Postcards [and More] for the Weekend

Welcome to John's Island.

One of the things I love about blogging is the way it allows me to tie together several of my hobbies. I enjoy photography, surfing the web, watching ships, journaling, and collecting vintage postcards and travel memorabilia. Those of you who collect, regardless of what it is, will know that after you build up your collection, your next challenge will be how to enjoy what you've put together. For example, I have dozens of vintage railroad travel brochures necessarily maintained in storage cabinets. I don't have a room big enough to put them all on display. So, what I've done is scan them into my computer where they are easy to look at and enjoy. In the blogosphere I found Maria's Postcards for the Weekend where postcard collectors share cards based on a weekly theme chosen by Maria. This week the theme is "mountains" ... a topic where I do have a few items to share. We'll start with mountain postcards ...

Greetings from Washington (yes, our home!)
Probably published 1940s or 50s,
by C P Johnston Co, Seattle, WA
Mt Rainier in the upper left corner!

Back of the unused card.
Note: Postage One Cent

Mount Rainier from Rickseekers Point
Rainier National Park
Card No. 238 - Probably from the 1920s or 30s

Back of the unused card.
Note: Postage WITHOUT message 1 cent,
WITH message 2 cents

A favorite "mountain" card.
Mount St Helens, prior to 1980, when she erupted.

Back of the unused card.
Domestic postage = One cent
Foreign = Two cents

Enlarged description from Mt St Helens postcard

A more recent photo of Mt. St. Helens

Another favorite "mountain" postcard
Published by Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway
advertising their transcontinental train, the Olympian

Back of the unused card.
Probably published in the 1920s

A "winter" favorite in the mountains.
Art work of F. Reiss, well-known landscape artist.

Back of the card.
Postmark appears to be August 1, 1913

To see other neat "mountain" postcards check out Maria's Postcards for the Weekend. Thanks, Maria, for hosting!
Other vintage paper featuring mountains ...

Rainier National Park
Official Park Brochure
"Where you ENJOY yourself"
ca 1930s 

Great Northern Railway
Scenic Northwest Brochure
ca 1930s

A "calendar top" advertising the Milwaukee
Road's Olympian ... a transcontinental train
ca 1930s
"Electrified Over Four Mountain Ranges"

Ship Watch

Saturday morning, January 27, we noticed a new yacht
moored at the Marina. Looked her up on VesselFinder and discovered
she is the Delta 45.

A screen capture of Delta 45 from the website
Northrop and Johnson, a superyacht charter company.

A screen capture from VesselsValue website for Delta 45
Had to register to get value which we did not do.
Fun to note, though, that values, when shown, are in USD Millions

Traffic on the Sound
Foreground - Washington State Ferry Chimacum
Background - M S C Antalya
January 24th  9:47 AM

More traffic on the Sound
Far background - Submarine ... see enlargement below
Mid - Bulk Carrier Cactus K
Foreground - NOAA's Oscar Dyson

Surprising capture ... we actually did not see this sub until we
were putting the photos together for this post.
Subs are unusual in this part of Puget Sound

Cactus K
We like the name!

NOAA's Oscar Dyson is looking rusty!
Due to funding cut back for NOAA?

Sky Watch

A portion of a Sun Halo, aka Sun dog
January 22nd  3:43 PM
Sun Halo Info
Have you ever seen a sun halo?

Winter sunset.
January 22nd  4:36 PM

Enjoy more sky photos at Skywatch Friday and thanks to Yogi for hosting.

Circling Year Calendar for February ...

Now, if you sense there has been an error because the calendar below is for 1917 ... yes, we know that. Old calendars fascinate us, however, and especially so when the old days line up with the current year. Enjoy the thoughts ... we've repeated them under each page in the caption. (We started sharing the Circling Year Calendar 1917 in our Monday, January 15th post.)

January 28th through February 10
True Nobility
To be good is noble but to teach others how to be good
is nobler -- and less trouble.  Mark Twain

February 11 through 24th
My Symphony
To live content with small means -- to seek elegance rather
than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion -- to be worthy,
not respectable and wealthy, not rich -- to study hard, think quietly,
talk gently, act frankly -- to listen to stars and birds, to babes and
sages, with open heart -- to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
await occasions hurry never -- in a word to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious -- grow up through the common -- this
is to be my symphony.   William Henry Channing

February 25 through March 10
The Daily Duty
I have never had a policy.
I have simply tried to do what seemed best
each day as each day came.   Lincoln

Thank you for stopping by John's Island.

Winter Skywatch and More

ᕯ Welcome to John's Island ᕯ

Sky Watch

Last "mostly clear sky" sunset of 2017
December 20th  4:17 PM
Almost Winter Solstice and the sun is setting
as far south on the western horizon as it gets in its
annual journey.

