Sunday, May 12, 2024

Women on Stamps

 The Sunday Stamps theme for Mothers Day (in the US, at least) is women, and I have three stamps sent by Eva. They are part of a larger series on important female historical Spanish figures who broke boundaries, making significant contributions to gender equality.

Issued in 2022, they celebrate Spanish women: Isabel Zendl, Clara Campoamor, and. Almudena Grandes. The hyperlinks below will take you to the Correos pages about the stamps.


Isabel Zandal (b. 1773, d. ?) was a nurse who ran an orphanage, and then in 1803 embarked for the New World on an expedition to distribute the smallpox vaccine. She ultimately settled in Mexico.

Clara Campoamor (b. 1898, d. 1972), the second ever female lawyer in Madrid, was a politician elected to Spain's congress, and successfully campaigned for the right for women to vote, which became a reality in 1933. Unfortunately the Spanish civil war reversed this decision, and she lived as an exile in South America and Europe. Her stamp was issued on the 50th anniversary of her death.

Almudena Grandes (b. 1960, d. 2021) is a renowned Spanish writer. She won many literary accolades for her writing, and is perhaps most well known for her historical fiction set during the Spanish civil war. Her 14 novels and 3 short story collections have been translated into many other languages, and many have been adapted into film.


For links to more women on stamps, head over to See it on a Postcard.




Sunday, May 5, 2024

Industry

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is industry. On this Dutch stamp celebrating Tilburg you can see a textile industry, the woman at a loom (I think, or maybe a spinning wheel), representative of Tilsburg being known as the wool capital of the Netherlands from the 1600s until its decline in the 1960s. The entertainment industry is also represented - 'Grootste kermis' is the largest summer fair held in the Netherlands, in the city of Tilburg. And from the construction industry, the building is the Stadstheer, built between 2005 and 2007. Each apartment has a cuboid sunroom that sticks out from the main structure. In Dutch they are colloquially called 'vogelkooikes' - bird cages. Tilburg is located in the southern province of North Brabant.



This stamp was issued in 2209 as part of the Mooi Nederland series (beautiful Netherlands). Thanks for the stamp, Heleen!

For links to more stamps with the theme of industry, head over to See it on a Postcard

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Marine life

 Marine life is today's theme for Sunday stamps. Both of these arrived on postcards, one from the German world of letters series, showing a fish and a seahorse, and one from the US, featuring staghorn coral and fish.




For links to more stamps with this theme, head over to See it on a Postcard.

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Dragons!

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is dragons and saints. I loved this set that USPS issued in 2018. The stamps have orange metallic elements that are much better to appreciate in person. 




For more stamps on today's themes, visit See it on a Postcard.



Sunday, April 14, 2024

Leaves

 Today's Sunday Stamps prompt is Trees and Leaves.

I chose this 5c stamp from Germany, which arrived by way of postcrossing.



The water lily stamp has leaves (lily pads), and then there's the petals on the flower. Petals are modified leaves, and the petals on the stamp are made of paper, which is (mostly) made from trees. A complicated route to today's theme! I love this new (since 2022) definitive set from Germany featuring all things related to letter writing turned into all sorts of landscape features.

To see more stamps with leaves and trees as themes, head over to See it on a Postcard.

____

I have a bonus eclipse stamp to add to last week's post!

Violet S very kindly sent me the amazing Canadian eclipse stamp which arrived yesterday - I love it, thank you so much!

You can see here that there are is also a hidden effect on the stamp.



Sent on the back of sun over Niagara Falls - this matches our weekend which is very sunny.

And if you'd like to see my bonus eclipse post where I held the 2017 stamps over a hot stove to get them to change color, it's here.

Monday, April 8, 2024

Total eclipse

 Yesterday's post was eclipse and sun related. I didn't have a picture of the 2017 eclipse stamps when heated, so here is one I took last night. 




And here is an eclipse stamp I forgot I had received from Taiwan.



If you're going to experience the totality, I hope you have clear skies! 

Sunday, April 7, 2024

The sun

 Or at least part of it on the eclipse stamp issued in 2017. If you heat the stamp it will reveal the moon blocking out most of the sun. I received and sent this stamp a few times. 




There's also a sun on one of the woodland animal stamps, as well as on the pictorial postmark (credit to CJ for the photo). 




And finally, some suns sent to Eva a while ago. 



For more sun and eclipse related stamps, check out the links at See it on a Postcard.

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Flowers

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is related to Easter - chocolate, bunnies, flowers and churches.

Here's a stamp from Japan featuring the Japanese primrose



And a winterling (winter aconite, a member of the buttercup family) from Germany

The latter was accompanied by a happy snail

And arrived on this nice postcard

For more stamps with these themes, head over to See it on a Postcard, and if you celebrate, have a happy Easter.



Sunday, March 24, 2024

Uniform

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is uniform, and recently I received the stamp commemorating 100 the centenary. of the end of World War I that was issued in 2018.



It arrived on this lovely exchange envelope.



For links to more uniforms on stamps, visit See it on a Postcard

Sunday, March 17, 2024

A green leap

 An excellent frog stamp from the Netherlands, part of the beautiful 'Experience Nature' series






Sent on this leap year postcard

With a 29 Feb postmark!

Thanks to Heleen!

Explore the links for today's Sunday Stamps theme of green, snakes, or Irish stamps at See it on a Postcard

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Elvis

 The first Elvis stamp and the second Elvis stamp. I think I read that the 29c issue is one of the all time best selling USPS stamps.





