A to Z of Snail Mail - part 1

 I thought it would be fun to do an A to Z of Snail Mail. Easier said than done. Needed help & suggestions! 

A is for Address book, and also for Air Mail, Air Mail labels, aerogrammes, anticipation...

B is for Box of postcards, Best Wishes...

C is for Christmas cards sent by penpals, but also for cartridges fountain pens might use, calligraphy, and correspondence can contain caring and compassion.

D is for delivery, Diamine inks, and letters bring delight.

E is for envelope, and no matter how hard you push, it is stationery. Excitement & enlightenment.

F is for fountain pens. 

G is for General Post Office.

H is for Home (address), handwritten letters, and handwriting.

I is for ink, and also InCoWriMo, and international mail....

J is for Jolly letters written in J. Herbin ink (other inks are available). 

K is for the Kindness found in many letters, written perhaps with Krishna Ink.

L is for Letter, letter writing, letter writing paper, Lamy fountain pens & ink, letter openers, letterbox, and Love from..

M is for Mail, both incoming and outgoing missives mailed...

Part two later, but feel free to comment with your suggestions. Haven't gotten ideas yet for some of the other letters...

3 more sleeps to go for InCoWriMo-2019

February is almost here, woo hoo, the shortest month on Earth. Why am I looking forward to February? Well, it is a month of handwriting letters every day. For those wanting to use typewriters, manual clunky thunky things, then the project for you is A Month of Letters (handwritten letters also allowed there).  The basic premise is to write a letter every (postal) day. This can be to family, to friends, to strangers (both sites have addresses available to send to), a mixture.  

To write a letter, I first need some ink, I mean, drink - a nice cup of tea.

A little longer and it'll be ready for milk. I like my loose-leaf tea. This duck tea-infuser is one of the better ones.

Also needed is a pen and paper. It doesn't have to be plain paper. It doesn't have to be airmail paper for international mail. The jolly envelope was part of a letter writing set from Paperchase.

Who to write to? If I have a letter I want to reply to that moment, I will do. I have ongoing correspondence with penfriends, some even from 4 or 5 years back through the old InCoWriMo site. The February projects can lead to long term / committed penfriendships, but not every letter will lead on to years of penfriendship. 

What if I wanted to write to someone new, I could look at the incowrimo-2019 address book. The list is long, and I could go scrolling up and down, stopping at random, and pick an address on screen. Or, I could look for countries or keywords in the address. CTRL+F is your friend. Last year, I chose some addresses with trees of some sort in them. I haven't decided what I'll search for this time. Also, I may pick a few people from the comments they have left on the website.

Once the letter is written, and addressed. I'll need stamps. These Game of Thrones stamps came out in January 2018 and I used some of them during February last year. For international mail, other stamps were needed in addition to these 1st class stamps.

I've skipped what to write in the letter. That is a subject up to you, but what I've gleaned from experience, and from others is that it should be written with genuine interest in the person you are sending to, perhaps with stories, anecdotes, and is a conversation you are having with the person you are writing to. 

Christmas Cards

It is the season to be jolly, so I bought Christmas cards from charity shops to send to my penpals around the world. For the greeting, I like the wording similar to either Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, or, Season's Greetings. However, many just have Christmas greetings so that means writing in Happy New Year.

Now, the weight of the cards can be an issue, with some really fancy ones over 20g. This then falls into the 20-100g postage band. No good. So, limited to smaller cards. I bought square cards, some bigger than others. The smaller ones are a good weight and even allow room for a sheet or two of paper for a letter. So, I write my letters and enclose  them with a smallish square Christmas card. I post it, having looked up at the pricing leaflet from Royal Mail I picked up in May, with correct postage. I head over to Twitter but am dismayed when one post office tweeted about a minimum size for international mail. I responded to Royal Mail wondering if my slightly shy of a minimum 14cm on one dimension on the envelopes (supplied with the cards) would still get to Germany and USA. The reply is yes, as long as enough postage has been used but also to check https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/121 - this shows indeed a minimum size.

However, another current Royal Mail link mentions nothing about minimum size: http://www.royalmail.com/personal/international-delivery/international-standard (accessed 9th December 2016)

In the US, there may be a surcharge on square letters as the one dimension falls into non-machineable thingywhatsit (maybe a "which way is up" problem for the machines). I was wondering then whether Royal Mail will head down that route in the future and add a surcharge.

So, I have a bunch of under 140mm square Christmas cards to get through. There is no reported minimum size for domestic mail. So, I can use for them.

