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!

Out: lighthouses

Toevallig kwam ik in een mooie kaartenwinkel deze drie vuurtoren-kaarten tegen. Ik weet twee gegadigden die erg van vuurtorens houden, dus wie weet, krijgen zij binnenkort zo'n getekende vuurtoren in de bus?

I happened to find myself in a nice cardshop, where I found these three lighthouse postcards. I know two persons who seem to like lighthouses very much, so who knows... Maybe soon one of these drawn lighthouses will arrive into their mailbox?



Gemaakt door de Duitse kunstenaar Ole West. Als je zijn naam in google zoekt, vind je nog meer prachtige vuurtoren-tekeningen. Bovenstaande waren de enige die hier als ansichtkaart te koop waren. Van links naar rechts: de Brandaris op Terschelling, de Westerlichttoren of West Schouwen in Haamstede en de Eierland vuurtoren op Texel.

Designed by the German artist Ole West. When you google his name, you'll find more excellent lighthouse drawings. The ones shown above, however, were the only ones who were sold here as a postcard. From left to right you see the Brandaris on the Wadden island Terschelling, the Westerlichttoren or West Schouwen in Haamstede on the island Schouwen-Duiveland in the province of Zeeland, and the Eierland lighthouse on the Wadden island Texel (click in the Wiki's on the left for English translation).