August 2010
This card and the two that follow come from my long-time penfriend across the pond, Kerstin. This advertising card comes from her favorite place to visit–an antiquarian bookshop. Reading the back of the card, you learn that, beyond stated operating hours, the shop is also open “extra days in summer and bank holiday afternoons, and at any time by chance or appointment.” 🙂
Harwich, Kerstin says, in the county of Essex, can be accessed easily by regular summer ferry services, across the River Stour estuary. An old maritime town, Harwich is very popular on hot summer days, when you can sit on the pier, have a crab sandwich and a drink, and watch the world and boats go by … which is precisely what Kerstin did 😉
From the Internets, I learned that “Hadleigh is one of those pleasant, if rather self-important, Suffolk towns, whose remoteness from other places of any size makes it a microcosm of bigger towns – the factories, shops and housing estates all to scale. … If Hadleigh is small, however, St Mary is not. This is one of the grand Suffolk churches, the only big one with a medieval spire; indeed, the only proper wood and lead spire in the county. It was built in the 14th century, and the exterior bell, a 1280 clock bell doubling as a sanctus bell, is Suffolk’s oldest. It is one of the longest churches in Suffolk. The Catholics who built it are now banished to the suburbs, and the surprising modern church of St Joseph.”
The Row Chapel, with its exposed timber framing, dates back to the 15th century. Kerstin says that Hadleigh is a beautiful little market town just 12 miles from her home in Ipswich. it is typical for many former wool towns in the region: in the Middle Ages, when the wool trade was at its height, the town was extremely prosperous and built impressive churches and timber-framed halls and residences. When the trade collapsed in the 17th-18th centuries, Hadleigh and other towns like it became impoverished, unable to replace the old buildings with newer, more fashionable ones. And that’s why these places still look medieval today, full of 15th-16th century half-timbered buildings and massive churches far too big for the communities they serve. But modern tourists love them, of course! 🙂
In my Internet searches, I also discovered this wonderful tidbit, which I thought that you might enjoy as well:
HOW TO TALK SUFFOLK
I saw a notice on a board about a coicle roide,
Oi thought oi’ll hev a goo at that
Thass suffin oi int troid
So oi went hoom an’ oiled me boike
An oi got a form as well,
Oi picked a quid up ‘ere ‘n’ theer,
From the folks oi hed ter tell,
So orf oi went on Satd’y morn
The sun was shoinin’ broiht,
Oi met a decent crowd a folks,
An’ oi troid with all me moight,
Theyput me name down on a board,
Oi thought wa’ll thass o’roight
The day thet went boy whooly quick
But theer were churches oi coin’t foind
Still oi come hoom wholly happy
But oi got a sore behoind.
J.R. King, Hadleigh
We took a ride up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway recently, stopping at several of the many wonderful visitor’s centers along the way. Each one sells those passports to America’s national parks, and offers passport holders a stamp with which to mark their visit. I don’t have a passport, but I really liked the stamp, noting the park’s 75th anniversary, so I stamped a piece of paper instead 🙂
For those who’d like to learn more, I nipped this text from Wikipedia: “The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. It runs for 469 miles (755 km), mostly along the famous Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. Its southern terminus is on the boundary between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, from which it travels north to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and becomes Shenandoah’s Skyline Drive. Land on either side of the road is maintained by the National Park Service. The Parkway is not a National Park, but is a National Scenic Byway and All-American Road, and is the most visited unit in the United States National Park System.”
This came in a swap-bot trade. I’m not entirely thrilled with it — looks like a photograph of windows onto which other buildings have been painted? I suppose this is an example of cards I don’t really like–it’s from one of those Pomegranate Publications packs of postcards that people buy to join postcard swaps. I suppose someone, somewhere, would like it, but it’s not really for me.
P.S. I am just noticing now that it appears there is something wrong with the scan? If you are looking at a blackened image, you are looking at my blog before I’ve had a chance to rescan the card! Please check back soon for an updated image.
I would not normally like this card, another obviously Pomegranate selection, but it represents India, a country I’m learning about now through the audiobook Shantaram (a story I highly recommend, by the way).
The back says, “Portraiture was virtually unknown in Indian art until the Mughal emperors brought Persian art to the imperial court. The colors, costume details, and stylization of clouds seen in this careful study of a young prince are typical of Aurangzeb Period paintings, c. 1675.”
The original is opaque watercolor on paper, kept at the Brooklyn Museum.
An official postcrossing card from Brazil, this sender was kind enough to tell me that the bird on the photo faces extinction, which makes an otherwise boring animal card worth talking about 🙂 From the Internets I learned that the bird is docile, quiet, able to speak, and that it mates for life. Very pretty!
I received this wonderful card as a surprise “thank you” in response to an official postcrossing card I sent to Japan! If I am fortunate enough to visit Tokyo someday, the sender has offered to show me around 🙂 Better watch out … because I just may take you up on that! 🙂 Love the color of the Japanese maple in the photo!