2021 round up.

 

Well, the year started much like the end of the year before. Quiet, and with Covid here to stay for a while. Socialising in person limited, however as a letter writer, I was socialising as usual on paper. 

In January, I thought I had enough stamps for a while, especially as there had been a postage rate rise at the start of the year, so didn't buy very many of The National Parks issue (celebrating 70 years). However, I regret not getting more of my local national park - Snowdonia - as now, this issue is no longer available to buy from Royal Mail (unless you want a presentation pack, over face value of the stamps). 

February is A Month of Letters (https://lettermo.com/) & International Correspondence Writing Month (InCoWriMo). People could sign up for InCoWriMo via a commenting system on one of the pages. However, just because some people put their postal addresses up publicly, a few people thought it was OK to share these addresses without permission (this could be considered doxing). 

March saw a member of my family taken to hospital, just an overnight stay (not Covid), but it was enough to kill my letter writing mojo for months. I did send a few letters here and there but mojo returned in July. 

Summer, it was full steam ahead, even writing letters outside while out and about on beautiful days, be it at a bench down the beach, or in a pub or cafe (although not so much the latter this and last year), or sitting on a rock or wall or the grass somewhere with my clipboard portfolio to write on. I like to show people that letter writing is still alive. I've had young lads come up to me in McDonald's curious to see what I was doing. I've had people mistake the letter writing for homework or essays or work. Others get curious about the stamps they see on the envelopes. I'm a letter lady.

Autumn saw me suffer a bereavement (not Covid). It knocked me more than I thought it would. Somewhat sudden. The bureaucracy and that saw me write a few emails (not my preferred method of communication), and speak to many people over the telephone. I'm grateful for the condolence cards penpals, family, and family friends have sent. For the latter, I've decided to try to stay in touch with them via the post. 

Winter, with a nod to Maya Angelou, peace is starting to bloom, slowly and irregularly. 

I've found some letters, postcards and cards sent to family - my maternal grandmother, as well as my mother. Some postcards from cousins were sent before I was born. I'm wondering whether I should return those postcards to them, as they were addressed to our grandmother. 

On the postage stamp front, I have been buying stamps, trying to get them at the post office, but sometimes resorting to Royal Mail online as they'd have more choice and more stock than the post office (sometimes I clean the post office out of the miniature sheets for an issue). I don't know why Royal Mail are being so secretive about upcoming issues. The Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog tends to publish information about stamps issued from many countries around the world.

I have enjoyed taking part in the Sunday Stamps themes set by See it on a Postcard 

Hopes and dreams for 2022, is to continue letter writing, and send over 300 items of nice post (letters and Postcrossing postcards). 

On the blog, I intend to continue taking part in the Sunday Stamps posts. Maybe even start a stationery/snail mail theme for a weekly post...