Sunday Stamps: A is for Aletta Jacobs

Today the new Sunday Stamps alphabet is starting, with the letter 'A' of course.

In the previous alphabet my chosen theme was 'Dutch words stamps'. I was wondering what theme to choose now, or if I should maybe show random stamps.
Thanks to Eva's blog post of today I suddenly thought of 'people'.
And the stamp Eva showed, 'American Women' in general, reminded me of a certain Dutch woman who has played an important role: in becoming a university student and a medical doctor in times when women were not supposed to study, in supporting people who had a bad and poor life, and a main role for women in obtaining the right to vote.
Aletta Jacobs I'm talking about. I must confess that I don't have a stamp showing herself, but the stamp I have immediately reminds me of her. The stamp has been issued in honour of the women's right to vote. Maybe Aletta Jacobs shows up on the black and white photo in the upper part of this stamp?



In 1999 the Dutch Post issued a stamp sheet, themed 'highlights of the 20th century'. One of them is this stamp, dedicated to the obtained right to vote. So to see the woman on this stamp is not Aletta Jacobs, but anyhow the stamp is related:



On the internet I found this one and only stamp, a personalized one, showing her portrait:



Since a few years the archives of Aletta Jacobs are considered as world heritage, and in the UNESCO Memory of the World program.


See here what interesting 'A'-stamps other stamp lovers chose for today's Sunday Stamps!

Postcards for the Weekend: Happiness, joy

This Postcards for the Weekend's theme is 'Happiness / Joy'.

This postcard show an object which brings a lot of joy:



As a mail lover you immediately know why :-)

In case of doubt: see what joyful Postcrossing stamps on the back side this postcard returned to me, after having traveled to Malaysia, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and back to my country:



A person who brings much joy and happiness, too, is Krtek, or Molletje (Little Mole) as we name him in Dutch. Created by Czech animator Zdeněk Miler, Little Mole shows us how to live happy, with friends and in harmony with nature:



I see DawnTreader has chosen a happy Krtek postcard for this weekend, too, and I think one never will get enough of this friendly and smart mole. The Mole always gets nice solutions to everyday's problems. And even to big problems, as my favourite Little Mole movie proofs (Mole in the city - Molletje in de stad - Krtek ve městě). The Little Mole in the City movie follows the adventures of Krtek and his sidekicks Hedgehog and Rabbit as they head to the city after the forest, their home, has been taken over by industrialization.

Last but not least, there are two women who exactly know how to keep up happiness and joy, even at an elder age. Created by Finnish illustrator Inge Löök, they showed up on this postcard which landed in my mailbox yesterday and which caused a smile from ear to ear on my face, also for the back side.



I received it from Eva, and she suggested matching names for the two. Thanks a lot, Eva! I think I agree with you - be sure that a proper reply will be sent as soon as possible!

See more happy postcards at and via Maria's Postcards for the Weekend!

Sunday Stamps: New Year

This week, on 16 February, the Chinese New Year will start: the year of the Dog.

That means, we'll say goodbye to the Year of the Rooster..
Dutch PostNL issued a stamp sheet on which you can see this change. 'Vaarwel jaar van de Haan' means 'goodbye / farewell to the year of the rooster', and 'welkom jaar van de hond' means 'welcome year of the dog':



Via Instagram I got to know several mail loving people from all over the world. And some of them are starting a so-called 'chaincard' themed 'Year of the Dog'. We are just about to start, so I haven't received any of the stamps yet, but some of them showed the stamps they'll going to use already in the instagram groups, and I like to share the print-screens of these stamp pictures with you!

On alphabetic order:

From Australia / Christmas Island:



From China:





From Indonesia:



From Japan:



From Korea:





From Malaysia:





From Singapore:



From Taiwan:



From Thailand:



On my turn, I'll add the Dutch Year of the Dog stamp to their cards. Dutch PostNL officially will issue this stamp sheet on 16 February, but to my surprise my order arrived already last week :-)



See more stamps of this coming New Year at and via Sunday Stamps.

Postcards for the Weekend: Love / lovely

The text says:
'A 'lief' (kind/lovely/sweet/cute) message
from me ...
... for you!'

