Sunday Stamps: 'U' is for uil and uurwerk

This Sunday is the last day of 2017, and the day of Sunday Stamps' letter 'U'. Which is pronounced in Dutch totally different from the English (and German, Spanish) 'U'.

Together with the letter 'i' it becomes 'ui', and the pronouncation of this combination becomes even more weird for non-native speakers.
By the way, the Dutch letters 'u' and 'ui' are words in themselves: 'u' means the formal 'you' (like Usted in Spanish, Sie in German and Vous in French). And an 'ui' is an onion.

I couldn't find stamps about onions, and I wouldn't know how to depict the word 'u', so I choose the words 'uil' and 'uurwerk' for today.

The Uil is a bird which you'll know as an owl.

I received this owl stamp from Taiwan:



And a postcard showing this stamp:



And one owl stamp from Hong Kong:



And I found a personalized stamp showing an owl on the website of Dutch photographer and postcard seller Arnold Voordewind. This owl stamp alas is not available anymore as a stamp, but the postcard is:




As said, this is the last day of the year 2017. Oh, how time flies, don't you think so, too?

The older Dutch word for 'horloge' (watch) / 'klok' (clock) is 'uurwerk', literally: 'hour work', almost like the English word 'clockwork'.
Nowadays we think the 'uurwerk' is the inside of the clock or watch.
John has sent me this beautiful stamp (I love technical things) showing such inside:



And I replied with this Russian stamp sheet which I happened to have found for his clock postcard project:



To prevent the stamp sheet from folding, I had put a folded card around it, showing a painting by Marius van Dokkum:



As you can see, at this moment it is time to watch the time. If you are living east from Europe the New Year already has started at the moment that I am posting this blog. And if you are living west from me, you'll have to have a little more patience. Here in the Netherlands there is only two hours left for the New Year to start. And it is celeberated with 'vuurwerk' (fireworks), which rhymes :-)
So I am happy to show this combination of stamps - and a matching postmark - of vuurwerk together with the uurwerk:




To all of you and your loved ones a Happy, Joyful New Year!
Looking forward to seeing all of you again in 2018!

And don't forget to check Sunday Stamps to find more stamps on the letter 'u'!

Postcards for the Weekend: December holidays

This 'Postcards for the Weekend' theme is 'December holidays'.
Nowadays here in the Netherlands many people send x-mas and new year's wishes via email, whatsapp or other social media. However, still (folded) cards are sent, fortunately, too.

And fortunately people from other countries are sending nice wishes, too. I am happy to have received some from abroad recently:

From Shufen from Malaysia:



I think it funny that the card shows a horse, because the Dutch word for horse ('paard') rhymes with the Dutch word for card ('kaart'), and this way it is a christmas paard-kaart.




Elena from Belarus created the following pretty card. As I love music, I am happy she chose this music notes background:



On the colourful envelope an also colourful December stamp:




Also Hana Ehagaki creates wonderful cards. From Japan she sent me this Happy New Year wish, brought to us by this ウォッチドッグ, watchdog:



On the back a special postmark and an other interesting stamp print:




In our half of the world we think the 1st of January marks the New Year. You can ask yourself if that is a logical day. In other parts of the world there are other first-day-of-the-new-year-days. And I think some of them more logical. Like the first day in spring, the day of the vernal equinox. Or, as the following postcard has been dedicated to, the new moon of the first lunar month.



The (Chinese) New Year of the Dog will start on 16 February 2018. So although not celebrated in December (thus not really matching this Postcards for the Weekend's theme), I post it today, because it is a New Year's card, and I received it last week, thanks to ChenHuei from Taiwan.
She had added a special and matching pictoral postmark:



And on the back side of the card she added this, er, cat, or dog?




Find more season's greeting-cards at and via Postcards for the Weekend!

Sunday Stamps: 'T' is for tandarts, tuinieren and triceratops

Today Sunday Stamps' theme is the letter 'T'. Both in English and in Dutch the elements which are located in our jaws in order to bite, start with a 't': tooth in English (plural 'teeth'), and tand in Dutch (plural 'tanden').
When it comes to health care for these teeth, the English language suddenly moves away from the letter 't', while in Dutch this dentist just is named 'tandarts' (literally 'tooth-doctor').
Dutch Post (then PTT) happens to have issued stamps about tanden and the tandarts many years ago.
The text on the stamp on top says: 'If I promise not to cry, will I get a candy?'.

Coincidentally, the picture on top of this stamp shows a magazine, which in Dutch also starts with the letter 't', namely 'tijdschrift' (tijd = time, schrift = exercise/note book)!

Here some detail of a visit to the tandarts:



And of course tandenpoetsen is important (poetsen = to brush):




The Dutch word for 'garden' is 'tuin', and the verb 'gardening' means 'tuinieren'. The theme of the following stamp is 'biodynamic agriculture', growing bulb flowers, but the picture on this stamp makes me think of tuinieren in an individual garden rather than professional agriculture:




Finally a triceratops, a well-known prehistoric animal whose name I think the same in any country. The stamp happens to origin in a country starting with the letter 't' also!



See more stamps on the letter 't' at and via today's Sunday Stamps.

