In: from Morocco

Recently I received this Sheep postcard from Eva. I scanned it last week, but was busy doing other things after that.
So I planned to post it the coming weekend, when I suddenly saw that Eva blogged about sheep (more or less) today! Apparently today is a good day to publish Sheep postcards, and I am happy to show you this wonderful picture, taken in Poland by photographer majeczka (Maria Wachala).
Wish I was there in that peaceful quiet landscape, instead of here in too busy times!..

Eva has sent me an other great sheep postcard, which I will keep for (and cherish) myself. Alas lack of time keeps me from my wish to publish all mail I am receiving (and sending). I learned that turning all received and sent mail into digital blog posts takes a lot of my time and will restrain me from sending out snail mail. And that analogue action of course (snail mail lovers will understand) has some priority :-)

Sunday stamps: Mushrooms, Fungi

The theme of Sunday Stamps of today is 'Mushrooms, fungi'. Useful creatures, most of the time overlooked and sometimes considered revolting, but I think they're always interesting.

They have been depicted on postage stamps in various countries, check for instance Violet's blog and the links mentioned under her post of today. And Eva drew our attention to a weblog which completely is dedicated to mushrooms on stamps!

However, so far I only received one: this Fly agaric ('Vliegenzwam' in Dutch) on a beautiful Canadian stamp.



The fly agaric of course is wellknown for its use for housing and as seats for gnomes. However, the toadstool below seems a bit too small for this tiny fellow (and the coffee pot too big!..).
This stamp has been issued in 2008 by the Dutch mail (named TNT then) as an international stamp (worth € 0.75, while seven years later international postage has been raised to € 1.15). More gnomes in this serie you can see on this website.



Also in 2008 the Dutch post issued a nice stamp sheet to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Mycological Society. The sheet contains ten stamps, showing five different mushrooms: a 'young' version and a 'grown-up' one. It's very interesting, because it shows the variety in growth of mushrooms.

I thought I had the complete sheet, but I appeared to have used all of them except for two (which I plan to use for a mail art project on mushrooms). Below you can see the two ones left. The complete set you can see on the Filahome website and especially on the stamps blog, on which nice detailed pictures of each stamp are shown.

This is the 'Inktviszwam' or 'Octopus stinkhorn':



And here again the Fly agaric or Fly amanita, with in the stamp sheet's edge from right to left the development of an other mushroom, the Ink cap:



Two years later, in 2010, the Dutch post (still TNT Post then) issued a stamp sheet themed 'Long live the Forest', to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Dutch Forestry Association. Also of this sheet I haven't the complete version anymore (you can see the complete sheet on the stamps blog), but fortunately I kept the bottom part so far, and indeed there are mushrooms, not only on the forest floor, but also on this stamp sheet 'floor'!



Finally I would like to show you two very tiny types of mushrooms / fungi.
These are part of a stamp sheet containing ten pictures of different microbes (I blogged about it before, see the last picture of this post). The stamp sheet was issued in 2011 (TNT post was changed into PostNL then), to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Netherlands Society for Microbiology.

This fungus is the Aspergillus niger, which helps to produce compost:



And this beauty has been discovered in 1928 to be life safening: the penicillium (or Penicillium chrysogenum to be exact):



Don't you think the fact that fungi obviously are related to at least three different associations / societies, proofs that fungi are ubiquitous and play an important role in many different stages and parts of life?

In: from the United Kingdom

In juni 2014 arriveerden een vuurtoren en tram op dezelfde dag, dankzij John, vanuit Engeland, en een klein jaar later was dit weer het geval!
Boven zie je de vuurtoren van Bell Rock oftewel Inchcape, en hieronder de Llandudno & Colwyn Bay electrische tram.

In June 2014 a lighthouse and tram arrived on the same day, thanks to John, from the United Kingdom. Almost a year later the same happened!
Above you can see the Bell Rock aka Inchcape lighthouse. amd below the Llandudno & Colwyn Bay electric tram.



Deze keer kwam er nog een derde ansichtkaart bij, met een wat vreemd onderwerp: een stoel waarmee mensen in het water gedoopt werden?