Last sunset of 2017
Looking southwest from Seattle
over Puget Sound
December 31, 2017, 4:39 PM

First colorful sunset of 2018
January 3rd  4:24 PM

Early morning light on the Olympic Mountains
January 3rd  8:40 AM
Looking over the entrance to Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island

For the two pictures below ... the first is an early morning shot looking west over Elliott Bay Marina to the Olympic Mountains in the distance. Notice all the sailboats in the Marina. The second shot shows how some of the sailboat owners decorated with lights for the holiday season.

For more sky photos, check out Skywatch Friday. Thanks, Yogi, for hosting!

Ship Watch

The first photo below might just as well have gone in the Sky Watch category. Well, we happened to be walking along the edge of Elliott Bay, on January 11th, when we saw the giant Hapag-Lloyd Leverkusen Express arriving. The sun was back there behind the clouds so the only possiblity was a shadow shot but we kind of like the way it turned out.  More info on Leverkusen Express

Hapag-Lloyd Leverkusen Express
Arriving Port of Seattle
January 11th  3:15 PM

Going from large to small, the shot below is of the "Goodtime II" which is a tourist vessel operated by Argosy Cruises of Seattle. People pile on this little boat and cruise around the area for an hour or so and seem to love it.

Goodtime II
Argosy Cruises, Seattle

We're sliding back to December for the shot below. It was a cloudy day but the colors on this container ship came through amazingly well.

Cosco Shipping, Cosco Asia
Arriving Port of Seattle
December 16, 2017  1:44 PM

Postcards

It's time once again to join up with Maria's Postcards for the Weekend. The theme this week is "aerial views." It did take a while, looking through our collection, to find the card below. We sure don't have many aerial views. You won't be surprised our find features Seattle in the early 1960s. The card has a glossy surface which has deteriorated in the top corners over the years. The main feature of the card is, according to the description on the back, U. S. Highway 5. Wow, that's before it was called "Interstate 5"! The view is looking from the North, over Lake Union, the Space Needle (completed in 1962), and Puget Sound in the distance. The body of water that snakes around the bottom of the view is the "ship canal" between Lake Union and Lake Washington, which is off to the left of the view. Today, Interstate 5 is one of the busiest roads in the state and goes from border to border on the West Coast. The full description on the back of the card:  "A magnificent aerial view of Seattle from the North. From the two-level Freeway Bridge (U. S. Highway 5) which crosses over the University Bridge and leads the traffic toward downtown, one sees Lake Union in the foreground and Elliott Bay in the distance. In the upper center stands the 640-foot Space Needle with its eye looking toward West Seattle."

For more postcards with aerial views check out Postcards for the Weekend. Thanks to Maria for hosting.

"Seattle Freeway"
Aerial view postcard.

Description:  A magnificent aerial view of Seattle from the North
Color photo by Max R Jensen
Published by C P Johnston Company, Seattle
ca. 1963

Snow Watch

While the USA has been hammered recently with cold, snow, and ice, here in Seattle we've had only one major snowfall and it happened, of all things, on Christmas Day. We could show you a lot of snow pics, but this one, of the tree in our front yard, kind of tells the story of how much snow we got. Guessing it was somewhere between 2 and 3 inches. Lots of snow people were constructed. Notice we were not gender specific ... thank you.

Christmas Day 2017

Flu Watch

While we were looking through the collection for a postcard today we happened to see the ink blotter below. For younger folks out there who've never heard of an "ink blotter" they were handed out in the first half of the last century by merchants as a form of advertising. The one below is from the Cole Chemical Company, St. Louis, Missouri. The code at bottom right is "3-44-85M" which probably means 85,000 copies were printed in March, 1944. The "flu" is a big story in the USA this winter and several people, seemingly in good shape, have died as a result of the sickness. The Cole Company offered coated capsules in bottles of 100, and of all things, included a bit of opium! Notice the warning -- "may be habit-forming." By the way, when did we quit calling them "chemical companies" and start calling them "pharmaceuticals"?

Derfule by Cole Chemical Company

Closing thought ...

Our closing thought comes from the Circling Year Calendar for 1917, which we posted January 15th (our previous post) and is titled, Contentment.  "The happy state of mind so rarely possessed in which we can say, “I have enough,” is the highest attainment of philosophy. Happiness consists not in possessing much but in being content with what we possess. He who wants little always has enough." Zimmerman

Thanks for stopping by John's Island. Wishing you all a good week ahead!

1917 All Over Again?

Hello from John's Island. Thank you for joining us as we begin our 8th year in the blogosphere. This year we will continue to share some items from our collection of stuff older than we are! Our first item is, appropriately enough, the Circling Year Calendar for 1917. You see, 2018 is the same, only different. Well, what we mean is the days are all lined up the same way. And each week there is a little quotation that seems to apply just as well today as it did 101 years ago! We'll add more pages as time goes by. Let us know if you like the quotations.

 

Ship Watch, Sky Watch, Postcards and more will return soon. Happy New Year to all my followers and friends. Thank you for stopping by John's Island.