Sunday Stamps: 'S' is for strips / stripverhaal and schaak

This weekend Sunday Stamps' theme is the letter 'S'.
In general I don't really collect postage stamps. 'What?' - I hear you say :-)
I mean, I'm not really looking for stamps or buying them to add them to my collection: as a 'passive' collector I just keep the stamps I receive, and of the Dutch stamps I buy for my outgoing mail I keep some mint ones if they show an interesting or pretty picture.
However, there are a few themes which I'm collecting in a more active way. The funny thing is that two of these themes start with an 'S' in Dutch, while both start with a 'C' in English.

A strip (plural: strips) in Dutch means comic(s) in English. Stripboek = comic book, stripverhaal = comic story.
Above you can see a stamp sheet which I was very happy to add to my strip stamps collection. The Asterix comics I already read in my childhood, and I still like to read them (and I think I've read all albums).
Although one might wonder if the stories maybe are against my non-violence principles. Strange enough I just recently realized how much assault and beating happens in the Asterix stories: not before reading a scientific article about traumatic brain injuries!..



Schaken is the other word I'd like to share today. The word 'schaken' looks plural and means 'playing chess'. The literal translation of 'schaakspel' (chess-play) refers to the board and chess pieces themselves. As a verb, 'schaken' means 'to play chess'.
In my collection there are several stamps on this theme, but due to lack of time I couldn't scan them to show you today. This first day cover from the Faroe Islands I've bought and scanned some time ago. The postmark shows my favourite chess piece: the paard. The Dutch name 'paard' literally means horse, we don't use the English translation of 'knight' which in fact means 'ridder'.

If you're into chess, I guess you immediately must have noted something peculiar in this chess stamp!


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

Postcards for the Weekend

This weekend the theme of Postcards for the Weekend is 'anything you wish'.

Coincidentally I received two cards from Eva this weekend (well, one on Friday and the other yesterday, Saturday), which is a good reason to post them now!



This postcard shows a flying object and I am not sure if it is a hot air balloon or zeppelin. Eva bought it in Amiens, France, the city where Jules Vernes has lived for many years.
I love the combination of the design of the flying object and the map - and stamps on top and airmail stripes on the right (wondering why most airmail envelopes have red and blue lines/chevrons?).

On the back side Eva added wonderful stamps, among them a clear hot air balloon:



Some other creatures who even knew how to fly long before Jules Verne was thinking about it, appear on this postcard:



The postcard is titled 'Reality', from a book named 'ABC Photography', and the photo itself is titled 'Sustenance 114', made by Neeta Madahar in 2003.

On the back side an other wonderful stamp, showing a rooster and a hen in a stained glass window. They represent the legend of the Miracle of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.



Thank you very much, Eva!


Find more Postcards for this Weekend at this weekend's Connections to the World.

Sunday Stamps: "R" is for rolstoel, regen and regenboog

Today Sunday Stamps are dedicated to the letter 'R'.

While the Dutch word 'Rolstoel' refers to its function ('rolstoel' literally means 'roll(ing) chair'), the English word refers to its appearance: 'wiel stoel' or 'wheel chair'.

Rolstoelen are good solutions for people who have lost the ability to walk. However, this stamp shows that there still are thresholds to overcome, both literal and figurative (social, administrative, financial, psychological) obstacles, once you become dependent on this mobility equipment:



Despite of the obstacles, people manage to practice sports on high level, for instance wheelchair tennis. Dutch Post has dedicated at least two stamps on rolstoel tennis players.

In 2009 a stamp sheet was issued on the theme 'attention for sports talent'. One of the talented tennis players is Aniek van Koot. Three years after this stamp has been issued, she won silver medals on the London Paralympics, and in 2013 she won the US Open:



In 2012 Dutch PostNL issued a stamp sheet in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Olympic Committee / Dutch Sports Federation NOC*NSF. One of the stamps from this 10 stamps sheet shows Esther Vergeer, who has been the number one in rolstoeltennis for many years:



From Ukraine I received this pretty stamp, showing a woman in a rolstoel. So to see a robijn (ruby) is handed to her:



And you might have noted it in the previous stamp: there is a regenboog (rainbow)!
Regenbogen appear when there is sun (zon) and regen (rain) at the same time. This combination you can see on these stamps, issued in 2004 for the 150th anniversary of the KNMI, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute:



In case the legs and feet function but the hands function less, sometimes it is possible to use the feet for manual tasks. This foot painter also pictured a regenboog:




The regenboogvlag - rainbow flag - is know in many countries as a sign of diversity and tolerance.

Canadian Post issued this regenboogvlag stamp, to celebrate the fact that two people who love each other can marry, no matter if they are male or female:



Some regenboog you can also see in the trousers of the man. These two stamps have been issued in 2016 in honour of the Europride, which took place in Amserdam in that year:



I just now realize that there is an other word starting with an 'R' in Dutch and not in English: 'Roze'!
Roze means pink - and 'pink' has a false friend: the Dutch word 'pink' is the fifth / little finger in English! :-)

Find more stamps in words starting with the letter 'R' at today's Sunday stamps!