Sunday Stamps: D is for Darwin and Dragon

This time the Sunday Stamps' theme is the letter 'D'.
Yesterday I happened to have received a postcrossing postcard from Czech Republic, showing a stamp which matches to the theme:



Charles Darwin, I think he doesn't need any introduction, pictured on a stamp designed by graphic designer Pavel Dvorský.

Darwin was famous by his book 'On the origin of species'. However, despite of the resemblance with the little animal on the Czech stamp, I think no one exactly does know the origin of the following animals:



These stamps were issued in honour of the Year of the Dragon. To two of them some relief has been added, or, as we also say in Dutch, some diepte (depth):



See more stamps showing the letter 'D' on Sunday Stamps!

In: from the USA

Both FinnBadger and Eva completed the 'A to Z challenge' in April, a wonderful and amazing achievement. For that reason I sent them a special 'A to Z' congratulations mail (see Eva's and FinnBadger's blog).

On my turn I felt lucky, not only by enjoying the forementioned blogs, but also by all kinds of kind and beautiful mail, both FinnBadger and Eva send to me.
As I like typography (and civil airplanes), and there happened to be a matching magazine cover, FinnBadger surprised me by sending this great A-Z envelope.
By the way, do you notice that the airplane on the stamp is flying upside down?

In the envelope a card showing one of my other favourite themes, being born in the Year of the Dragon: a YotD-Dragon!



Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

In: from Japan

As a 'thank you' for my two attempts to send a Postcrossing card (both finally arrived, fortunately), Asuka surprised me with a beautiful envelope. Which not only contained two postcards - one blank to send forward, and one filled with stickers, nice drawings and a kind message - but also three works of fabric art: needlework / crochet flowers, created by Asuka's aunt.



I love this dragon and Postgirl, drawn by Asuka:



The dancer is practicing Genjo-Raku.



The manga drawing has been created by Reiko Shimizu.



Thank you very much, arigato, Asuka!

In: Saint George's Day

Ruim een week geleden ontving ik een mysterieuze envelop, met daarin drie enveloppen, die ik pas op bepaalde dagen mocht openen...
Leuk! Hartelijk dank, Eva!

More than a week ago I received a mysterious envelope. Which contained three envelopes, which I was allowed to open on certain days only...
Exciting! Thank you very much, Eva!



En vandaag - in dit deel van Europa is het inmiddels 23 april - mocht ik deze envelop openen. Twee mooie kaarten! Op de Wally-kaart staan Boeken, en heeft die ene mevrouw niet Rozen in heur haar?
Precies: het is Sint Joris' Dag vandaag! Oftewel, zoals de Catalanen zeggen: La Diada de San Jordi!

And today - it's the 23rd of April already in this part of Europe - I am allowed to open this envelope. Two beautiful cards! The Waldo card shows Books - and doesn't that lady have Roses in her hair?
Right, it's Saint George's Day today! Or, as they say in Catalonia: La Diada de San Jordi!



De ridder op de andere kaart is vast niet Sint Joris - en de Draak is totaal onschuldig.
Eva schreef dat ze me graag een boek zou willen sturen, maar Nederlandse boeken zijn ginds niet te krijgen, en ook een roos sturen per post gaat wat lastig. Maar dat geeft niet: Rozen staan vandaag op Eva's blog. En beide kaarten zijn ieder al een verhaal op zich. Boeken op ansichtkaartformaat. Met bovendien alle ruimte voor onze eigen fantasie.

The knight on the other postcard won't be Saint George, I think. And the Dragon looks totally innocent.
Eva wrote that she would have liked to send me a book, but Dutch books are hard to find in her place, and also sending a rose via mail will be hard. But I think that doesn't matter at all: Roses are on Eva's blog today. And by sending these two postcards she has sent me two interesting stories. Books in postcard size. Which supply our fantasy with plenty of room, too!



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva! Wishing you great good Books and beautiful Roses today!

Sunday Stamps: Chinese and Taiwanese stamps

It's Sunday, so time for Sunday Stamps!

The 31th of January the Chinese New Year began - it's the Year of the Horse, now - and for this occasion Viridian choose the theme 'Chinese and Taiwanese stamps'.

Thanks to Postcrossing I received several stamps from China and Taiwan. And due to my wishlist - 'Dragons', as I was born in the Year of the Dragon - I received some beautiful Dragon postcards, too. Most of these postcards I'll show on an other occasion.

So today I'd like to share Chinese and Taiwanese stamps with you, and one from Hong Kong, from where I received a beautiful Year-of-the-Dragon card, too.
However I'll start with this backside of a (dragon!) card, which shows two great rubber stamp prints concerning Chinese New Year: The Year of the Dragon, 2012, and the previous year, the Year of the Rabbit:



Even the 'Airmail' is a stamp!
Guangxi from China made my day with sending this card, not only because of the Dragon on the front side and the friendly Happy New Year wish on this backside, but also due to the wonderful stamps, as I love rubberstamps a lot.

And of course you can see a Chinese postage stamp top right.

Secondly I'd like to share these stamps with you, which I received from Taiwan. For me, as a animation movie fan, the Finding Nemo stamp is a delight. And note: top right there's a Chinese New Year stamp, of the Year of the Dragon!



The New Year stamp above has been sticked on the card. Below you can see the same stamp, which is a little different: it has been printed on the back of a postcard:



And this is the postcard the stamp belongs to:



Concerning postcards-and-suitable-stamps, Canada has issued a 'Year of the Dragon' postcard and similar stamp. The postcard I'll show on an other occasion, as said. However, I couldn't wait to show the wonderful Year of the Dragon here!



