STITCH LINES...... Ramblings on life as a quilter, stitcher, traveler, photographer, gardener and lover of books, cats and fine chocolate....

Sunday, March 9, 2014

You've got mail...

Do you enjoy getting mail? I don't mean email, I mean real mail- letters, cards, etc. in your mailbox. Personal mail puts a smile on my face, but sadly it seems to be a rare thing these days. Mail seems to be decreasing exponentially each year, with little more than flyers, junk mail and the occasional bill found in the mailbox these days. Our postal rates go up considerably at the end of this month and I suspect that will make most people really stop and think about sending a card or note. I'm wondering how many people will continue to send Christmas cards? Sadly I don't think the increase in rates will improve our postal service either....
Before long we will lose our door to door service and will have to go to a community box to retrieve what mail there is. I'd rather see them cut our door to door delivery from 5 to 3 days a week or something like that. Don't get me wrong, it won't kill me to have to go to a central box site, but I'm thinking of the many seniors who will find this a real challenge...
When I travel I try to look for "interesting photos" - things I won't "see at home". One of the things I found to photograph while in Florida were the mailboxes in Sandi's neighbourhood. We went for several good walks around her area and I thought you might like to see some of the unique mailboxes we found. I'd be hard pressed to choose a favourite!






Some were very simple....















 Some had great paint jobs...




































This one had a fierce looking guard kitty...


















 Not quite sure what to say about this one.. a holstein pig????
















How about a manatee serving up your mail?  Notice the
tropical fish swimming around the base...


















 I think this last one would have to be a favourite.. a young boy reading a book, accompanied by his faithful pup.

I guess these folks must get classy mail....



Peace,
Linda

"And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?"
~ W. H. Auden

13 comments:

Linda said...

Hello Linda...greetings from Montreal, Canada. I love the photos! I do enjoy getting snail mail but as you mentioned it is indeed a rarity these days. Now that Canada Post is talking about cutting out home mail delivery in favour of community mail boxes, it may get even more rare. It is sad.

Michele said...

I've seen a few of the manatees when I lived in Florida. The one manatee I remember was made of concrete then painted. The boy is a new one though. Very elaborate. My favorite is the twig and shell though. I like the island sense of it. LOL

Islandviewduo said...

We are forced to use a community mailbox now although the folks at the very next house along our road still qualify to get mail at the end of their driveway. Such complicated formulas the experts at Canada Post use to determine whether or not their drivers will be safe if they stop to drop our mail. Seems arbitrary to me.

So I can't use any of your Florida mailboxes as inspiration for renovating our own even though they are all so cleverly constructed. Nice idea to photograph them.

Lorraine said...

Inspiring mailboxes! I do miss door to door service - reminds me of growing up! Ah well, times change.

Pamela Gordon said...

These are great mailboxes. I really like the last one too. I don't think it would survive our winters and the snowplows here though. The first one is perfect for Florida. I enjoy getting real mail. My sister tries to keep my mailbox busy, thankfully. She is retired from Canada Post. :)

Lorette said...

We opted for a Post Office box instead of one at the end of our driveway. Snowplow drivers have too much fun knocking them over in our area! The ones you photographed are quite lovely. Love that last one!! Increasing rates will not fix this broken system...

Jeanna said...

I LOVE getting "good" mail but sadly, letter writing and greeting cards are becoming a thing of the past.

Those are some interesting looking "Florida" mailboxes, some of them are quite familiar. Hard to choose a favorite.

Sheila said...

Like everyone else snail mail is rare and I know will get even more scarce with the changes to Canada Post. I loved those mail boxes , so creative but the last one is my favorite but I would be nervous someone would steal it :-)

Tante Mali said...

Hi Linda,
what a nice idea to take pictures from all these funny post boxes. I like the first most... but it's only my taste.
Thank you for sharing them.
All the best from Austria
Elisabeth

JennyPennyPoppy said...

Very neat looking mailboxes especially the last one. Thanks for sharing the great photos you took :)

Lee said...

Wow - they obviously don't have to worry about a snowplow clipping them off!

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

I love seeing the mailboxes here in Florida, too, especially the beach front homes. You got some fun photos! Hugs!

Wildflowerhouse said...

Our boxes are a mile from the house and we now have locked boxes after things were stolen. So sad. But I took my old box painted it up and put it in the garden. It now holds all my hand tools. They are always handy.
I wonder when the PO will realize that raising rates will actually result in less mail and they will be in much worse position. Maybe they should look within the PO for what the problem really is. Sorry about the lecture.

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