Monday's Postcard: Glasgow

These 4 postcards are all from Glasgow from the 1940's. When I visit Glasgow, I like to visit the charity shops to hunt for old postcards. In the UK they have multiple charity shops (like Goodwill in the USA). There is Oxfam,  the British Heart Foundation,  St Margaret's Of Scotland Hospice,  Cancer Research UK,  Prince Of Wales Hospice Shop, P D S A Peoples Dispensary For Sick Animals, and many more!!

Monday's Postcard: Cattails

When I was younger, I really had a thing for Cattails. I LOVED them! My mom would let us pick them in the wild and bring them back to the house and I could have a display of them in my room. So the first card was chosen by me when I was a kid and wild about cattails. These cards are from around 1910.

Monday's Postcard: First Issue

First of all let me say that I am not a stamp collector, so I really don't know anything about First Issues or what makes them important or not. I just like Winslow Homer and these postcards were sold as a pair with their 1960's stamps that were put onto postcards that had the same artwork and then postmarked. The Postcards were from the National Gallery of Art and they don't have any message at all on the back. The top piece of art is not even Winslow Homer! It is called The Biglen Brothers Racing by Thomas Eakins. The bottom piece of art is by Winslow Homer and it is called Breezing Up

Monday's Postcard: Sir Francis Drake Statue

Another of those images that is now gone but not forgotten. This is from circa 1910 Germany. A statue of Sir Francis Drake in the town of Offenburg, Germany, celebrating the Potato.

In 1853 an Alsatian sculptor named Andreas Friederich erected this statue portraying the English explorer with his left hand holding a potato plant. At the base of the statue it stated:  “Sir Francis Drake, introduced  potatoes into Europe, in the year of our Lord 1586.”

This statue was torn down during the  Kristallnacht event of the Nazi regime in Offenburg. The Kristallnacht riots were aimed at Jewish owned businesses, so I don't know why this statue suffered. Perhaps in the heat of the moment, the Hitler Youth were just wrecking everything in sight?  Or did Hitler have something against the potato?? I found this fascinating news article from 1960 discussing whether the Germans were going to replace the statue or not: News article from 1960

The final week of Hike-a-thon 2013

My last week of hiking in August for Hike-a-thon 2013, I was in San Francisco on a layover and my sister and her husband came out to see me and we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to do a little hiking in the Marin Headlands.

It was foggy in the morning and the marine layer did not burn off until after noon so I got in an easy 2 miles that morning.

Ryan and I flew to New Hampshire on Wednesday and I hiked 2 miles (I think he did 3 or more--he did an extra loop that I did not!!) at Horse Hill Nature Preserve on the Loop Trail.

On Thursday, August 29th, we drove over to Lexington and Concord, MA and I hiked 5 miles on the Battle Road Trail at the Minute Man National Park. It's an awesome history lesson.  We walked along the original route of Paul Revere's famous ride to alert the local militia that the Redcoats were coming!!

We stood at the location of the "shot heard 'round the world", the first shot of the Revolutionary War. April 19th 1775. This monument to the fallen British Soldiers was nearby. Ryan did more miles than me again. We split up and I returned to the car and drove ahead to pick him up at the end of the trail.

On Friday, August 30th, we traveled to Groton, MA and I did 2 1/2 miles on the Yellow, White and Red Trails at Grotonwood Camp. I did not have time for more mileage because we were doing YARN BOMBING! :-)

 Finally on August 31st, we got in our final miles for hike-a-thon on the Mark Trail, White Pines Trail, White and Orange Trails and the Chapel Trail. I did a final 4 miles to make my goal of 60 miles for the month of August!

 Ryan does his grumpy cat face because it is 100 percent humidity and 80 degrees outside! Yuck!!

Thanks so much to everyone who helped us toward our goal of $1500. I am dropping off the last minute cash and checks to the WTA office this week and you can still  make a last minute contribution on the website!! Just follow the link posted below. Thanks so much!!

http://www.gifttool.com/athon/MyFundraisingPage?ID=1468&AID=2449&PID=369509

Monday's Postcard: Alki Beach

These postcards are some of my absolute favorites in my collection. The postcards on the left are of Luna Park, this was one of those Coney Island style amusement parks that were so popular in American in the early 1900's. There were many all over the USA and many of them were named Luna Park! There was a Luna Park in Coney Island, Pittsburgh, PA and in Cleveland, OH. Seattle's Luna Park operated from 1907 to 1913. It was built by Charles I.D. Looff on pilings extended over Elliott Bay and was called the Greatest Amusement Park on the West Coast. The last of it burned in the 1950's and today only a few pilings can be seen at extreme low tides. Several postcards were made of the park during it's heyday. I have found them challenging to locate. They are often out of my price range, so that is why these are  favorites. Easier to find are cards depicting the Alki Bathhouse. This is the other card in today's post.