An other beautiful Dragon postcard came from Hong Kong. With beautiful stamps, too, no dragon but a rubber / cancellation bridge stamp and an Olympic (summer games) stamp:



More stamps from Taiwan:









More stamps from China:









The stamp with the world / round probably show two of the elements (although I'm not sure: I found other stamps of this serie here, which show water (I think) and.. a tree..).



More nice bird stamps:





And architecture:

In: from Finland

Soms nodigt ook de achterkant van de Postcrossing-post uit om geplaatst te worden. Maar de 'postcrossing-wall' is alleen bedoeld voor de voorkant van de kaarten.

Gelukkig is hier plaats voor de extra's. Zoals bij een Finse kaart. In dit geval betrof het een dubbele kaart met envelop. Omdat ik geboren ben in het jaar van de Draak vind ik illustraties van draken altijd leuk. En Emilia uit Finland was zo attent geweest om onderstaande draken-sticker aan de binnenkant van de kaart te plakken. Ben er dus erg blij mee (zelfs al lijkt 't dier hier te verliezen!?).
Ook de postzegel op de envelop deel ik graag met jullie: een Finse Postcrossing-postzegel!

Sometimes I feel the urge to publish the backside of the Postcrossing-mail. However, the postcrossing wall is meant for the front side of a card only.
Fortunately here's a place for the extra's. For instance of a Finnish card, send by Emilia from Finland. It was a folded card in an envelope. Because I was born in the year of the Dragon I always like illustrations of dragons. And Emilia had been so thoughtful to add the dragon sticker on the inside of her card.
Also I'm happy to share the stamp on the envelope with you: a Finnish postcrossing stamp!

Sunday stamps: Fantasy, children's fantasy

'Minder is meer', is een stelling die ik onderschrijf. Maar ik kan het vaak niet laten om al die mooie postzegels hier te delen. Ook dit keer is het thema van Sunday stamps er een die zó veel mooie plaatjes omvat: 'Fantasie, inclusief fantasie van kinderen'.
Dat is een thema waarmee je veel kanten op kan! Al zoekend door m'n kaarten en postzegels, besefte ik dat je 'fantasie' ook weer kunt onderverdelen in heel veel verschillende 'subcategorieën'. Vandaag een kleine greep uit al dat moois.
Hierboven een 'typisch' fantasiefiguur uit Finland: een sprookjes-elfje.
Hieronder Kikker en zijn vrienden, onze beroemde kinderboekfiguren, ontstaan uit de fantasie van de helaas overleden illustrator en kinderboekenschrijver Max Velthuijs.

'Less is more', is a saying I totally agree with. However, I often cannot resist to share all those beautiful stamps. Especially because also this Sunday stamps' theme is a theme of which there are so many beautiful pictures: 'Fantasy, including children's fantasy'.
That's a diverging subject! While searching in my postcards and stamps, I realized that 'fantasy' can be subdivided in various categories. Here a few of these.
Above you see a 'typical' fantasy figure, a fairy from a fairy-tale, from Finland.
Below you see 'Kikker' (Frog) and his friends, famous children's books' characters (in the Netherlands), arisen from the fantasy of the late Dutch illustrator and children's book author Max Velthuijs.



Een bekend fantasiefiguur is de Draak.
A famous fantasy character is the Dragon.



Hierboven een draak-achtige vogel, en linksonder een draakfiguur in de echte wereld (zij het een getekende wereld!), beiden uit China.
Above a bird-dragon like creature, below on the left a dragon figure in the real world (be it a drawn world!), both from China.



Buurland Japan is bekend om de anime en manga, de tekenfilms en stripverhalen, waarvan op onderstaande postzegel een voorbeeld.
China's neighbouring country Japan is well-known by the anime and manga: animation movies and comic strips, of which you see an example on the stamp below.



En dat doet me weer denken aan een andere vorm van toegankelijke, fantasierijke kunst: straatkunst, zoals graffiti. Die je hier ziet op een Belgische postzegel.
And that makes me think of an other type of accessible art in which fantasy sometimes plays a role, too: street art, e.g. graffity. You can see it below on this Belgian stamp.



Terug naar de kinderboeken. Onderstaande postzegel doet me denken aan een prentenboek. Heerlijk slapen in de armen van de warme zachte grote beer.
Maar kijk ook eens goed naar de poststempel: de Bremer stadsmuzikanten!

Back to the children's books. The stamp below makes me think of a children's picture book. Dreaming away in the arms of the warm, soft big bear.
And take a closer look at the cancelling stamp: the Town Musicians of Bremen!



Boeken zijn altijd mooi, om onze verbeelding, fantasie te prikkelen.
Books always are good, to encourage our imagination, our fantasy.



Deze postzegel is ontworpen door Peter Vos en is uit een serie over
kinderboeken.
En wat te denken van de fantasie van kinderen zelf. In de verzameling guldenpostzegels hieronder vind je twee postzegels met een kindertekening. Al denk ik dat veel jonge tekenaars hun werken niet als 'fantasie' zien, maar gewoon als werkelijkheid!

The postage stamp above has been designed by Peter Vos. It's from a serie about children's books.
And what about the fantasy of children themselves? In the collection of Dutch 'gulden' stamps here below you can find two stamps showing a children's drawing. However, I think many drawings won't be considered 'fantasy' by the child him/herself, but reality!

Out: to China

Deze kaart stuurde ik naar een postcrosser in China, die mij een aardig kaart had gestuurd. En ik kon 't niet laten bij de postzegel een draakje te tekenen. Omdat het 't Chinese Jaar van de Draak is.

This card I've sent to a Chinese postcrosser, who had sent me a nice card.
I drew a little Dragon on the envelope, because it's the Chinese Year of the Dragon.