zondag 27 april 2014

Sunday stamps: of children and for children



This Sunday the theme of Sunday stamps is 'of children and for children'.

Every year in November, Dutch school children pass along the houses to sell 'kinderpostzegels', 'children's stamps', which means both stamp sheets and postcards. I did so when I was young, and many years later, that is, last year, our daughter was old enough do so, too.

Above you can see the envelope in which she gathered the orders, of our neighbours and family (and me, of course), and when ready to deliver, she went along the houses again to deliver the stamps and postcards.
The stamps have an increased rate, and the money earned goes to children's welfare projects.

So in all those many years, many children's stamp sheets have been issued.

Here I'll show only a few (some of them are not complete because I used them, of course).











dinsdag 22 april 2014

In: Saint George's Day



Ruim een week geleden ontving ik een mysterieuze envelop, met daarin drie enveloppen, die ik pas op bepaalde dagen mocht openen...
Leuk! Hartelijk dank, Eva!

More than a week ago I received a mysterious envelope. Which contained three envelopes, which I was allowed to open on certain days only...
Exciting! Thank you very much, Eva!




En vandaag - in dit deel van Europa is het inmiddels 23 april - mocht ik deze envelop openen. Twee mooie kaarten! Op de Wally-kaart staan Boeken, en heeft die ene mevrouw niet Rozen in heur haar?
Precies: het is Sint Joris' Dag vandaag! Oftewel, zoals de Catalanen zeggen: La Diada de San Jordi!

And today - it's the 23rd of April already in this part of Europe - I am allowed to open this envelope. Two beautiful cards! The Waldo card shows Books - and doesn't that lady have Roses in her hair?
Right, it's Saint George's Day today! Or, as they say in Catalonia: La Diada de San Jordi!




De ridder op de andere kaart is vast niet Sint Joris - en de Draak is totaal onschuldig.
Eva schreef dat ze me graag een boek zou willen sturen, maar Nederlandse boeken zijn ginds niet te krijgen, en ook een roos sturen per post gaat wat lastig. Maar dat geeft niet: Rozen staan vandaag op Eva's blog. En beide kaarten zijn ieder al een verhaal op zich. Boeken op ansichtkaartformaat. Met bovendien alle ruimte voor onze eigen fantasie.

The knight on the other postcard won't be Saint George, I think. And the Dragon looks totally innocent.
Eva wrote that she would have liked to send me a book, but Dutch books are hard to find in her place, and also sending a rose via mail will be hard. But I think that doesn't matter at all: Roses are on Eva's blog today. And by sending these two postcards she has sent me two interesting stories. Books in postcard size. Which supply our fantasy with plenty of room, too!




Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva! Wishing you great good Books and beautiful Roses today!

zaterdag 19 april 2014

Sunday stamps: Zodiac

Today Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Zodiacal and zodiac signs stamps'.

I'd like to show you this wonderful one: the zodiac sign Aquarius, received from Ravindra from Sri Lanka.



Also in the Netherlands zodiacal stamps have been issued. In 2008 I had a stamp sheet showing all zodiac signs, however I've used these stamps to send out. Fortunately this stamp sheet still is shown in the 'postzegelblog' ('stamp blog').

And by that blog, I learned that the following stamp, issued in 1995 to use for birthday cards, also shows zodiac signs! I had kept these two for almost 19 years but never had watched it that well so far. So thank you very much, Viridian, for attracting my attention and learning more about my own stamps!



And although not meant as a zodiac sign, this pair of scales I think a nice picture of the Libra. It's one out of a serie of four measuring instruments, issued as Summer Stamps in 1986.



On the forementioned 'Postzegelblog' you can find many more pictures from zodiac sign stamps, from all-over the world. Click on the names and enjoy:

Aquarius

Pisces

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Virgo

Libra

Scorpio

Sagittarius (and note the wonderful effect of UV light on the stamp from Ukraine!)

Capricorn.