Black minus red is blue and yellow

Today's Sunday Stamps' theme is 'Dark, colour or theme'. When I saw this theme announced last Sunday, I immediately had an atmospheric, nice dark / sunset stamp in mind. Not knowing what would happen later this week.
Thursday morning, 24 February, a horrible news shook the world. How can one man even think of attacking a country, and then let his bad saddening thoughts come true by letting the army of his country invade the neighbouring country...

Thanks to our stamp hobby on instagram I've learned to know kind and thoughtful people from both countries. While the woman in RU feels guilty and sad and supports the UA people, the UA woman is hiding in shelter due to the bombing...

Both you, dear visitor, and I know how real mail can connect real people in a positive way, and I wished that this agressive president would have been sending postcards and drink tea and make music with the neighbours instead of causing pain and loss by starting a bad, sad war.

Instead of the dark sunset stamp I originally had in mind, I chose two specific bright colours for today. The connection with the theme, dark/black: Painters know that the three primary colours together make black (or at least a dark grey).
So if we pull the red out of this black, the remaining colours form the bright colours of the flag of the country we are supporting in these hard times.
And I chose these stamps (coincidentally from other countries) to have these Blue and Yellow always keep on shining bright.

Last but not least, I dont know if KR Post did issue this yellow umbrella stamp intentionally to support the people in HK, but anyhow I think these people, whose freedom has been taken away by an other mighty country, deserve attention and support, too.

Let us not forget that many other countries have been invaded and even stolen by other countries (also in 'our' past via colonialism) and still today many more people in many countries suffer from war and agression.
Hopefully peace will gain victory all over the world very, very soon.

See more stamps on the theme, supporting Ukraine and peace, at - and in the comments to - today's Sunday Stamps post.

In: from Germany

Do you remember the little Mole ('Molletje' in Dutch, 'Krtek' in Czech, the language of origin)?
I used to watch him and his friends on tv when I was a child. And fortunately this clever, environment-friendly critter is back, be it on DVD, YouTube, and on postcards nowadays :-)

This postcard and the surprising additional card I received from Margit from Germany.



On the envelope she added this pretty se-tenant stamp, and German Post added a pretty music postmark:



Thank you very much, vielen Dank, Margit!

In: from Hungary and Italy

Such a great surprise: Two musical postcards I received from two different countries on the same day from the same sender, Micu!

The singer and pianist started their journey to the Netherlands in Italy. And the Opera House is located in Budapest, Hungary.



On the back side of both cards pretty stamps: the Plebiscito Square in Napoli:



And the nagy smaragdfémdarázs, which in English is "Large Cuckoo Wasp", but literally translated it will have to to something with the bright colourful smaragd ('smaragd' also is Dutch, and means emerald). Ah, the online translator says 'large emerald metallic wasp'.
More stamps from this serie you can find here.



Thank you very much, Micu, köszönöm nagyon!

In: from Kazachstan

This beautiful postcard I received from Assel from Kazachstan. The illustration has been made by Svetlana Popova.

On the back nice stamps, and I learn to say 'Hello' in more languages.
And do you notice the tulips on the round stamp? My country, the Netherlands, is said to be a land of the tulips. However, tulips don't originate from our low country. Their origin is in.. the mountains of Kazachstan! Via Persia, China, Turkey and Antwerp the first tulip finally reached the Netherlands in the end of the 16th century.



Thank you very much, Assel!

Postcards for the weekend: Foods of the world

This weekend's theme of Maria's Postcards for the Weekend on her 'Connections to the World-blog' is 'Foods of the world'.

I choose two postcards, one which I received from Spain, and one I still have to send to the sender of the Spanish card :-)

The first dish which comes into my mind when I think typical Spanish food, is paella. By Eva's postcard I learned how to distinguish the different paellas from each other. As you can see by yourself:



Spain is a big country with many more kinds of dishes. Spanish Post (Correos) has issued an interesting stamp serie on food, and Eva was so kind to add a mathcing stamp on the back of the paella card:



I am very happy with the other stamp, too, as I love music (I think I've posted more 'music' on this blog than 'food'?!..). The stamp I think matching to this theme, too, because I think music food for the heart and soul!

The second postcard to share shows a typical Dutch meal, boerenkoolstamppot, stamppot made of boerenkool and potatoes. Many Dutch eat it in winter, but I hardly have seen boerenkool on menus in Dutch restaurants.



See more postcards on food on and via Maria's Postcards for the Weekend!

In: from Spain

Spain has a variety of landscapes. And as I've traveled only in the south east of the country, I am happy that my friends travel to other parts, too. Eva made me happy by sending, among others, these postcards.
Tabarca, a pretty island, accessible via the city Santa Pola, close to Alicante, I've visited during my stays in south east Spain. Great to see this island again, this time from a 'bird eye's' on a postcard!

Meadows with pigs are new to me. These Iberian fellows are more fortunate than their Dutch cousins, who in contrary are kept in small cages, many of them never seeing daylight. I hope one day Dutch farmers (and of course the pennywise, paying consumers) will follow the good example of the Spanish farmers.





On the back sides two well=known people, stamped by fresh new postmarks.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from the United Kingdom

Some weeks ago I received this lovely scene from John: a parental polar bear reading for the little kid.



And last week I received this postcard, also sent by John and showing this beautiful charcoal drawing. The flute player has been created by Shelagh Popham:



On the back not only these interesting stamps (of which the eggplant is my favourite), but also a kind message with good news.



Thank you very much, John, and congratulations!

In: from Spain

Some years ago Eva sent me a postcard made out of a colouring pencils package, and a year later she surprised me with a new package 'card', which contained pencils!

