Forgot About the Wedding

I forgot about the wedding this weekend.  Should have saved all those last few postcards for the build up to the big day!

So, in honor of the royal wedding, a few more postcards from England.

Here we have the beefeaters, more formerly known as  Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London. One of their primary roles is as guardians of the crown jewels which reside in the Tower of London.  If I were marrying into the royal family, I would certainly want to try on a few of those crown jewels, just for fun.

Dye Cut Postcards

No, this isn't a picture clipped out of people magazine.  It's one of a huge stack of postcards my son brought back from Europe this summer, and gave to me for Christmas.  A dye cut card of Lady Di - a double dye/di, if you will.

I'm always a sucker for an irregularly shaped postcard, and this one is particularly good.  Plus with all the talk of another royal wedding, it seemed fitting, somehow.....

Just for fun, here's another:

Might as well stay in England for a quick cup o' tea, as well.

For a few more dye cut cards, click here (Michael Jordan), here (Stonehenge), and here (manatee).

Australian National Anthem

I know every word to the song Waltzing Matilda but I don't think I've ever heard (or at least paid attention to) the words of the Australian National Anthem:  Advance Australia Fair. 

The song did not become the  official anthem until 1984 when it had to go up against the Royal anthem God Save the Queen, the "unofficial anthem" Waltzing Matilda and Song of Australia in a vote.

Another fun fact learned through participation in Postcrossing.  Check it out.

Animal Series - Bats

I was surprised to find I had two postcards of bats, one of Polish bats (or at least bats on a postcard sent from Poland) and one of fruit bats in northern Australia.

The Polish bats came from Gouraanga (her Postcrossing ID) who lives on the Polish coast of the Baltic Sea in a town called Koszalin.  She describes herself as a mad ecologist who studied bats and their habitats for a couple of years.  Very cool! And, very unusual to get such a card through Postcrossing.  Thanks, Gouraanga!

I'm not sure where the fruit bat postcard came from - it may have been from my mom's collection.  She recently moved out of her home of 48 years and found lots of postcards which she passed on to me.  In any case, the Australian fruit bat is also knows as a "flying fox".  The one in the postcard above appears to be a Spectacled Flying Fox. 

Some interesting info about bats from the Wikipedia:

Bats are flying mammals in the order Chiroptera.  The forelimbs of bats are webbed and developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, glide rather than fly, and can only glide for short distances. Bats do not flap their entire forelimbs, as birds do, but instead flap their spread out digits, which are very long and covered with a thin membrane.

There are about 1,100 bat species worldwide, which represent about twenty percent of all classified mammal species.

20% of all mammal species are bats?  That number surprises me - it seems so high.  Who knew?

Casa Rosada, Argentina

In Argentina, the Casa Rosada (the Rosy House) is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina, and of the offices of the President. However tempting it is to compare the Argentine Casa Rosada with the American Casa Blanca (White House), in fact the Argentine President lives at Quinta de Olivos, a suburb of Buenos Aires. 

Mavericks

When the surf comes up at Mavericks, the waves are among the largest cold water waves anywhere.
This past week, one of the best big wave surfers in the world, Sion Milosky, was killed there while riding one of these monsters.

I recently read a book called The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean.  Not only does it talk about the physics of waves, the giant rogue waves at sea that were considered sailor tall tales until recently, and the changes in insuring ships at sea warranted by these giant waves, it also talks a lot about the really big wave surfing spots around the world, and the surfers who pursue them.  I'm not normally a non-fiction reader, but this book reads like a novel and I couldn't put it down.

Mavericks isn't far from where I live, and it's around the point from a beach where we used to tide pool often.  However, once the surfing contest and its giant waves became renowned over the last ten years or so, our secret tide pooling spot became much less accessible if for no other reason than it's hard to find a space in the hardscrabble dirt parking lot there.  Sigh.  I miss it.

Scrabble

I love playing Scrabble.  At any given time, I've got about four games going on Facebook with friends, one who lives in San Francisco, another who lives in Chicago, a teacher in Louisiana, and yet another who lives in  Vancouver, Canada.  Once I scored 469 points in a game and another time I scored 92 points on a single word.  Woo hoo!  I was pretty psyched.

