Renae

1. Greetings from Philadelphia. I was born here. Lived in Philly till I was 12. Then we moved across the river to Cinnaminson, New Jersey, where I spent my most formative years 🙂 Thanks to my sister Astina for this card!

2. Hiroshima Package – The Envelope. This is the envelope I mentioned in the previous post; it contains four cards from Hiroshima that my sister brought back from Japan. It is published by the Hiroshima Convention and Visitors’ Bureau 🙂

3. Hiroshima Package – Card 3: Hiroshima Dreamination. My sister was fortunate enough to be present for this awesome, moving event during which paper lanterns (homemade, I believe) are set asail down the river in remberance of all those souls who died during the awful tragedy that was Hiroshima.

4. Hiroshima Package – Card 4: Dream Fireworks at Hiroshima Port. Another part of the anniversary celebration. (You will find cards 1 and 2 of this package in the former post…which I guess is BELOW this one on blogger. Another great blogger feature: if you want to follow my logic, you have to start at the bottom of the page and read UPwards.

5. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The Ben Franklin statute. Franklin established the university in 1750; here, he’s seen reading The Philadelphia Gazette, a magazine he began publishing in 1729, and which is still published by the university today! I was once here with my uncle–he was attending the university and took me, an impressionable, young high school student, to the library there with him for the day. I was duly impressed–and still love libraries to this day 🙂

6. Airports of Washington, DC. From a private trade; shows images from Dulles and Reagan National.

7. St. Petersburg, Florida. This is also my old homestead, where I lived for 20 years after we moved from Jersey/Philly. I drove by the dome many, many times…and went to the University of South Florida at St. Pete, which is located right on the water over by the small airport you see on the right in the background. The small planes used to zoom in right overtop of campus…I never really got used to it!

8. UCLA in LA. I got this from a private trade–it’s not exactly what I meant by a University card, but at least it isn’t a sports card. This is from the Conferences and Catering department–so it’s likely a free ad card. But still, the only one I have from UCLA.

9. Akha Hilltribes, Thailand. This is either from a private trade or a round robin…I can’t recall being this far removed from receiving it! But I love the image of the happy women in their native outfits….lovely!

10. Thailand. This is a nice multi-view; I especially like the map 🙂

I just found out this is not actually the “finally” post I thought it was. I apparently have another 10 or so cards that didn’t get uploaded thanks to blogger’s fantastic service–thanks again for even more work, blogger!

For this load, however:

1. Lapp girl in traditional costume, from my postcard pal Johanna in Finland.

2. Tatooing in the village fair, India. This comes from my penpal Ram. Fascinating and exotic image!

3. Hebron, Israel: The Tombs of Isaac and Rebecca. This comes from my penpal Leeba, who actually lives in an Israeli settlement–one that’s often in the news due to the Arab-Israeli conflict! But that is another story…. For now, I have to think that these cannot possibly be the REAL tombs of the Israeli patriach and matriach…they must be for respect purposes or something! The tombs are HUGE!!!

4. “Experience Music Project” Seattle. This comes from my postcard pal Ruth. What an ugly, but interesting and photo-worthy building! 🙂

5. Le Grand Louvre, Paris. This comes from my pal Therese from Ireland! She’s studying in Paris for a year and tells me that this is her absolute favorite card of all 🙂 I can see why…this must be a “must-see” view if one should be lucky enough to visit Paris 🙂

6. Israel, multiview from Leeba.

7. Panorama of the Sword Lake, Hanoi, Vietnam. This awesome, exotic view came from a private trade.

8. Finnish funpark, Linnanmaki! Looks like fun, too 🙂

9. Itakeskus, Ostra centrum, Helsinki, Finland. This, from a private swap. I love the look of the mall….looks like a place where I’d enjoy shopping 🙂

10. Art card by patient in Finnish psychiatric hospital, in the mental health rehabilitation center. This comes from my penfriend Satu, who says it speaks of the power of coffee 🙂 I agree! And I really like this unique card; it will be appreciated much in my collection 🙂

Have you seen the new Yahoo photo pages? Wow! I was loading my page of postcards available for trade so I could cut/paste the link for someone, and … WOW! It looks just like Flickr now! I love Flickr…I just wish I could do like a photoblog there. Flickr is good except when you want to show TEXT with your images…which, unfortunately, is exactly what I want to do.

