5649 East 3rd Street

Quail and wildflowers cover this mailbox with a stuccoed post. David Aber found it. He wrote about it — and the previous two mailboxes:

“All three photos were taken on Feb. 16, 2016 and all three mailboxes were found in my usual way......by accident. In this case, I was looking for yards with lots of wildflowers. There’s quite a few homeowners (especially in midtown) that buy packaged wildflower seed from their local nursery and scatter it in their front yards. Right now it’s all in bloom. Looking for flowers in front yards, I could hardly miss the mailboxes.”

Thanks, as always, Dave!

6129 East Rosewood Street

This mailbox “post” is showing some wear (and is the box itself tagged?). I think it's the biggest post I've seen. Actually, David Aber found it (on February 16th).

8131 East Malvern Street

David Aber spotted this amazing creation on February 16. More boxes from him in the next few entries…

Computer coming back to life

I'm on the road with my laptop computer. It went into a bizarre cycle of trying to fix itself, giving up, trying to fix again, and…. I finally gave up, wiped out my programs (a.k.a. "apps"), and re-installed Windows.

So the blog may not be back to normal until I'm home early next week. Sorry about that.

1327 South 8th Avenue

David Aber sent these photos. (Thanks!) He wrote: “Here’s a mailbox I found on S. 8th Ave. that is in the shape of a cathedral. It’s between 23rd and 24th Streets. It’s on an empty lot, but Google Earth says the address is 1327 S. 8th Ave. This meshes with the numbers of the surrounding homes.”

710 South 7th Avenue

David Aber found this mailbox with a house-shaped top and a huge “post” underneath. (These folks can get a lot of mail!)

729 South Osborne Avenue

David Aber emailed this photo of a rust-finished mailbox in a Southwestern style… on top of a post that matches the wall behind it:

Thanks, David.

5140 East Rosewood Street

David Aber sent photos of this mailbox — and matching planters:

David is a regular contributor to the Tucson Murals Project blog, but this is his first mailbox. Thank you, Dave!

337 West Blacklidge Drive

On November 20th, I rode by this plain-vanilla mailbox with colorful tile on its post and underneath:

The other side of the post is about the same:

2920 North Estrella Avenue

You can't miss this red and white mailbox with numbers carved alongside the post!

I was blinded :) as I rode by on November 20, so I parked my bike and snapped these shots.

2738 North Estrella Avenue

Riding my bike by on November 20th, I couldn't miss this mailbox on a peace sign-shaped “post”:

That side of the box is painted with bright-colored flowers, but the flowers on the other side have faded:

Update (August 12, 2016): I just looked at this entry again and realized that the “post” isn't quite a peace sign. (Click to see a Google Image search for peace sign.) If you have an idea what this carving is, please leave a comment below. (You can remain anonymous.)

2041 East Waverly Street

When I drove by this home on the route of the fall artists’ open studios tour November 14th, the scene looked as if an artist lives here:

Though I saw the house number on the red circle, I didn't notice the number on the curb:

The pole was painted in same style as the box and curb:

Thanks, homeowner, for this fun scene!

2609 East Mabel Street

Along my route on the fall 2015 artists’ open studios tour, one artist had this mailbox out front with a tour sign hung over it:

Those are steel cholla on top — and a flag shaped like a cowboy with chaps to keep the cholla away:

4449 East 10th Street

It looks like the Mann Family have roots in Montana and Arizona:

Thanks, Brady and Celia...

I snapped their mailbox photo on November 7th.

708 North Desert Avenue

Here's the fourth of four mailboxes in the three blocks of this little street:

I've read that Sesame Street characters have been updated by HBO in 2016, so this photo from February 3 might not show the latest faces.

820 North Desert Avenue

This short section of Desert Avenue just north of 6th Street has lots of mailboxes. Here's the third of the series:

I was there on November 7th.

