Life seems to have gone pear shaped in the last 12 weeks.
Yesterday Monday there was a letter that needed to be posted. The nearest post boxes are a few or several miles apart in opposite directions.
Our main road can be dangerous at times and I have had some very close misses walking along it. I jest not.
Oh to go all sentimental and rose tinted and go back to that Ryan's Daughter rural Ireland landscape of donkeys and carts, and the only traffic jams were when dairy cow were going for grazing, or home to be milked.
Times have changed and cars and lorries speed passed and you feel like a frightened rabbit caught in the glare of a metal dinosaurs eyes or even headlights.
I put on my yellow safety vest and packed my waterproof trousers and some refreshments in my trusty small rucksack.
It started to rain and 'November Rain" by Guns N Roses began to play in my mental jukebox.
I waved to passing motorists who gave me a wide margin and indicated when they passed by.
A couple of farm dogs came and barked at me and I praised them for doing such a grand job protecting their owners property.
I also saw a dead cat that had been knocked down and someone had kindly placed it on top of a drystone wall. I also noticed a flat hedgehog lying in the road. Roadkill saddens me.
I didn't speak or see anyone walking in the West Cork mizzle. Mist and drizzle make mizzle.
Eventually I got to my half way destination and posted my letter and took a photo of the green An Post letter box:
"Return To Sender"by Elvis and "Please Mr Postman" by The Carpenters were playing on my mental jukebox all the way East. Whilst I drank my Lucozade, ate my apples and biscuits and watched the bay.
It wasn't too bad a walk and it keeps me fit.
How far do you go to post a letter?
Oh my goodness Dave.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fair long hike to post a letter!
I hope it reaches its destination safely.
Yep. I had to walk six miles return the other week to post a letter with the CORRECT stamp to post to England. In fairness yesterday if I had handed my letter to our postman, he would have dropped it in at a post office on his travels. The joys of rural living with no transport. I keep trying to leave comments on your posts and a message is displayed saying internal blog server error?🤔
ReplyDeleteOh great. Blogger playing up again. I wondered why I had so few comments 🙄
DeleteGremlins annoy don't they
DeleteYour commitment to the postal service is highly commendable, walking in the rain is not for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marlene. Living in rural Ireland you have to get to the mild climate and rain. 2025 was the best summer ever in my experience.
ReplyDelete46 km round trip from here to post something - I'd never attempt to walk it. Even the distance you covered makes it sound like a very important letter to go out in weather like that.
ReplyDeleteGoshI that is a long way TM. I walked 18 miles one day last week. I feel sometimes I have just got to get out and walk.
DeleteThe village I lived in before moving to the bungalow was made up of lots of little groups of houses all about a mile+ from each other and all had their own post box - quite unusual, a left over from past times I think.
ReplyDeleteThere's a good view from your post box even in the mist.
The concrete milk churns stands were like your old village Sue. My late uncle used to tell us tales of the post boy (middle aged man) delivering the Christmas post and every house would insist in giving him a drink from the top shelf and some one would find him later asleep aside of the road next to his bike. 😀
ReplyDeleteI am adopting your word "mizzle", it sounds rather romantic as you walk in the mizzle. I walk to my front door to mail a letter at my mail box at my house and they pick it up 6 days a week, I am spoiled. But you are surrounded by mist, cows, farm dogs so you are more spoiled!
ReplyDeleteMizzle is a great word Terra. Rural Ireland is wonderful on a nice day.
DeleteIt was sensible of you to don your yellow safety vest - making yourself as visible as possible to drivers. I have to walk 132 yards to our closest post box which is right next to the local post office. Within the next fifty yards there are three pubs - two of them are what you would call micropubs so only tiny people are allowed in them.
ReplyDelete"Hell is other people". That's a quote from my old mate John Paul Sartre ( spelling)? YP. "Escape To The City" another tv series we should present.
ReplyDeleteWell done for wearing the Hi Viz..
ReplyDeleteWe have postboxes around the village..but the collection is about 7am! So that then requires a post office visit...I have the choice of three at 10 miles away. In opposite directions ...and one at 8 but more difficult to get to...or one at fifteen miles....
The Hi Viz vest makes me stand out a bit GZ. It's annoying having to walk miles to post letters.
DeleteWow that is an impressive walk. Good idea re the safety vest. My walking story is we were in Avebury to see the stones. It was early evening and raining. We were staying at a b and b and had to walk down a busy road with no sidewalk and cars whizzing past to get to the pub that served meals. En route a woman slowed down in her car and yelled out a warning to us, that someone had got their arm broken by a car driving too close to someone walking along that very stretch of road. That certainly scared us! I wonder how many letters get posted in that mailbox. They are talking of ceasing home mail delivery here (Canada). Hopefully that will not happen. I feel we are cutting people off from so many things, everything is on line. Jean in Winnipeg.
ReplyDeleteHi Jean. Most postal deliveries are the post bringing Amazon parcels. I suppose drones will replace them one day?
DeleteSometimes it's just good to get out, even in the mizzle. I don't have to go very far to post a letter, but it isn't something I do often.
ReplyDeleteThe walking does you good Jules. It's the bad weather and vehic on the roads I don't like.
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