Similar to Eva I love colouring materials. I have a lot of colouring pencils and felt pens at home (too much, I'm afraid..). Despite of that I love to visit art supply shops, where I have to force myself not to buy them.
When walking in the street and seeing a usable pencil on the ground I have to pick it up and take it with me.

So also the packages I love to see, and it won't surprise you that I was very happy when I opened my mailbox today to find this beautiful postcard, made out of an Alpino felt tip pens package!

The back of this card is a delight, too. First Eva's message, not only because of what she wrote (about this package, among others) but also she added great little drawings to it. As the message is personal I of course will keep it offline. The stamps are great, too, these paintings by painter Goyo Domínguez:



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from Spain

Uit Murcia, de hoofdstad van de gelijknamige provincie in het zuid-oosten van Spanje, deze kaart. Op de Plaza de Santa Catalina heb ik ook de nodige voetstappen gezet :-)
Aan dit plein is ook het museum van de schilder Ramón Gaya (1910-2005).

From the south east of Spain, the city of Murcia to be precise, which is the capital of the province of the same name. I've walked this square, Plaza de Santa Catalina, several times. The museum of the painter Ramón Gaya (1910-20015) is also situated at this square.



Op de postzegel de beroemde gitarist/componist Paco de Lucía, die helaas in februari van dit jaar overleed.
The stamp shows the famous guitar player and composer Paco de Lucía, who sadly passed away in February of this year.

In: from Spain

Ook een aankondiging voor een muziekfestival kan prima als ansichtkaart dienen.
Deze fraaie luit ontving ik van Eva.
Op de postzegel de bekende virtuoze flamenco-gitarist/componist Paco de Lucía (1947-2014). Deze postzegel is de Spaanse inzending voor de Europese wedstrijd, die dit jaar als thema 'nationale muziekinstrumenten' heeft.

Also an advertisement for a musical festival can be a beautiful postcard!
This lute I received from Eva.
The stamp shows the famous virtuoso flamenco guitarist/composer Paco de Lucía (1947-2014). This stamp is the Spanish contribution to the European stamp contest, themed 'National Musical Instruments' this year.

Thank you very much, Eva!

Sunday stamps: musical instruments

Today's theme of Sunday stamps is a very favourite of mine: Music and musical instruments.

Spain has issued several wonderful music stamps. My most favourite instruments are string instruments, so I was very happy to receive these guitar and violin stamps, which were issued in Spain in 2011:



The ones above belong to a serie of four; the others are the lute and mandolin. You can see the complete serie here.
A year later, the Spanish post published the harp, balalaika, sitar, banjo and rebec on stamps. Thanks to Eva I received several of these beauties, but alas I didn't find sufficient time to scan them and post them in this blog now. However, the complete serie you can see in this interesting blog.

From string instruments to percussion instruments.
These were also issued on stamps in Spain, in 2013. More information on the five stamps (of which you see four here) you can read here.



In the Netherlands there has been issued a stamp serie with illustrations by the late Dutch painter Anton Pieck.
One of them shows a man with many instruments, of which the drum is most prominent:



And he plays an accordion-like instrument. There are many other musical instruments who create their tones by air: aerophones or wind instruments.

There's a wind instrument maybe many of us might have tried when we were young (or maybe even have made one!?). It's from all times and all-over the world. You can find pictures of this curious instrument for example here, and here.
On stamps I happened to have received this one from Lituania. Initially I didn't notice that these were musical instruments. But when I looked closer, I read the words 'muzikos intrumentai', and by looking up the words 'molines svilpynes' I learned that these animals indeed are musical instruments: clay whistles.



Other wind instruments are woodwind instruments (like the flute and clarinet), and brass instruments.
The Spanish post also has issued a stamp serie on brass instruments. One of them is the (French) horn:



From Brazil I received this trumpet:



And an euphonium (or tuba?) is shown on a stamp sheet issued by the Dutch post as part of a serie on Dutch cities, in this case the city of Sittard:



(You see I've used the other stamps already...)

A large wind musical instrument - and a typical Dutch one - is the street organ.
The Dutch post issued this Europa stamp in 1981:



Thirty-three years later, in 2014, this stamp sheet has been issued, which is also proposed as entry for the PostEurop 2014 stamp contest.



Many more beautiful stamps on music and musical instruments you can find in Viridian's blog and all links shown there.

In: from the USA

Bijzonder werk door de kunstenaar Brian Moss. De titel vind ik erg leuk: 'Zwemmen met Guppies'. We hadden vroeger thuis guppies. Ik vond het leuke visjes. Al kwam ik nooit op het idee om er ook mee te gaan zwemmen.
Ontvangen van PostMuse uit Amerika.

Amazing art work by Brian Moss. I like the title: 'Swimming with Guppies'. We used to have guppies at home. However I never though of swimming with these cute little fish.
Sent by PostMuse from the USA - thank you very much!

Sunday stamps: of children and for children

This Sunday the theme of Sunday stamps is 'of children and for children'.

Every year in November, Dutch school children pass along the houses to sell 'kinderpostzegels', 'children's stamps', which means both stamp sheets and postcards. I did so when I was young, and many years later, that is, last year, our daughter was old enough do so, too.

Above you can see the envelope in which she gathered the orders, of our neighbours and family (and me, of course), and when ready to deliver, she went along the houses again to deliver the stamps and postcards.
The stamps have an increased rate, and the money earned goes to children's welfare projects.

So in all those many years, many children's stamp sheets have been issued.

Here I'll show only a few (some of them are not complete because I used them, of course).