This time a third postcard arrived, showing a peculiar subject: a chair by which people were dipped into the water!??



En alle drie weer met mooie postzegels met enkele van mijn favoriete onderwerpen: een treinstation, postvervoer, bruggen en taal (gebarentaal in dit geval).

The three of them showing nice stamps on the backside, among them some of my favourite subjects: train station, mail transport, bridges and language (sign language this time).
Thank you very much, John!







En niet te vergeten airmail/priority stickers.

And not to forget: air mail / priority stickers.

In: from Hong Kong

De Poolse uitgeverij Postallove geeft een bijzondere serie 'GF', 'groeten uit' ansichtkaarten uit. Ik ontdekte deze serie via instagrammers uit onder andere Hong Kong, China en Maleisië, en ik dacht eerst dat deze kaarten uit Oost-Azië kwamen. Maar ze komen dus van dichter bij huis, en zijn ontworpen door de Poolse ontwerpster Ewa Słocińska.

Dankzij Natalie ontving ik deze kaart uit het afgebeelde land zelf, met op de achterkant ook mooie postzegels van een net uitgekomen serie over sport.

The Polish company Postallove has issued a special serie, GF cards, 'greetings from' cards. I discovered this serie thanks to instagram users from Hong Kong, China and Malaysia, so first I thought these cards came from Eastern Asia. But they appear to have been created a little closer to my home, designed by the Polish designer Ewa Słocińska.

Thanks to Natalie I received this GF postcard from the country pictured, and on the back she added stamps from a new Hong Kong stamp serie about sports.

Thank you very much, Natalie!

In: from the United Kingdom

Zonder het te weten besmette Eva me met het vuurtoren-virus. Sindsdien, iedere keer als ik een kaart ontvang met een vuurtoren, spring ik een gat in de lucht.
John is iemand die zowel Eva als mijn postvoorkeuren kent, en hij was zo aardig om me deze mooie kaart te sturen, van de vuurtoren op Sint John's Point, bovendien voorzien van prachtige postzegels op de achterkant!

Without knowing and willing to, Eva has infected me with the lighthouse-virus. Since then, every time I receive a postcard showing a lighthouse, I'm super happy.
John in the United Kingdom knows Eva's and my preferences. He was so kind to send me this beautiful Saint John's Point lighthouse, and has added more beautiful lighthouse stamps on the back.



Thank you very much, John!

In and out: from Italy, via Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands, back to Italy

This postcard with an awesome amount of postage stamps I have had in hands for one day only :-)

Instagram user @ioog had a very nice stamp swap project: four people from four countries start to send one postcard from their own country, always to the same person out of the other three. The receiver adds stamps and forwards it to the next receiver. So finally, the four of them receive their own postcard, which thus has been traveling in four countries, and has been added stamps to from all of these countries.

I had to send my own card, and the other three received ones, to Italy. The Italian participant forwarded hers to someone in Hong Kong, who forwarded them to Singapore, and the participant in Singapore forwarded the cards (except the own card after it's travels) to me.

So this is the card which started the trip through the world in Italy, and now is ending it's journey back in Italy.
Meanwhile I could admire it, add Dutch stamps to it, scan it (to 'keep' it here in a way, too), and on the very little room top left I wrote the Italian address.
I got the good news that this card has arrived safe and sound. I wonder if all other three cards did have a safe journey, too, and am looking forward to meet again my first sent postcard. I'll post if / it as soon as it has landed here!

In: from the United Kingdom

Tasha uit Engeland verblijdde me met deze kaart. Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887–1976) was een Engelse kunstenaar die vooral bekend werd met zijn schilderijen van scenes uit het dagelijks leven in de industriële gebieden in noord-west Engeland, midden twintigste eeuw.
Dit schilderij is gemaakt in 1943 en heet 'Wachtend tot de winkel open gaat'.

Tasha made me happy by sending this postcard. Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887–1976) was an English artist who was famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century. He created this painting in 1943, named 'Waiting for the Shop to Open'.
Thank you very much, Tasha!