washington monument

With a height of 555 feet, the Washington Monument is the tallest all-stone structure in the world. It was built in honor of George Washington.

perfection

One for Roy Halladay, #34, who last night threw a perfect game, the 20th in major league baseball history, against the Marlins. Woohoo!

eight is special

A little red-pinstriped love for high-energy center fielder Shane Victorino, who singlehandedly has replaced the ubiquitious 'you know' with the more baffling 'no questions asked'.

czech stamp

retro most

This charming retro card of the marketplace in Most was sent by a Czech postcrosser who lives in that city, located in the north of her country. Known for its system of bridges, Most takes its name from the Czech word for bridge. Its German name is Brux, from Brucke, German for bridge.

now more than ever

We want Jimmy, we need Jimmy! A card for the injured shortstop.

the land grant frescoes

This card came from Lynn B. down in Arkansas. It shows The Land Grant Frescoes, installed in the stairway and mezzanine of Old Main Building at Pennsylvania State University.

river crystal

This wonderfully cooling image, perfect for today's sudden heat and humidity, came from a Dutch postcrosser.

pansies on parade

A Swedish postcrosser sent this lovely 'bouquet' of pansies.

stamp trio

A lovely trio of recent stamps from, top to bottom, Lithuania, France, and Iceland.

portrait by dylan

Another international postcrosser, this one Dutch and living in Iceland, sent this awesome card she picked up in a gallery in Edinburgh. It shows a 2007 mixed media work by Bob Dylan, titled Portrait of Woman Smiling.

louis xiv

An international postcrosser living in France sent this card from a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon. She highly recommends the museum for its "rich collection of art".

different degrees of motivation

Willi Singleton sent this amusing announcement for a show of new pots from his spring firing. The show is June 5 and 6 at the Pine Creek Pottery in Kempton, Pennsylvania.

gingerbread house

Sandy Sapienza sent this card from a recent weekend in Cape May, New Jersey, known for gingerbread houses, jazz festival, and birdwatching. She suggests meeting there someday for lunch. Sounds good.

vitalijus cepkauskas

This card, showing an image by Vitalijus Cepkauskas, was from a young Lithuanian postcrosser.

floppy whale

A young Chinese postcrosser sent this card with its somewhat baleful-looking whale and a message to stay forever young.

extraordinary forms 11

Friend Jozef Bajus is a featured artist in this show honoring 40 years of craft media, on at the Kenan Center House Gallery in Lockport, New York, from May 16 to Jule 11. The piece on the far left is by Jozef.

raul ibanez

Here's a little something for Raul Ibanez, he of the Rauuuuuuul fan chants. It was fun to make.

another from beautiful kyiv

Another Beautiful Kyiv card from another Ukrainian postcrosser, who wrote that as a child she loved the cable car shown in inset. If I make it to Ukraine this October, I've got to take it.

kandinsky

This lovely postcard of a Kandinsky painting called Landscape was sent by a young Russian postcrosser. Another card that brings back memories. It also brings to mind a host of other artists whose names begin with 'k'.

ouch

I made this card for Ryan Madson, a silly reliever who broke his toe in a pique of frustration and is now out for two months.

grounds for sculpture

Lynn Berkowitz sent this card from Grounds for Sculpture, an outdoor sculpture park located midway between Philadelphia and New York. The piece shown, made of Vermont marble, is called Harmony 3, by Daniel Kainz.

fly sabena

The Belgian postcrosser who sent this jazzy ad card for Sabena wrote that she hopes it somehow qualifies as an 'altered card'. I'm not sure about that but I do like the card.

