Hearts, Love, Mail Art, and Valentines, VA.

 These little hearts are from a stamp set that I got a long time ago and am happy that I kept. How perfect they are for the day that we're reminded about love, being loving, saying I love you. All of which, we need to be doing on a regular basis not just once a year, right?

 I received some Mail Art recently from Marseille, France - a beautiful painted mermaid. I'll post that here soon, but here's the card that I made in response. I altered a show card - one of Keith Long's wood sculptures. I make myself laugh when I do these alteration. I hope the artist in Marseille will get a smile, at least.

This is for Clyde, my letter carrier most excellent! He's leaving us after 18 years on this route, going to an easier one so he can make it 8 more years to retirement. We will soooo miss him. 

 I had this commercial postcard from the Meatball Shop and don't know why, but the pale flowers and kitty seemed appropriate for it. "You had...." fill in the blank.

photo by Bill Tiernan, Virginia-Pilot 2011

There's a little post office in Virginia, in a place called Valentines, that gets inundated with mail this time of year. The rest of the year, not so much. A few days ago, an article appeared in our newspaper telling about how it's at risk of having reduced hours and maybe even being closed. Lots of rural post offices are in the same situation.
Here's a photo of it that I found on-line. Actually, this is a little store with the post office inside it. You can read about it here.  If you feel like sending a postcard of support, you can mail it to Kathy Fajna, Postmaster, Valentines, VA 23887 - maybe an influx of mail year round will help.

And if you are really interested in Post Offices, check out THIS blog.