Sunday stamps: Outer space

This Sunday's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Outer space'.

The first stamp which came into my mind is this one, received from Assel from Kazachstan.
The stamp connects our world and outer space, I mean: we watch outer space, thanks to the naked eye and to telescopes, and meanwhile one can watch us, our planet earth, from the same outer space:



Micu sent the following pretty stamps from Hungary. They are part of an eight stamps mini sheet, issued in honour of anniversaries and events in space research:



Doesn't the dog remind also you of the unfortunate pioneer space dog Laika?

In 2015 Hong Kong Post issued stamp series named 'astronomical phenomena'.
This is one stamp from this serie:



By the way, the vessel doesn't belong to the stamp, but to a pictoral postmark!


A stamp issued in Italy in honour of the exploration of Mars:




Sri Lanka has issued a stamp serie about our solar system. Thanks to Ravindra I received and subsequently scanned these:






Are you also surprised that Uranus has a ring around it? In the complete serie (see here) you can see that indeed it is Saturnus who has the clearest and largest ring.

Also the USA Post (USPS) has issued a stamp serie on the outer space. Of which I received these two:



The recent USA international 'forever' stamps show the moon and earth respectively:



In the Netherlands PostNL has issued a so-called 'postset' on Dutch astronaut André Kuipers, who worked for the European Space Agency ESA and went on a space mission twice. The 'postset' exists of a stamp sheet and three postcards. Funny enough the year of issue hasn't been written, neither on the stamp sheet, nor on the postcards front or back side. I remember André Kuipers latest (second) space mission as if it was yesterday, but when I looked it up it appeared to be already five years ago.



This stamp sheet (and my enthusiasm about this sympathetic person) I posted previously, almost three years ago, here.

The postcards I'll add here, too, as it shows beautiful views of and from outer space:








And the circle is round, I'll finish where I started by saying that our Dutch astronaut and his Russian and American colleagues returned back to earth and landed, 1st of July 2012, on a countryside in Kazachstan!

See more stamps on this theme at and via today's Sunday Stamps blog.

Postcards for the weekend: Trains / trams

This weekend's Postcards for the weekend's theme is dear to me, too: trains and trams. In the past I've sent and received several postcards (and stamps) on this subject, see trams, and trains (and of course the corresponding subject: railway stations).

This postcard I got at the Railway Museum in Utrecht (which happens to celebrate its 90th anniversary tomorrow).
Some years ago we visited this nice museum and that day there was an additional theme: safety on and besides the railways:



I must say that I prefer the present (electric) trains to the older (steam) ones. The main reason is the fact that these modern electric trains remind me of my trips to and with my late grandparents in the seventies.



An other reason is of course that the old, steam engined, trains produced a lot of smoke.
Nevertheless I was very happy to receive these postcards:

From John, from the United Kingdom:



On the back he added this matching stamp:



From Nomi, from Sri Lanka:



From Ravindra, also from Sri Lanka:



Be sure to check Ravindra's train blog, he collects postcards of trains and trams and has received many, from all-over the world!



And here a modern Japanese high speed train, I received from Hana, who designed this maxi/postcard by herself:





Finally a few trams:

From Natalie, a double deck tram sent from Hong Kong:



From John, also a double deck tram:



And this horse power driven tram:



The following postcard is Dutch and has been sent by me to Ravindra. It shows three historical trams. These - and other historical trams - still ride in summer between Amsterdam and Amstelveen, thanks to the people from the Tramway Museum:



See more trams and trains on Maria's Postcards for the Weekend blog and follow the links mentioned there.

Postcards for the weekend: Lighthouses

This time the Postcards for the Weekend theme is 'Lighthouses'.

First I have to mention that my computer crashed last week, so I cannot scan and upload new postcards, and don't have access to the postcards and stamps which I uploaded in the past years - I did because lighthouses are favourite theme, too!

So the following postcards I'm posting, thanks to my daughter's laptop, haven't been uploaded now: I picked them from the internet.
The last five I copied from this 'nog meer post' weblog, and the first one from the website of Ravindra, to whom I've sent several lighthouses.

Among them this one, 'Lange Jaap', 'tall Jaap', the lighthouse in the northern part of my province, Noord-Holland, in the city of Den Helder.
I've seen the Lang Jaap from the sea, last year, when I took the boat to the first Wadden Island, Texel.



On his turn Ravindra sent me several postcards from his country, Sri Lanka, among them this lighthouse, named Beruwela:



Ravindra even has a blog dedicated to lighthouses on postcards, and besides that, also one about lighthouses on stamps.


Of course I have to show at least one postcard which Eva has sent me. She is the one who infected me with the 'lighthouse virus' :-)
I had a beautiful one from Spain in mind to share here, but as said, alas I cannot get the analogue postcard in this digital apparatus anymore, at the moment.
This one is a beauty, too. It shows a painting by the famous painter Edward Hopper:



You can see a slightly postal addition in the right upper corner: a postmark.
The next card has received even more postmark ink in front during it's travel, but still is a beautiful one.

It has been sent by John, who has sent me more wonderful lighthouse postcards. This one, also issued as a postage stamp, is the lighthouse at Saint John's point.



Also postcrossers have brightened my day by lighthouse cards.
I'm very happy with this maximum card, showing a lighthouse full of cubes (the first cubed one I had ever seen so far). It is the lighthouse at Casuarina Point WA:



Last but not least, a postcard which made me wonder most. As this lighthouse is located in a country which doesn't have any dirct contact with sea: Switzerland! And the lighthouse is even over 2000 meters above sea level!



See more beautiful postcards and stamps about lughthouses via this link.

In: from Sri Lanka

It's always a pleasure to send train and lighthouse postcards and cars and lighthouses on stamps to Ravindra in Sri Lanka. And also a pleasure to receive the beautiful views of his country in return.





And of sea life in the ocean around Sri Lanka (do you spot Dory?!):



The postcards arrived with beautiful stamps on the back:











In the past year we exchanged much more postcards, among them these also:













Thank you very much, Ravindra!