Sunday stamps: 'F' is for film and fotografie

Today it is the letter 'F''s turn.

Fotografie looks and sounds a little similar to photography. Be it that in the word 'fotografie' the accent falls on the '-fie' and not on the '-to-', as I have learned that's the case with the English word 'photography'. The meaning of both words is exactly the same.
Filmmaker only differs in pronounciation of the 'a' to the 'a' in the English equivalent, filmmaker.



Heinz Sielmann was a German filmmaker and fotograaf (photographer). He created beautiful wildlife films (movies) and foto's (pictures). See some of his work via this website.

In: from the USA

I received an envelope, whose sender seemed to be 'Lost Kingdom Station' in Tulsa, USA. Curious to know how this Lost Station would know my name and address I opened the envelope. And... Inside an other envelope, showing these great tiger stamps and wonderful special postmark!

Not send by the Lost Kingdom Station, but via this place by FinnBadger.

He added this great tufted puffin card, from the National Geographic Museum.



Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Sunday stamps: Pets

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Pets'.

I would have loved to show two stamps about cavias (guinea pigs), because we had two cavias at home. Alas I must say 'had', because one of our dear house members, cavia Cato, sadly has passed away last Friday. Thus widowing her companion Senior.

As far as I know I've seen only two cavia stamps. Due to some suboptimal functioning desktop/scanner I cannot scan them for this Sunday's post. But fortunately there also are links to them:
- One cavia stamp is part of a recently issued USPS stamp sheet. Fortunately FinnBadger has showed this beautiful stamp on his website, click here to find it.
- The other is a personalized stamp, I made via PostNL 'personal stamps' website of our very first, also late, cavia Snuitje. You can find the stamp sheet on bottom of a previous post about pets in 2014 (click here).

Meanwhile I had the following 'chaincards' already scanned. The theme of this chaincard project also was 'pets', and the cards traveled via Netherlands, Taiwan, Azerbeidjzan, Singapore, Russia. It gives a nice insight in which animals are considered pets worldwide: especially the Singaporese and Taiwanese stamps surprised me, as most Dutch have cats, dogs, rodents and goldfish or guppys as pets. About the horse stamps was some discussion, whether they are pets or not, but because we liked the images too, they also were approved to use for the ones who wanted them.



The card shown above is from the Russian member, and returned home after I had added my stamps.



This card was mine, arriving home after having been traveling through all mentioned countries.

And the following card - from the Singaporese member - took a lot of extra travel time. The rubberstamp print tells us all about the adventurous reason why:



See more great pet stamps at this Sunday's Sunday Stamps site and follow the links mentioned there.

Sunday stamps: Flying

Today the Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Flying'.

Apart from flying flies, wasps and mosquitoes (which I never have seen on stamps so far), the flying 'objects' I see around my home on a regular base are birds and airplanes (and leaves and maple seeds in autumn).

Dutch PostNL has started to issue a serie of four beautiful bird photo stamp sheets this year.
The third and fourth stamp sheet I hope to get in future. At this moment I can show you some flying birds from the first two sheets:

From the 'lentevogels' ('spring birds') the stork ('ooievaar' in Dutch):



and the black redstart (in Dutch: 'zwarte roodstaart' which literally means 'black redtail'),



And from the previous 'winter birds' sheet this greylag goose:




This flying bird I happened to receive yesterday, but it is in transit. The stamp is on someone else's chaincard, so I have to forward it. But fortunately I could make a scan in time :-)




Luckily some months ago I received one of my own chaincards back, themed 'aviation'. Here it is, after traveling from the Netherlands via Singapore, Thailand, Russia, back home, now showing several airplanes, and a helicopter:



See more interesting stamps, and wonderful variations on the theme 'flying' today's Sunday stamps and follow the links.

In: from the USA

This year it's hundred years ago that the tallest man of Puerto Rico has been born, el Gigante de Carolina: Felipe Birriel Fernández.
This postmark is in honour of him, and with many thanks to FinnBadger I received this postmark, too.
Which has made me wonder: has this mail been traveling from the USA to Puerto Rico - which I always thought to be an independent country, but wikipedia learns me that it isn't - and from there into the world?!?

