postie | silkannthreades

I wasn’t intending to write another post so soon but life is full of surprises, and what could be more surprising than stepping out your front door on a sleepy Sunday morning and finding that your letterbox has suffered a great indignity. Like so…..

Smithereens

Oh, what rage and/or drunkenness, or druggedness, was a-foot in our mild-mannered neighbourhood, last night? For it was not only MY letterbox that was abused. Several neighbours found a similar scene of destruction,

Toppled

but our letterbox seemed to be the most severely damaged. To smash our brick letterbox to smithereens would have required significant force……and I expect, by the time the persons had done their *work*, they were out of energy to do much else.

Now, our letterbox was not in the best of condition prior to this assault. It was damaged in the severe earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, but it was still standing, and it was still usable, until some time in the dark of last night. Imagine! …that letterbox stood up to more than 12,500 earthquakes, yet, came to an inglorious end by the hands of stupid mankind. Oh, the irony 😦

My good neighbour, who shares the mailbox with us, cleaned up the mess and, don’t tell this to the vandals, but I rather liked the way the ~~litter~~ letter free area temporarily opened up, to give our property more ‘street appeal’.

New Street Appeal

And, also in their favour, the vandals, unwittingly, worked faster than the insurance company on my earthquake insurance rebuild for external property damage….and have, thereby, saved us a few hundred dollars on demolition costs. Oh, the irony! I am sure that would surprise them; vandals and the insurance company, I mean.

The postie is going to be surprised tomorrow, when he tries to deliver mail on our street. He will be most surprised of all when he finds the trendy, new letterbox that my helpful neighbour has cobbled together.

Will this start a new trend?

Isn’t life witty, and surprising, and ever so slightly crazy?

In Christchurch, letter boxes are being ‘harvested’. Our Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) has given permission for a community group, the Avon-Otakaro Network, to gather letter boxes from red-zoned residential properties where the houses have been demolished. The letter boxes, and the homes to which they belonged, had to be abandoned following the devastation of the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The Avon-Otakaro Network, which has so far collected 200 letter boxes, plans to use them to create 10 sculptures to be placed by the lower Avon River. They will be reminders of loved homes and communities that are no more. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/9305950/Harvesting-red-zone-letterboxes-for-art

Just as letter boxes are changing their form, so, too, is our Postal Service. Yesterday came the not unexpected announcement that New Zealand Post will reduce “its work force by up to 2000 staff as part of a strategy to reshape the business over the next five years.” (http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/business/9352413/NZ-Post-job-losses-restructure-revealed ) Part of that strategic plan includes a move to a 3 day postal delivery service, beginning in mid 2015. Like any good organisation, it must continually renegotiate its terms of existence in order to survive and thrive. New Zealand Post has been doing its vital work, in one form or another, for at least 170 years and I expect it can continue to serve for another century, if appropriate innovative strategies are implemented.

In the meantime, whilst the Postal Service and the letter boxes are being sorted out and re-arranged, some of us are doing our best to help keep the current postal structures in good heart.

Here are my bookmark gifts ready to fly away, par avion, to distant shores.

Fly away my pretty ones

Can you guess which one is coming to a post box near you? One will find a home, in the US, and will soon be covered in dog hair ; one will settle comfortably in London, next to Danny, the teddy bear, and a cat called Thomas ; and the third will go to a dedicated reader of books, and my blog, and long time friend, who lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

But real mail doesn’t only leave my home. It arrives as well. In my broken-down-earthquake-damaged-letter box, which no one would want to harvest, I found this…..midday yesterday…..

All pink and white and pretty

This pink and white parcel delight contains my first purchase from Koru Knits’ Felt shop. (Felt is our New Zealand answer to Etsy)

I always love a parcel and the treats within. Here is my treat; beautiful ‘sapphire blue’ handwarmers, lovingly handmade by fellow blogger, Lynley.

Handmade by Lynley

Sapphire Blue Handwarmers

Of course, they won’t be needed right now, as we head in to summer, but I like to be prepared!

Included in my parcel was a lovely, and generous, bonus (because I was Lynley’s first Felt customer) ; a pink, white and blue striped apron, ( you can see a little of it underneath the handwarmers), which is perfectly perfect for me, in both colour and size. How did she guess?

What Lynley didn’t guess is that I would put ‘pinny’ and handwarmers on, straight away, and prance around the kitchen taking photos of myself!

: Which Hand

: Looks Best ?

And, if it had been morning time, I would have pranced right out the door and taken my new garments for a walk to my letter box, just for the sheer fun of it. And, perhaps, even given a friendly wave to the postie, if he or she had been cycling by at that very moment.