In: from the United Kingdom

One day before the Sunday Stamps was themed 'spineless invertebrates' I happened to receive this postcard from John. Being an insect postcard and not an insect postage stamp, I waited until now to post it here.

For the UK insect stamps which I showed on the Sunday Stamps blog post I am grateful to John.
Also on this postcard John has added interesting and beautiful stamps.

There isn't much "ict" on stamps yet, while many of us work almost daily with one or another form of information communication technoilogy. So the stamp on bottom, which shows the evolution from ancient hieroglyphics via a books library to IT is a very actual one!



Thank you very much, John!

Sunday Stamps: Spineless invertebrates

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Spineless invertebrates'.

As the Snail represents Snail Mail and thus is directly connected to stamps, I would think snails would have been pictured often on stamps. Not at all, though! The only snails I could find were the remains of dead sea snails: shells.
Also in this painting (from the stamp sheet of the Rijksmuseum) you can see a living invertebrate, who is using one of the snail's former houses, a crustacean: the hermit crab.



An other crustacean is the crab who lives in the Wadden Sea, a part of North Sea which has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2009. Six years before the Dutch Post (then named TPG Post) issued two stamp sheets on the Wadden Sea. Besides the sea birds and two seal stamps (one of them showed here, too, as a belated addition to last week's theme!) there is one invertebate pictured, this crab:



An other invertebrate, which looks like a plant but in fact is an animal, is the Sea Anemone. What? Did I say Anemone?



I received this pretty stamp from Taiwan some years ago. I've scanned it in case there would be a suitable opportunity to share it. Today I think to be the right day.
All those years I had thought this animal is a sea anemone. Just now, when I looked up the name 'Gymnodorus Ceylonica' I found out... This amazing creature is... a Sea Snail*!...
(* in English the houseless snail is named 'slug', in Dutch both the house-bearing snail and the slug have the same name: slak)


From sea to land: insects!
Butterflies will be theme of Sunday Stamps of 22nd of May, so for today I choose other insects.
Although many people say 'yuk' to non-butterly insects (as I notice on some Postcrossing accounts), insects are an important part of our earth and life. And when seen from closeby, you can see a lot of amazing beauty!

From Korea come these beetles:



From Taiwan these beetles:



And Royal Mail has issued many insects-on-stamps, among them these beetles, bumble bee and dragonfly:





From Sweden this dragonfly:



See more interesting invertebrates on today's Sunday Stamps blog and the links mentioned under today's blog post.

Out: to Sri Lanka

I was happy to find these maxicards on the internet. The stamps have been issued in 1989 for the 150th anniversary of the Dutch Railways.



The card below shows a mail train!
I haven't seen trains like this anymore for the last decades. Probably mail is carried in common cargo trains without logo, or by road in vans. I think the latter, as I see many mail vans on the highway.



On all back sides there is a prominent 'R' printed at the place where the stamp has to be sticked.
It is clear to whom I have to send these cards!

Sunday Stamps: Mammals of the Sea

Today Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Mammals of the Sea'.

Of course it is a delight for me, as I love both animals and the colour turquoise, a colour which appears on many sea animals stamps.

Eva was so kind to send me four sea animals stamps, on three very beautifully decorated envelopes. The complete envelope and stamps you can see on Eva's post of August 2015. Of the four stamps two show sea mammals, of which I like to share this closer look.

The whale (or North Atlantic right whale to be more precise):



The seal:



Also the Dutch PostNL has issued a stamp showing a seal. The seal shown above on the Spanish stamp thrives in warmer seas, and is named the Mediterranean Monk seal, whereas the seal on the Dutch stamp is used to colder waters, and is named the common seal or harbour seal:



By the way, no turquoise in this stamp, but that matches with the usual colour of our sea, the North Sea: grey...

Years ago Dutch Post issued a stamp in honour of the 'Bruinvis' (literally 'brownfish') who in English is named the harbour porpoise.
On this stamp you can see how the number of these marine mammals has been changing since the years. After a bad period fortunately the number seems to have been increased after this stamp was issued.



