Sunday Stamps: Kings and Queens

Today's theme of Sunday Stamps is 'Kings and Queens'. And until 4 years ago 30 April also happens to have been our national holiday, Koninginnedag or Queen's Day.

30 April was the birthday of former Dutch queen, Juliana, mother of the also former queen, now princess,
Beatrix. Beatrix' birthday is the 31st of January, and she didn't want the holiday to take place in winter. Also she wanted to honour her mother. So when she became queen, she chose to keep Queen's Day on the 30th of April.

In 2013 Beatrix retired and her son, Willem-Alexander, became king. He chose for the tradition to have the queen's/king's day take place on the queen's/king's birthday. In his case Queen's Day only had to move a few days: King's Day, WA's birthday, is the 27th of April, and last King's Day he celebrated his 50th b-day.

The definite queen's and king's stamps made me frown. There exist great bright photos of these people, but for the definite stamps they apparently chose for a bit colour-empty design.

The present definite King's stamp:



Previous definite stamps of Beatrix:



To show what nice other stamps could have been used as definite stamp, see for example this stamp sheet, issued for Willem-Alexander's 50th birthday last week:



The photos on top have been made by his father, late prince Claus.
I don't have this sheet at home yet, so this is the picture, downloaded from the PostNL webshop's site.

See more Kings and Queens at and via today's Sunday Stamps!

Sunday Stamps: windmills

Last Sunday, 23 April, the theme for Sunday Stamps was 'Windmills or lighthouses'. Alas I was out, and didn't have had time to schedule my blog post previously. Fortunately Violet had kept open the possibility to link so I just could add to the theme.

Dutch Post has issued several stamps on windmills. Among them this one, showing the windmills of Kinderdijk, a UNESCO world heritage site:



The stamp is part of a ten stamps sheet dedicated to UNESCO heritage.

A modern windmill, or wind turbine, is shown on the 2016 Europe stamps. The Dutch one is this:



I love this stamp, and also love the fact that all-over Europe, the same design was worked out in a slightly different way (size, edge/border, location of the texts, etcetera), as shows this tiny collection:



You can find a list of all 2016 Europe stamps via this link and see the stamps by clicking on the country's names.

See more stamps on the theme 'windmills or lighthouses' at and via the Sunday Stamps blog!

Postcards for the Weekend: Water

This weekend's theme for Postcards for the Weekend is 'Water in any form'.

A good opportunity to share this postcard, which Eva had sent me from Cádiz. I love bridges on postcards, and there where are bridges, most of the time there's water, of course.
And this multiview card shows a lot of water, in a variety of colours!



How nice to see stamps from the same city:



There is also water on maps. For example around the Wadden isle Texel (postcard sent to Eva),



The stamp I added shows more water around a kind of isle (in fact: a continent, Australia), water on a map:



Salt water from the sea on an illustration by Fiep Westendorp:



Fresh water from the air on this illustration of Kikker (Frog) by Max Velthuijs:



Check Postcards for the Weekend to find more postcards on the theme 'water'!

In: from Spain (and the United Kingdom)

What do Morris Mouse and Harry Potter have in common?

They send/receive mail, they experience adventures...



...They can fly!...
(in apparently impossible ways)



... And they have been sent by Eva from Spain to the Netherlands!



The Mouse Mail caused some jolly way of canceling.



Thank you very much, Eva!