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!

Sunday Stamps: Butterflies

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Butterflies or moths'.

The first butterfly stamps which come into mind are from a pretty butterfly serie, issued by Correos in Spain. This is one of them, issued in 2011:



A stamp which seems to be 'common', and which shows one of my favourite butterflies (even though I've never seen this 'common swallowtail' in real), is this Belgian one:



In the United Kingdom, Royal Mail has issued butterfly stamps as well, of which I received this one:



These 'citrus swallowtails' arrived from South Africa:



This year Dutch PostNL issues several stamp sheets in collaboration with the 'Ouderenfonds', a charity fund, founded to help elder people.
By the way, on their website - alas in Dutch only - the Ouderenfonds mentions several projects, among them a 'send a card to a lonely elder person' project, and I think the project website's name very suitable: 'no facebook'. I think it a nice initiative, and fortunately there are similar projects in other countries, too (a quick search via google learn me about, among others, this one, and this, and this, and of course we can look around in our neighbourhood or faraway family, I think there are many people to whom a real written card will bring a smile - and see, how coincidentally, this month the Mail a Smile project's theme happens to be 'Butterfly'!).

Regarding the stamp sheets, among them is a serie of four, showing both butterflies and flowers, in relation to the four seasons. One stamp of the spring sheet has been posted some Sundays ago. Above the Crocus stamp there was/is a butterfly, and also one butterfly flew in the stamp sheet edge:



One other is a serie of butterfly stamp sheets, this is one of them:



The illustrations of these stamp sheets have been created by Janneke Brinkman-Salentijn.

By the way, a year ago Dutch post already has issued a serie of four nice stamp sheets showing butterflies, be it photos instead of drawings, but also in relation to the four seasons. You can see them at PostNL's collector's shop website.

A special manner to picture butterflies is shown on this stamp sheet: butterfly silhouets. It is a sheet from the serie 'Mooi Nederland' ('beautiful Netherlands'), dedicated to the city of Amersfoort.
I was wondering what butterflies have to do with this particular city, and the only information I found is that there has been constructed a 'butterfly way' throughout the city, with butterfly friendly flowers planted in several locations.



If you look close you can see a blue butterfly on the stamps themselves.

See more colourful and beautiful butterfly stamps at Sunday Stamps.

In: from the United Kingdom

One day before the Sunday Stamps was themed 'spineless invertebrates' I happened to receive this postcard from John. Being an insect postcard and not an insect postage stamp, I waited until now to post it here.

For the UK insect stamps which I showed on the Sunday Stamps blog post I am grateful to John.
Also on this postcard John has added interesting and beautiful stamps.

There isn't much "ict" on stamps yet, while many of us work almost daily with one or another form of information communication technoilogy. So the stamp on bottom, which shows the evolution from ancient hieroglyphics via a books library to IT is a very actual one!



Thank you very much, John!

in: from the United Kingdom

I love to read, but alas there's too little time to do so. Instead I can find time to enjoy seeing other people reading. For instance this reading woman in a comfortable chair, illustrated by SusannesArt.

Sent by John, who loves reading people, too. And he added great stamps, among them this seven spotted ladybird:



And this foot painter:



Thank you very much, John!

Sunday stamps: Animals in the wild

This time the Sunday Stamps' theme is - like many other themes - a favourite of mine: animals in the wild.

One family of animals I admire for both their beauty and for something we, humans, are not able to do: birds!
Bird are able to fly (except for ratites of course). So caged birds I always think sad. While watching birds fly in the wild always makes me smile and provides a sense of freedom.

This great flying tern stamp I received from South Africa.
By the way, a flying tern is in the logo of the international bird protection organization Bird Life, and also in the logos of several partners, among them the Dutch and South African bird protection NGO's.



Love the way the stamp has been postmarked across. As if it is to show how high a bird can fly :-)

The following stamps show the contrast between a caged bird and birds in the wild:



Well, the caged bird isn't on a stamp himself, but is part of a larger stamp sheet, of which the stamp shows an other freely flying species.
The godwit (grutto in Dutch) is a bird who thrives in the grass-land. Grass-land birds have been, and still are, threatened by intensive farming in our densely populated country. Fortunately there are several initiatives to help farmers combine farming with nature protection (but still it's not enough, I am afraid).

Other flying birds are these wild ducks, beautifully pictured on a Finnish stamp. This bird is common in many countries.



To my pleasure I see that both Violet Sky and Joy have posted Australian stamps. In Australia some of my all-time favourite animals are liviung: the echidna, the platypus, the kookaburra, the cassowary and the brushturkey. The last-mentioned I've never seen on a stamp, the others I did see.
Among them this kookaburra:



And, my favourite stamp (which I fortunately received more than once!), the platypus:



Some other wild life, tiny ones:



However, the words 'Animals in the wild' will make most people think of larger animals, mammals to be specific.

Animals in forests and nature reserves, from Belarus, Russia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands (the latter is a personalized stamp, temporary issued by natuurlijkefoto.nl):











Wild animals like elephants....



... and lions (this is from a stamp sheet showing more animals, that is, silhouets):



And arctic animals, alas endangered, too:



Check Sunday Stamps for more animals-in-the-wild stamps!

In: from the United Kingdom

John sent me this interesting card of a bridge. Not just a common bridge (although this type of bridge can be found all over England), but a Pack Horse Bridge.

On his weblog posting of yesterday, you can see some more bridges from the UK.

He also made me happy by sticking beautiful stamps on the postcard, showing the Noble Chafer (funny that the word 'chafer' sounds a little like the Dutch word for beetle: 'kever') and the Stag Beetle.



Thank you very much, John!

Out and in: to and from the United Kingdom

Altijd leuk om ansichtkaarten met als onderwerp 'brievenbus' te ontvangen! Met toepasselijke postzegels, ook. Deze twee ronde brievenbussen staan vlakbij kasteel Windsor. Ontvangen van John uit Engeland.

It's always nice to receive postcards showing letterboxes. And even a miracle when the stamps show letterboxes, too! These two pillar boxes are located close to Windsor Castle. Thank you very much, John!



Verstuurd als antwoord op deze kaart van de levenbarende hagedis, die ik weer stuurde vanwege die ene postzegel, rechtsboven in de hoek, die de ontvanger graag wilde en waarvan ik toevallig nog een exemplaar had (nb deze gulden-postzegels zijn nog te gebruiken tot 1 november a.s.!..).



Sent as a reply to this postcard, showing a common lizard, which I've used as a carrier to send the stamp in the right corner.

In: from Finland

Ontvangen uit Finland, deze mooie kaart met hommel.
Received from Finland, this beautiful picture of a bumblebee.



Plus het Finse weerbericht en een gebruikt bioscoopkaartje!
Plus the Finnish weather forecast and a movie ticket!
Kiitos, Roosa!