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: 'B' is for 'brief', 'bellen' and 'blindengeleidehond'

I love 'false friends': words which in one language have a certain meaning, and which have in an other language a totally different meaning.

That is the case with the word 'brief'. In English 'brief' means 'short'. But the Dutch word 'brief' has a meaning which I guess you all might like: 'epistle', 'letter'!



On the first stamp Nijntje (Miffy) is writing a brief (letter).
And on the second stamp you see the happy receiver of this brief (letter).



An other funny false friend is the verb (not noun) 'bellen', a false friend between German and Dutch.

In Dutch, the verb 'bellen' means 'to make a phone call'. In German, 'bellen' means... 'to bark' (in Dutch: blaffen).

Here you see some people 'aan het bellen' (calling),



And talking about barking (blaffen), the type of dog on the next stamps doesn't bark a lot, but works hard instead, to help to guide blind people.
In Dutch he/she is named 'blindengeleidehond' (blinden = blind people (plural), geleiden = to guide, hond = dog).
Sunny was the first guide dog in the Netherlands and started to work in 1935, the founding year of the KNGF (Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation).



The characters on top are from the Braille alphabet, named after Louis Braille and thus has the same name in Dutch, English and German.


See more stamps concerning the 'B' at and via today's Sunday Stamps.

In: from the USA

Both FinnBadger and Eva completed the 'A to Z challenge' in April, a wonderful and amazing achievement. For that reason I sent them a special 'A to Z' congratulations mail (see Eva's and FinnBadger's blog).

On my turn I felt lucky, not only by enjoying the forementioned blogs, but also by all kinds of kind and beautiful mail, both FinnBadger and Eva send to me.
As I like typography (and civil airplanes), and there happened to be a matching magazine cover, FinnBadger surprised me by sending this great A-Z envelope.
By the way, do you notice that the airplane on the stamp is flying upside down?

In the envelope a card showing one of my other favourite themes, being born in the Year of the Dragon: a YotD-Dragon!



Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Sunday stamps: Letters, postcards, and the post

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Letters, postcards, and the post'. A great theme, of course, for mail lovers like me and all who like to visit blogs like this :-)
Below my contribution. And check Sunday Stamps to find more post-related stamps!

The first stamp I'd like to show is a Dutch stamp sheet, issued in 2001 as 'children's stamps'. These stamps ('Kinderpostzegels') are issued every year in November, to support projects for children.
The theme of 2001 was 'Child and Computer'. And the funny thing is that, although it was meant to show the pathways of electronic mail, still you can see that it's a Real Letter being brought around!



This Swedish serie of stamps shows the postal process, both in place and time (be it the paper post instead of the digital mail). (Thank you Niklas, for sending!)



How Post works? Write a letter or postcard (or create mail art). Add a stamp, put the mail item into the letterbox or ask the post office (wo)man to deliver (the posthorn has been the sign of Post in many countries), see there are several ways for transport. And finally there's the receiver's mailbox!
Stamps from the Netherlands, Estonia, Canada, United Kingdom, Romania and Finland:








P.S. Don't forget to write the postal code:



A very nice idea is Postcrossing. See this website: postcrossing.com. You can send postcards and will receive postcards at random from many places in the world.

In the Netherlands, in 2011 a stamp sheet has been issued, dedicated to Postcrossing. I wrote about it here.
And to my surprised I received a Postcrossing postcard from Finland recenlty, showing also a Postcrossing stamp.
To make the circle round: I started with a stamp sheet which showed that the computer (email) and snail mail go together well. Also in exchanging postcards via Postcrossing, the digital and snail mail life show an excellent symbiosis!

In: from the United Kingdom

Ontvangen van John, deze ansichtkaart die werd uitgegeven ter gelegenheid van de 200e verjaardag van de eerste postkoets in Engeland in 1784. Op deze kaart uit 1984 werd de rit op 1 en 2 augustus nog eens dunnetjes overgedaan.

Received from John, this postcard which was issued to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first mail coach run in 1784. This Post Office coach is being used in the re-enactment of the original run on 1/2 August 1984. The coach is pulled by Norwich Union Greys.



En kijk wat een toepasselijke postzegels! Ik ben er blij mee. En wat toevallig, de postzegel met de brievenbus met vogels maakt deel uit van een serie uit 1983, die afgelopen december verscheen op de website van Violet Sky.

And look at these suitable stamps! I am happy with all of them. The pillar box with birds stamp is part of a serie, issued in 1983, which happens to have been published recently by Violet Sky.

Thank you very much, John!

Out: to Spain

Deze brievenbus is eigenlijk van vóór mijn tijd. Hij staat nog o.a. op de Zaanse Schans en stamt uit 1914, leerde ik hier.
Zelf ben ik opgegroeid met de bredere brievenbussen op pootjes. Eerst de rode PTT-brievenbussen (hier een oudere en hier een met nieuwer logo), toen TPG, en met de overname door TNT werden de vorm en kleur veranderd, en na weer een reorganisatie is het ineens PostNL. Al hebben ze de brievenbussen nog niet overal veranderd.
Op deze weblog trouwens nog wat meer oudere en nieuwere Nederlandse brievenbussen, en hier nog meer nostalgische bussen.

This letterbox I've never seen 'in real' (so I might be younger than I've always thought I was!). This one is located at the Zaanse Schans and is from 1914, I learned here.
I grew up with the broader, red 'PTT' letterboxes on standards. On this weblog you can see some older and newer Dutch letterboxes, and here more nostalgic ones.
Due to reorganisations of the Dutch mail company, the name of the mail company, as well as the logo's and letterboxes, have changed through the years. So in my childhood I noticed the forementioned PTT letterboxes (see here an older and here a newer 'PTT' logo), and as a grown-up I saw the TPG boxes, then TNT. And since another reorganisation since May 2011 they call it PostNL.
Although they didn't change the letterboxes everywhere, yet.



Gelukkig had ik ooit deze toepasselijke (gulden) postzegel bewaard: al meer dan 12 jaar lag deze te wachten om verstuurd te worden... naar Eva.

I happened (happily!) to have kept an old 'gulden' postage stamp, a suitable one: since more than 12 years this one has been waiting to be sent.. to Eva.