Sunday Stamps: New Year

This week, on 16 February, the Chinese New Year will start: the year of the Dog.

That means, we'll say goodbye to the Year of the Rooster..
Dutch PostNL issued a stamp sheet on which you can see this change. 'Vaarwel jaar van de Haan' means 'goodbye / farewell to the year of the rooster', and 'welkom jaar van de hond' means 'welcome year of the dog':



Via Instagram I got to know several mail loving people from all over the world. And some of them are starting a so-called 'chaincard' themed 'Year of the Dog'. We are just about to start, so I haven't received any of the stamps yet, but some of them showed the stamps they'll going to use already in the instagram groups, and I like to share the print-screens of these stamp pictures with you!

On alphabetic order:

From Australia / Christmas Island:



From China:





From Indonesia:



From Japan:



From Korea:





From Malaysia:





From Singapore:



From Taiwan:



From Thailand:



On my turn, I'll add the Dutch Year of the Dog stamp to their cards. Dutch PostNL officially will issue this stamp sheet on 16 February, but to my surprise my order arrived already last week :-)



See more stamps of this coming New Year at and via Sunday Stamps.

Sunday Stamps: 'V' is for voetstap, vogelbekdier and verkeersveiligheid

This Sunday the theme of Sunday Stamps is the letter 'V'.

Inspired by Eva's blog post of one week ago, showing a stamp on which voetstappen in the snow were pictured, I wanted to show you one other stamp showing a voetstap.
However, I couldn't find it in time. But luckily suddenly a voetstap stamp has arrived in my mailbox last week! On the back of a postcard which I showed you last week already.

These are voetstappen, also known as footsteps, in the Spanish sand:




A theme of which I can show you plenty of stamps, is 'vogels', 'birds'. Because I couldn't choose from all pretty bird stamps which I have received and which I bought to send out, I decided to show a stamp of a mammal, whose name in Dutch starts with 'vogel', too: the vogelbekdier. Vogel means bird, and bek means beak, dier is animal, so it is a 'bird-beak-animal'.
As many of you know, the vogelbekdier, or platypus, is one of my favourite animals, and I've showed you an other Australian platypus stamp before. This time I like to share this maximumcard, which I am very happy to have in my collection:




Finally a word, related to an important issue: safety first! 'Safety' in English means 'veiligheid' in Dutch. And 'verkeersveiligheid' means 'safety in traffic' (verkeer). Many fatal accidents have been prevented since the veiligheidgordels = safety belts have been introduced, and some more fatal accidents are missing since the use of veiligheidstoelen, special safety car seat for kids, is obliged.
Russian Post has issued this colourful stamp on this theme:




It is safe and in a way obliged, to check today's Sunday Stamps to see what words other mail lovers have chosen for the letter 'v'!

Sunday Stamps: 'M' is for milieuvriendelijk and molen

For Sunday Stamps' letter 'M' I chose a long word, however, in English it is even longer. An important subject, to my opinion: milieuvriendelijk.
In English: enviromentally friendly (milieu = environment, friendly = vriendelijk).

While on one hand we, humans, are polluting our world by consumption, traveling, etcetera, on the other hand fortunately more and more people are aware of the fact that we should take care of our earth. To stop polluting, to recycle waste, to consume less and to not use up the earth's resources.
There still is a long way to go. And on this long way there are some bright spots. For instance the fact that several postal services from all-over the world have issued stamps to spread the awareness.

This chaincard arrived home with stamps from six countries! South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia and the Netherlands:



In Europe many environmentally friendly stamps have been issued last year, for the theme of the 2016 Europe Stamps was 'Think Green'. I've posted some of these here in April. And I was happy to receive some more since then, like this Europe 2016 stamp from Slovakia:



And these, from Belarus, Ukraine and Estonia (and you can see the other - of two - Dutch Think Green stamp),



The Irish 'Minecraft'-like stamp still fascinates me:



This stamp from Serbia is one of my favourite 'milieuvriendelijke' stamps. Alas I had it in hands just for one day, because I had to forward it to someone else, and the sender from Serbia didn't have any more of these. Fortunately I could scan it and show it to you:




On many of the Europe 2016 'Think Green' stamps you see a wind turbine. In Dutch we name them 'windmolen' (plural 'windmolens'), or windturbine. The older type of windmills we name 'windmolen', too, although most of the time the simple name 'molen' is used for them.

