Sunday Stamps: 'M' is for milieuvriendelijk and molen

For Sunday Stamps' letter 'M' I chose a long word, however, in English it is even longer. An important subject, to my opinion: milieuvriendelijk.
In English: enviromentally friendly (milieu = environment, friendly = vriendelijk).

While on one hand we, humans, are polluting our world by consumption, traveling, etcetera, on the other hand fortunately more and more people are aware of the fact that we should take care of our earth. To stop polluting, to recycle waste, to consume less and to not use up the earth's resources.
There still is a long way to go. And on this long way there are some bright spots. For instance the fact that several postal services from all-over the world have issued stamps to spread the awareness.

This chaincard arrived home with stamps from six countries! South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia and the Netherlands:



In Europe many environmentally friendly stamps have been issued last year, for the theme of the 2016 Europe Stamps was 'Think Green'. I've posted some of these here in April. And I was happy to receive some more since then, like this Europe 2016 stamp from Slovakia:



And these, from Belarus, Ukraine and Estonia (and you can see the other - of two - Dutch Think Green stamp),



The Irish 'Minecraft'-like stamp still fascinates me:



This stamp from Serbia is one of my favourite 'milieuvriendelijke' stamps. Alas I had it in hands just for one day, because I had to forward it to someone else, and the sender from Serbia didn't have any more of these. Fortunately I could scan it and show it to you:




On many of the Europe 2016 'Think Green' stamps you see a wind turbine. In Dutch we name them 'windmolen' (plural 'windmolens'), or windturbine. The older type of windmills we name 'windmolen', too, although most of the time the simple name 'molen' is used for them.

The Netherlands are well-known for its molens. But of course you know that molens can be find anywhere in the world, like these pretty stamps are proofing. I received them from John from the United Kingdom:



The one on the stamp on the left we tend to name 'watermolen' instead of simply 'molen'. But the front side of the card shows a lot more molens:




See what other stamp lovers have chosen for this Sunday's theme 'M', at and via Sunday Stamps!

Postcards for the Weekend: Markets

This weekend the theme of Postcards for the Weekend is 'markets'.



This pretty water colour painting of a market in Hong Kong has been painted by Shen Ping, and was sent to me by Natalie from Hong Kong.




This postcard is from a box with - newly printed - old postcards from the city of Utrecht, in the center of the Netherlands. The original photo has been taken more than 100 years ago. At first sight it doesn't look like a market like we know nowadays in our country, but when looking closer you can see that indeed there is merchandise: animals. The note says 'Kippenmarkt', which means 'chicken market'.

See more markets, from all-over the world, at and via Maria's Postcards for the Weekend blog.

In: from Morocco (and Italy and Poland)

A beautiful piece of mail art arrived from Morocco, thanks to Eva who created this great Mail Cat.

And the mail traveled fast: written 22nd of October, postmarked on 23 October by Moroccan Post, and it arrived in the right mailbox in Netherlands on 27 October!



Inside two postcards of a favourite drink (be it that I prefer it with milk, no sugar, so I think the mug bottom right might be my favourite :-) ). The drawn one Eva had bought for me during her trip to Rome, the other came from Poland.



A close-up of the stamp, issued in 2016 in honour of International Women's Day:




Thank you very much, Eva, moltes gràcies!

Sunday Stamps: 'L' is for lezen, luchtballon and libelle

Today the Sunday Stamps' theme is the letter 'L'.

In Dutch, reading means 'lezen'. Conjugated: ik (I) lees, jij (you) leest, hij of zij (he or she) leest, wij/jullie/zij (we/you/we) lezen.

One can read a book:



Or read from a computer screen:



And how nice it is to read, laying warmly under a blanket:




The 'hot air balloon' in Dutch usually is 'air balloon' only: luchtballon. There are many stamps showing balloons. However, so far I only received this one, from Russia:



Dutch PostNL issued a serie of international stamp sheets on aviation in 2015. Most of them showed airplanes, a few helicopters and there was this stamp in honour of the Montgolfier brothers, the inventors of the luchtballon:



A luchtballon also appears on the selvage of this stamp sheet, in honour of the city of Roermond:




Finally I'd like to share some insect with you. This insect somehow makes us think of helicopters. The English word 'dragonfly' we literally would translate into 'draak vlieg', but we don't. Instead we name the insect 'libelle'. Some thinner species we name 'waterjuffer' (water-young-lady, damselflies), but the order, Odonata in English, in Dutch also is names libelle.

From the John I received this beautiful stamp:



And from Eva this beautiful shaped stamp arrived:




See more stamps on the letter 'L' at and via today's Sunday Stamps.

Postcards for the weekend: Lighthouses

This weekend's Postcards for the Weekend theme is 'lighthouses'.

Today I'll share three of the lighthouses of the Dutch Wadden Sea Islands.

In my live I've visited only two of these islands (the largest island, Texel, and the smallest inhabited one, Schiermonnikoog).

This lighthouse is the only Wadden lighthouse I've ever seen in real so far. It is named 'Eierland' and is located on the island Texel:



The Brandaris is located on the island Terschelling, and is the oldest lighthouse in the Netherlands:



This card I received from Alvin, who added a matching stamp on the back side:



Finally a photo of the lighthouse of Ameland:



And a drawing, created many years ago to send to Eva:



(The original got lost in the post, but fortunately I had scanned it and then had postcards printed from it.)


