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! 🙂
