She had asked her mother to keep her letters and was confident that the fat pile bearing exotic stamps was waiting in her mother's desk. (Passionate Nomad. The Life of Freya Stark)
I travelled the world yesterday, my ticket was a feltpen and handmade paper, some cards, stamps and imaginations on a flying carpet.
Deborah and Pam in US, Annet in The Netherlands, Anna in Norway, my dottore in Venezia, Margaret in Cornwall, Besserat in Eritrea, Jutta in Germany, Gerda in Denmark........their letters, words, photos, postcards bring the world to The House in the Woods. Their interest in my life makes me see clearly what I have, makes me want to share. Sheets are filled with words, envelopes are stuffed, stamps are licked on, letters cross from one country to another.
It is not only words. It is lifelong friendship travelling from east of the sun, west of the moon.
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I collect stationary when I travel, handmade paper from India, beautiful crisp sheets from Italy, hotel stationary from around the world, recycled Norwegian paper. Let me know if you want a handwritten letter, and I'll write one for you.
-------------UPDATE---------
I'm on the road again (are you surprised?). On the plane I read Jan Morris' Travels With Virginia Woolf.
.......we would probably have taken her for an unusually clever but by no means extraordinary example of the English lady traveller, exchanging the usual pleasantries with compatriots before going to the escritoire in the corner to write her holiday letters home.....
