Sunday Stamps: Flags or ensigns (2)

Inspired by the Sunday Stamps blog posts by VioletSky, who shared all Canadian province's flags on stamps, and FinnBadger, who made an interesting mail art composition, for which he used the American state flag stamps as postage, I suddenly remembered this stamp sheet.



Issued in 2002 by Dutch Post, in those days still named PTT, this stamp sheet shows the flags of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands, created out of poems/songs about each province.
The stamp edges show something special from the province. For instance the author Annie M.G. Schmidt (well-known by some of you for her 'Jip & Janneke' books but she also made great, critical funny poems) was born in the province Zeeland.
Jan Pelleboer, a man who hosted the weather forecast in his unique way, came from Drenthe, while Fryslân (Friesland) is famous for its ice skates, and the 'Vierdaagse', the international four days walking march, takes place in the city of Nijmegen, which is in the province Gelderland.
And I guess you'll recognize the flag of Brabant now :-)

See more flags on stamps on and via Sunday Stamps.

Sunday Stamps: Flags or ensigns

At the moment the European soccer competition (UEFA) takes place. The Netherlands doesn't participate this time, but I like to share the following soccer stamp sheet today, issued by Dutch PostNL two years ago in honour of the World Championship.
Why today? Well, this Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Flags or ensigns', and you can see the flags of the participating countries - be it in the shape of the ball.



I found some other flag stamps:

An Italian stamp, showing the flags of Italy and San Marino:



The Scottish flag:



The red and white squared flag top left is the flag of the (Dutch) province Brabant, and I think the ensign belongs to the specific group the boy and man belong to:



See more 'Flags and Ensigns' stamps at Sunday Stamps.

Sunday Stamps: Cartoon characters

This Sunday Stamps theme is one of my very most favourite themes: cartoon characters.
Which I freely translated into 'cartoon and comics characters'. No need to say that I am delighted with VioletSky's choice!

Before this Sunday I thought I didn't really 'collect' postage stamps - just 'keep' them when nice stamps accidentally come into my home. However, now I realize this theme I really am collecting. That is: buy, in order to keep them in a special cartoon / comics stamp album.

Although I won't search the whole world to find them, like 'real collectors' do. Not all comic/cartoon stamps are on my wish list. For instance classic Disney stamps I won't collect. They cause a happy smile on my face, but as these are abundantly issued worldwide I prefer other people to collect them. The cartoon stamps I consciously will take home are in fact the following ones:
- Asterix and Obelix
- Smurfs
- Dutch comic/cartoon character stamps (see for instance Eva's blog post) and 'foreign' characters issued by Dutch post (see for instance the stamp sheet on top).

To my opinion many comics and animation movies aren't just meant for children.
Many animation movies contain messages for grown-ups, too. For instance 'Up' (about getting old, family and friendship) and 'Ratatouille' (also about friendship and family, and about loyalty, and Paris), are all-time favourites for that.
Stamps on these great Disney/Pixar movies were sent to me by a kind lady from the USA.



Oh, and Wall-e (the stamp on the right, the story also is about friendship) learns us about waste and shows the dangers of a sedential life!


Dutch Post recently issued regular stamps and an extra stamp set on the Dutch comic character Tom Poes and his fellow Ollie B. Bommel, for their 75th anniversary.
The stories go without text balloons but are shown as illustrations, accompanied by text printed under the comic drawings.
Dutch Post has issued Tom Poes stamps before, in 1996 this mini stamp sheet:




Finally Asterix!
As you already might have seen on the main Sunday Stamps blog, Germany has issued nice stamps on Asterix and Obelic recently.
Unfortunately I couldn't order the complete sheet via German Post, but suddenly I was lucky to be able to buy the complete stamp sheet via 'marktplaats' (Dutch ebay). Here it is:



Do you notice the mailman in the back?

