tewkesbury altered

A British postcrosser made this amusing alteration of a card from the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival. The last time I was in England I happened to visit Tewkesbury Abbey. As I recall, we then had some good scones at a comfy kind of tearoom nearby.

the best bubbles for 2010

This clever New Year greeting, called The best bubbles for 2010, came by email from the Swiss gallery Analix Forever, which is in Geneva. I can't make out the signature but it looks like a drawing by Italian artist Andrea Mastrovito (rather looks like him, too), who shows at the gallery. http://www.analix-forever.com/

year-end stamps

Interesting stamps from Taiwan (love the birds) and the United States. I was disappointed that this year my local post office had only Christmas stamps. In other years, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Eid stamps were available. I was happy to get this Kwanzaa stamp on a card from Priscilla.

from golden gate park

Priscilla sent this postcard, one of a series made by a San Francisco artist of the Japanese garden in Golden Gate Bridge. This one shows the Moon Bridge, popular with children, she writes, for climbing.

from the brandywine river museum

I picked these postcards up yesterday at the Brandywine River Museum. The bottom one shows the museum at Christmastime. It is cold enough this week for it to look like this but the weekend's heavy rains had washed all snow away. The top card shows one of the Brandywine critters, the tree decorations made each year by museum volunteers of local natural materials.

chadds ford post office

This afternoon, on the way back from the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, I took some photos of the local post office. It's in a 'quaint' little strip mall nearby and was as insanely busy as the museum itself.

of polar bears and tigers

This is another unorthodox New Year card, but I know someone who often references polar bears in her work and it seems perfect for her. And there is a sad connection to the Year of the Tiger in that both animals are being sent on their way to extinction.

horse barn

I made some postcards from a photo I took 15 or 16 years ago. I'm using them for thank-you notes and for some New Year's cards, even though 2010 is the year of the tiger, not horse.

apple baby

I love this stamp from Japan, which was on a Christmas card from that country.

first new year's card

My mother turned to postcards this year for both Christmas and New Year's. This one looks like Christmas but is for New Year's.

happy times for all

A Japanese postcrosser sent this sweet Christmas postcard. The Japanese is a wish for these happy times to go on and on. And with that I will say, Merry Christmas to all!

kingston post office

Each time I drive up to Kingston, Pennsylvania, I pass the main post office there and think about stopping to go inside. Yesterday I finally took a photo of it while waiting at the intersection. From this perspective it looks as if the facade of the original post office was retained on a renovation. Or maybe the front is just a faux look.

altered trees

An Australian postcrosser made this card using photos that her boss took on a trip around their country. She also added rhinestones to the final image. Here they look like tiny blobs of water. Nice work!

various stamps

Top to bottom, beautiful birds (and tulips) from Belarus, stained glass from the United Kingdom, and a lyrical reindeer from Finland.

robin redux

I've just seen an image on Postcrossing of the altered robin postcard which I posted yesterday. It turns out that even more things got "altered" en route, iincluding a perky party hat and bow tie on the robin and the balloon that it was clutching in its wing. (That explains the wavy black line on the card I received.) Part of the tag, too, was lost in the mail. Too bad! It was a cute, cheery card as sent, but these things happen. I'm happy I got to see the original.

birds of belarus

A postcrosser from Belarus sent this fab card, showing great crested grebes, a water hen, a swan, and a sandpiper. She wrote about the chicks she found at her parents' summer cottage and how amazing it was to watch them grow. In a couple of days, I'll post the cool stamps she used on the card.

german christmas

A German postcrossser altered this pretty Christmas card, with maybe a nod to the solstice and summer. Oddly, she said in her profile that she does not want to receive Christmas cards.

icy frosting

A Finnish postcrosser incorporated this photo into her card. She took the photo at the shore last January. The icy rocks look like frosted bonbons.

hey, robin

A Dutch postcrosser added a tag (it got smeared en route) to this pretty postcard of a robin. It means, Make every day a party. It makes me think that the birds at the feeder this morning are having a party in the snow.

the 1225 at chesaning, michigan

What else but a train on the holiday postcard from the Station Inn, the wonderful train-spotting inn in Cresson, Pennsylvania? The photo was taken at Milepost 77 on the former Michigan Central Saginaw Branch.