Where Can I Get Seeds to Plant a Castle Like This?

Looks like someone planted castle seeds and grew a castle along with the forest.

This beautiful Welsh castle is Castell Coch, which means "red castle." Lufra passed by this castle often on the train ride from Cardiff and Pontypridd, but never stopped to visit. That is, until one day when her friends got it into their heads to disembark and go visit the castle ... a spur-of-the-moment excursion. Lufra was not in agreement (she was wearing heels ... not the sort of footwear one wants to tramp through the forest in!), but she went along.

The walk to the castle was uphill, and quite long, but the castle itself is not very big and is beautifully furnished and decorated. Even though her feet were aching in those impossible shoes, Lufra also enjoyed wandering the castle grounds. If ever I go back to Wales, I shall visit Castell Coch, and I will wear sensible shoes. But, then again, I haven't worn heels in so long that I'm sure the ones in my closet are now considered "vintage."

Sculpture Wonder

This statue is one of twelve that surround the Shrine of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas, Brazil. The soapstone statues are representations of twelve prophets from the Old Testament. The statues were sculpted by the legendary 18th century artist Aleijadinho. There are many stories about this man, some that say he is a myth and some that say he was a genius who lost his fingers to leprosy, but still continued to create his art.

Dora has seen the sculptures and writes that they are gorgeous. I think it doesn't really matter if they were created by a genius, or by an artist who sculpted just for the love of the art. As long as they bring joy to people, they are treasures.

Hitchhiking to Canterbury

The cathedral in the background is Canterbury. In the foreground are the ruins of St. Augustine Abbey. It was founded in 598 at the start of Augustine's mission to convert the Anglo-Saxon to Christianity. St. Augustine is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site that includes Canterbury Cathedral, but I don't think many people take the short walk over to the ruins from the town center. It is a shame, because it is a very interesting site.

When AmyMarie was studying in UK, she and her friend decided to hitchhike from London to Canterbury, which she thinks of as her own Canterbury Tales. They took the "tube" and then another train to get outside the city, then found a spot on the A2 (big highway) to hitch a ride. It only took 5 minutes. And the driver went out of his way to take them to Canterbury. AmyMarie and her friend wandered the ruins and then visited the town. It took them several cars to get back to London, but they met several interesting people along they way.

I never hitchhiked ... I grew up in an era (early 1970s) when the news was full of horror stories about hitchhiking. These days I don't think many people hitchhike, at least not in this part of the US. It is illegal on most major highways here and the smaller roads don't get enough traffic. It may be different in other parts of the US, though.  And I think it is more common in Europe. Have you ever hitchhiked?

All-American Ken

The back caption on this card is funny ... "Grab your binoculars and join Ken on a safari! A swinging bachelor who's always on the lookout for fun, Ken sports the perfect outfit for his eco-adventure: light blue shorts and a leopard-print shirt with short sleeves sure to keep him cool in the hot sun. And after his exciting expedition, Ken will be ready to hit the dance floor in style . His accessories include matching scarf, sensible loafers and a fashion-forward gold belt."

Pixar movies are some of the few movies I insist on seeing in a movie theatre. Toy Story 3 was one of my favorites. I wanted to go up to Boston to see my grandchildren just so I could play with their toys.

My grandchildren don't have Barbie toys, and I sort of hope they never do. I'm not much of a fan of Barbie ... too many teeny, tiny shoes that get lost! When my girls were little, I used to inventory all their teeny tiny toys so I could make sure nothing got lost. Computers weren't in every home back then, so I did it on paper. I remember there were notes indicating the approximate date something went missing, and where I had already looked for it. I wish I still had those notes. They'd be funny to read now.

Emilie also enjoyed Toy Story 3, but her favorites are WALL-E and Up. I had forgotten about WALL-E until Emilie mentioned it. It is an unusual movie, and I did enjoy it, but I don't think children enjoyed it as much as adults.

I adopted one of Emilie's orphaned Penguin Book postcards and recently sent it back. She has already posted eight of the returned orphans, and I am thrilled to see some familiar names for the adopters!

Glimpse Into the Past, Looking Toward the Future

This vintage postcard features a section of Bab Boujloud (Blue Gate) in Fes, Morocco. It leads into the medina, which is a large, car-free district of the city. This one is thought to be the largest car-free commercial district in the world.

Nolleke lives in Netherlands and she writes that Netherlands is the home of many Moroccan immigrants. Their weddings typically involve sourcing Moroccan wedding dress, and one of Nolleke's friends designs those dresses. The dresses are made in Morocco because the materials are less expensive, and Nolleke's friend flies to Morocco to pick up her collection. I imagine there are many brides anxiously watching for the return flight so they can finally see their wedding dress.

Morocco had elections just this last week to change the role of the monarchy and bring more voice to the people. It seems the ruling elite thought it a good idea to try to head off protests like those in other northern African countries this spring and summer. However, the country's youth is suspicious of such voluntary reform, and there have been protests, though not as strong as in other places. When I watch the youth of these countries protest their governments, I'm reminded of the youth of the US in the 1960s. There was much change in this country back then, but now, the youth in the US are fairly quiet. I keep wondering where they are.

Desert Adventure

Wolfey spent a night on this very desert, Thar Desert, on a visit to the city of Jaisalmer in India. She first rode the Indian railways from the village she was living in for that summer and then, upon meeting two Scottish girls along the way, tagged along with them and rode a camel into the desert. The desert "safari" was guided, and the food and bedding provided by a local hotel.

The camels are awkward to ride, but entertaining when they run. And Wolfey got to practice her Hindi with the camel drivers.

Once camp was made, she got to run and jump all over the steep dunes and then watched a spectacular sunset. At night, the Milky Way glittered above as she enjoyed a traditional meal by firelight, including watermelons they picked along the way!

I'm quite the fan of camels (in art and craft ... I've never been close to a real one) and, lucky for me, Wolfey provided such a wonderful narrative to go along with this postcard.

Grand Old Post Office

This postcard dates to the late 1940s/early 1950s and features what was then the "Most modern Post Office in the world. Can be reached by four modes of transportation: Motor, Rail, Water and Air." The post office was built in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, and operated for 73 years in this location. It was remodeled and is now a huge office for the Internal Revenue Service. The people who did the remodel did retain most of the old glory of the magnificent architecture.

Rachel is not very impressed with this building. She thinks this looks more like a prison, but she hasn't seen it in person.  I suppose I could be enamored of just its postal history and see the architecture as magnificent, but really ... I think it is quite lovely.

I added this postage stamp before sending the postcard to Rachel. There was a series of stamps issued in 1989 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union. The series is one of my favorites because they are all so detailed.