Asterix (also about friendship and loyalty) learns us a little about history. Although there are some negative issues in it too, which I neglected as a child, but for which my eyes are opened now. Besides the sad destination of many swines, there are a lot of other injured, as this medical article on traumatic brain injuries proofs. Fortunately these wounded get well immediately, as is usance in comic books like these.

The Asterix albums are a 'must' for language lovers, too. Besides Asterix stamps I'm collecting also one specific album in various languages: Asterix in Corsica. The fun thing about that is that there's a meeting in which characters from previous albums gather. So I learned that the small hispanic boy, Pepe Paella y Peseta in Dutch, is named Pepe Costa y Bravo in German. And the main Corsican character, Ocatarinetabellatchitchix (in French), in the Dutch album has been named after a Dutch song: Ozewiezewozewiezewallakristallix!
Now we can get information like this via the internet, but in the eighties, when I got my first Asterix in Corsica album in an other language (Spanish, at that time) it was so special!

Find more great cartoon stamps on/via the Sunday Stamps blog post of 19th of June.

In: from the United Kingdom

Some weeks ago I received this lovely scene from John: a parental polar bear reading for the little kid.



And last week I received this postcard, also sent by John and showing this beautiful charcoal drawing. The flute player has been created by Shelagh Popham:



On the back not only these interesting stamps (of which the eggplant is my favourite), but also a kind message with good news.



Thank you very much, John, and congratulations!

Sunday Stamps: beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is not specified: we can choose whatever theme we'd like.

The stamps shown below I cannot file under one specific theme. However, there's one thing which unites them: they are considered 'ugly' by the senders!..



They are part of a chaincard project themed 'ugly stamps', and these cards traveled via Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and the Netherlands.
The cards shown here I've received, added stamps to, scanned to keep a digital image, and finally I forwarded the original cards to the next participant.



And as you see: 'ugly' and 'beauty' are subjective. Many of these stamps I think very beautiful, while other's consider the same stamps ugly. I really do hope to receive some of these on my own card (which still is on its journey).



Also 'ugly/beauty' can change in time.
Re-regarding my own choice of "ugly" stamps, the longer I'm watching the " parcel, @ and e" stamp, the more I think this stamp beautiful.



See what other people choose for 'free choice' on today's Sunday Stamps.

Sunday Stamps: Canines

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'canines', which I would freely translate into 'dogs'.

I happen to have joined a 'dogs' themed chaincard project recently. Four people (including me) sent a postcard in February 2016, with stamps matching to the theme.
The four postcards made the same journey, be it that each started in a different country: from (and to) the Netherlands, Taiwan, Japan and Russia. All cards arrived home, in the four countries respectively, provided with stamps and postmarks from all countries.

I scanned the other participants' cards, too, when they passed my home. So I am happy to be able to show you the dog stamps I had in my hands for while. Hope you won't mind there are some doubles, however the combination with the other stamps and the postmarks make each stamp unique.

The first card to arrive at my place (and to be sent the next day) I received on the 3rd of March, from the Russian participant (click image to enlarge):



The Dutch stamps I added are from a ten stamp sheet, dedicated to the photography of Charlotte Dumas.

On the 26th of March the postcard arrived, which has started its journey in Japan:



The same day also the postcard from Taiwan arrived, with two Taiwanese, one Japanese and seven Russian dogs united:






All of the cards above I've forwarded, to have them finally arrive at the first senders' places.
And the 29th of April my postcard returned, with this variety of dog stamps:

(left side)
(right side)

See more canine stamps at today's Sunday Stamps blog post and by clicking the links mentioned there.



[Front side of my postcard, collage made for postcrossing years ago. Luckily for me many postcrossers don't want handmade cards, so I could keep this postcard, which finally made a long journey and now is retiring at my place.]

In: from Morocco

From Eva I received this wonderful combination of a map card of Africa: both on a postcard and on the stamp.

The figure on the stamp has been created by the well-known artist Giacometti (of whom I always had thought he was Italian, but just now I learned he was born in Switzerland), and the map card below has been created by Marianne Sztyma from Poland.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!