What a jolly scene. I have sneaked a few of the into 7 inch by 5 inch envelopes and this is under the 20g.

I bought also smaller cards to fit into the C6 (roughly 6 inch by 4 inch) envelopes. However, these ones I have to write in the New Year greeting. This size or even lightweight cards to fit into the C6 envelopes are rare.

So, I thought, if I have to write in Happy New Year, why not go for blank cards. I came across some nice folded gift tags and thought - they'd do for festive cards. I can then place more emphasis on the letter... size doesn't matter (it is the thought that counts?) and I can write my own greeting.

Snail Mail - the book

Venturing in to an independent bookshop opens eyes to a different range of books. On the top shelf, I saw the spine of a book in the colours of international correspondence and I reached up to grab it when I saw the title was, "Snail Mail." The secondary title, "Rediscovering the art and craft of handmade correspondence," had me hooked.

I bought the book and proceeded to devour it. In it, there is a section on various forms of communication. The one on e-mail suggests replying within 48 hours. I had a brief foray into email friendship but one e-pal was not happy if I did not reply to his daily emails. There seems to be a sense of urgency with emails requiring attention. Now, the only emails I want to receive are notifications. I rarely read them but their titles are comforting knowing that my Amazon order is on its way.

There are pages on types of mail - writing to congratulate/celebrate events, love letters (does anyone keep love e-mails not printed out?), condolence, fanmail (not a huge fan of this) and even letters to your future self.

There's a little bit on signing on and off. I hadn't thought starting a letter with your penpal's name (with no salutation greeting) as being stern. I do vary the initial greetings depending on mood and penpal. I use - Hi, Hello, Greetings, Dear, Annwyl... As for valedictions, I usually use Best Wishes but the book lists this as a business sign off (I knew that it was from Simon Garfield's book, To The Letter - I'm still plodding through this). I occasionally use Hugs but this is not mentioned.

There are ideas for decorating the snail mail, and there are stickers and labels in the back plus templates for making envelopes.

Another section covers handmade - making papers to write on. One had lines sewn in. Caution though is advised if sending to Australia as they have strict import regulations and post could get destroyed.

There are pages picturing used postage stamps, and some old letters - I can decipher the handwriting. There's a section on fonts, typefaces and handwriting styles. For handwriting, the book suggests trying out both cursive and block, but...

Overall, I am happy I bought this book but it is preaching to the converted. It is a nice book and would make the perfect gift for someone just starting out in the world of penpalling and snail mail. 

forum has kept me busy

 A different post box I posted a letter in on a nice afternoon.

 Some incoming post. I love the Tom and Jerry stamp. One of these letters has answers to my Five Questions, for this month's challenge.

 Some outgoing post, including a birthday card for my mother.

 Post received from a penpal in the US. I love the stamps she used. .

 Look at all those stamps on that one envelope! Wow! I just love getting letters!

 I love the flower stamps from Germany  but I also like the other stamp too.

 I found the town the sender of this letter lives in, in my atlas. My knowledge of US geography is poor to say the least!

Well, congratulations to the Queen in becoming the longest reigning monarch. Royal Mail issued a miniature sheet and I was able to get my hands on one!

Postage paid envelope

I don't see many envelopes with postage pre-paid. I did like one I received earlier this summer from Australia.

New stamps

Yesterday, the love of my life treated me to lunch at a nice bistro on the Isle of Anglesey. Afterwards, I popped to the post office to chance my luck for the new stamps. The post office is just a small branch in a little town. Yes, they had some of the miniature sheets. I also mentioned to the postmistress that the person I used to buy stamps from had retired and he could not find the Penny Black miniature sheet in Gwynedd. She still had some left so I bought  couple more sheets of that too (I had ordered and received some from Royal Mail). 

As I put the stamps safely away, the next customers came in asking for the new miniature sheet! This is the first time I've heard other people asking for the special issue stamps..

I posted this at the beginning of the month. A little heavier than my "usual" letters, it required the next postage rate up. I spent a little time pondering which stamps to use for postage and settled on these two with the selvedge.

Some pics

One of my homemade seals. Upside down on the envelope... 

 I had gotten bored(!) one evening and made lots of envelopes.

A letter for me arrived wrapped in this paper. I do like my cups of tea, and flowers.

A very kind correspondent sent some used stamps for my son. I like the value given for the letter (opinion!)

A selection of outgoing post for InCoWriMo

Just a few photos of outgoing post this month for InCoWriMo. Some of them have already been received.

Old Bailey, in London. I haven't read Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl.