My husband just very kindly scanned another batch of postcards for me. I am going to try…to try…to upload them here with comments. But no guarantees…. Blogger only lets me do five images at a time. And to get them setup right I have to do it in html…then go in and enter the text afterwards…. It’s really kind of a hassle.

So if you’re reading this post NOW without first having looked at photos, it means I couldn’t upload AGAIN for one reason or another.

So here goes….

Hello, Friends!

Do you know of a good photoblogging service? I am fed up to “HERE” with blogger. It only lets me upload 5 photos at a time…and that, even sporatically. So it is with much sadness that I tell you that I’ll no longer be sharing my received postcards and stories about them. Unless, of course, I can find a photoblogging service that lets me:

1. Upload MANY images at once
2. Batch edit the titles and descriptions
3. Show the entire description once posted!

I don’t think that’s asking too much…if I were a programmer I would develop such a software and whip all these other guys out of business 🙂 But I’m not. So all I can do is grumble and hope that someone, somewhere, finds or comes up with such a service.

I have tried all the big name services out there: flickr, typepad, wordpress (I think that’s the name), smugmug, etc. I am even willing to pay for such a service!

So if you know of one, please let me know. I’d love to keep this blog alive, but not when blogger makes it so difficult.

Thanks for visiting…enjoy the cards I have posted in anycase 🙂

Renae 🙂

P.S. I’m still trading…so check out my cards available for trade! Newly added are cards from the Great Smoky Mountains…Cherokee, North Carolina….Cars, the Movie…Pirates of the Caribbean…and more!

This past week I have received more postcards than ever before in any week in comparison. It is so many that I while I had to cull down the amount I choose to post here, I still wound up with 36 cards–that is 36 cards to post! Needless to say, I cannot spend the time detailing each and every card, but I will title it if I can 🙂

I also want to say that I’m learning a truth about postcard collecting. To save postage, I have been doing more and more “large” trades–10 or more cards in an envelope with multiple traders. Yet when I trade like that, I find that I do not get all the interesting detail on the back of the cards. So while I asked for many of these cards because I like the image on the front, I know nothing about it. Sometimes, because I can’t read the language, I can’t even say what it is I am looking at! So I think for that reason, I would like to make many smaller-quantity swaps so as not to lose sight of what I enjoy about this hobby. It is not the quantity of cards that count…but the knowledge gleaned through them!

Anyway…so forgive the lack of detail here. I do have information on some of them but am not including it due to time. But, frankly, for most of them I simply have no detail! Thanks to everyone for trading 🙂 I still love the cards 🙂

1. Map of Estonia showing counties

2. Map of Bulgaria, shaped like the country!

3. Kirkkonummi, Finland; near the border of the the old USSR.

4. Berlin, Potsdamer Platz (the most modern area in Berlin; before 1989 there was nothing here but the Wall!)

5. Hapag Llyod Express; Fokker F-100

6. Gesterby Museum in Kirkkonummi, Finland. (I want to point out that this is a lovely homemade card by Satu; she also did the other Kirkkonumi card above, and shared many fantastic details on both!)

7. Map of Zeeland, a providence in the Netherlands.

8. Skyscrapers in Jakarta, Indonesia (love this view!).

9. Art card, Lapland, which is the northernmost area of Finland…sparsely populated.

10. Map of Lahti (in Lapland), Finland…the Business City.

11. Mushrooms in the rain (from Finland, lovely image!).

12. Art card from Lapland.

13. Portugal: inspiration, go deeper.

14. Air New Zealand, Boeing 737-300.

15. Map of the Metro, Paris.

16. Paris, La Defense.

17. Hostel Dieu, Main Courtyard, the Tower (Paris, France).

18. Satellite array, Raisting, in the state of Bavaria, Germany. (I didn’t know Germany had states till now! Also love this image with the white and blue, blue sky!)

19. Modern Art Museum, Kiasma, in Helsinki, Finland (learned from the sender that this is the most “modern” building in Helsinki…when it was built everyone hated it…but now they’re used to it :).

