A great card from Abington. I was never into He-Man or She-Ra, but what a neat card. And a Christmas one at that.  Abington is a town of just over 17 000 people. In 2012, Abington celebrated its tricentennial. The local indigenous people called the area Manamooskeagin "great green place of shaking grass" before Europeans arrived. The two streams in the area were called Schumacastacut "upper beaver brook' and Schumasastuscacant "lower beaver brook." The name of the town was in honour of Anne Venables-Bertie, Countess of Abingdon, wife of the second Earl of Abingdon, who helped Joseph Dudley secure the governorship of the colony.  Jesse Reed invented a machine that mass-produced tacks for the shoe industry. As such, Abington's primary industry for much of the 1800s was the manufacture of boots and shoes. Half of the footwear provided for the Union Army during the Civil War came from Abington. 

The sender is a farmer, a nurse, and a sheep rancher. They live near Urana. Urana is a small town of 300 people. Its an agricultural area known for sheep ranching, growing wheat, and growing other grains. The sender grows barley, wheat, canola, and lupins.  Ulrana is an aboriginal word that means temporary shelter.  The notorious bushranger (men who took robbery under arms as a way of life), Dan 'Mad Dog' Morgan and an accomplice, held up the police magistrate in Wagga Wagga in 1863. Wagga Wagga is close to Urana. The magistrate that was held up was Henry Baylis. After the incident he led a group of men to chase down Morgan and his accomplice, Clarke. At the bushranger's camp, a firefight occurred leaving Baylis and Clarke wounded. Morgan and Clarke still escaped the firefight.  Morgan was finally caught and fatally shot in April of 1865.

This card is a graduation card. I'm not sure if the characters are a part of a television show or comic book series. Alfter is a small city of about 24 000 just a few kilometers outside of Bonn. 

Tampere is the home to two Liiga hockey teams - Tappara and Ilves.  Tappara has won 18 Finnish league titles, the first being 1959 and the last in 2022. On this year's squad there are two Canadians - Geoff Platt and Ben Thomas. Platt is from Toronto. Before playing in Europe he played in the National Hockey League with the Anaheim Ducks and the Columbus Blue Jackets. He then spend five years in the Kontinental Hockey League with Dinamo Minsk, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, and CSKA Moscow. While playing in Minsk, he accepted Belarusian citizenship. He first played for Belarus in international play in 2014. He played for Ilves, the Växjö Lakers, and now Tappara.  Ben Thomas was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2014. he played five seasons in the American Hockey League before finally getting 5 games with Tampa Bay. He moved to Sweden in 2021 to play for Leksands IF, Växjö Lakers, and now Tappara.  Ilves has won 16 Finnish league championships, the first being 1936 and the last in 1985. Th

Hwaseong  화성시 is a city of about 900 000. It has the largest area of farmland of any city or county in Gyeonggi province.  Hwaseong is home of the Hwaseong IBK Altos, a club in the V-League, a professional volleyball league with seven men's clubs and seven women's clubs. The V-League started in 2005. The Altos are sponsored by the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK). They have participated in the league championship six times, winning three times - 2013, 2014, and 2017. The current roster includes all South Korean players, with one player from Puerto Rico, Daly Santana. Santana plays on the Puerto Rican national team. 

The sender detailed her day for me and it started with a workout, and ended with a walk. Since she is into physical activity, I thought I would look at sports or meets in Hanover and the EC Hannover Indians caught my eye. The EC Hannover were established in 1948 as ESG Hannover. The Indians nickname was first used in 2004. The play in the Oberliga - the third tier of ice hockey - in the North Division in Germany. Hannover actually has two teams, the second being the Hannover Scorpions.  Two Canadians play for the Indians - Matthew Pistilli from Montreal, and Jayden Schubert from Abbotsford. Pistilli played in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and was un-drafted. He was signed by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2009. He played with their farm team in the East Coast League. He also played with the South Carolina Stingrays, the Charlotte Checkers, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, and Norfolk Energy. He then signed with the Danish club Esbjerg Energy in 2015.

Annaberg and Bucholz were separate towns prior to 1945. Today it is one town with a population of almost 20 000 people. It is located in the Ore Mountains. Mines in the area produced silver, tin, and cobalt but stopped prior to World War I.  Today Annaberg-Bucholz is a tourist destination and ski resort. Collectively the Ore Mountains are referred to as the Land of Christmas. Christmas markets are found everywhere during the Christmas season. The largest event of the season is the at the Annaberg Christmas Market. The market closes the fourth week of Advent with the world's biggest miners' parade (Bergparade). 

This card was painted by the sender. This is a blauwborst (blue throat) bird. Zeist is an ancient city first mentioned in documents in 838 as Seist. In the 1800s, Zeist became a favourite residence for the rich, mostly from the city of Utrecht.  The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) is located in Zeist. It is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. KNVB organizes the main Dutch football leagues - Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie, the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the national teams. 

The Burnside Bridge spans the Willamette River in Portland. It was opened in 1926 after replacing a bridge built in 1894. It has Italian Renaissance towers and decorative metal railings. It is 421 meters long and 22.5 meters wide. When the bridge is closed, there is 20 meters of space below for a passing vessel. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. The Burnside Skatepark was started without permission of the City of Portland in 1990. It is found below the southwest corner of the bridge. The city eventually allowed the park to operate, but provides no funding to it. 

This is a photo of the  Wrocław  National Museum. It was established in 1947. It holds one of the largest collections of contemporary art in Poland. There were so many damaged and destroyed buildings after World War II. The new Polish Department of Museums and Heritage Protection was entrusted with finding a new and suitable building for cultural artifacts. The building they found relatively undamaged in the city centre was the former Silesian regency office, which was built in 1886.