Sunday, March 3, 2024

Campanula persicifolia

 Also known as the peach-leaved bellflower, seen on this Russian stamp from 2019.



For more stamps with today's Sunday Stamps theme of flowers, visit See it on a Postcard.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Käpt'n Blaubär

Käpt'n Blaubär is a blue-furred bear from a German children's TV show. His name also sounds similar to blueberry in German. Issued in 2023, this is part of a series titled "Heroes of Childhood". For more on this fun bear, check out the wikipedia page.




For more stamps with today's Sunday Stamps theme of illustrations, explore the links at See it on a Postcard.

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Blue skies and Bluenose

 Two Canadian stamps on the same postcard for this week's Sunday Stamps theme: blue.





The Bluenose stamp celebrates 100 years since this famous yacht was built in Nova Scotia in 1921 as both a fishing and racing vessel. For more on this interesting vessel here is a link to its Wikipedia page. There is also an image of a previous Canadian stamp (coincidentally all blue) featuring the Bluenose.

Apologies for the blurriness of the stamp on the left, it is the 2018 Canada Post Community Foundation semipostal stamp. A clearer image:


Not stamp related, however going back through photos for today's stamps I found this blue image  - jellyfish at Newport Aquarium in Kentucky.


For more blue stamps check out the links at See it on a Postcard.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Chinese Calligraphy

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is calligraphy, and I always admire beautifully drawn Chinese characters (also called logographs).

Thanks to Fafa, I have this wonderful Year of the Dragon mini-sheet to share.



For links to more calligraphy on stamps, head over to See it on a Postcard.

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Sunday, February 4, 2024

Lighthouse

 Today's theme for Sunday Stamps is lighthouses, and look what landed just yesterday from Heleen! And check out the date on the postmark.



For more links to lighthouse stamps visit See it on a Postcard

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Trees

 The theme for this week's Sunday Stamps is trees.

The Christmas tree is still up (probably going to come down at Candlemas), so here's one of last years Snow Globe stamps with a Christmas tree inside, a bit obscured by the postmark, which festively has a matching tree inside a snow globe.


And just in from Fabienne, this lovely stamp celebrating the tenth anniversary of France's Patronage Law, which concerns philanthropy, and philanthropic organizations and associations.


For more links to trees on stamps check out the links at See it on a Postcard.

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Whenever I was doing nothing

 A very interesting postcard received from Yuziye via Postcrossing sharing a Chinese saying, "Eat and wait for death." Glad my parents didn't know Chinese, I would probably have been on the receiving end of this saying a few times!!

This is my first time linking up for Thursday Postcard Hunt - this week's theme is inspirational thoughts/funny sayings.

Explore more postcards with this theme by visiting See it on a Postcard.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

José de Sousa Saramago

 The theme for today's Sunday Stamps is writers, and fortuitously a letter from Eva arrived yesterday with a stamp celebrating the centenary of the birth of José de Sousa Saramago (1923-2010), who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1998.



José Saramago was a Portugese writer who left Portugal in 1992 after the government ordered one of his works, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, be removed from being considered for the Aristeion Prize.

He then lived in exile in Lanzeroti (The Canary Islands, Spain) until his death.

You can read more about the stamp from Correos here. A link to his English wikipedia page is here.

Have you read any of his work? If so, do you have a recommendation for which one to start with?


For more links to stamps on writers, visit SeeItOnAPostcard.

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Postage rates go up tomorrow

 It's that time of year - USPS rates increase tomorrow, so if you want to save money today's your last day to buy stamps at the current rate. If you use the largest seller of stamps in the US, the USPS online shop, you only have until 11pm eastern as they'll be performing upgrades to the system.

Rate changes:

First class forever stamp - up 2c to 68c

Postcards within the US - up 2 c to 53c

International postcards and letters up to 1 oz - up 5c to $1.55

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Dear Eduardo

 Do you remember the 'Who is Eduardo Munez?' project?


Did you send in an envelope?


You can watch this short film titled 'Dear Eduardo' for free on youtube now!





Sunday, January 14, 2024

De Hef Railway Bridge

 Today's Sunday Stamps theme is bridges.

Heleen sent me this stamp featuring De Hef railway bridge in Rotterdam. Built in 1927, De Hef means 'the lift', and its official name is Koningshaven Bridge. There were plans to demolish the bridge in 1993, however the protest against it by local residents was heeded. The bridge gained international notoriety in 2022 when there was a proposal to dismantle it to allow Jeff Bezos' (billionaire owner of Amazon) yacht to reach open water via the Koningshaven channel. Protests once again won the day, and the bridge was untouched.


This stamp was issued in 2014 as part of a series that celebrated 175 years of Dutch railways.

For more links to bridges on stamps, check out the links at SeeItOnAPostcard.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Sunday stamps - places of worship

 For today's theme, I am sharing a single stamp from France thanks to Fafa.



The church, Église Saint-Pierre (St Peter's church) in Riga, Latvia with snow. Construction began in 1209, and you can access the Wikipedia page for more information: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Church,_Riga


Go to Sunday Stamps for more links on today's theme. https://seeitonapostcard.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Lucky Lemonpig

 I hope that Momo the lemon pig will bring good fortune this year to all our postal endeavors.



Monday, January 1, 2024

Happy New Year!

 Welcome to 2024! 

This beautiful card is from CJ (check her blog out) - thank you! A pair of cardinals usually nests in or adjacent to the back yard, so these are special birds to me. I hope they bring us all the best of luck in the coming year.