a sold-out season of memories

Last Sunday, the 26th, was Fan Appreciation Day at Citizens Bank Ballpark and the final home game of the regular season. It was also the 123rd consecutive sell-out at the park. Friends were at the game and shared some of the freebies they got, which included a super packet of postcards of this year's highlights. Handing out packets of postcards on Fan Appreciation Day seems to have become a Phillies' tradition. I love it! Thanks, Diane, thanks, Bruce.

thinking about cosmos

The card from Taiwan (below) reminded me of this postcard from Tono, where I used to live in a farmer's version of the house shown.

life is good

Old man, fox, fluffy clouds, and a field of cosmos make for a charming postcard. It's from a postcrosser in Taiwan who is also a children's book editor. She writes that she wants to "edit a lot of great books for children." Her favorite is Alice in Wonderland.

aging autumn

I sent this vintage card, a favorite, to a postcrosser in Estonian, but the recipient merely registered the card with nary a comment. How deflating. To me the card has all the makings of a short story, not to mention the beautiful natural scenery it shows.

as is no. 1

This is the first ever postcrossing card sent by Simen, a student at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in As. He recommended visiting the Lofoten Islands in summer to see the midnight sun and some beautiful scenery. Something to dream about.

narrow boats in stourport

These fab boats are in the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. The British postcrosser who sent the card has a narrow boat and lives nearby. She wrote that they spend most of their summers traveling the canals and rivers of the UK on their narrow boat. Wow!

beautiful snowy quebec

The Canadian postcrosser who sent this magical card of wintry Quebec wrote that "Place Royale is the oldest part of Quebec City, built around 1608. We love to walk around those streets and think about all the people who lived there."

buddha's head

A postcrosser named Jirat sent this beautiful image from Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya, Thailand.

tart hearts

I thought that these were all beads, except for that lemon in the middle. But the Viennese postcrosser who sent this tart Boomerang card wrote that her favorite sweets on the card are the hearts. They all have cutie sentiments, much like Valentine's hearts here.

big heads in olot

A Spanish postcrosser named Albert sent this postcard of dancing big heads. It shows a festival in Olot, the city of volcanoes (38 of them), which is about 100 km from Barcelona. That puts it in scenic, delicious Catalonia. Albert also sent a link: www.turismegarrotxa.com. Olot is in the Garrotxa region.

lilting heart

The postcrosser from Hoom who sent this charming card seems to be a wonderfully upbeat, lovely kind of guy.

french blues

I love the blues (greens, too) in this card from a French postcrosser in the southern France village of Angoustine.

small treasures

I'm a fool for polka dots, but the Finnish postcrosser who sent this card had no way of knowing that. Dance, dance, dance. The sender also noted that a child care system was instituted in Finland in 1920 or thereabouts, making it one of the first European countries that "really wanted the best for kids".

The card at top was not the only one from Finland in yesterday's mail. This postcrosser went out of her way to find a tiger card, though she wrote there are no tigers in the middle of the forest where she (almost) lives. The card is an actual postcard of one Sandy S. made from a calendar. It felt like old friends seeing it again.

orange glow

These cards, too, came in a bunch. The top is from a Portuguese postcrosser now studying in Coimbra, the middle, which shows the Infanta Margarita by Velazquez, is from a French postcrosser, and the bottom, of a sunset in Penghu, is from a Taiwanese high school student. It's all about the glow.

el rastro

A Spanish postcrosser sent greetings from Madrid, her "lovely and sunny city." The card features El Rastro, a street market which sells art from around the world, with something for everyone.

the yellow boots

I at first thought this hilarious card was from a jolly postcrosser showing off his favorite Wellies but the woman who sent it wrote that the boots were part of a project for the Stadel Art Museum in Frankfort. While the museum was closed for renovations, it got a photographer to take photos of 50 residents of the city. Yellow boots appeared in each photo. Another cool postcard idea (see the posting for 9/9/10) from Germany!

"a beautiful village in a region near mine"

So wrote Erik and Veronica, the young married couple who sent this sparkling card. In fact, there are five villages, all part of a World Heritage Site. Erik and Veronica share life with their cat Torakiki.

live free

Years ago my venerable calligraphy teacher in Kyoto selected the Chinese characters for me to use when signing pieces in Japanese. They were sparrow (jaku) and woods (rin). Years later when my Chinese teacher in Tokyo saw how I wrote my name, he approved. "A tiny bird in the woods is excellent," he said. "It means you are free, the best way to be." The card is from PostMuse.