20. Casino in Dortmund, Germany.

21. Dusseldorf on the Rhein; Airport.

22. Bergbaumusem in Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

23. Barnegat Lighthouse, Barnegat, New Jersey. (Being an old Jersey-ite who frequented the shore, I love cards that remind me of those time 🙂

24. The Roman Baths, in Bath. According to the sender, these baths are still operational today…even after 2000 years!

25. The Schwebebahn Wuppertal, a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany. Pretty awesome!

26. Koln, Germany. Magnificant.

27. The Crayola Factory, Easton, Pennsylvania.

28. The Ark with Elephants. Kenya’s Forest Lodge in the Aberdare Mountains.

29. Famous Finnish painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallenlan.

30. University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada (awesome!).

31. Powerpark in Harma, Finland.

32. HundertwasserHaus, Wein.

33. Lufthansa, Airbus A320-200.

34. Afrikaans Language Monument, Paarl, South Africa.

35. Tycho Brahe Planetarium, Denmark.

36. Art card by Dick Bruna, Amsterdam.

Out of the many postcards I received over the last week, I’d say about 1/3 of them could have been posted here to my blog–they were that good 🙂 But because time is a factor in how much I can scan and load, I’ve only upload the best of the best here.

1. The Market Square, Helsinki, Finland from my postcard pal Johanna. I love this card because it shows a real shot of a day-in-the-life in Helsinki at this particular location. I love the colors of the umbrellas; that most people are wearing jackets or long sleeves (save for one young guy in short sleeves!), which speaks of, probably to Fins!, very cold weather; the colorful flag and Finnish text on the stall on the right side. Thanks Johanna 🙂

2. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Views from Jeddah, from a private trade with Kim. Needless to say I love this card from such a far-away, exotic land. I love the city view…the art/fountains (aren’t they spectacular???)…the shopping center…the youth playing in a lot! A nice mix of day-in-the-life, art and regular postcard-type photos! Thanks Kim! 🙂

3. Montreal Stairways, from Christine. Another excellent atypical postcard showing me a real snippet of a real place in Montreal! Love the color! I can almost envision walking into one of these places as a guest visiting from the states 🙂 Thanks!

4. Night view of Taipei, Taiwan, from Yvan. I think just about anyone would love this card: exotic city, sparkly night-time view, HUGE unique building in the center…what an awesome, bustling place Taipei must be! Thanks Yvan!

5. Doors of Trondheim, from a private trade. Trondheim, a city in Norway, obviously has lots of beautiful doors 🙂 I love this card…colorful! And I can only imagine how colorful and different are the homes within each of these doors!

6. Daytona International Speedway, from 2004 Daytona 500. My son loves all things racing…I love the coloful cars 🙂 Need I say more? 🙂 From a private trade.

7. Continental Divide, from a private trade. I would love to drive down this road. Nuff said. 🙂

8. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, View of King Fahd Fountain and Jeddah City Center. Again, from my private trade with Kim. These images are awesome! Check out SIZE of that fountain (which looks like it’s spewing oil, by the way :))…and the architecture of that building. Wonderful images!

The postcards are coming in more quickly than I can process them 🙂 Here are 8 cards from the last two days, plus two bonuses 🙂

1. Chinese booklet on The Great Wall of China, from a tag with Yan in the People’s Republic of China. This is a very lovely book with almost archival quality paper and many beautiful images, although written in Chinese. According to Yan, the English version is very rare…and therefore out of his budget for penpalling purposes. Quite a treasure…thank you! 😉

2. eLong.com discount card, as an added bonus from Yan in the tag above! I love how there’s an “e” and then, I presume, the word “long” in Chinese. 🙂 Very neat!

3. Before I turned this card over, I looked at it and said, “Hmmm…. Europe.” Then I tried to narrow it down: “Germany?” Nope! This is a great aerial view of Szeged , Hungary, from a tag with Hanan! I love the card…the city looks so lively and busy and bustling…just not what I have in mind when I think “Hungary.” My mind is obviously skewed and does not perceive reality properly 🙂 But that’s what this hobby is about…it’s to correct my misperceptions and clarify my view of the world 🙂 Thanks Hanan! Love the card!