A Polish postcrosser sent this postcard, her first as a postcrosser, showing a pear tree blooming in northeastern Poland. The message on the front says, she writes, Every road leads to people.

chotesov cloister

A Czech postcrosser sent this postcard of the imposing Chotesov Cloister, near Pilsen, along with a cool stamp of the Good Soldier Svejk.

beautiful kyiv

This card, from a postcrosser in Ukraine, shows a kind of beauty different from that below. I've got an assignment in Ukraine in October but will only be passing through Kyiv. Nonetheless, this card got me excited.

toyobungkah

This image of a popular tourist on Bali is full of grace and natural beauty. It came courtesy of an Indonesian postcrosser.

red is faster

Sandy Sapienza sent this cool train card which she made using a 1930's image from Popular Science. Love the red background, too!

shenandoah national park

A friend who never sends postcards sent this one of Shenandoah National Park. She and her husband are on a "Harley" trip with two other couples. Her message said that they are riding these same windy, winding roads, beautiful but cold. Here too it's cold--and wet.

nancy crow

International artist Nancy Crow will have a show of recent and new quilts from May 29 to August 15 at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, New York. The image show is titled Constructions #85: Wrestling with Black Thoughts!

national postcard week

JoAnn Castagna of FolioDeux (www.foliodeux.com) sent this reminder about National Postcard Week, which ended last Saturday. Nice gesture but it arrived too late for a proper celebration. Maybe next year I'll be more alert.

cyrilla mozenter at adam baumgold gallery

Cyrilla Mozenter will have a show of (mostly) new works made of industrial felt at the Adam Baumgold Gallery in New York from May 20 to June 26. I love this artist's work and look forward to the show. It's called warm snow.

oh, stamps

altered flowers

An 18-year-old art student in Japan sent this charming altered card which she made using a postal postcard and exotic flower stamps from all over. Terrific! And I am happy that she chose to share these fab stamps.

piazza saint oronzo

This card, from sea-loving postcrosser named Sergio, shows an atypical view of Piazza Saint Oronzo, in the southern Italian city of Lecce.

hunger

This postcard came this week from the USPS, advertising its annual food bank drive. I was miffed last year when, after putting a bag of non-perishables out for pick-up, the carrier ignored it. I think the problem is that the Saturday carrier is a substitute. In the end, I took the bag to my local post office, which always has a collection going.

stamps

table mountain

A South African postcrosser sent this spectacular view of one of her favorite mountains, aptly named Table Mountain.

capture my heart

A Canadian postcrosser in Winnipeg sent this happy card, an illustration by Karen Barbour called Capture My Heart. She also wrote that Winnipeg is the geographical center of North America but most of her message was about walking her two lovable mutts and the early spring (five weeks earlier than usual) this year.

camellia day

A Belarus postcrosser sent this lovely postcard of camellias. She wrote that she got my address on March 28, which happens to be Camellia Day in Japan, hence this card. I'd forgotten all about Camellia Day, which I only really remember from living up in Iwate. A town on the Sanriku coast there had an annual camellia festival in March. I happen to love camellias. One of my favorite images of camellias came from a local train I used to take from Tsuruga to Obama, in Fukui prefecture. Somewhere on that run bamboo and camellia grew wild along the tracks. If the season were right, I would catch the wild camellias in bloom. The smoky green of the bamboo and vivid red of the blossoms were stunning. A painting of much the same scene was used on the cover of Echizen takeningyo by Fukui novelist Mizukami Tsutomu.

always andy

PostMuse sent this postcard of the iconic Warhol painting. Um-um-um good, though it's been forever since I thought that about the soup itself. PostMuse wrote that she took some visiting postcrossing travelers to the Warhol Museum there in Pittsburgh. I've several times dropped by it on my way to ballgames at PNC Park.

all creatures great and small

Recent postings show an affinity for "all creatures great and small". I wasn't thinking about that, though, when I made this postcard. I came across the 'fact' cited on it months ago while doing a bit of research on coral snakes. It kept kicking around my head but is now laid to rest.

he saves animals, too

Not only is Chase Utley a god among baseball players but also he saves animals. Utley and his wife Jenn work with the Pennsylvania SPCA and have some rescue cats and dogs of their own. I made this card the other day when the couple were putting on their annual Utley's All-Stars casino night, held to raise money to fight cruelty to animals. The Utleys also have a foundation, named for their dog Etana.