In: from Greece

The Greek island of Ikaria has a special nature, Eva wrote on the back of this postcard. Seeing this card, I think she is right, and it is hard to 'catch' the beauty in one postcard. However, the real version of this card comes close :-)



On the back Eva added a beautiful stamp, I think of one of the deer statues in the harbour of an other wellknown island, Rhodos.

Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from Germany

This beautiful postcard, showing local wildlife, was sent by Margit from Germany.
Of these German animals, the two animals on the rocks - the marmot and the chamois - don't live in the Netherlands, as there are no mountains in our country.

Until receiving this postcard I didn't know that the (North-American) raccoon is living in Europe, too. But a short search in the internet taught me that raccoons have been introduced in 1934 in Germany, and have been introduced later in Germany and France also in some other ways. They appear to feel comfortable here, and have expanded their habitat a little to other countries, too.

The card was accompanied by this matching stamp, issued for the protection of the environment, the Alps in this picture. You can see the marmot again, and the steinbock.



And Margit surprised me with an other great postcard! The platypus is native to Australia, but I am very happy that this platypus traveled from Tasmania via Germany to my home.



On the back a pretty stamp showing the Löwenburg (Lion's Castle) in Kassel.



Thank you very much, herzlichen Dank, Margit!

Out: to Morocco

The more I look at this postcard, the more I am amazed about how proportions can differ, depending on the point of view.
I've sent the card to someone who likes/loves cows. Well, who wouldn't love cows?

On the back number three of the recently issued Postcrossing stamp sheet, showing deer in National Park De Hoge Veluwe.

In: from Sri Lanka

Beautiful landscape, animals (among them the grizzled giant squirrel and Sri Lankan leopard) and stamps from Sri Lanka. Thank you very much, Ravindra!

Sunday stamps: Se-tenant stamps

This Sunday Viridian choose for 'se-tenant stamps' as the Sunday Stamps' theme.

Nice topic!
However first I had to look up what 'se-tenant' means. This term is used in philately for stamps printed from the same plate and sheet, adjoining one another, unsevered in a strip or block. They differ from each other by design, color, denomination or overprint.

According to the English wikipedia, se-tenants may have a continuous design, but this is not necessarily so (see also the example showed in wikipedia).
In contrary, according to the Dutch wikipedia continuation of design is a main characteristic of 'se-tenants'. 'Se-tenant' is translated into Dutch as 'doorloper', which literally means that the picture is continuing one in the other.

So I thought this one, according to the Dutch word 'doorloper' is not a real se-tenant:



Although according to the English description they are. Furthermore these two stamps form a continuing part of the story (and of course I love to show you these characters: the bear Ollie B. Bommel and the cat Tom Poes).

Via Postcrossing I received this beautiful se-tenant from China:



According to the sheet edge on bottom of the card (how I love it when people add these parts, too!), this Czech stamp must be part of a se-tenant sheet, too:



In the Netherlands, every now and then continuing stamps are issued.
Several of the so-called 'children's stamps' are se-tenants. I posted one here already.

The following stamp sheet obviously is a continuing picture (alas the sheet isn't complete anymore as I've used two of the stamps):



The se-tenant of the maps and 'Bos Atlas' I showed in January (see here).

Some other Dutch se-tenants:
'Day of the Stamp' (2012), showing former queen Juliana:



Stamp sheet commemorating 150 years of Blijdorp, the Rotterdam Zoo (in 2006). The sheet shows threatened species:



Six (from ten) stamps issued due to the 100 years celebration of the Royal Dutch Forestry Association:



Stamp sheet issued for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Open Air Museum (in 2012), subtitled '100 years tribute to the daily life':

Out: to Belgium

Verstuurd naar België, naar een liefhebber van bomen.
Sent to Belgium, to a tree lover.