"an elegant tapestry of quotations, musings, aphorisms, and autobiographical reflections" (James Atlas)



Saturday, February 12, 2011

Crossing the miles


I've found a new amusement: postcards! In fact, an old amusement, since I've collected postcards from way back. When I moved to Australia, I had to leave my old collection behind, and gave them to people who wanted them for the stamps. I started collecting again a while ago, and have just recently joined 'Postcrossings'. This is a website that arranges postcard swaps. You register and request an address, to which you send your card. The recipient, upon receipt of your card, registers it and can upload the picture. Once your card is registered, your address is given to someone else, who will send you a card. You can specify the kind of card you want or what your interests are via a profile page.
So far, I have sent 5 cards, and received 3. What I like about it is that I learn things from doing this. For example, I received my first postcard from Taiwan, and was told about an area famous for its hot springs and witches! Baffled, I googled it and apparently a local legend exists that the steam rising from the hot springs led people to believe they were witches' cauldrons boiling! I also learned that the state animal of Oregon is the American beaver, and about Jill Mansell, the author.
People are having all kinds of fun with this, such as the Postcrossings Postcard Art group, that specialises in arty postcards. I am going to turn some of my photos into postcards, and send them around the world. One of my addressees liked handmade postcards, so I quilted him one!
I think I shall have some fun with this.

4 comments:

  1. Sound like you are going to really enjoy this Donna!

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  2. Thanks for pointing the website out to me, Sue!

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  3. I have a portfolio of my grandmother's collection of postcards and cards from the early 1900's

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  4. Oh Fay, that's precious! There'd be some beautiful cards in that collection!
    I gave my Dad, who was born in San Francisco, a collection of framed postcards from early 1900's San Francisco, he loved those.

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