That's why I like this postcard so much - it served as not only a holiday card, but also an invitation to an open house.  The cat paw is a particularly nice touch.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring is always my favorite season.  It reminds me of poppies in bloom, asparagus, hard boiled eggs, my birthday, daylight savings time, and Palm Springs.  And daffodils. 

"Daffodils" (1804)

I wander'd lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

 

This painting of daffodils is by Nicoline Heemskerk, of the Netherlands.  More of her work can be found here.

My First Moomin Postcard

Big day!  My first Moomin postcard from Finland, through Postcrossing.  I've mentioned before that the Finns, given the size and population of their country, are by far the most well represented country on Postcrossing, and that many people, in their Postcrossing profiles and postcard requests, wish for Moomin postcards from them.

I was particularly excited to receive this postcard because I've been familiar with Moomin for a long time, way before my involvement with Postcrossing.  My cousin, David, actually has what are probably first editions of Moomin books and and the figures/dolls that go with them from his childhood.  I remember his reading (and perhaps his dad or mom's voice as well), in a particular tone of voice, about "Moomin, Mymble and Little My."

I hope he likes this postcard, as he reads my blog.  (Hey, David & Nancy!)

I was also excited because my husband is 50% Finnish, which makes my kids of Finnish heritage.  It seems like Moomin is something they should know about.

Mothball Sqaudrons

If hundreds of ships no longer in use but still floating in the Bay is called a "mothball fleet", does that make a similar number of decommissioned planes a "mothball squadron"?  Just curious.

The Davis-Monthan Air Force base just south of Tucson was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994.  From the Wiki:

The base was selected as a storage site for hundreds of decommissioned aircraft....... Tucson's dry climate and alkali soil made it an ideal location for aircraft storage and preservation, a mission that has continued to this day........ 

 With a variety of items on loan from the National Museum of the United States Air Force, including an inert Titan II missile ....... the sole remaining example of a Titan II missile site in existence.

I drove by this base once, on the way to a fancy spa in Tucson.  It's quite a surprise to be tootling along, and all of a sudden pass row after row after row of old planes.  They seem to go on forever.

On another note, in response to the question posed by the Mystery Sender in the postcard above, the answer is "I don't know."  After a couple of failed attempts to get back into a more regular groove of (almost) daily posts, I am determined to do a better job of keeping up the momentum this time.  Wish me luck!

Cheng Kung Three Fairies Terrace

Cheng Kung Three Fairies Terrace is in Taiwan.  From the back of the card:  It (sp.) located at the northern part of Cheng Kung Town in Taitung County, is given such a name as there are three hills on the island.  During monthly lowest tide, people may cross over on foot and camp on the plains of the island.

This card came from Birdie, through Postcrossing, a 20 year old student in Taiwan who likes drawing and painting and has a cat.

Berry, France

This card is from a fellow "Postcard Friendship Friday" friend Sheila, of A Postcard A Day.  She lives in England, but has a cottage in Berry. 

She's my postcard blogging hero, as she never misses a day, seems to have an unending supply of interesting and unusual postcards, features some cool widgets (the map of the world showing where the postcards from her most recent 100 posts are from is one particularly good one), and, as of today, has 869 followers.  Wow! 

At Thanksgiving, Sheila made a comment on my post about how she "yearned to taste pumpkin pie.  As we had exchanged a few postcards and I had her address, just for fun, I mailed her a box with all the ingredients needed to make a pumpkin pie, except the crust:  a can of pumpkin (recipe on the back), evaporated milk, and a little bag of pre-measured spices.  I assumed she would either know how to make or be able to buy a pie crust.  Haven't heard yet if she's received the box and/or made the pie, but I do know she's been traveling.  Can't wait to hear what she thinks! 

P.S.  Berry is a region in the dead center of France. The writer Balzac, author of "The Human Comedy" was from here. Berry was originally a province, until French provinces were reorganized into "departements" in 1790.

