Goldfinches
There are masses about this year. Each dot on this picture is one on my lawn.
Goldfinches
I’m no birdwatcher, but my books tell me that they tend to forage in flocks before flying off to southern and western Europe for the winter.
Turkeys Vote in Time for Christmas
I have very friendly and good postmen here. They put the mail on the hall table and collect anything that needs to go. They have time for a quick chat and they check on the elderly etc.
But we’ve now got the postal unions pushing for a national strike.
The question is do we really need a postal service.
If I look at the post we get here, perhaps two letters a week are important. I get very few bills to pay and those could all be sent by e-mail. As to cheques in, I get none, as most pay their bills by bank transfer. So it would not affect my business if I didn’t get any mail at all.
I buy a lot of goods on mail order and that seems to get through pretty efficiently. In fact there has been a dramatic improvement over the last few years, as the delivery companies have improved their systems and I think the recession has given them a more intelligent and polite class of driver.
So if we had a long postal strike, I don’t think I would even notice. I certainly wouldn’t miss the tonnes of environmentally unfriendly junk mail, that is sent. Most of it incidentally to my late wife.
It is sad to say I wouldn’t miss the mail, but in a way it’s progress, as we increasingly rely on phones, e-mail and the Internet.
In a couple of years, I suspect that I could make do on a twice-weekly delivery for all the non-urgent personal stuff like cards and the very occasional letter.
The Anonymous Widower 