Saturday 31 January 2015

February is Letter Writing Month

In just over a couple of hours, it will be February. February is when some people take part in the International Correspondence Writing Month (InCoWriMo) at http://incowrimo.org/
I am looking forward to receiving (and sending) surprise mail via this project. Last year, I corresponded with some interesting people I might not have contacted via profiles on various penpalling websites. I will continue to correspond with my existing penfriends and correspondents too. Should be easy enough, but perhaps if I need a break from letterwriting, I could take a look and sort some stamps, although ones on envelopes from current correspondents will not be removed.

It was the anniversary of Winston Churchill's funeral yesterday. I can't quite make out the postmark.
Batman and others, on stamps from the USA.
Stamps on letters from Japan

Sunday 11 January 2015

Happy New Year

Last year, I wrote to about 150 letters to 40 different people around the world. I made some new penfriends across a broad spectrum of types. I correspond with gentlemen as well as gentlewomen. I enjoy writing to people, whether sat here at my writing desk or in a cafe with a cup of tea. I feel amongst friends when I write letters while sat alone in a cafe. I have tried to draft letters while travelling on the bus but then they need writing out again.

I write mainly with fountain pens, and have even acquired a glass dip pen, although envelopes are mostly written with a ballpoint. I have a variety of paper to write on, some very cute, some subtle and some plain. I sometimes decorate letters with stickers (but occasionally, there will be an attempt at drawing and if it looks like what I meant it to be, then it is a success). Some of the envelopes I have do not have good quality sticky stuff so I  resort to tapes, plain or decorative.

I use commemorative stamps, sometimes with additional definitive stamps to make up the postage.

I keep a diary to record incoming and outgoing post (except for junk mail, bank statements and bills), although I occasionally forget to log the post in it. I have letters to post tomorrow so will need to write in the diary tomorrow. I do hope I receive some post soon: my last lot of received post is from the 2nd of January!