That Time of Year

It's rainy today in San Francisco, after a week of beautiful, warm-for-January weather.  Sometimes the little teases of Spring make waiting for Spring that much tougher.

This postcard from Zihuatanejo reminds me of a week I spent on this beach, swimming, snorkeling, fishing, swinging in hamacas (hammocks), and playing sand croquet with some locals we met.  Ahhhhh.  It's been too long since I've had my toes in warm sand and swum in a warm or even warm-ish ocean, and I wouldn't mind going back here, even if it is a lot more developed now than it was 25 years ago. 

 [Note to friends in snowy climates:  I recognize that a Californian complaining about weather is scoffable at best.  Too bad.]

Mount Rushmore

A particularly beautiful view of Mount Rushmore, at Sunset, sent from Duke and Sandy during their second cross country odyssey.  It's a bucket list place for me, and I'm under the impression that the scale is not really imaginable unless you see the monument in person.

From the Wiki:  South Dakota historian Doane Robinson [note the first name - no relation] is credited with conceiving the idea of carving the likenesses of famous people into the Black Hills region of South Dakota in order to promote tourism in the region.  Gutzon Borglum  chose the site and decided the sculpture should have a ... national focus,...choosing the four presidents whose likenesses would be carved into the mountain. After securing federal funding, construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. ...Though the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in October 1941.

The U.S. National Park Service took control of the memorial in 1933, while it was still under construction, and manages the memorial to the present day. It attracts approximately two million people annually.

Word Power

I've been taking a screenwriting class over the last year, starting last January.  I took it once Spring semester and had started again in the Fall.  When I started my new job, I had hoped to keep going even though I'm not sure I've got the time or the energy.

The above cards appeared in the mail last Friday.  I'm pretty sure they are from my screenwriting teacher, although they are not signed.  But I'm not taking any other classes so who else could they be from?  I don't think I've ever mentioned the class here before, and the Mystery Sender wouldn't know about the class.  Also, Mystery Sender sends from LA and these cards are postmarked in San Francisco.

I'm not sure I'll be able to finish this class this semester, but if anything would inspire me to do so, these cards are it.  They made me feel good, made me feel like, even if I'm not going to be a screenwriter someday, I should at least keep learning.  I appreciate the message, and feel a bit guilty about not following through.

Postscript:  I wrote this post in October, and then neglected to post it.  I did stop attending class.  However, it turns out these postcards were sent to  me by an exercise teacher (gyrotonics - similar to Pilate's, but you sit on little stools), not by the screenwriting teacher.  I felt conflicted by my previous assumption - bummed that these weren't from my screenwriting teacher but happy that my gyrotonics teacher had noticed I wasn't there.  I suppose this is a message from the universe.  I can picture a big voice and a stern finger:  "When you've got extra time, spend it exercising instead of taking writing classes." - as close to a new year's resolution as I'm going to get this year!

California Poppies

January in California always amazes me.  Right now in most of the rest of the country, any vegetation is brown or grey.  However, in California, the ground responds almost instantly to rain, and we've had a lot of it this year, which means the hillsides are already a beautiful velvet green.  That also means poppies aren't far behind.

There's actually a state poppy preserve, named (appropriately) the Antelope Valley California Poppy State Reserve.  From February through May, the poppies bloom profusely, although some years are better than others.  It is worth a drive from any reasonable distance to visit this place, if you ever get the chance.  Think the poppy fields in the Wizard of Oz (although those aren't the same kind of poppies), and you have an idea of how vast these fields of poppies (and other wildflowers) can be.  One year, when the flowers were particularly profuse, I went twice in a three day period, driving a couple of hours each way, just to look in amazement.  It's both awe-inspiring and a little depressing to look out over these fields of flowers.  Awe-inspiring because of what nature can do.  Depressing to imagine that this  is what the state of California must have looked like from top to bottom, before it was loved to death by waves of searchers, seeking fame and fortune and freedom by coming west.

The Roman Baths in Bath

A cleansing bath for the first Sunday in the New Year, perhaps?  Ed tried to talk his friend into jumping in ("Tried to persuade a friend to jump in by offering to buy him all his drinks the next weekend.  Didn't work.")  Ah, the life of a traveling college student.