I didn't read comics much either. I wasn't into Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends.

I much preferred Ivor the Engine (hmm, the spell-check suggests Ivor should be Igor).

I still have a few of the Doctor Who stamps left, but not of every Doctor now.

Season's Greetings

I realise it has been a while since I last wrote here. I have still been writing letters, some taking longer than others as I write mostly in cafes (my writing bureau currently is being used for storage - there's some letters on it, a dictionary, a hair brush, pocket tissues,some sticky tape stuff, writing paper and stickers..... I need to relocate the stuff). I also have started a diary, and this has sometimes taken precedence.

I intended to make some envelopes out of Christmas paper again this year but only made a couple. Still, hopefully they have brightened up the mailbox. I have been a little late in sending some Christmas cards overseas. I posted one to the US, one to Germany, and one to the Netherlands at lunchtime today! I also just managed to finish a letter to the US, but I forgot to enclose it in the Christmas card. I only realised after I had posted the card! Oops. Did that earlier today too to a UK penpal (I think), but that was just a short note saying I'd reply either over the festive period or in the new year.

I am still reading To The Letter. I received it as a present last Christmas, so maybe I will have finished it by Christmas 2015! I have been using clear highlighter tab things at interesting places. I am currently in the chapter titled, "Why Jane Austen's Letters Are so Dull (and Other Postal Problems Solved)"

Tea and envelopes

I was reading a paper  yesterday when I came across one of the letters to the editor. I thought it funny and decided to include it in a letter to a penpal.

Sir - At my local supermarket, the young man on the checkout seemed puzzled by my packet of loose leaf tea.
       "Do you have to tip it into little bags to make a cup of tea?" he earnestly inquired.

 Letter is all ready for posting on Monday.

Seal isn't as good as my previous one....

With only a couple of letters left in my pile to reply to, I decided to make some envelopes. I picked up the papers from a craft shop.

Seal

Today, I posted a letter and had sealed it last night. I think it is the best I have done to date. I don't seal every letter like this as I need space in the kitchen to do it. Last time I did it at my desk, a flame fell onto the envelope.... Luckily, I put it out quickly and didn't set my desk, computer, and the letter on fire...

Mailing addresses on blogs

I have been browsing a few new blogs and photos on flickr for mailart and other postal ideas recently when I came across quite a few with pictures showing addresses of other people. It is a bit disconcerting to see such disregard for other people's privacy. I don't post pictures of my address or the addresses of those I sent do.

I cover the addresses up (the above is one envelope I received a while ago, and I posted about it earlier), although I let this beautifully calligraphied part of my address through (again, shown in an earlier blogpost).

I do have my postal address on a couple of websites/forums, but I chose to put them there, and I believe only viewable by logged in members to the respective sites. I also have put my address in some friendship books, again, put there by choice.
I know some of my penpals blog about letters.... I haven't read all their blog entries, but if you are reading this and have put a photo of my address on your blog, please please, could you remove it.

already posting festive things

I have been making some envelopes from festive paper (not wrapping). I have sent a couple of cards with letters out in them. I hope the two I am showing here arrived safely at their destinations.

Been busy writing letters

I have been busy replying to letters. I have already finished one sheet of Gold Medal stamps (Dani King, Joanna Rowsell, Laura Trott in the Cycling - Women's Team Pursuit, in a world record time).

Last week I sent off a letter to France with extra bits, with 3 Gold Medal stamps (so that's where one of the stamps from the above sheet went, along with Andy Murray and Bradley Wiggins).

On Sunday, we stopped off at a supermarket. I noticed this slightly inaccessible postbox.

At least it was a Sunday when there was no postal collection, and today's a bank holiday (no postal delivery today).

Map envelope, and reply

One of the letters I received last week was contained in a self-made envelope out of a map.

I haven't visited that part of Germany, though the letter comes from The Netherlands!

I was searching for something to send with the reply....

and came across some used stamps I had bought from an RNLI (lifeboats) charity shop. There was an Emmerdale stamp.

Here are some jolly or pretty stamps I like.

And these were some of the stamps issued for the Millennium (issued 1999/2000)

And these are some postal themed ones I found. Top Left- "Sir Rowland Hill was awarded the first RSA Albert Medal in 1864 for his postal reforms and the introduction of the Penny Post", next is a picture of him, then the stamp celebrating Royal Mail's 350 years of service (London), then Top Right is a stamp for the Postal Telegraph & Telephone International World Congress. Bottom Right is another picture with Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879). Are there any more stamps out there with Sir Rowland Hill?