One of the highlights of a day at home in the country is the post arriving. I'm pretty certain that at 4.30-ish, when the postie does a U-turn at our neighbour's letterbox on the other side of the one-lane bridge, she's finished for the day. That's how far out into the wopwops I live- at the very end of RD 6.
I like the whole ritual of leaving the flag up when I have mail I want collected. But of course, the best thing is how often I get exciting mail.
Naturally, because I spend so much time online I mostly get emails instead of personal snail mail. But among the bills and junk mail (and I love the glossy junk for using when I glue books), I get thrilling cheques for books sold, and orders for more. Those are definitely red letter days.
I also get lots of fun parcels crammed into the little arched box. For one thing, dear family members have taken to sending chocolate every now and then. This is much appreciated and all I can say is please continue! And last week mum sent me a little box of passionfruit from her Hamilton garden-yum.
When I lived in Wellington I was about 10 minutes walk from Gordon Harris- a big fabulous arts supply store that we all liked to complain about because it is so expensive. From up here, in the arts supply wasteland of Northland, GH has become my pilgrimage destination for visits to various Big Smokes. But I am doing more and more of my shopping for materials and tools on line. Paper, card, book cloth, blades, adhesives, swatches and samples have all come my way via New Zealand Post in the past couple of months.
Last week the Association of Book Crafts sent me a big roll of paper and cloth, and under separate cover, a kilo of EVA (the environmentally friendly version of PVA glue). These unweildy objects were not going to fit in the box so the postie drove up the rutted drive and delivered them into my hands. Remember, this is the last stop on her long working day. So I just want it on record that I love Rural Delivery.
That reminds me that I took a book-binding course once and, although the results were decidedly mixed, I learned to appreciate the craft and the time that goes into handmade books. I love mail: not the bills so much, but rather the copious amounts fo CDs that are delivered to me in the mail. Mail is cool.
ReplyDeleteI also live being on rural delivery - and have a great relationship with our busy busy postie who does the Waitati, Warrington, Karitane and Waikouaiti and everyone in between. We always try to leave some out some treats at Easter time and Xmas time - and of course leave the flag up to indicate there is something to be picked up!
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