I love map postcards, especially art-map postcards like this one by Lucie Rice.

Tennessee is a long state, east to west. Look for Gatlinburg on the right side of the state. Gatlinburg is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. When you come from the Cherokee side of the park, and then exit out into Gatlinburg, it’s like a circus suddenly smacking you in the face!

You leave the sanctuary and peace of the mountains and find yourself smack-dab in the touristy (but fun!) city of Gatlinburg.

You can also see Nashville, the capital, on the card. That’s where I was when I picked up this lovely map card 🙂

My husband and I went to Nashville for the first time in late summer of 2023. It was SO HOT. I was melting. So we decided to head to a nice cool space: The Frist Art Museum.

Here’s my postcard showing the building, which is in the heart of downtown Nashville.

What’s cool about this museum, beyond the magnificent art, is that it’s housed in the city’s historic U.S. Post Office building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Just look at this photo I took of the beautiful metalwork and doors! Then run the full length of the very long interior hall.

Here’s a close-up of the metalwork.

If you’re in Nashville, I highly recommend this museum.

When my children were little, we read lots of Peter Rabbit. So when my husband and I were in the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, and I saw this (and a few other) Peter Rabbit postcards in one of the museum stores, I had to get them.

From the back: The cover of Beatrix Potter’s original privately printed edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, 1901.

HINT: If you’re a momma looking for great stories for your littles, check out Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.

This is one of my favorite Philly art cards. I especially love the “YO!” over the top of the word Philadelphia 🙂

It’s by April Melchior. From the back:

“Native Philadelphian April Melchior creates hand-drawn, urban-centric illustrations. Pen and ink iconography in the foreground paired with splashes of color in the background are the staples of her unique urban style. Her work captures the culture, history, and personality of cities worldwide.”

YO!

We visited the Barnes Foundation Museum in Philadelphia; it’s noted as being one of the best museums in the United States, holding one of the world’s finest collections of French paintings, including lots of works by Renoir (my favorite), Cezanne, and Matisse. If you’re planning to visit, give yourself plenty of time!

Personally, I’d rather see art than a building (although I do like architecture). If you’re like me, check out a preview of the Barnes collection!

This card says absolutely nothing about it or its maker on the back. But it’s still worth sharing because of the stunning colors!

While walking around in the neighborhood where Elfreth’s Alley and the Betsy Ross house are, we came across this cool store filled with unique Philly gifts. I grabbed a few postcards, a t-shirt, and a beautiful 36 x 24 art poster of the city! I’ve got to find it online so I can share it with you here.

Here’s the back of the card, which shows the store:

And here’s the front of the card, which shows some of the goodies inside!

If you’re searching for unique Philly gifts, check them out!

P.S. I know this isn’t really a postcard, but I wanted to share it anyway 🙂

I love art cards. This one, showing a view of the Philadelphia skyline, is from anathorne.com.

Lovely!

The word Schuylkill has to be one of the strangest I’ve come across in years. Here’s what Bing Chat has to say about the name:

“The word “Schuylkill” is of Dutch origin. The river was initially called the Skokihl, which means Hidden Creek, by the first European to voyage up the Schuylkill, a man named Arendt Corssen of the Dutch East Indies Company¹. The Unami tribe of the Lenni Lenapes was the first known group of humans to settle along the Schuylkill, a river they called Ganshowahanna, which means “falling waters” ¹. The name Schuylkill was probably given in honor of the river’s clever disguise¹.”

The back of the card says:

“The nightlights [Nightlights? It’s daytime in the photo] of Philadelphia’s modern skyline reflect in the waters of the Schuylkill River. The vibrant glow of the city mirrors its commitment to the preservation of its history and advancement of culture, commerce, and entertainment.”

Photographer: Richard Cummins

This iconic sculpture is a lot smaller than I thought! I’ll share a pic of us standing underneath so you can see for yourself.

On the back:

“Perhaps the most familiar of Philadelphia’s many artworks that embellish public spaces is the painted aluminum LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana. It was erected in 1976 as part of the nation’s Bicentennial celebration.”

And now… for the size comparison:

Although we didn’t pay to enter the exhibits, we did walk through the lobby of this cool building. And of course, I stopped at the gift store for some postcards.

From the back:

“The National Constitution Center is an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organization dedicated to increasing public understanding of, and appreciation for, the constitution, its history, and its contemporary relevance, through an interactive, interpretive facility within Independence National Historical Park and a program of national outreach, so that We the People may better secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

The Grand Hall provides an incredible, unparalleled view of the entire Independence Mall through a wall of glass two stories high. Flags of the Union and U.S. Territories hang above the second-floor overlook of the Grand Hall.”

Nothing on the back. Just a lovely art card of the city skyline.

On November 1st, 1966, a little girl named Renae was born in Fishtown, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She moved across the Betsy Ross Bridge to Cinnaminson, New Jersey, after fifth grade. She then moved away from the area at the age of 19 when her parents moved to Florida. Renae visited Philly just once in all that time when her best friend from high school got married. That was 35 years ago.