Two large countries with a lot of sea are the USA and Russia.
From Russia I received this stamp of an orca:



And from the USA these two arrived on one envelope: the manatee:



And the delphin:



See more marine mammals on today's blog post on Sunday Stamps and the links mentioned there.

In: from Morocco

This building is the former railway station of Tétouan, Morocco.
Nowadays there aren't any trains anymore in Tétouan. In 2012 the building has been restored and since then it is the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Sent (and written, thanks to Eva I know about the above mentioned :-) ) by Eva from Tétouan.



Update:
Also from Morocco, a few weeks later I received this postcard, showing the railway station of the city of Nador, in the north of Morocco.
The railway station is rather young: it was opened only seven years ago, in July 2009.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Sunday Stamps: Weather

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Weather'.

Canada Post has issued a stamp serie about weather.
I was so lucky to have received this beautiful rainbow:



From Scotland I received this stamp showing Loch Ness, but the blue sky and clouds of course also are related to 'weather':



Dutch Post has issued a few stamps on weather.
Two of these have been issued for the 150th anniversary of the KNMI, the Dutch national weather service. Alas I don't have them myself, but you can see the pictures here and there, a rainy and a sunny version (a funny thing is that on the latter the 6th stamp misses the word 'Nederland').

In 1990 Dutch Post issued three weather related stamps: one on the scientifc registration of weather, one on 'a warm summer day', and this one, about cloud formations and isobars:



Besides the KNMI there's an other 'weather predictor': the barometer. I happen to have a real one, inherited from my dear late grandmother, and it almost always shows the correct weather! Dutch post issued this stamp, showing a part of a barometer:



See more weather related stamps ont today's Sunday Stamps and via the links under that blog post.

in: from the United Kingdom

I love to read, but alas there's too little time to do so. Instead I can find time to enjoy seeing other people reading. For instance this reading woman in a comfortable chair, illustrated by SusannesArt.

Sent by John, who loves reading people, too. And he added great stamps, among them this seven spotted ladybird:



And this foot painter:



Thank you very much, John!

In: from Hungary

Behold this longing animal!
Sent by Micu from Hungary.



On the back side not a usual stamp (Hungary has many beautiful ones) but this time a postage sticker, and a priority sticker.
Boring? Not at all! Besides the interesting language - just now I learned that 'Hungary' in Hungarian means 'Magyarország'! - you can see beautiful tiny small post horns in the edges. And 'priority' in Hungarian is 'elsőbbségi'. An interesting word for non-native language lovers!



Thank you very much, Micu, köszönöm!

Out: to Morocco

The more I look at this postcard, the more I am amazed about how proportions can differ, depending on the point of view.
I've sent the card to someone who likes/loves cows. Well, who wouldn't love cows?

On the back number three of the recently issued Postcrossing stamp sheet, showing deer in National Park De Hoge Veluwe.

Out: to Sri Lanka

I had sent a small picture of the Amersfoort railway station on a multiview card to Ravindra already. Recently I found an other postcard. With indeed exactly the same photo, but a larger, easier visible one, so now it is on its way to Sri Lanka.

As Ravindra loves lighthouses, too, I added this recently issued stamp on the back.



(I've reserved one of this stamp to send to you, too, Eva! :-) )

Sunday Stamps: Mountains

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Mountains'.

In the Netherlands there aren't real mountains (the highest one is a 322 meters high hill) but fortunately elsewhere in the world there are beautiful ones.
The following mountains all happen to be covered with snow.

For instance the famous mount Olympus in Greece. As a child I loved to read mythology stories, and according to these, the ancient Greek gods and goddesses had their home on this mountain:



(See more Greek mountains on Joy's blog post of today.)

A snowy mountain in Norway:



Australian Alp in Victoria, Australia:



And simply but beautifully designed Austrian Alps from Austria:



See more beautiful mountains on beautiful stamps at and via Sunday Stamps.

In: from Korea

Two beautiful bird collage cards by Kareem Rizk, sent to me from Korea by Kim JungYoun.



Beautiful stamps as well, and it is the first time that I see a smartphone on a stamp!



Thank you very much, Kim!