In: from France

Some years ago I was in the south of Spain, and along the way I suddenly saw flamingoes in the wild. I was surprised, because until that day I always had thought these amazing birds were living in countries more southward.
Last week, also to my suprise, I learned that flamingoes even are living north from Spain, too. This postcard shows flamingoes in Sigeán, in the south of France.

The card came with more than one stamp.



Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Val!

Sunday Stamps: Bridges

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Bridges to anywhere'.

I love bridges. Similar to mail, bridges connect.

Fortunately mail companies all-over the world have issued bridge stamps, and I was the lucky receiver of some of them. Among them this one from Japan:



An other suspension bridge (so to see) is this one in Iceland:



The following Chinese stamp on top shows a covered bridge. I am not sure if the second stamp shows a bridge too, but at least the stamps belong to one serie:



This stamp from Germany seems to be a 'common' one as I received it more than once. Nevertheless the image keeps on being a beauty.
The bridge pictured is an arch bridge, a kind of bridge which is dear to me (I'll show stamps on my favourite - Dutch - bridge an other day). And don't you love the postmark?



From Russia arrived these great bridge stamps:



In the United Kingdom the Royal Mail has issued many bridge stamps. You can see them via the links at the Sunday Stamps post of today.
Here are two from the United Kingdom:





Besides receiving bridge stamps I've also send out.
This pretty bridge reminds of the Amsterdam canals. It has been designed by the late Dutch illustrator and author Sieb Posthuma:



A photo of the Skinny bridge, a movable bridge in Amsterdam, is this one:



The famous painter Vincent van Gogh has painted a similar bridge, after the drawing bridge in Arles, France:

Out: to Sri Lanka

Another tram postcard found to send to Ravindra in Sri Lanka! I happened to find a temporary 'brocante' market on my way in my home city, and of course the old black and white photo postcards attracted my attention.

This card has travelled and will travel far, both in time and in place.
Concerning time: the card has been written and sent for the first time in 1929. And more than 86 years later it is sent again.



Concerning place: the card - originally from Marseille, France - was sent from Tanger in Morocco, to Haarlem in the Netherlands.
And now will travel from the Netherlands to Nugegoda in Sri Lanka!



On the envelope I added these train stamps, which I hope Ravindra will like, too. These I bought in the city of Utrecht at the stamps shop of Wim van der Bijl, a very friendly and remarkable stamp collector and seller.

Sunday Stamps: Rocks

This Sunday Stamps' theme is: rocks, gems and minerals.

My dear late grandmother collected stones and minerals, so the theme is dear to me. And I love to see the stamps the other Sunday Stamps pals have collected and shared! You can find them at Sunday Stamps and the links under the post.

For me it was not easy to find suitable stamps. That is, I could not find any mineral or gem in my collection at all!

Fortunately the following rocks I found. Both are large, and both in the sea (so, island rocks!?!).

From Hong Kong:



And an illustrated one, from Spain:

Sunday Stamps: Fish in the water

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Fish in the Sea (or lake, or ocean)'.

First I thought it would be hard to find fish stamps, but wandering through my received mail, there appeared to be more than one Fish stamp!

The first fish I would like to show is a fresh water fish, the pike ('snoek' in Dutch).
This fish stamp is from the United Kingdom (thank you, John!):



I have an old Dutch stamp sheet which shows a pike, too, but alas I can't find it to scan for you at the moment. Fortunately you can see it somewhere else on the internet. That stamp sheet was issued in 2005 and showed flora and fauna in the Naardermeer ('Lake of Naarden'), the oldest protected nature area in the Netherlands.
Recently, ten years later, the Dutch post issued a new stamp sheet on this lake. This time a ten stamps sheet, of which the bottom two show underwater life. Among them the pike again:



From the lakes in the countries at the North sea to some more southern European sea, close to Spain. Eva sent me fish mail (not to be confused with fishing mail :-) ) and on the cover were two sea mammal stamps, and two fish:



A stamp from the far south. In the South African sea beautiful fish are living. Among them this one:



And from the south to the far east. I was so lucky to receive some Asian fish stamps.

From China:



From Taiwan:



From Sri Lanka:



And finally, a stamp from the Netherlands, showing an Indonesian fish:



More interesting and beautiful fish stamps you can see on the Sunday Stamps blog and the related links mentioned there!

In: from the Sea

The Sea is an interesting phenomenon. Eva sent me several Sea items from the sea Spain, of which I am posting three different ones right now.



Above you can see a wonderful stamp showing the sea, seen from the air.
There won't be Sea without Land, as you can see also on this stamp: below the airplane the Canary Islands archipel is visible.



Bottles containing messages are frequently sent by people. Sometimes they arrive on the beach, brought to Land by the Sea, to be found by other people.
My home town doesn't have sea close by and I don't go to the beach often, so the chance for me to find a message in a bottle is almost zero. Fortunately Eva knew a good alternative to send her bottled message to my place: the mailmen, who travels by bike and/or car over land. So I finally found a bottled message in my mailbox!



Last but not least, and I received this card in July already, aeas contain wonderful flora and fauna. Fish, mollusc, mammals. All kind of animals. And mermaids, of course. This card shows our marine friend Salina, and the beautiful lighthouse.

Thnak you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva (and Salina)!

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!