And the little girl, if you didn’t know, was — is — me!

My family and I visited Philly and neighboring Cinnaminson, NJ, from December 21st to the 28th, 2023, I was so happy to see old faces and places and to reacquaint myself with my old hometown. I really loved it, and I want to go back again soon. I’m committing to visiting at least three times a year so I can get to know my relatives.

Stay tuned for more postcards!

The back of this one reads:

“One Liberty Observation Deck is located in the heart of Philadelphia at the top of one of its most recognizable buildings in the city’s skyline, One Liberty Place. The observation deck offers a one-of-a-kind view of the city as well as a snapshot of Philly’s culture and history.”

(By the way, I didn’t even know this observation deck existed until I read the back of this postcard! I’ll be sure to visit it next time!)

Please use the link in the right sidebar instead of the link at the upper right side of the page. My developer didn’t activate the link and, although I know a little HTML, and know which code I need to replace where, there’s too much “php” stuff in the code so I’m kind of afraid to mess with it. I’ll get fixed when I can but, in the meantime, must ask email subscribers to use the link at right. Thanks!

Greetings, friends!

It has been so long since I have posted that I am almost ashamed! But life has been busy; I have not had time to scan and share all of the lovely postcards I have collected since I last wrote–and there are a lot!

One of these days I will do it. I am just not sure when.

But I did want to write about a topic of interest right now, which is the etiquette of home exchanges. Actually, since I have not yet actually done a home exchange, I am thinking more of the etiquette of requesting a home exchange.

My husband and I recently joined www.homeforexchange.com. We want to travel but find the cost prohibitive for our family of five. For example, do you know that, right now, round trip airfare to Munich (a place I’d LOVE to vist) is running about USD $1,400 per person? That comes out to USD $7,000 for a family of five. I don’t know about you, but that’s way too much money to spend on airfare alone.

A family outside of Paris recently wrote to us asking for an exchange this summer. While we would have LOVED to do so–PARIS!–airfare would have been the same as if traveling to Munich–$7,000. So, unfortunately, we had to decline. In my email reply though, I did ask if they would be interested in considering an exchange during other times–perhaps in the winter months when fares are lower, or maybe even Summer 2012, as I understand that fares may be lower if you book far out in advance.

However, to that proposal, I received no reply.

Another exchanger in Florida also wrote, asking to exchange homes this summer. The area was not one where we’d like to visit, so I proposed a possible three-way exchange: perhaps I could find someone in an area where we’d like to visit who wanted to visit Florida? Then I would stay in the 3rd party’s home; the third party would stay in Florida; the Florida party would stay in my home, which is what they wanted all along.

However, to that proposal, I received no reply.

I have also written to two parties myself asking about possible domestic exchanges this summer–one more than a week ago, the other yesterday.

However, to both proposals, I have not yet received replies. (I’m not as concerned about the proposal sent yesterday; it takes even me at least one full day to ponder a request and to reply!)

And this leaves me wondering about the etiquette of requesting and responding to home exchanges.

• Is it not hospitable to respond to every request, even if the response is negative?
• Is it not hospitable to respond to requests promptly, within three days or so?

The people making requests are trying to plan–if the dates and details can be worked out, there are airfares to book, travel plans to make, lots of planning and dreaming and scheming to do! 🙂

I don’t know about others, but I will not be offended if you cannot or do not want to take me up on my proposal. If you do not want to come to my area, or if you are otherwise engaged, just say so. But please, don’t leave me hanging. I sent my request to you in full readiness to start acting–now! 🙂

I think this is a reasonable request. And I think that perhaps home exchange websites ought to publish information to members so that they know to respond courteously and promptly to all requests.

But–since I know I can’t change the world, I will simply continue to do what I do and hope that others will follow my lead: I will respond to all requests promptly!

So if you’re interested in an exchange, please review our listing online–and then write!

A very pretty art card representing a local tree! I love it — all the way from Mauritius, “an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres (560 mi) east of Madagascar.” [Thanks, Wiki!]

A lovely postcrossing card, with lovely round stamps!

I recently swapped with a lovely postcard collector in Finland, choosing a selection of cards from her very nice album. When the cards arrived, I was so pleased to see them in this envelope, with many interesting Finnish stamps worth keeping! I like the two stamps in the upper right corner, showing books and reading. And then are the character stamps, which come with little stickers that allow the sender to “dress up” the characters themselves! Very neat — I’d like to see more of these types of unusual stamps, as we have nothing like this in the U.S.

I love these cards 🙂 When I received my first from a penpal several years ago, she described the scenes as two old ladies enjoying each other and their golden years. She also said that she hopes to have a friend like that one day. And I have always wished that, too 🙂 So I was very pleased to find that a Finnish swapper had a collection of Inge Löök’s cards available! This one shows the old gals celebrating a VERY OLD birthday, with a gazillion candles on the gigantic cake 🙂 They are enjoying large mugs of beer, and lots of other yummy goodies as well 🙂 Looks like fun!