4 for 1

Sandy Sapienza, who made this card, says that she does not usually quote Paris Hilton. Guess this quotation was too funny to resist.

two from brasil

Cards continue to arrive in pairs, this time from two postcrossers in Brasil. The card at top shows a colorful local festival. I'm a sucker for blue skies and yellow ochre walls. At bottom is the romantically named Arvore do Amor, or tree of love.

reminders

A Polish postcrosser sent this card of her "beautiful town".

"We have a lot of museums in Kiev," wrote the Ukrainian postcrosser who sent this card.

Everything seems to be arriving in pairs these days. These two cards are poignant reminders that I will not be making it to Ukraine this October. The one at top brings back a memory of a bitterly cold night in Bratislava, walking back to my hotel through eerily empty streets. The bottom one reminds me of so many wonderful museums.

autumn in welwyn

Friend Carolyn B., who lives in Welwyn Garden City, sent this charming retro card of an old advertisement for the 'new town'. Founded in 1920, WGC is about 20 miles from London. Nearby Letchworth Garden City, the first garden city, is also home to Britain's largest colony of black squirrels. It also has muntjac deer. Some years ago while driving back from Letchworth, we saw one scrambling up a roadside embankment.

the maharajah of jodhpur

If ever an oil painting looked like a Photoshop creation, it is this one from the late 19th century, of the Maharajah of Jodhpur. Lynn B. sent the postcard.

save the forests

These two cards also arrived together in the mail. The beautiful birches at bottom are from a Russian postcrosser, who noted that the "birch is not only a symbol of Russia but also of Norway, Finland, etc. According to the Finnish postcrosser who sent it, the card at top reads: "Please take care of the forest so that it will take care of you."

minsk by two

Two cards of Minsk from two different Belarusian postcrossers arrived together in today's mail. The one at top shows Liberty Square, with City Hall and the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary on view. The bottom one shows five Roman Catholic churches in the city.

buon appetito!

A pasta-loving postcrosser from the Netherlands sent this super card. I grew up eating bowties (not to mention mac and cheese), which were much used in the Hungarian/Slovenian dishes of my childhood.

impression sanjie liu

The Shanghai postcrosser who sent this card wrote that this spectacle is famous for its "real mountains and waters". I'm not quite sure what that means but the director was also responsible for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Yue, the postcrosser, saw the show this spring and was, well, impressed. That's probably why she picked this card for her first venture in postcrossing. Good choice!

autumn in the air

I'm loving these vintage postcards of autumn.

spinning grandmother not like a top

This Albet Anker painting called Grossmutter am Spinnrad mit Enkel is from Lynn B., who weaves but maybe does not spin. And she is not a grandma.

pretty little view

A Polish postcrosser sent this pretty view of the small town of Homburg, Germany, where she now lives with her husband. She writes that they often go back to Poland, though, to visit their families.

austrian stamps

harvest time

The Austrian postcrosser who sent this "yummy" card also included the weather on the back: 12C (54F) and sunny. I think I may start doing the same on cards I send. She also wrote that she was harvesting potatoes, blackberries, and late strawberries from her garden. The card arrived while I was out at the Mennonite farms where I get my veggies and fruits in season. Food, glorious food.

a little burst of color

A young Finnish postcrosser sent this end of summer burst of color. Some dahlias!

waitomo caves

A postcrosser in New Zealand sent this card of the Waitomo Caves, with these amazing glow worms. The clusters of light at far left are being made by glowworms, such as the one shown at far right. The concern of Frances, the sender, however, was the recent earthquake in Christchurch.

white birch tree

This vintage card is a homage to the white birches and blue skies and waters of Michigan. The card tells me that the white birch is also called paper birch, which I knew, or picture book tree, which I did not. I don't know if it's the stress of the climate changes in recent years but the picture book tree outside the window here is fading.

train to pankow

Check it out.

not reykjavik

A first-time postcrosser from Germany sent this card, part of an intriguing project done in her hometown of Hannover. People took photos of different places in the city and made postcards, adding place names from somewhere quite other. I fell for it, in both senses. First, I was excited finally to get a card from Iceland! Better yet, it was one that did not look touristy. Then I turned the card over and immediately noted an Andrea Doria stamp, which I knew was German. Oh, an Icelander in Germany? Then I read the message. What an interesting project. A fab card--even if it's not Reykjavik.

plus stamps

mont st. michel

An architect who lives in the countryside in Belgium sent this card of somewhere that made a great impression on me on my first hitchhiking trip around Europe. I have often recalled Mont Saint Michel, as it was the first place that made me think about pilgrimage sites. The sender also included a tiny sketch on the card, maybe of the house where he lives with his photographer girlfirend.

red car

The postcrosser who sent this cool card is a 14-year-old from Lithuania, who was listening to John Lennon's Imagine as she wrote. A fan of rock music, she believes she was born decades too late. Rock on, girl! The card is a Bad Dog production. Love the Bad Dog!