(the scanner made it a little dark but in real the letters are bright shiny red)

There are a few days left before the send-lovely/loving-messages-to-each-other-day (14 February, Valentine's day) and before the Chinese New Year will start (16 February: the Year of the Dog). Meanwhile this weekend's theme of Postcards for the Weekend is 'love/lovely'.
So - apart from the fact that my (vegetarian, rodent) pets are chased (and eaten?) by pets like these pictured two - I though this postcard a matching one!

See more lovely / loving / love mail at and via Postcards for the Weekend!

Sunday Stamps: 'Z' is for zee, zeeschelp and zwemmen

We made it! In 26 weeks the owner of Sunday Stamps posted stamps of all 26 letters from the alphabet, and she made us - Sunday Stamps and Mail Lovers - do the same! Congratulations to all, and many thanks to Violet, thank you for hosting Sunday Stamps so carefully!

So, the last letter of the alphabet is 'Z'. In English pronounced as 'zea', in Dutch we name this letter 'zet'.

The first stamp I want to share with you is about the zee, sea in English. Zee is pronounced as [zey] or [zay] like in 'hey' and 'hay' (is there any difference in pronounciation between hey and hay? - I don't hear it!..).
And the letter Z is not only for zee, but also Zeeland, literally 'sea-land', which is the name of the province in the zuidwesten - south west - of the Netherlands. The country New Zealand is named after this province.



Last week this province was in the news and some historical movies were shown on television, because of a sad anniversary: in the night of 31 January - 1 February 1953 the North Sea Flood took place, and this flood took the lives of many victims.
This was the start of a dike protection plan, the so-called Deltaplan, to construct the Deltawerken (Delta Works). The construction took many years, and finally, in 1986 the main parts of the Deltawerken were finished. This stamp has been issued in 1986 in honour of the Deltawerken. The text says 'Deltawerken voltooid' ('Delta works completed') but in fact it was the main parts which were finished, and in 1986 the Oosterscheldekering was inaugurated. Finally, after more than 40 years of construction, in 1997 the last part of the Deltawerken was completed (which does not mean the end of all construction works: nowadays one has to maintain it!).
So, on this 1986 stamp you can see a part of the zee, a part of Zeeland and the forementioned part of the Deltawerken.

The province Zeeland is famous for the mussel cultivation (including selling / eating). I couldn't find a stamp showing a mussel, but today that is no problem as 'mossel' doesn't start with a 'z'. But fortunately I found a look-a-like, which at least is a zeeschelp - a sea shell, on this pretty stamp bwhich Eva has sent to me from Morocco:



One activity we can do in the zee is zwemmen (to swim). You also can do it in a zwembad (swimming pool), and some people make a match of it - zwemsport (swimming sports).
Coincidentally this 'chaincard' arrived back to me recently, after having been traveling to Thailand, Taiwan and Russia, where kind stamp lovers added stamps showing zwemmers (swimmers) to my card (and I added the Dutch zwemsport stamps to theirs). This is the result:



See what other 'Z' themed stamps others have found at and via today's Sunday Stamps!

Sunday Stamps: 'Y' is for ijsbeer, ijs and ijsvogel

This Sunday the theme of Sunday Stamps is the letter Y.

In Dutch we name it 'Griekse IJ', or i-grec, literally 'Greek Y', as it origins from the Greek alphabet's letter Ypsilon or upsilon.
Words in Dutch starting with a 'y' are known internationally, like yak, yoghurt and yoga. Be it that the pronounciatin of the Dutch 'g' in these words is different from the English, Spanish, French and German pronounciation (the Dutch 'g' sounds like the Spanish 'j'). The word 'year' in Dutch is 'jaar', so yearly events and anniversaries won't count for my blog post on the letter of today :-)

Of course I couldn't find stamps on yoghurt, yak, yoga. But in Dutch we can 'cheat' a little, without cheating: when naming the 'Y' in the alphabet we pronounce it like the 'IJ'. The ij is used and pronounced as a vowel, and there are several words starting with this 'ij'.
Like ijs, which means both icecream and ice.

From a Finnish postcrosser I received this snowy and icy stamp. It must be so ijskoud - cold as ice - there, that rivers freeze into ijs:



In the Netherlands there is the ijsvogel, literally 'ice bird', though in English he and she are named 'kingfisher'. Arnold Voordewind, a Dutch phographer, took this beautiful photo and turned it into this stamp:



From FinnBadger I received this wonderful stamp from the United Nations, showing an ijsbeer ('beer' pronounced as 'bear'; the English 'beer' in Dutch is 'bier').
In English this animal is named 'polar bear', though in Dutch it is simply an ijsbeer:



Despite of the name 'ijsbeer' the environment of the ijsbeer is lacking ijs / ice more and more. Climate change, global warming, these facts are a serious thing. And does not only make the ijsberen cry, but also us, humans, in the end will have to face the bad sides of our over-use of natural sources...

This beautiful stamp sheet shows the sad reality and the sadness of the ijsbeer:



I received this wonderful sheet by surprise from Virna from Indonesia - thank you so much!


More stamps on the letter 'Y' (and maybe an other 'IJ'?) you can find at and via Sunday Stamps.

Sunday Stamps: 'X' is for xylofoon, and Xerxes and Xhosa

For today's theme of Sunday Stamps, the letter 'x', I had to borrow pictures from the internet, as I didn't find stamps in my collection whose content starts with an 'x'.

The Dutch word that immediately comes into mind is the xylofoon. It sounds similar to the English xylophone. On the internet I found this French stamp, showing one:



The neXt words are similar in Dutch and many other languages:

On the internet I searched for stamps about the historical figure Xerxes (I or II). But the only one directly showing 'xerxes' was this stamp of this ant whose second name is xerxes:



Years ago I saw a nice movie (one of my favourites), located in the south of Africa, whose main character was named Xi. I thought them to speak Xhosa, but I was wrong, though the language might have some similarities (I should study on that to be sure). Despite of this, 'Xhosa', both language and people, of course offer a new chance to find stamps. And I found stamps dedicated to the Xhosa people, among them this one:



See what other stamps related to the letter 'x' mail lovers have found on and via today's Sunday Stamps!

In: from Hungary

This wonderful postcard shows a wellknown character. Micu found this card in Berlin, and sent it from Hungary, as you can see on the wonderful stamps:



Manyi Kiss was a Hungarian actress. And bélyegzók pecsétnyomók do mean something like 'stamp' and 'seal', which are favourite themes of mine.
Thank you so much, Micu! Your card arrived in time and I am happy with it!!

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!!!

Postcards for the Weekend: Aerial views

This weekend the theme of Postcards for the Weekend is 'Aerial views'.

I'd like to share postcards of three cities in the Netherlands. Haarlem, Amersfoort and Utrecht are rather unknown to tourists and other visitors from abroad, but I think them pretty cities, worth a visit.



The postcard above shows part of the city center of Haarlem, in the province Noord-Holland in the west of the Netherlands. Did you know that Harlem (New York) was named after this city?
In Haarlem there's (besides the Frans Hals Museum) the Netherlands' oldest museum, the Teylers Museum. This museum is located at the river Spaarne, which you can see clearly on this aerial view.



Amersfoort is a city more eastwards, in the central province of Utrecht. The inner city of Amersfoort has been preserved well since the Middle Ages: among others, part of the old city wall and gates still are there. This aerial view offers an impression of the medieval city-architecture. However, Amersfoort meanwhile has grown, outside the city wall, to a city of 155,000 inhabitants in the municipality (and 287,110 in the metropole).



More or less inbetween Haarlem and Amersfoort there is the capital of the province Utrecht: the city of the same name. Utrecht has a pretty city center, too. You can wander, shop, and take a coffee or tea (and lunch and dine) at terraces located besides the canals. A landmark is the Dom Tower. You can see the tower on this postcard. It is the tallest belfry in the Netherlands, but an even more special thing about this tower is, that it has been separated from the rest of the Dom Church. You can read the story here, and do you notice this fact, when looking close at the postcard?


Sometimes I wonder if birds - for whom aerial views might be normal - would see the same things as we see, I guess they will focus on other details when flying above our cities :-)


I hope you've enjoyed watching my contribution for this weekend. Be sure to check Connections to the World and the links mentioned there, to see what more beautiful things postcards lovers are showing for this week's Postcards for the Weekend!

Postcards for the Weekend: Winter scenes

This weekend's Connections to the World theme is 'Winter scenes'.
At the moment it is cloudy, here in the Netherlands. Sometimes rainy, and when going outside one could think it to be not only winter, but also autumn or spring. In the start of last December there were some days full of snow, and the weather forecast says it might be snowing next week, or not.
At least there are postcards who show snow. And thanks to 'Postcards for the Weekend' I was triggered to share them with you.

The postcard above I received from Margit from Germany, a cute one of Little Mole, or Krtek, and his woodland friends.



Although I dislike the cold and slipperiness of snow, sleighing is fun. This postcard is an illustration by Fiep Westendorp.

The postcard below I had made out of a photo I took some winters ago, from footsteps of our feathered friends on the pathway next to our home.



And this is a regular postcard, showing a winter scene in the province of Drenthe:



I used it for a chaincard, and after a journey via the USA, Indonesia (without melting!) and Russia the card returned home safely, the backside filled with snowmen:




See more winter scenes at and via Postcards for the Weekend!

Sunday Stamps: 'W' is for Waddenzee, wet, wortelen and wetenschap

Today's Sunday Stamps' theme is words (woorden, in Dutch) starting with a 'w'.

On top you can see a few stamps, issued in 2003, in honour of the Waddenzee (Wadden Sea). This sea, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is located between the Waddeneilanden (Wadden Islands) and the mainland north of the Netherlands, and of Germany and west of Danmark.
These stamps are part of two stamp sheets; the complete sheets and some more Waddenzee stamps you can see here.

While the Waddenzee and all other seas are wet, the Dutch word 'wet' has a totally different meaning. I think you won't guess which meaning...



Right! 'Wet' means 'law'!.. Weird, this false friend is, isn't it?!

The theme of the stamp above is the Wetboek van Strafrecht, literally 'Law book of penalty law/justice', in English known as the Criminal Code or penal law / Penal Code (according to my woordenboek = words book = dictionary).
There are several words concerning the 'wet'. As a non-native English speaker, for me the question when to use the (English) nouns 'law', 'justice', 'act', 'legislation', 'regulation', 'right' (in Civil Right) and adjectives like 'legal', 'lawful', 'legitimate', 'rightful', might be similar as the question is for non-Dutch speaking concerning the (Dutch) nouns 'wet', 'recht', 'wetgeving', 'regelgeving' and adjectives like 'wettelijk', 'juridisch', 'legaal', 'legitiem', 'rechtelijk' and so :-)

Before you get too dizzy of all these words, I'll continue with a more concrete subject:



A 'wortel' is a carrot. 'Wortel' is one of the few Dutch words which has two types of plural. Usually Dutch words are made plural by adding -en to the word, and only a few words become plural by adding -s. However, the plural of 'wortel' can be both 'wortelen' and 'wortels'.
On this stamp you see a 'bos wortelen'. 'Bos' in general means 'forest', but concerning wortelen and flowers, it means a 'bunch'.
And did you note: how nice is the tiny picture of the land this stamp comes from?!

The word 'wortel' also is used for other plants' roots, and has a mathematic meaning, too: square root. And the verb 'worteltrekken' (literally: to push carrot/root) means 'to extract a square root'.
This sounds scientific, doesn't it?
The Dutch word for 'scientific' is 'wetenschappelijk', and 'science' is 'wetenschap'. The professional who is practising science we name a 'wetenschapper'. 'Weten' means 'to know', and is pronounced different from 'wet': 'the Dutch 'wet' sounds like the English 'wet', in contrary the first 'e' of the Dutch 'weten' is pronounced as a 'long e' and sounds a bit like the 'ai' in 'wait' or the 'ei' in 'weight'

Severo Ochoa is a scientist from Spain. Here you can see him next to an other Nobel Prize winner (Juan Ramón Jiménez was a poet), on a stamp sheet showing all kinds of results from wetenschap:



Evgeny Zababakhin and Boris Petrovsky are Russian wetenschappers:



From the Netherlands Willem Einthoven, who invented the first practical ECG:



Frits Zernike (of the phase-contrast microscope):



And Peter Debije / Debye:



Via 'populaire wetenschap' ('popular science') science can be made more widespread and popular. In cooperation with the Dutch science museum Nemo, Dutch Post has issued this stamp sheet named 'ontdek de wetenschap' ('discover science') on which you can see some wetenschappelijke proeven (scientific trials) which are easy to do by yourself:



For professional scientists there is the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (Royal Dutch Academy of Science). The KNAW celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2008, for which Dutch Post issued this anniversary stamp, 'Magie van de Wetenschap', 'the Magic of Science':




See more stamps on the letter 'w' at today's Sunday Stamps!