tattered

A 'ravishing', albeit tattered, card from PostMuse.

pills

There's always grist for the mill.

prince gong's mansion garden

I should do a Google search for Prince Gong but today I'm happy to let him roam in my imagination. The card is from a Chinese postcrosser.

old cars

I was reminded of this vintage card, long sent away, while listening to an interview yesterday between Marty Mosco Wayne and Earl Swift, author of the The Big Roads, an account of how this country developed its interstate highway system. The book sounds interesting but the interview only seemed to confirm that the days of Jack Kerouac's On the Road are never coming back.

copper harbor

A vintage postcard view of Copper Harbor, Michigan.

invalid summer

Here's another message from a 1945 postcard. It was sent by a Michigan woman sick in bed to the Florida creator of a 'traveling' travel journal. For various reasons this is an 'invalid summer for me. I empathize thoroughly with the sentiments on the card.

helicopters

Yesterday morning I posted the two cards below from an amusement park in Ohio. Yesterday afternoon this card of Knoebels, a popular amusement park here in Pennsylvania, arrived from PostMuse. She wrote of the childhood fun and tribulation of teaching her sister to 'helicopter'.

skyway over midway

It's the season for state and other local fairs. These two cards remind me of them, though both are from a famous old amusement park named Cedar Point, which is located in Sandusky, Ohio. I've sent one of the cards off to a postcrosser in Taiwan and am itching to send the other.

old post offices

Two old postcards showing post offices, one in Lansing, Michigan, and the other in Howell, Michigan.

guinness

Truer words..... Thanks to Jozef B, who was recently in Ireland with his wife to take part in an arts festival. They had a grand time.

pretty in pink

A note from Umemura Mariko, the daughter of old friends in Kyoto, arrived in this pretty pink envelope, with rabbit. She also sent a fan illustrated with her paintings. You can see it on www.diamondposte.blogspot.com.

welcome

Another vintage card that easily shoots up my favorite list.

flowers and drama

Lovely greetings plus some beautiful old Noh stamps from my friend Kei in Tono. The card and poem are by Hoshino Tomihiroa, a famed paraplegic artist and poet. Kei wrote about a family trip last month to Kakunodate, an historic town in the neighboring prefecture of Akita. She and I had often talked about making an outing there.

messages from the past

Some of the vintage cards in the cache recently received had been sent. At top is the message on one from 1949, referencing a travel journal that had made it it to the sender's state and sparked her interest in communicating with its creator.

The one in the middle is from 1907, a message from a school girl accepting an invitation to play croquet. Reminds me of Anne of Green Gables.

The third one is from a card unsent. Was this a real proposal or a bit of social messaging fluff? Dig the line about the stockings rolled below the knee.

One of my favorite messages, written in pencil as so many long-ago messages were, includes these lines: "We had a supper last night. They gave me about a pint of wild raspberries + a mustard glass of wild strawberries + a jar of thimbleberry jam * a bunch of roses. I'm ironing today."

architecture here and there

This card, from Jana, a postcrosser who lives near Minsk, shows a 1990 view of Minsk. Jana likes to dtaw and plans to become an architect.

This card, from a Ukrainian postcrosser named Olga, shows a street in Moscow. Olga, who dreams in color, also had some kind words for this blog and Diamondposte.

jeune femme et l'enfant

This card, showing an undated painting by French painter Marguerite Gerard, was sent by Lynn B., who recently visited the art museum and contemporary art center in Wilmington, Delaware, with her husband. The card is from a show at the National Museum of Women in Washington, D.C.

big ears

Thanks to Sandy Sapienza for another rabbit card, this one telling us that rabbits are all ears, even in a large part of their brain.

denver post office

Here's a vintage view of the Denver Post Office and Federal Court Building, completed in 1916 and built of Colorado marble. At the time, it was said to be "one of the finest buildings ever constructed in the West." That of course is the American West. Bygone days for sure, as a headline for a weekend article in a Philadelphia paper about post office closings underscores: "The post office as beloved relic".

la jolla

Trips to San Diego often included outings to La Jolla, usually to see the seals or to go to bookstores. This card, in the same box sent by friend Sandy, reminded me of those visits. The ocean looks beautiful, the development, which seems to be tilting into the sea, less so. Aerial views of developed coasts are often disturbing. Or just plain ugly.

never out of style

Like the kittens below, this card is from a box of postcards sent to me by friend Sandy. This one is a 1982 cartoon by Art Strader. Some things just don't change.

vintage kittens

This vintage postcard is postmarked 1907.

two by otani

Two frothy handmades from Mrpotani.

magic brick

A Lithuanian postcrosser sent this lovely card of the cathedral in Vilnius. I love the banks of clouds in the sky and the people in the square around the church. But there is more. Greta, the sender, wrote that there is a 'miracle brick' located between the cathedral and its tower. You must find the brick, stand on it, look at all three saints on the cathedral, turn around three times, and make a wish! She did it and her wish came true, which is why she really believes 'that this brick is magical.'

got debt?

Here's looking at you. I knew one day this vintage card would be, ahem, ripe for altering.

autumn festival at longhua temple

This spectacular postcard, from a young Chinese postcrosser, shows Shanghai's Longhua Temple during China's autumn festival. That's some autumn moon up there in the sky. The autumn festival has a special place in my heart, but the story is too long to tell this muggy morning.