4. Pottinger Street, Hong Hong, from a private swap with Ameko. I love this view! It is almost like I am stepping into a busy street in an average day-in-the-life of a native! And look at all the detail: the signs have both Chinese and English (shoes, fruit juice, photo supplies); on the right see the box of cereal featuring Tony the Tiger. And on the back, “Chinese” English: “Neighbored with modern buildings, this is where old and new charmingly mix.” 🙂 Love it! 🙂

5. The Olive Pit, Corning, California. A unique card from a private trade with Amy in Oregon! I love it! It’s unusual…it’s local…it’s a real establishment! Thanks, Amy! 🙂

6. Atomium, Brussels. This card is from a private trade with Ron in New Jersey. I love science…especially cutting-edge stuff like M-theory…so this really appealed to me! I would love to visit this place…bet they have some cool souvenirs to be had! 🙂

7. Cape Town, South Africa, another card from my trade with Ron. I selected this card because it seems so hard to get cards from African nations…they are therefore rare and exotic to me…and any view I get is a treasured one 🙂

8. Ruta de los Volcanes, Quito, Banos, Ecuador…this, another card from Ron…chosen for the same reason. How many people have a card from Ecuador??? 🙂

9. Som Moro, Hervannan Kirjasto…an official postcrossing card from Maija in Finland! I love this card as well! It shows contemporary architecture…Finnish text…and it’s just not your typical Finnish landscape-snow-bird card 🙂 It represents the Finns well! 🙂 Although it was not easy, Maija attempted to translate this card for me: “Words, this is a weird thing! Your dream has come true. Every one has it’s own place and has been organized to lines. Just come in sight with smile.” Now isn’t that just the coolest?!? 🙂

10. The Forth Rail Bridge, also from Ron. This bridge is so unusual looking–and I just love unusual looking things 🙂 It is a view from North Queensferry in Fife..which, I learned when I looked it up…is in Scotland, in the U.K. 🙂

Traveling and Postcarding!

What an excellent week this has been–both for acquiring new postcards to trade and for receiving postcards for my growing albums! Last Tuesday, I took the kids over to the Forest Discovery Center in Pisgah National Forest (near Brevard, North Carolina). We stopped at the ranger station and saw beautiful hummingbirds everywhere…and postcards for a very nice price! 🙂 We then went to Pink Beds picnic area for lunch, and then over to the Forest Discover Center so the kids could do the scavenger hunt and so mom could practice her photography 🙂 Then…we stopped at the Center for Wildlife Education and saw where the forest service raises trout for local rivers 🙂

Yesterday, the whole family headed south to Greenville, South Carolina, which is less than an hour away. We stopped at The Children’s Garden, a lovely little character-oriented garden to help children learn all sorts of neat stuff 🙂 They didn’t have potties there, so needless to say we couldn’t stay long 🙂 Next stop was Falls Park on the Reedy River in downtown. What a beautiful place! There are waterfalls there…a swimming hole for the kids…gardens…flowers…art…and the only cantilevered people bridge that crosses a river in the world! I took lots of photos; hope to translate at least a few of them into unique postcards to share and swap with you all 🙂

My postcard trading album now hosts a bunch of South Carolina cards; check it out to see! I also added many new homemade cards, a selection of Johnny Depp cards, Pirates of the Caribbean cards, and new mountain cards!

My personal albums have grown as well after this week! I received nearly 50 cards from various trades and swaps….many, many lovely cards! I can’t take time to post them all, but what you see here are a few of my favorites–and a sample representative of the whole 🙂

Enjoy!

1. Alaska Railroad along Turnagain Arm, from a private trade with Sarah in Alaska. I love trains and I love mountains…this has both 🙂

2. Alaska from Space, again from my private trade with Sarah. Once upon a time, I wanted to be an astronaut…or at least a scientist at NASA. That didn’t happen…but I sure enjoy visions from space like this!

3. University of Alaska at Fairbanks, from Sarah for my university collection. Very pretty campus…would love to see it in person! Thanks Sarah! 🙂

4. Windmills in the Mojave Desert from a private trade. Something about windmills is very appealing to me. And to see them all in a row like this is even more awesome 🙂

5. This awesome image comes from a private trade with Edwin in Hong Kong. I absolutely love the colors of the paper bags/lanterns/ornaments all over this tree…plus the action of the chidren at lower right! This shouts, “HONG KONG!” to me, which is another reason why I love it so 🙂

6. Plane flying over Kowloon City, Hong Kong…again from Edwin. I know I keep saying this, but this is very close to–or actually is–my favorite card! I have a thing about airplanes…especially LOW FLYING airplanes! This image is foreign…colorful…a bit scary…AWESOME! Thanks, Edwin!

7. Card design by Minna Immonen, a tag from Kiti in Finland. Lovely! Wish I had a large-sized version of this…would be great in a frame in my office 🙂 Thanks Kiti!

