Food for thought

Beautiful drawing by Eva and matching stamps, thank you very much!

In: from Spain

This special mail from Eva arrived already a week ago, but I thought today is a good day to open it. Such a great message on the postcard, and the accompanying mail things are, what shall I say, in one word: great! Despite of the actual size: see these very tiny Snail Mail Snail stamps!



Thank you so much, Eva!!!

Sunday Stamps: 'V' is for voetstap, vogelbekdier and verkeersveiligheid

This Sunday the theme of Sunday Stamps is the letter 'V'.

Inspired by Eva's blog post of one week ago, showing a stamp on which voetstappen in the snow were pictured, I wanted to show you one other stamp showing a voetstap.
However, I couldn't find it in time. But luckily suddenly a voetstap stamp has arrived in my mailbox last week! On the back of a postcard which I showed you last week already.

These are voetstappen, also known as footsteps, in the Spanish sand:




A theme of which I can show you plenty of stamps, is 'vogels', 'birds'. Because I couldn't choose from all pretty bird stamps which I have received and which I bought to send out, I decided to show a stamp of a mammal, whose name in Dutch starts with 'vogel', too: the vogelbekdier. Vogel means bird, and bek means beak, dier is animal, so it is a 'bird-beak-animal'.
As many of you know, the vogelbekdier, or platypus, is one of my favourite animals, and I've showed you an other Australian platypus stamp before. This time I like to share this maximumcard, which I am very happy to have in my collection:




Finally a word, related to an important issue: safety first! 'Safety' in English means 'veiligheid' in Dutch. And 'verkeersveiligheid' means 'safety in traffic' (verkeer). Many fatal accidents have been prevented since the veiligheidgordels = safety belts have been introduced, and some more fatal accidents are missing since the use of veiligheidstoelen, special safety car seat for kids, is obliged.
Russian Post has issued this colourful stamp on this theme:




It is safe and in a way obliged, to check today's Sunday Stamps to see what words other mail lovers have chosen for the letter 'v'!

In: from Spain

Cheers!
This coffee postcard arrived yesterday, so just in time to say 'Cheers!' and 'Have a happy day!' to the sender :-)

The accompanying stamp I will post on Sunday, as it has to do with the letter 'V'.

Thank you very much, Eva!

Postcards for the Weekend: Books, authors

This weekend the theme of Postcards for the Weekend is 'Books / reading / authors'.

Two weeks ago I received this pretty postcard from Eva, showing the cover of one of the many books written by Jules Verne, published by Hetzel. She had bought it at the Maison de Jules Verne in Amiens, the house where this famous writer has been living during 18 years.



On the back a matching stamp, of an other French writer: Joseph Peyré:



Find more postcards about this theme at and via Postcards for the Weekend!

Postcards for the Weekend: Food and Beverage

This weekend the theme of Postcards for the Weekend is 'food and beverage'.

Recently I shared one of my two favourite beverages here (coffee with milk it is; my other favourite is plain water).
And Eva does not only provide me with tea and coffee, but she has also sent me food. Like this paella:



And a giant paella!



And on the back of the first paella Eva added this food stamp:




This is an outgoing postcard, showing Garfield and a cooking expert surrounded by cake (and vegetables):



A typical Dutch dish is 'stamppot boerenkool', made of kale and mashed potatoes:



See more delicous meals and/or beverages at and via this weekend's Postcards for the Weekend!

In: from Spain, France, Morocco

Today Sinterklaas aka Saint Nicolas arrived in Friesland, the northern part of the Netherlands, after a long trip by steam boat from Spain. And tomorrow he will visit Amsterdam, our capital.
However.. Already yesterday the Sint arrived in my mailbox! Not with his horse Amerigo, but accompanied by a lovely Donkey. And not from Spain, as he did today, but from France, via Morocco!

As proven by this wonderful tree stamp:




Thank you very much, Eva!

In: from France

I love comics-like illustrations, and I love lighthouses on postcards, so I was delighted to find this postcard in my mailbox, sent from France by Eva.
This is the bateau feu (French for lighthouse ship) Sandettié, named after the sand bank in the North Sea between France and the United Kingdom. A newer version, the Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic nowadays is used as a weather station.



Thank you very much, Eva!

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!

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: '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!

Thank you for following!

Two songs came into my mind when opening my mailbox to find this pretty postcard. "If you walk away walk away (...) I will follow", a song from my teens, and "I, I follow", from more present times.

But behind it was a different meaning: a dear person is following me! On instagram, that is :-)

The postcard has been designed by Frankfurt-based typographer Harald Geisler.

On the back some beautiful stamps:



Thank you so much, Eva, for both following me and for making my days with such great mail!
(er, and I know, on my turn I should start a twitter account now...?!)

In: from Morocco and Cadiz

Camels in Morocco and Kuifje and Captain Haddock visiting Cadis/Cádiz.



I was happy to receive both postcards, along with beautiful stamps, sent from different countries. Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from Greece

The Greek island of Ikaria has a special nature, Eva wrote on the back of this postcard. Seeing this card, I think she is right, and it is hard to 'catch' the beauty in one postcard. However, the real version of this card comes close :-)



On the back Eva added a beautiful stamp, I think of one of the deer statues in the harbour of an other wellknown island, Rhodos.

Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from Spain and Greece

From the city of Athens this postcard originates. Showin 'Pensive Athena', a marble relief (made appr. 460 BC) depicting the ancient Greek Goddess standing in front of a stone stele. Pallas Athena is one of my favourite mythological figures for the fact that she is the goddess of wisdom and art/craft.

Fortunately Eva remembered me liking a rubber stamp depicting Athena, and therefore she chose to send me this card. Bought in Greece and sent from Spain. So the stamp on the back is Spanish, and has been issued for the 2017 Europe theme, 'Castles'. Click on this link, and then on the country, to see the variety of Europe 2017 stamps issued this year.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from Morocco (and Taiwan)

Pretty mail from Eva! The postcard shows a photo, made by Chie from Taiwan, and although originally made for Eva, Eva forwarded it to me, because I love wind turbines.

And I received a so-called 'blanco negro gris' - 'black white grey' letter, as a successor of a beautiful rainbow coloured letter (which I still have to post).
Eva added these two great animal illustrations to her kind words:



:-)



:-)))

Both postcard and letter arrived the same day, on the 13th of June. However, they must have been sent on different days, as the letter's postmark says 17 May, and the postcard's postmark 5th of (May of June?).





Thank you very much, Eva!

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!