The Netherlands are well-known for its molens. But of course you know that molens can be find anywhere in the world, like these pretty stamps are proofing. I received them from John from the United Kingdom:



The one on the stamp on the left we tend to name 'watermolen' instead of simply 'molen'. But the front side of the card shows a lot more molens:




See what other stamp lovers have chosen for this Sunday's theme 'M', at and via Sunday Stamps!

In: from Australia

Thanks to Eva I learned about Naomi's Thousand Postcard Project.
Naomi's husband gave her thousand unused vintage postcards, dating anywhere from 1900 to 1970, and he challenged her to send every one of them out into the world. Thus she invites us all to provide her with our postal address. And here it is: Naomi's postcard to me!
Besides a kind personal message from Naomi and the fact that this is the 189th card out of 1000, the (printed) text on the back says it is a reproduction of a photo, taken in 1890 at an early Indiana state fair.



I love Australian stamps, so I am happy to see these stamps added by Naomi to her card for me.
And this nice rubber stamp print about the project:



Thank you very much, Naomi!

Sunday Stamps: Western hemisphere

Today's theme for Sunday Stamps is 'Western Hemisphere'. From the physics point of view I always think it hard to distinguish where the 'west' begins and ends, as well as where the 'east' does. North and south is easy, as the earth turns around the north-south axis. But from for example Greenland's point of view, we, the Dutch, are living in the east, and someone from New Zealand might consider India located in the west and the Americas in the east.
So today I think stamps from all directions will be okay :-)

Nevertheless I choose stamps from the 'West', from Dutch point of view and also generally accepted.

The following stamps I received from Dulce from Mexico. It doesn't happen often that I see newspapers being honoured by the Post, but the 100th anniversary of El Universal, last year, was a good opportunity to do so.
Also combs won't be pictured often on stamps. The original comb you can find in the Museo de Arte Popular.



Inside the pretty decorated envelope there was a great stamp, which I posted on instagram.


This stamp sheet I chose, regarding the things said in the first paragraph. It connects north and south, and from the physics point of view it connects east and west, and from generally accepted point of view, both countries mentioned are western. And, an extra: it connects history and present days.



It is from a serie of three stamp sheets, Dutch PostNL issued last year. All sheets contain similar stamps but the selvage is different. The series is from the 'Grenzeloos' ('Borderless') serie and this last year deals with the connection between the Netherlands and Australia.
The theme of this stamp sheet is 'Dutch emigration to Australia'.
The text says, that between 1950 and 1961 about 116,000 Dutch emigrated to Australia, because of misery in their homeland (the Netherlands) and the increasing threat of a Third World War in those years.
Does it sound familiar? I think, if populist leaders would know their own (personal, family's, country's) history they should have a more open, friendly view to everyone who is looking for a better place on this - our - earth. The immigrants in the fifties, sixties, were welcomed (and we forget that our ancestors of earlier centuries, colonial times, forced themselves to be welcomed in the 'new world', with negative impact to the people who were native since ages). So, even though PostNL obviously didn't intend to do, I think a stamp issue like this should plea for a warmhearted world, in which everyone is connected.

I think, besides all mail lovers who already connect, especially the hosts of stamps and postcard links sites have made a good start with it! Like Sunday stamps: see more stamps on the theme 'Western hemisphere' at and via today's Sunday Stamps!

Sunday Stamps: Mountains

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Mountains'.

In the Netherlands there aren't real mountains (the highest one is a 322 meters high hill) but fortunately elsewhere in the world there are beautiful ones.
The following mountains all happen to be covered with snow.