643 North Desert Avenue

Here's a black box with a yellow flower and the house number on both sides:

This is one of several mailboxes I found on Desert Avenue November 7th.

825 North Desert Avenue

Let's start a sunny, warm January day with the sun (and the moon) on a plain gray mailbox — painted by a young artist, I'm guessing:

The west side of the box has flowers around a heart:

I found the box on my early-morning ride November 7th.

5142 East Lee Street

There's no was I could I miss this red mailbox with white flowers as I rolled along Lee Street. (By the way, Lee is a great east-west bicycling street that's even quieter than Pima — which is just a block north.)

It caught my eye on November 7th.

5714 East Lee Street

We usually don't show mailboxes with posts made of chain. But this black box is too different — at least, I haven't seen anything like it yet! Its “post,” made of bicycle or motorcycle chain, is in the shape of Arizona.

I rolled by on my November 7th ride and almost missed it; the chain looked like a jumble. Something made me stop and look a bit more…

2001 North Ridgeway Road

Here's a mailbox with blue-green desert plants on a lavender background and a snake-shaped flag...

The other side and the front are faded — probably by the sun:

I slithered by on November 7th.

1003 North Sonoita Avenue

This gorgeous handpainted mailbox popped out along my early-morning bike ride November 7th. But the lighting — spots of bright sunshine and a mailbox with both black and white parts — made getting a good photograph a challenge. I've edited the photos to try to bring out the design:

That's the front of the mailbox.

711 South Erin Avenue

This cheery blue mailbox — with touches of red and a light-green post and door — made me feel at home on October 26, 2015.

4755 East 17th Street

This plain gray mailbox is covered with stencils (?) of horses.

I galloped by (on my bicycle) October 26th.

5853 E. North Wilshire Drive

Let's start the new year at a mailbox decorated for one of places — the Orient. (It's west of the International Date Line, which means the time there is much later; it's far east of Arizona — so much that the day can be tomorrow there when it's “today” here. Think how New York's celebration at midnight in Times Square happens at 10 PM Arizona Time? And so on even farther east: midnight in London is 4 PM in Tucson.)

But enough world geography… this is a mailbox blog!

I'm not quite sure where this box is located. It's south of Park Place Mall. That neighborhood has both East North Wilshire Drive and East Wilshire Terrace. Bing Maps Streetside shows a home on E. North Wilshire, but it shows the house number as 5888 instead of the 5853 I wrote down. Hmmm.

Anyway, if you drive into that part of E. North Wilshire you'll see this mailbox on a stoneware post.

You can look forward to bunches of boxes in 2016.

Being kind rocks (but...): 6046 East 14th Street

As I ride my bike around Tucson looking for artistic mailboxes, from time to time I realize that a clever design I first spotted a while back isn't so unique. This one, for instance, looks a lot like other boxes on a pile of rocks. The difference here is the Ben's Bells “be kind” sticker.

I rolled (and rocked) by on October 26th.

Four rocked-out (or -up) boxes are probably enough. So I'm going to add them to the Not these mailboxes list. If you want to see the other boxes on rocks, click there and scroll down the list.

239 North Silverbell Road

I noticed this mailbox on October 25th, while I was visiting an artist on one of the fall Open Studios Tours. The post is made from a (former) saguaro cactus:

Just by chance, the mailbox is Christmas-green. Here's the other side:

The wall around the home is worth a look, too. You can see it in yesterday's post on the Tucson Murals Project blog.

4842 North Fontana Avenue

I spotted this Halloween-themed mailbox — surrounded by cobwebs — (naturally enough) just before Halloween. For some reason, I forgot to show it until now. I took the photo on October 25th.

341 East Burrows Place

This whale of a mailbox even has a canoeist as the flag (which you can see in the first photo below):

I floated by on October 25th.

1215 North 3rd Avenue

One side of this mostly lavender and blue-greenish box has a tidy tile number sign on the post.

The number on the other side is made with what look to me like stick-on letters.

I found it on October 23rd.