See more information about Felipe Birriel and other tall men on thetallestman.com.

The postmarks and stamps have been accompanied by this postcard, showing a painting by Charles Seeler, named 'Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting', painted in 1922.



Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

In: from the United Kingdom

I was wondering why John had sent me a postcard showing a boat, until I read the description on the back side. It is a Floating Post Office!
The photo was taken in 1934 at the Liverpool Docks (photographer unknown, alas), and now is in the British Postal Museum & Archive.



And I keep on learning thanks to stamps! The postcard was sent one day before Commonwealth Day, an unknown day to me until now. This year the day happened to be on the same date as in 1983 (I learned thanks to wikipedia).

Thank you very much, John!

In: from the USA

This postcard from FinnBadger is very special. Not only because of the beautiful design, by Charley Harper, showing a Loon (Diver; 'Duiker' in Dutch), one of my favourite water birds, but also by the postage stamp: it is the new round US stamp and it is the first time for me to see it in real; I love the moon!

FinnBadger chose a perfect combination: the stamp and the picture both show the moon (and the title of Harper's illustration is 'Clair de Loon' which of course reminds us of Debussy's beautiful song).

And third, last but not least: did you notice the postmarks?



Yes, the stamp has been cancelled twice, and even the Harper faux postage got a cancellation mark, on a very special date: leap day!
It doesn't happen often that February counts 29 days, and mail rarely is postmarked this date.
Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

By the way, some more '29 February' postmarks you can find in this IUOMA group.

Sunday Stamps: words, numbers

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'words and/or numbers (no pictures)'.
I had a few Dutch stamps in mind when I read about this theme, but while searching my stamps I found a lot more. Many from the 'gulden' era but also newer ones, issued after the introduction of the euro.

If I only were allowed to choose two stamps, then the following two would be my choice:

The one which fascinates me most:



Why it fascinates me? Well, this one inspires me to add / draw a lot of pictures! Korfbal, in English known as Korfball, to my opinion is the most emancipated sport, as men and women are treated equally: they play together. My late grandmother (born 1910) used to play it as a teen, and we used to play it at school. Alas it isn't a well-known sport and to my frustration it still hasn't become an Olympic sport so far. I hope one day it will be.
So if I would have been the designer of this stamp, I sure would have added the typical basket, a mixed-gender team, Olympic rings as an advertorial, or whatever. But the designer made a strong design by using words only. And by leaving most of the stamp empty!

And this one is one of my favourites, for it shows true words from a female writer, Belle van Zuylen:



'Lezen en schrijven verandert werkelijk het bestaan van de mens...' means: 'Reading and writing really changes the being of mankind'.
A little more of this written letter you can see on the 'postzegelblog'.

Well, still no-one has stopped me after posting these two, so I'll post more stamps on words-without-pictures :-)

One issued in 1986 for the 350the anniversary of the Utrecht University (where Belle van Zuylen happened to have been to):



Two about law, the new, that is, in 1992 reformed, 'Burgerlijk Wetboek' (Dutch Civil Code), stamp issued in 1992:



and the Wetboek van Strafrecht (Penal (criminal) Code), issued in 1986:



This one I love for it shows an important part of book making: print letters:



The stamp has been issued in 1977 for the 500th anniversary of the first printed book in Dutch language (which happened to be the Delft Bible).

Stamps on the edge of words-no-pictures and pictures are these ones:

Five different stamps issued on a ten stamp sheet, for five anniversaries:



In which some elements of pictures slightly have been added to the pictures, like staves in the last one, issued for 'Hundred years Dutch Composers Association' (I've sent out one of these with the accompanying text).

The twelve provinces (of which I've sent out four):

(Click to enlarge the following six stamps)


The stamps show words only - the pictures are besides the stamps themselves - but the words also form the province flags!..

