw viel vervolgens een van de paarden van de Exeter Mail postkoets aan. De koetsier en passagiers vluchtten een naburige herberg in. Inmiddels was de circuseigenaar gearriveerd, en het lukte hem om de leeuw in een schuur te jagen, en uiteindelijk ook om hem te vangen. Iedereen kwam met de schrik vrij, en de postkoets vervolgde zijn weg. Om slechts een paar minuten te laat in Londen aan te komen.

This card with suitable stamp I received from John, who wrote the amazing story on the back. In 1816 a circus lion escaped. The lion attacked on the horses of the Royal Mail couch from Exeter. The couchman and passengers fled into a nearby inn. Meanwhile the circus director arrived, who managed to corner the poor lion in some barn and to get him finally into a box. The coach continued on its way, and was only a few minutes late arriving in London.



De kaart is een reproductie van een op 31 juli 1984 uitgegeven postzegel, ontworpen door Keith Bassford en Stanley Paine, en gegraveerd door Czesław Słania.

The card is reproduced from a stamp designed by Keith Bassford and Stanley Paine, engraved by Czesław Słania, and issued by the Post Office on 31 July 1984.

Thank you very much, John, for this wonderful mail-postcard and stamp!

In: from Morocco

[Please scroll down for English translation]

Na de mooie dierkaarten van Ravindra, werd ik met nog meer kaarten met dieren verblijd. Deze stuurde Eva vanuit Marokko.
De miniatuur hierboven is zo'n 400 jaar geleden gemaakt en heet 'Les animaux assemblés devant Salomon et Bilqis', 'De dieren verzameld rond Salomo en Bilqis'. Het is een pagina uit een zogeheten 'Fâl nâmah', aldus de tekst op de achterkant van de kaart. Het kostte me wel wat moeite om erachter te komen wat een 'Fâl nâmah' of 'Fal-nameh' is (dat schreef Eva er helaas niet bij :-) maar aangezien we allebei van talen houden was het een leuke puzzel). 'Fal' (فال) is in het Perzisch 'voorspelling' of 'voorteken', en 'nameh' (نامه) betekent brief of boek. Een 'fal-nameh' is een boek wat gebruikt wordt om voorspellingen mee te doen.
Wat zou deze bladzijde destijds, in de 17e eeuw, mensen gezegd hebben?

Hieronder een kaart uit het Prado in Madrid, getiteld 'Cabeza de gato durmiendo', in 1885 geschilderd door Francisco Domingo Marqués.




After the animal-postcards Ravindra had sent me, I was made happy by more beautiful postcards showing animals, sent by Eva from Morocco.
The miniature you see on top has been made about 400 years ago and is named 'The animals gathered around Salomon and Bilqis'. It is a page from a 'Fâl nâmah', according to the information on the backside of the card.
It took me some time to discover what a 'Fâl nâmah' or 'Fal-nameh' means (Eva didn't explain alas :-) and as the two of us love languages I wanted to solve this nice puzzle). 'Fal' (فال) is Persian and means 'divination' or 'omen', and 'nameh' (نامه) means letter or book. So a 'fal-nameh' is a book which is used to predict.
I wonder what this page would have been saying to people in those days, the 17th century...

On the other postcard you can see a pretty painting of a sleeping cat, made by the Spanish painter Francisco Domingo Marqués in 1885.



Thank you very much, Eva!
And yes, I like ALL animals - it's just that cats (and other carnivores) make me worry about our vegetarian (rodent) pets :-)

In: from Sri Lanka

[Please scroll down for English translation]

Deze twee mooie dieren-kaarten, mèt dierenpostzegels, ontving ik van Ravindra uit Sri Lanka, als dank voor de kaarten, met vuurtoren resp. trein, die ik hem had gestuurd.
De Sri Lankaanse olifant is een ondersoort van de Aziatische olifant. Het Yale National Park is een van de natuurparken in Sri Lanka waar deze bedreigde diersoort leeft en bescherming geniet.

Onderstaand prachtig koraalrif maakt deel uit van het Hikkaduwa National Park.



These two beautiful animals postcards (with animal postage stamps!) were sent by Ravindra from Sri Lanka, as a 'thank you' for the cards of a train and a lighthouse I had sent to him.
The Sri Lankan elephant is a subspecies of the Asian elephant. The Yale National Park is one of the places where this threatened animal is living and protected.

The beautiful reef is part of the Hikkaduwa National Park.



Thank you very much, Ravindra!

In: from Greece

Een bekend gebouw, de Akropolis, onder een mooie maan.
Ontvangen van Kate uit Griekenland.

A well-known building in Greece, the Acropolis of Athens, under a beautiful moon.
Received from Greece from Kate - thank you very much!

Sunday Stamps: Folk Art

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Folk art'.
I was wondering what to choose, as I think there are many, many subjects within this theme! There's a lot which we could call 'folk art', isn't it? The first things which come into my mind are ceramics, fabric, certain paintings. And many more.

The following stamps I would think they're showing 'folk art':

From Belarus these two stamps arrived, showing a beautifully embroidered rooster, and a pattern, of which I don't know on which medium it is usually (painted, embroidered, too?).



! Update: more on Belarussian fabric art stamps you can find on the A Postcard a Day blog!



The Chinese lanterns, would they be considered 'folk art', too? And the bird painting? I do think so (although the bird painting is of course fine art, too):



Finally two stamp sheet, issued the 27th of January 2014. Both are showing Dutch ceramic from former times. The city of Tegelen was named after the Roman word 'Tegulae', tiles. The Romans were living there about 2000 years ago. From the red clay of this neighbourhood not only roof tiles and bricks were made, but also articles of daily use.



Around 1780 porcelain was made in the city of Loosdrecht, which you can see on this stamp sheet.
These two are the first of a serie to be issued on this theme 'ceramics'.