Letters

Miss I'm Nearly four - and she is very close to that big day - loves letters. She can read a few words and definitely recognises her name so we decided to send her and Miss Eight a letter since these days we are in splendid isolation and the usual visits are suspended. When Virgo left home she left an impressive collection of sets of notepaper and matching envelopes. These were very much an 'in' part of birthday gifts in her 'tween years only to be discarded as technology took over communication and letter writing pretty much disappeared. For Miss I'm Nearly Four, though, getting a letter is still a thrill.

So Pisces and I sat down together and worked out a letter for each of them. Miss I'm Nearly Four lives very close to us and has no grasp of postage stamps and such so when Virgo came to drop off our groceries we handed her the letter to slip into their letter box. Miss I'm Nearly Four collects the household mail and was delighted to find something addressed to her by all accounts. She and Virgo came by for a brief visit later standing at appropriate distances on our driveway.  We have been presented with stickers in case we want to send another letter by the way. I think it's a hint.

Miss Eight lives some distance away and her letter is also on its way, this time by the more regular postal route. I walked up the street to the post box to send it off and the quiet in the street and adjoining park which backs onto our yard was almost eerie. Our street has little traffic in the usual run of things so after school there are usually any number of children riding bikes and scooters racing around and by 5:00 PM stay at home parents, grandparents and more children - and dogs, lots of dogs - meet up at the park. It's a noisy, fun-filled atmosphere and we love it. Yesterday it was almost empty. In the space of my brief walk I saw only one woman - who frowned and did not otherwise acknowledge me as I smiled and moved out to an acceptable distance to pass her, two children doing bike circles on their driveway and a man and a child on the far side of the park throwing balls for a dog.

It's a very different world, isn't it.