From letters to numbers, via the stamp issued for the Court of Auditors, which in Dutch means 'Rekenkamer', literally 'counting (or calculating) chamber':



Some number stamps. Until the introduction of the 'forever stamp' it was clear what a stamp would cost, for instance in 2002 for mail up to 20 grams:



And mail between 20 and 50 grams:



In 2007 for mail up to 20 grams:



And then there was this '1' stamp. This year it's value is € 0,69, in the new year one '1' stamp for national mail will be € 0,73.



Finally an other nice stamp, issued in 2003, on a subject you might like: 'verzamelen' means 'to collect':



The tiny words in the background have to do with (stamp and banknote) collecting.

See more interesting and beautiful stamps on this theme on Sunday Stamps, and the links under that post!

In: from Japan

In Japan so-called Gotochi ('local') cards are issued, shaped cards showing nice illustrations.

I was happy to 'meet' Tomoko from Japan via instagram. She wished to receive Jip & Janneke cards, which I sent to her, while I was delighted by the picture of this Japanese Mailbox 'Summer' card, which she sent to me!

On the back she added a delightful serie of Japanese nature stamps.



Thank you very much, Tomoko, arigato!

Out: to the United Kingdom

Similar to the country where the receiver of this card is living, The Netherlands are considered a monarchy. However, the government / parliament mainly acts independent of the king (I don't know if this is similar to the U.K.?).

At school I learned that governments are located in the capitals of the concerning countries. A funny fact about the Netherlands is, that this isn't fact in our country. Amsterdam is our capital, but the government is in the city of Den Haag (The Hague). The postcard below shows a part of the city of The Hague with the buildings of the Dutch ministries.
Fortunately there happened to be one stamp left on a five-stamps sheet, which was dedicated to this city (see above). On the sheet you can see these buildings, too. The stamp itself shows a part of the Ridderzaal, and a stork: the bird of this city, once chosen because they might bring luck. On the Coat of Arms of The Hague the stork is holding an unfortunate black eel in his/her beak.

Sunday stamps: Mammals

Het thema van deze Sunday stamps is 'zoogdieren'. Het liefst zou ik postzegels willen laten zien van onszelf, de mens is per slot van rekening een zoogdier, maar helaas heb ik er geen in mijn collectie. 'Helaas', want het blijft scheef dat voor flesvoedingsfabrikanten ongebreideld reclame wordt gemaakt: op geboorte- en felicitatiekaartjes zie je volop melkflesjes, maar vrijwel nooit een kind aan de borst. Met als gevolg, zo is mijn en anderen hun ervaring, dat veel pasgeboren moeders niet gemakkelijk buitenshuis borstvoeding durven geven, en vaak ook zelfs thuis niet als er anderen bij zijn. Er heerst blijkbaar toch een soort taboe op, en door die onzichtbaarheid vergeten mensen dat borstvoeding gewoon normaal is...
In Nederland zijn niet eens officiële postzegels over 't onderwerp uitgegeven, in tegenstelling tot bijvoorbeeld Luxemburg, Polen (met een voorloper hier), San Marino (ook minstens twee keer, zie hier en hier), Oeganda, Algerije, Guatemala, Griekenland en Nicaragua.

Dus vandaag maar een ander zoogdier op postzegel, een van mijn meest favoriete: het vogelbekdier. Een zoogdier, dat zwemt en eieren legt!
Deze Australische postzegel stond al heel lang op mijn verlanglijstje, dus ik was heel blij toen ik 'm ontving. En sprong een gat in de lucht toen onderstaande envelop in de bus kwam, met nog meer vogelbekdierzegels!

