Sunday Stamps: Orange

This Sunday's theme of Sunday Stamps is 'Orange, yellow'.

The stamp which immediately came into mind, because it shows much yellow and even more orange, is this painting by famous painter Mark Rothko:




Pretty orange backgrounds are shown in the following two stamps, both happen to connect two countries:

The Monaco and Morrocan flag on this joint issue stamp from Morocco, and a lot of orange under the book:



From Thailand, orange behind a mailbox from Myanmar:




Almost monochromatic are these two stamps, issued on a ten stamp sheet in honour of Dutch letter writers:



The man pictured is Leo Vroman (1915-2014), a Dutch-American writer, hematologist (the book I've read is an autobiography, also about blood), poet, illustrator.


Finally a stamp which I like to share, is this one from Spain, showing a dear object. Which raises the question: is it orange or is it yellow?!



See more stamps on this theme on and via this Sunday's Sunday Stamps!

In: from Italy/Austria and Hungary

So much to learn by a single postcard! I always thought that Tirol and the Dolomites were located in Austria. The text in front of the card didn't give a clue: as the first words have been written in German I was confirmed in my thoughts. The stamps made the confusion complete, as they are Hungarian. Finally, thanks to wikipedia I learned that since many years the Dolomites are part of Italy. And in 2009 they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Many thanks to Micu who has send me this beautiful view. As the post offices were closed at the moment she was there, she finally sent me the card from Hungary. Which I think great, too, and I am happy with the wonderful stamps as well as the postmark from Budapest.
I had never heard of a world conference on disaster risk reduction, so that's an other item learned today!



Thank you very much, Micu!

Sunday Stamps: Fruit

This Sunday's theme of Sunday Stamps is 'Fruit and Nuts'. Yummy!

Last month Dutch PostNL happens to have issued a stamp sheet showing 'historic' fruit, older types of apples and pears. Many of them have been decreased, because the high trees had to make place for other purposes. So nowadays the amount of cultivars is limited due to cultivation and economy, and most apple and pear trees in the Netherlands grow at so-called 'laagstam' = 'low trunk' (rootstock) trees. No doubt this has happened in other countries, too.
Alas I don't have this new sheet yet, but you can see it on the internet.

Instead I can show you a stamp sheet, issued in 2004 for children's welfare. Secretly I would love to see our fruits acting this way when we don't watch, but I guess this behaviour will remain imaginary:



Although spring is my favourite season, summer always makes me happy because my favourite fruit is available then: strawberries and cherries (and blueberries and raspberries you can count in, too!).
Strawberries have been pictured on a stamp by Ditch Post in the pre-Euro era. Here they are, along with many strawberry plants, and also there's a stamp showing an apple and (low trunk) apple trees:



More yummy, from Austria:



Other fresh summer fruits are melons. I used to name all of them just 'melon', but only a few years ago I learned that there are various types, easy to distinguish, like the water melon and the cantaloupe. Both have been pictured on pretty stamps, by Greek and US Post respectively:





From Germany come these two 'perfumed' stamps. I've received them many years ago, so the smell has gone, but the images of the apple and lemon still are fresh and fruity:



Thanks to globalization, also 'tropical' fruit reaches our colder country. In real, and fortunately also by stamps. For instance, on the right, this nice rambutan stamp from Malaysia:



The stamp on the left keeps me wondering why we name certain fruits 'vegetables' (like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins), while in fact they are the seed-bearing fruit part of a plant!..

See and enjoy more Fruit, and Nuts, on stamps at and via this Sunday's Sunday Stamps!

In: from Spain

Spain has a variety of landscapes. And as I've traveled only in the south east of the country, I am happy that my friends travel to other parts, too. Eva made me happy by sending, among others, these postcards.
Tabarca, a pretty island, accessible via the city Santa Pola, close to Alicante, I've visited during my stays in south east Spain. Great to see this island again, this time from a 'bird eye's' on a postcard!

Meadows with pigs are new to me. These Iberian fellows are more fortunate than their Dutch cousins, who in contrary are kept in small cages, many of them never seeing daylight. I hope one day Dutch farmers (and of course the pennywise, paying consumers) will follow the good example of the Spanish farmers.





On the back sides two well=known people, stamped by fresh new postmarks.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from the United Kingdom - of Mail and more Peter Rabbit

To do something 'post haste' means to do something quickly, I learned from John who sent this pretty postcard. Which gives a clue where this phrase comes from: the mail coach travelled faster than any other vehicle.



On the back of the postcard a matching illustration, and an other postage stamp from the Beatrix Potter stamps serie, showing Squirrel Nutkin:



Sent three weeks before the postcard above, but arriving a week later than the previous one, is the following postcard, showing the Port Sunlight Post Office. It has been built in 1891 and is part of the model village, built by Lord Lever / Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in their soap factory.



Jemima Puddle-Duck, also created by Beatrix Potter, more than a century ago, is the character on the stamp on the back of this card:



Inbetween the arrival of both cards, John as well as the Royal Mail and Dutch PostNL surprised me with a nice envelope (well, here I'm showing the two stamps only):



'Surprised' because the size of this envelope was far below the minimum sizes Royal Mail and PostNL prescribe, nevertheless the mail carriers did pick up and deliver the tiny envelope without complaining!



Thank you very much, John!

In: from the United Kingdom - of Mail, Transport and Peter Rabbit

Mail transport, a tram and the railway station, to my opinion always nice themes to see. And I was happy that John sent these in one postcard!

On the back side more vehicles:



Also related to mail is of course the mailbox, a famous one from the United Kingdom is the red pillar box:



The stamp on the back side of this card is a 'bridge' to a postcard John had sent me some time ago, namely an illustration by Beatrix Potter of a character from the tales of Peter Rabbit. This is Benjamin Bunny, Peter's cousin:



The card sent / received previously shows Peter Rabbit himself, plus a squirrel and Jemima Puddle-Duck:



Peter Rabbit also shows up on a stamp, accompanied by a stamp of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, the hedgehog:



Thank you very much, John!