team china

I saw Team China play twice last October in the Arizona Fall League and used two of the Polaroid photos I took then to make this composite image. This year is supposed to be the last for baseball to appear in the Olympics. I'm sending the postcard to my friend Yue in Xiamen.

Malibu PO

A mellow Southern California post office situated in a mall. Love the palm trees alongside.

what it takes

I plucked this card from the archives (of last summer) to send in reply to Mrs. October. Some of these guys had what it takes to make it to the majors. Some are still there.

memorial day

Jessie Foyle, aka Mrs. October, has sent another (!) collaged postcard, this one mainly made of photographs from her many albums. The empty blue space has glue marks on it, which makes me think an element fell off in the mail. I'll be going with Jessie to a game next week and hope to hear about it all.

spring firing

When potter Willi Singleton announces a new show, he usually does it with a postcard drawing of some aspect of the work that went into making the pots. I've already got enough of these casual but interesting drawings to make a book. This one shows his wife and daughter helping out in the kiln. New Pots from the Spring Firing will be held next weekend June 7 and 8 at Pine Creek Pottery in Kempton, PA.

roller skates

Friend Jozef B. picked up this reproduction of a Czech postcard c. 1908 at a museum of decorative arts in Prague. Jozef was there with some of his art students from Buffalo and is now traveling with them in his native Slovakia.

sweetness and light

Fumiko K., an organic farmer friend in Tono, sent this sheet of stationery in a recent letter. Fumiko and her husband are now building a house and seem to have lucked out with a wonderful carpenter. The carpenter's wife made the stationery. Sweet stuff!

at attention

Old friends now in Vermont sent this glowing birthday postcard. It's a photograph from Linda Durkee's Garden Series. I wonder if the lilacs are now blooming in Vermont.

boxed button

This clever handmade card came from Finnish postcrosser Anu. Thanks for the delightful surprise!

the torch

Friend Yue is thrilled that the Olympic torch is making its way across mainland China. She sent these stamp images on a postcard of the red Olympic mascot.

canola blossoms

Old church, old trees, field of blossoms. My first glance at this card, which German postcrosser Manuela made from a photo taken on her cell phone, brought three places to mind. Germany was not one. Manuela says the canola fields are now in bloom, which sounds about right.

the pagoda

During a long rain delay at Sunday's baseball game in Reading, I drove up Mt. Penn to the Reading Pagoda gift shop. This unusual decal postcard shows two Reading landmarks. The Pagoda is now celebrating its 100th anniversary. A local entrepreneur built the Pagoda on top of Mt. Penn in 1908, with the idea of making it a resort. That never happened. For the most part the bizarre structure, built of concrete and tiles, was not used for much of anything. For a period long ago, Morse code signals were flashed from the Pagoda to alert townspeople to fires and to broadcast the results of events, such as the World Series.

birthday butterfly

Friend Sandy is on a roll. Today's mail brought this beautiful birthday postcard. Sandy makes great fabric postcards. Thanks so much!

armadillo

From sea horses to armadillos, we cover the animal world. Sandy S. picked up this card of a "little armored one" in the Dallas airport on her way to Mexico. The card tells me that the armadillo originally came to Texas from Mexico. Another amazing creature.

sea horse

A German postcrosser said she wanted a sea horse postcard. I used colored pencils and a plasticized sea horse image that I happened to have to make this one. Will it reach its destination?

flags flying

More cards from the twins, now in England, soon on their way to Rome.

three-bagger

The California twins Jonathan and Alistair sent this triptych of baseball images before they left for a summer trip to Europe. Thanks, boys! There's an ice cream cone somewhere in there, says their mom.

famous pretzels

I bought this card yesterday at the gift shop of the Reading Pagoda, atop Mt. Penn, which had a surprising variety of postcards. This one is classic. Pennsylvania is known for its pretzels; the Reading area is a center of pretzel making. Love the design, the lettering, the colors of this card.

baseball in apple blossom time

The old apple tree out back was in glorious bloom a couple of weeks ago and prompted me to make this card, which I sent to a friend in Tono.

orchids from berlin

German postcrosser Phoenix N. sent this postcard. She made it from a print-out of a photograph she took this April in the Balinese garden in Berlin. Interesting in black and white.