8. The next two cards, Rainforest and The Great Barrier Reef, by Richard Galloraith, come from a private trade from Carol in the states. I love local art cards like this! And the detail on them is amazing! If you look closely you see all kinds of neat creatures everywhere 🙂 Colorful and fun! Thanks Carol…I am proud to host these cards in my collection! 🙂

9. Great Barrier Reef

10. Budapest, from a private trade with Lili, who will be attending school there this fall. I love how busy and active the city looks, even from up here! Just a good photograph 🙂 Thanks!

11. Tallinn, Estonia…from a private trade with Merike! Wow…this is my first card from Estonia…a country I know just about nothing about. But that’s why I love postcarding…I get to learn about so many people, places and things! 🙂 Thanks Merike! Look forward to more swaps! 🙂

12. Japan map card from my dear sister Maria, who should be home from her month-long trip by now 🙂 Another great addition to my map collection! 🙂

13. “Naturally! Beautiful!” Austria, from a private trade with Elke 🙂 First Austrian card as well! Thank you! 🙂

14. Last, but not least, a Lyrikart card from a tag with Kirsten! I love this card because I love the German language! It says, “Only at the end of our way we find the answers.” Thank you Kirsten! 🙂

Hey! Thank you very much for stopping by! I hope you enjoy my blog 🙂 While you’re here, would you mind taking a moment to leave a comment? It’s nice to know I’m not just talking to myself here 🙂

Thanks!

Renae 🙂

Yesterday was another HUGE mail day here! Not only did I receive the cards you’ll see below (which are just my favorite of the bunch!), but I also received a fantastic Paua shell keyring from Rachel in New Zealand, a Puerto Rico magnet from my sister (who went there on vacation a while ago and forgot to send it to me until now :)), and a magnet and little black purse from a swapper in Hungary! Thanks to everyone 🙂

1. Bryce Canyon National Park, from a private trade. I still cannot believe there are such awesome places on this earth. Amazing! I also received four other national park cards in this trade…and it’s these cards that have started me on the road to collecting national park cards 🙂

2. Amsterdam, from a private trade with Mikiko. Even though the image is a bit dark, I still love all the interesting detail: FujiFilm sign, Bazar2000, trolley 658, Presitge Gallery–oil paintings and bronzes. This really makes me feel like I’m “there,” and is exactly what I mean when I say I like cards showing “busy street scenes.” Thanks Mikiko! 🙂

3. Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. From Susan through a postcrossings tag! Susan writes that there are hundreds of parks in the Vancouver area, but that this is one of the most famous and a common site for wedding photos. I see why 🙂 I am guessing that building in the background is “Bloedel Floral Conservatory,” as it is mentioned on the back of the card. Very nice! Thanks Susan!

4. Schiphol Airport, The Netherlands, also from trade with Mikiko. I love airport images for some reason. Must be the repeating images of planes? Either that, or it’s just my fascination with planes…that such beasts can fly at all! 🙂

5. This image is either from a book, or it is artwork, called “Wounded Angel” published in 1903 by Hugo Simberg. I received this lovely card as an official postcrossing card from Heini in Finland. She is a librarian, so we both share a love of books 🙂 The image here is stirring to me…a wounded child…a wounded angel. Same difference? 🙂

6. The Dolomiti: Misurina Lake and the Sorapis Group, from a private trade with Barbara in Italy. I love how the mountains absolutely dwarf the buildings in this image! Living in the mountains of North Carolina, I see mountains all the time. But I’ve never traveled west…nor anywhere else…so I’ve never seen mountains like these! Thanks Barbara!

7. Bradenton Beach, Florida, from a trade with my sister Jessica 🙂 Thanks Jess! I lived in various places on the west coast of Florida, from Tampa to Fort Myers, for 20 years! That bridge in the foreground leads to my parents’ home…they’re less than a 10 minute drive to that spot on the island.

8. Sunshine Skyway Bridge, from my sister again 🙂 I traveled this many times…the bridge replaces the two spanner, one of which crumbled when a barge hit it many moons ago! You can still see the remnants of one of the spans in the background. This bridge connects St. Petersburg to Bradenton.

9. Holland, from private trade with Mikiko. I love windmills…and I love colors…so this is a great card for me 🙂

10. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. This card is from a private trade; only LDS members can enter the temple…the rest of us have to admire it from the outside 🙂 Very lovely!

11. Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand, from a private swap with Pip 🙂 It’s a perfect addition to my uni collection! Love it! Thanks, Pip!