For instance the famous mount Olympus in Greece. As a child I loved to read mythology stories, and according to these, the ancient Greek gods and goddesses had their home on this mountain:



(See more Greek mountains on Joy's blog post of today.)

A snowy mountain in Norway:



Australian Alp in Victoria, Australia:



And simply but beautifully designed Austrian Alps from Austria:



See more beautiful mountains on beautiful stamps at and via Sunday Stamps.

In: from New Zealand / Australia

From New Zealand I received this postcard showing the beautiful Australian Great Barrier Reef.
The postcard was sent by Devi. I didn't know the sender personally, but I got curious when I happened to read on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter about her journey. She is an enthusiast cyclist, poet and storyteller, and is traveling the world by bicycle and by boat to collect stories from people about water and climate change.

I decided to join the funding, and as a 'thank you' Devi has sent me this postcard. The back side of the card Devi had written at sea, while traveling hitching on a cargo ship from Australia to New Zealand. She stamped and posted the card in New Zealand.
Reading the card, in which she tells something about her journey, makes me dreaming of traveling that way, too! Well, probably I am stuck too much with the certainties and obligations I feel and have in my present life. A joy to read her card though.
For me, not born in the neighbourhood of a sea so usually not that much attracted to it, some of her words touched me, like these: "The sea has lots to teach me about surrender."

On her blog I found this nice post, and while enjoying her long text on the card I am happy that she loves snail mail, too!



If you are interested to support her journey monthly you can become a patron (see the website) or you can donate an amount once, see the kickstarter website.

In: from Australia

Usually I keep the digital versions of my received postcrossing postcards on the postcrossing site only. This time there's a postcard which matches with Eva's postcard, posted yesterday , showing a lighthouse and a postmark on the front side.
It is the very first lighthouse card I received from Australia. Which shows not only a lighthouse and a postmark in front, but also the postage stamp!



The card and stamp show the Casuarina Point lighthouse.

Australia Post has issued many so-called maximum cards, of which I am happy to have received this one.

Sunday stamps: Animals in the wild

This time the Sunday Stamps' theme is - like many other themes - a favourite of mine: animals in the wild.

One family of animals I admire for both their beauty and for something we, humans, are not able to do: birds!
Bird are able to fly (except for ratites of course). So caged birds I always think sad. While watching birds fly in the wild always makes me smile and provides a sense of freedom.

This great flying tern stamp I received from South Africa.
By the way, a flying tern is in the logo of the international bird protection organization Bird Life, and also in the logos of several partners, among them the Dutch and South African bird protection NGO's.



Love the way the stamp has been postmarked across. As if it is to show how high a bird can fly :-)

The following stamps show the contrast between a caged bird and birds in the wild:



Well, the caged bird isn't on a stamp himself, but is part of a larger stamp sheet, of which the stamp shows an other freely flying species.
The godwit (grutto in Dutch) is a bird who thrives in the grass-land. Grass-land birds have been, and still are, threatened by intensive farming in our densely populated country. Fortunately there are several initiatives to help farmers combine farming with nature protection (but still it's not enough, I am afraid).

Other flying birds are these wild ducks, beautifully pictured on a Finnish stamp. This bird is common in many countries.



To my pleasure I see that both Violet Sky and Joy have posted Australian stamps. In Australia some of my all-time favourite animals are liviung: the echidna, the platypus, the kookaburra, the cassowary and the brushturkey. The last-mentioned I've never seen on a stamp, the others I did see.
Among them this kookaburra:



And, my favourite stamp (which I fortunately received more than once!), the platypus:



Some other wild life, tiny ones:



However, the words 'Animals in the wild' will make most people think of larger animals, mammals to be specific.

Animals in forests and nature reserves, from Belarus, Russia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands (the latter is a personalized stamp, temporary issued by natuurlijkefoto.nl):











Wild animals like elephants....



... and lions (this is from a stamp sheet showing more animals, that is, silhouets):



And arctic animals, alas endangered, too:



Check Sunday Stamps for more animals-in-the-wild stamps!