See what more lighthouses on postcards other mail lovers have chosen at and via this weekend's Postcards for the Weekend!

In: from Brussel and Maroc

Last weekend's theme for Postcards for the Weekend was 'anything you wish'.
I was too busy with posting stamps for Sunday Stamps and doing other things so far, so finally exactly inbetween two weekends I am posting my contribution..

Received from Eva, already almost a year ago, but finally here they are, two pretty smurfcards, from Brussel via Morocco:





I love the way Moroccan Post most of the time uses two postmarks:



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Curious to know what postcards other mail lovers choose when they get the opportunity? Check Maria's blog post and the links mentioned there!

Sunday Stamps: 'K' is for krant and kasteel

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is the letter 'k'.

Inspired by Violet's post of today, I thought to share the Dutch word for 'newspaper', illustrated by stamps from Mexico, Russia and the Netherlands. In Dutch we name the newspaper 'krant'.
As far as I know, in several languages words for 'newspaper' contain some part meaning news, or time, or day, and so. For example in the German word 'Zeitung', Zeit means time. Or the French 'journal', jour = day, and in the Spanish 'periódico', 'period' has to do with time also. And 'newspaper' of course contains the word 'news'. See more translations of the word 'newspaper' via Wikipedia. The Dutch word 'krant' appears to have nothing to do with day (dag), time (tijd) or paper (papier). However, it origins from the French word 'courant' which means current, commonly, present, and the old word (plural) 'couranten' meant 'current notifications'.

I found a few stamps showing newspapers. I don't know most of these newspapers so I cannot tell which signature they have or on what 'level of quality' they are.
For example, Dutch most well-known newspaper was 'wrong' in WW2 and nowadays brings news in a sensational, not always fair way. Despite of that, and to my surprise, it alas is the best selling newspaper in the Netherlands.

Kranten (plural of krant) have been pictured on stamps from Mexico:



From Russia:



From the Netherlands:



(A newspaper and a cup of coffee to my opinion is a very pleasant combination :-) )



In contrary to the above-mentioned best selling newspaper, the 'Parool' was 'right' in WW2. It has been founded in 1940 and helped positively in the Dutch resistance against the Nazis.

The stamps above and below have been issued in 1985, 40 years after WW2 has ended.



A newspaper which is considered being of good quality (though not selling as much as the first-mentioned newspaper), is the NRC Handelsblad. When I was a child this newspaper published stories of Ollie B. Bommel and Tom Poes every day. A kind of comics, that is, pictures above and printed text below.
In 1996 the following stamp sheet was issued. I immediately had to think of the NRC newspaper. And first I thought to not post this sheet here, but then I noticed the selvage on the left, and the text, which starts saying: 'Spring had come and mister Bommel was sitting under the blooming pear tree, reading his newspaper.'



After reading the newspaper, before putting in it the recycling bin, you can make all kinds of nice things of it:



It might be clear that I have a strong preference of some of the Dutch newspapers to some other newspaper. Do you have strong opinions on the different newspapers issued in your countries?


An other word starting with the letter 'k', and probably immediately understood by all of you, is 'kasteel'.
In 2017, the Europe stamps theme is 'castles', and I am so lucky to have received some of these stamps.

From Turkey, Belarus, Russia, Estonia, and of course one of the two Dutch castle stamps:



From Greece:



From Spain, with a funny postmark:



From Spain, with a modest postmark - thus showing more of the stamp:



From Serbia:



And the other of the two Dutch stamps:



By the way, thanks to Eva, recently a postcard arrived which happens to show an other Spanish castle, the Almodovar Castle:



Worth a stamp, too, don't you think so?!

Find more stamps on the letter 'k' at and via today's Sunday Stamps!

Sunday Stamps: 'J' is for jurk

As we pronounce the 'j' not the English way, but as a 'y' instead, and the 'u' as a kind of 'e' in the word 'er', it is clear that a Dutch 'jurk' is far from the English 'jerk' :-)

These two jurken I received from Eva from Spain (thank you!!).
While there exist many stamps on traditional clothing/costumes, I think it is the very first time that I see a stamp dedicated to a dress itself.

See more stamps on the letter 'j' at and via today's Sunday Stamps!

Sunday Stamps: 'I' is for Iran, Ierland and insecten

The Sunday Stamps theme of Sunday 1st October is the letter 'i'.

A pretty stamp which includes a country which starts with the letter 'I' is this one:



The stamp is from Iran, from the year 1395 (2016), and has been dedicated to NowRuz. It shows, besides Iran, also other countries / regions in which the New Year starts at the vernal equinox. I think it a nice idea - and logical - that the new year starts at exactly the same time as does spring.



From the Iranian stamp to stamps from an other country starting with the letter 'I'. That is, not in the native language itself, but in Dutch we name Éire 'Ierland' (pronounced differently from the English 'Ireland').



And of course the word 'insect', or 'insekt' (plural: insecten or insekten), starts with an 'i'. In Dutch the accent (emphasis) is on the second syllable, inSECT, while as far as I know in English the accent is on the first syllable, INsect.



See more stamps on the letter 'i' at and via Sunday Stamps!