The Roman Baths at Bath do look really amazing.  It's ALWAYS tempting to want to jump into baths/pools/fountains at many famous and historical places where you know  it was commonplace to do so in the past.  I think of the fountains at Peterhof Palace outside St. Petersburg, Russia; the Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California; the Jardín del Estanque in the Alcazar in Sevilla, Spain.

Whatever  your cleansing ritual for the New Year, jump to it!

The Silver Queen

The Silver Queen hangs in the saloon of the Silver Queen Hotel in Carson City, Nevada.  Carson City is the capitol of the state of Nevada

From the back of the postcard (from 1965):  "Designed by owners Carroll and Ruby Eaton as a tribute to Virginia City's once great Silver Mining Industry - an industry whose production stabilized the Federal treasury during the Civil War and later altered the world's monetary structure.  The Silver Queen's dress contains 3,261 Silver Dollars.  The belt alone contains 28 Twenty Dollar gold pieces.  The picture is fifteen feet high and eight feet wide...."

My grandfather always gave us grandchildren a silver dollar for our birthdays.  He also baked the birthday cake (chocolate angel food) and would put dimes in the batter.  It was terribly exciting to get a piece of cake with a silver dime in it.  I saved those silver dollars, and had a nice collection.  However, at some point they were stolen out of my room when I was away at college.

P.S.  Happy New Year everybody.  Here's to lots of silver in 2011.

Oscar Mayer Weinermobile

Three months ago, I started working at the San Francisco Food Bank, a non-profit organization that distributes over 40 million pounds of food per year to people at risk of hunger in our commumnity.  I never realized that not only would I be helping those in need, I'd also have opportunities I never imagined. 

One of those opportunities appeared in the form of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile.  We received a call from the "hotdoggers" who drive the Weinermobile around the country asking us what they could do for us - they had a three hour window of opportunity and would be happy to help us raise money or food.  We had them park the Weinermobile at the Castro District Safeway, and put out tweet and Facebook messages that the first 200 people to show up with non-perishable food or money, would receive a Weiner Whistle.  Who wouldn't show up?

Since 1936, the Weinermobile has been the rolling manifestation of a brand, an icon on wheels, an image cemented in our brains (well, in my brain at least) usually in concert with the ubiquitous "Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Weiner" jingle of the Oscar Mayer commercials from 1963.   And while the event wasn't a huge success food or money-wise (it was a rainy morning and set up very last minute), I have to say it was totally cool hanging out with the Weinermobile and seeing the responses of people who either came deliberately to see it, or stumbled across it. 

The entire persona of the Weinermobile is fun, a bit silly and very pun-filled.  Even the Wiki about the Weinermobile feels like it is written with a small amount of tongue in cheek, including a list of mishaps the Weinermobile  has experienced.  It has had run ins with the police (an alleged stolen license plate "YUMMY"), criticism from the Outdoor Circle (environmental group in Hawaii who enforce strict anti-billboard standards and considered the Weinermobile a rolling billboard), and more than a few minor accidents.

The drivers, called "hotdoggers", are recruited their senior year of college for a one year term.  Our hotdoggers were cheerful and friendly, and I think looking forward to a much needed two week holiday break.  I imagine it can get a bit tiring answering the same questions over and over and over and over again. 

It's new year's eve day 2010.  One of my new year's resolutions is to get back to posting postcards more regularly.  I hope you'll keep reading!  Here's to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011 for us all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, we celebrate that most American of holidays - Thanksgiving. 

While much of the day is filled with consuming - food, football and fine wines - many of us do stop and take a moment to think about what we are grateful for.

I'm grateful for my family, from husband & sons, to brothers & sisters, mom and mother-in-laws, and my cousins and "like family" friends.

I'm grateful to have a job.  I'm grateful for my garden - the broccoli is getting bigger by the day. 

I'm grateful for music and art and laughter.  I'm grateful that you've chosen to spend a minute reading my blog!

What are you grateful for?