This time the Sunday Stamps theme is 'Mammals'. I'd prefer to show stamps of ourselves: we human beings are mammals, too. The word 'mammal' comes from the Latin word 'mamma' which means 'breast', and the Dutch word for mammal, 'zoogdier', means 'breastfeeding animal'.
But alas I don't have any stamp of breastfeeding people. 'Alas', because I think it unfair that there is a lot of implicit advertisement for the formula industry: on birth- and congratulations cards for newborn children and parents there are a lot of bottles to see, while I hardly see similar cards showing a baby being nursed. To my and other's experience, many newborn mothers feel uneasy when nursing outside home, or even at home in front of friends or relatives. And by the fact that 'breastfeeding' seems to be banned from public views, it has become a kind of taboo. Despite of the fact that mother's milk is the normal feeding for a child, by this invisibility many people forget that...
Here in the Netherlands there never have been issued official stamps showing breastfeeding, while in other countries there are beautiful stamps on the subject, for instance Luxembourg, Poland (previously this one), San Marino (also at least twice; see here and here), Uganda, Algeria, Guatemala, Greece and Nicaragua.

So for today I choose an other mammal, one of my all-time favourites: the Platypus. This nursing hairy animal lays eggs! This postage stamp was on my wish list for a very long time, so you can imagine how happy I was when I received the stamp above from Australia. And I 'jumped a hole in the air' (Dutch expression) when I received the mail you see below, with even more Platypus stamps!

In: from the USA

Bijzonder werk door de kunstenaar Brian Moss. De titel vind ik erg leuk: 'Zwemmen met Guppies'. We hadden vroeger thuis guppies. Ik vond het leuke visjes. Al kwam ik nooit op het idee om er ook mee te gaan zwemmen.
Ontvangen van PostMuse uit Amerika.

Amazing art work by Brian Moss. I like the title: 'Swimming with Guppies'. We used to have guppies at home. However I never though of swimming with these cute little fish.
Sent by PostMuse from the USA - thank you very much!

In: from Portugal

Ontvangen vanuit Portugal, deze fraaie kaart waarop je kunt zien hoe divers ooievaars gehuisvest zijn (en toch hebben ze allemaal eenzelfde soort nest!). Dankjewel, Eva!

Received from Portugal, this beautiful postcard which shows that storks are living in diverse ways (however their nest always is similar!).
Thank you very much, Eva!

In: from Iceland

Een van mijn (vele) lievelingsdieren, deze papegaaiduiker (wel zielig voor de visjes) uit IJsland. Eigenlijk is 't een vakantiekaart, van een Nederlandse vriendin. Aan de poststempel kun je zien dat deze kaart uit het pre-postcrossing-tijdperk stamt.

One of my (many) favourite animals, this puffin (though a pity for these little fish), sent from Iceland. In fact it's a holiday-postcard, which I received from a Dutch friend. The cancelling stamp reveals the fact that this was in the pre-Postcrossing era.

In: from Australia

Ontvangen van Jenny uit Australië, deze prachtige kaart van de kookaburra, en ook maakte ze me blij met onderstaande kaart van de trein van Adelaide via Alice Springs naar Darwin.

Received from Jenny from Australia, this wonderful close-up of the kookaburra, and also she made me happy with this train postcard, the train from Adelaide via Alice Springs to Darwin.
Thank you very much, Jenny!

Out: to China

Deze kaart stuurde ik naar een postcrosser in China, die mij een aardig kaart had gestuurd. En ik kon 't niet laten bij de postzegel een draakje te tekenen. Omdat het 't Chinese Jaar van de Draak is.

This card I've sent to a Chinese postcrosser, who had sent me a nice card.
I drew a little Dragon on the envelope, because it's the Chinese Year of the Dragon.

Out: to Belarus

'Een grizzlybeer (Ursus arctos horribilis) doet een dutje' in het Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, gefotografeerd door Carol Block voor National Geographic My Shot / Stock.
Verzonden naar een berenliefhebster in Wit-Rusland die mij verraste met onderstaande bijzondere (eerste dag-stempel!) ansichtkaart.

'A grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) takes a nap' in the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Pictured by Carol Bock for National Geographic My Shot / Stock.
Sent to a bear-fan in Belarus who has surprised me with this special (first day stamp!) postcard: