When it rains, it pours! After a bit of a dry-spell, there was a stack of mail on the lobby counter this morning as I was leaving for work. Among the mail were four postcards, three of them official Postcrossing cards and one was from my sister in America.  One of these was actually a maximum card with a first day of issue postmark!

I absolutely love this card from Australia, AU-312876,picturing the Hay Railway Station in New South Wales.  Dianne actually lives in Melbourne and the card took 13 days to travel 6,994 km (4,346 miles).

She wrote:

Greetings from Australia.  This maxicard was released today by our Post Office of old railway stations.  Public tpt. hasn’t improved much since then in my State – Victoria & traffic is a problem.  I’ve retired but do some voluntary work teaching English to refugees, bushwalking & planning travels away when it’s winter here.

Guess you’re enjoying an interesting life in a new home base.

Best wishes,

Dianne

Aust. Post maxicard with great postmark

I do believe this is my favorite card yet received!

Next we have card #US-312876 from New York City, travelling 14,564 km (9,050 miles) in 13 days again (which is pretty fast for mail from the U.S.A.).  The card pictures the iconic Flatiron Building and the Fifth Avenue Clock outside the International Toy Center.   Some of my favorite cards are those showing architecture such as this.

Kassie actually lives in New Jersey (the ugly spray-type machine cancellation — the US usually has the ugliest postmarks nowadays — says “DV Daniels NJ 070“).  This is a postal distribution center located between Newark and Jersey City, so just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.  It’s amazing the types of things I learn through Postcrossing!

At any rate, she wrote the following:

Hello from NJ.

Here is a post card from New York.  This is a very famous building — because of its shape.

Happy Postcrossing

–Kas

The World Heritage Site of Shirakawa-gō in Japan is pictured on this lovely card received from Paioli, an English teacher in Taiwan.  Card #TW-1041130 took 13 days (again!) to journey the 3,103 km (1,928 miles) from Taipei to Phuket.  One of my interests is in World Heritage cards so this is why the sender chose this particular view.

 She wrote:

Hi,

I teach English too, but in Taipei of course.  Like you, I teach at different schools, three different universities.  I went to this site last April with my family.  It’s really unique there and beautiful without a doubt.  It’s also a UNESCO site.  Hopefully, you’ll like it.

What a lovely card, and the site is quite interesting as well, featuring unique-for-the-region steep-roofed buildings to counter the heavy snowfall.  The gassho-style (the word is Japanese for “palms of the hand placed together“) buildings along with the local landscape puts me in mind of Switzerland rather than Japan!

I have now received eleven postcards which have traveled a total distance of 79,038 km (49,112 miles), while eight of my sent cards have been registered to date having journeyed some 67,391 km (41,875 miles).  Four cards that I mailed two weeks ago have yet to be registered.

Since I’m writing about postcards, let me present a rare card sent by my sister (now that I’ve rejoined Postcrossing, I’m certain she’ll be sending more in the near future).  This one pictures Dream Lake in Colorado‘s Rocky Mountain National Park, always one of my favorite places to visit when I lived in Kansas and New Mexico.  The gorge where the lake sits was carved by a glacier and is an easy hike, a bit over a mile from the trailhead.

Marilyn had vacationed there a couple of months ago with my brother-in-law, Keith, and nephew, Spencer.  They were there not long before the tragic flooding in the Estes Park area.  She wrote:

Mark —

We spent a week in Estes Park, CO earlier in August.  Luckily, we were there before the flooding set in.  Did some hiking & fishing but mostly enjoyed the scenery & relaxing.

Love you!

Marilyn

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