Sunday Stamps: E is for Envelope, Erwtjes and Embrace the Earth

Past Sunday's Sunday Stamps theme is/was the letter 'E'. As I was elsewhere, my contribution has a littlE dElay. But here they are:


Envelopes have been pictured on the 2008 Europa stamps (in the year two-thousand-Eight :-) )
For example on this Dutch Europa stamp:



And on the Russian Europa 2008 stamp a modern and classic version of an envelope:



Envelopes behind a modern communication medium (facilitating E-mail!) on the Europa stamp from Azerbeidjan:





Erwtjes, I think a funny Dutch word. It means 'tiny peas' (erwten is the normal plural form of the singular 'erwt'), and I was happily surprised when I saw erwtjes being honoured with a stamp from France:




The erwtjes came on a chaincard themed 'green'. And when thinking of 'green' I think of the Environment, and the need to protect it. So I also was happy to see this stamp on the card. Issued by Turkish Post, a beautiful symbolic way to show the importance of protecting the environment, to embrace the Earth.





See what other 'E' other stamp lovers had in mind on this Sunday at Violet's See it on a Postcard and follow the links in the comments.

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: '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!

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!

Sunday Stamps: 'V' is for voetstap, vogelbekdier and verkeersveiligheid

This Sunday the theme of Sunday Stamps is the letter 'V'.

Inspired by Eva's blog post of one week ago, showing a stamp on which voetstappen in the snow were pictured, I wanted to show you one other stamp showing a voetstap.
However, I couldn't find it in time. But luckily suddenly a voetstap stamp has arrived in my mailbox last week! On the back of a postcard which I showed you last week already.

These are voetstappen, also known as footsteps, in the Spanish sand:




A theme of which I can show you plenty of stamps, is 'vogels', 'birds'. Because I couldn't choose from all pretty bird stamps which I have received and which I bought to send out, I decided to show a stamp of a mammal, whose name in Dutch starts with 'vogel', too: the vogelbekdier. Vogel means bird, and bek means beak, dier is animal, so it is a 'bird-beak-animal'.
As many of you know, the vogelbekdier, or platypus, is one of my favourite animals, and I've showed you an other Australian platypus stamp before. This time I like to share this maximumcard, which I am very happy to have in my collection:




Finally a word, related to an important issue: safety first! 'Safety' in English means 'veiligheid' in Dutch. And 'verkeersveiligheid' means 'safety in traffic' (verkeer). Many fatal accidents have been prevented since the veiligheidgordels = safety belts have been introduced, and some more fatal accidents are missing since the use of veiligheidstoelen, special safety car seat for kids, is obliged.
Russian Post has issued this colourful stamp on this theme:




It is safe and in a way obliged, to check today's Sunday Stamps to see what words other mail lovers have chosen for the letter 'v'!

Sunday Stamps: 'L' is for lezen, luchtballon and libelle

Today the Sunday Stamps' theme is the letter 'L'.

In Dutch, reading means 'lezen'. Conjugated: ik (I) lees, jij (you) leest, hij of zij (he or she) leest, wij/jullie/zij (we/you/we) lezen.

One can read a book:



Or read from a computer screen:



And how nice it is to read, laying warmly under a blanket:




The 'hot air balloon' in Dutch usually is 'air balloon' only: luchtballon. There are many stamps showing balloons. However, so far I only received this one, from Russia:



Dutch PostNL issued a serie of international stamp sheets on aviation in 2015. Most of them showed airplanes, a few helicopters and there was this stamp in honour of the Montgolfier brothers, the inventors of the luchtballon:



A luchtballon also appears on the selvage of this stamp sheet, in honour of the city of Roermond:




Finally I'd like to share some insect with you. This insect somehow makes us think of helicopters. The English word 'dragonfly' we literally would translate into 'draak vlieg', but we don't. Instead we name the insect 'libelle'. Some thinner species we name 'waterjuffer' (water-young-lady, damselflies), but the order, Odonata in English, in Dutch also is names libelle.

From the John I received this beautiful stamp:



And from Eva this beautiful shaped stamp arrived:




See more stamps on the letter 'L' at and via today's Sunday Stamps.

Sunday Stamps: 'K' is for krant and kasteel

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is the letter 'k'.

Inspired by Violet's post of today, I thought to share the Dutch word for 'newspaper', illustrated by stamps from Mexico, Russia and the Netherlands. In Dutch we name the newspaper 'krant'.
As far as I know, in several languages words for 'newspaper' contain some part meaning news, or time, or day, and so. For example in the German word 'Zeitung', Zeit means time. Or the French 'journal', jour = day, and in the Spanish 'periódico', 'period' has to do with time also. And 'newspaper' of course contains the word 'news'. See more translations of the word 'newspaper' via Wikipedia. The Dutch word 'krant' appears to have nothing to do with day (dag), time (tijd) or paper (papier). However, it origins from the French word 'courant' which means current, commonly, present, and the old word (plural) 'couranten' meant 'current notifications'.

I found a few stamps showing newspapers. I don't know most of these newspapers so I cannot tell which signature they have or on what 'level of quality' they are.
For example, Dutch most well-known newspaper was 'wrong' in WW2 and nowadays brings news in a sensational, not always fair way. Despite of that, and to my surprise, it alas is the best selling newspaper in the Netherlands.

Kranten (plural of krant) have been pictured on stamps from Mexico:



From Russia:



From the Netherlands:



(A newspaper and a cup of coffee to my opinion is a very pleasant combination :-) )



In contrary to the above-mentioned best selling newspaper, the 'Parool' was 'right' in WW2. It has been founded in 1940 and helped positively in the Dutch resistance against the Nazis.

The stamps above and below have been issued in 1985, 40 years after WW2 has ended.



A newspaper which is considered being of good quality (though not selling as much as the first-mentioned newspaper), is the NRC Handelsblad. When I was a child this newspaper published stories of Ollie B. Bommel and Tom Poes every day. A kind of comics, that is, pictures above and printed text below.
In 1996 the following stamp sheet was issued. I immediately had to think of the NRC newspaper. And first I thought to not post this sheet here, but then I noticed the selvage on the left, and the text, which starts saying: 'Spring had come and mister Bommel was sitting under the blooming pear tree, reading his newspaper.'



After reading the newspaper, before putting in it the recycling bin, you can make all kinds of nice things of it:



It might be clear that I have a strong preference of some of the Dutch newspapers to some other newspaper. Do you have strong opinions on the different newspapers issued in your countries?


An other word starting with the letter 'k', and probably immediately understood by all of you, is 'kasteel'.
In 2017, the Europe stamps theme is 'castles', and I am so lucky to have received some of these stamps.

From Turkey, Belarus, Russia, Estonia, and of course one of the two Dutch castle stamps:



From Greece:



From Spain, with a funny postmark:



From Spain, with a modest postmark - thus showing more of the stamp:



From Serbia:



And the other of the two Dutch stamps:



By the way, thanks to Eva, recently a postcard arrived which happens to show an other Spanish castle, the Almodovar Castle:



Worth a stamp, too, don't you think so?!

Find more stamps on the letter 'k' at and via today's Sunday Stamps!