Yesterday, jabblog had a post entitled Remembrance - a topic which happens to coincide with two remembrance days of my own this time of year.
Last year, when I learned that my blogging and postcard-loving friend CJ in England (also known as John, or in blogging context as Scriptor Senex) had passed away, I wrote a memorial post based on postcards he sent me during our first year of postcard correspondence (2012). Those cards were only the first of many more to follow. I collected all of them all in chronolgical order in photo pockets in binders along the way, and also scanned them. So why not share a few more now that another year has passed... The ones below are from 2013, and represent some things we both liked.
Books / Reading
Historical buildings, architecture, art...
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| (No 10 Downing Street, London) |
Fairy tales and fantasy
Postcrossing and Snail Mail...
Beautiful butterflies
Cute children's books illustrations
"(23rd October) I'm rather hoping that our larder does not look like this when we get back from holiday. We are now in a hotel near Hay-on-Wye, the bookshop capital of England/Wales. ---"
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| Liverpool Cathedral |
... Oddities in unexpected places ...
"(6 November) If you ever visit Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, you must look for the church mouse! It's on a memorial to the Earl of Derby, but even knowing it is there, it's very hard to spot. - Needless to say I chose this card because of our current visitors. It looks as though we have stemmed the tide and someone has given us a tip about keeping them out --- we'll see if it works."
Places he liked to visit, and revisit, like...
Devon, where a daughter lived
"(May 2013) In a couple of weeks Jo and I will be going down to Helen and Ian's in Devon to cat-sit for a few days so they can have a little holiday..."
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| The isle of Lewis, where his brother GB (of the blog Eagleton Notes) lives... |
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| ... and closer to home, Wales... |
"(Dec 2013) This Welsh cottage picture just abut sums up the sort of place I would love to live - not that it would be realistic..."
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| Jane Austen, Letter from December 24, 1798 |
"(18 Dec 2013) ... I'm excited at having just bought a box of Jane Austen quotations postcards..."
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PS. I've (alas!) never been to the Hebrides; but way back in my teens, on family holidays, I both visited London and travelled by car through England, Wales and mainland Scotland. So I have fond memories of my own of various British landscapes and famous places - besides all I've learned from books and TV and blogs (and postcards!) over the decades since then.
That is a wonderful, eclectic selection of postcards, so carefully catalogued. You had a lovely relationship with CJ. It takes a special sort of character to undertake a hobby such as this. It's akin to stamp collecting, but so much more varied.
ReplyDeleteThanks Janice. As for CJ, I know he was a collector of a variety of things - not just postcards and stamps... For my own part I claim not to be a collector in the true sense of the word, but I still seem to end up with a lot of some things! ;)
Deleteeach and everyone of these is special in another way, I can not pick a favorite, but might borrow the quote about reading since that is ME to a T... he was a connoisseur of postcard collecting. I am impressed
ReplyDeleteSandra, you're right about that, he always seemed to have a card that "fit"...
DeleteSounds like you two had a lovely relationship. How nice.
ReplyDeleteJenny, he was one of the first bloggers I came across and started following not long after I started my own first blog in January 2009 - and through him, I also found a number of other long-lasting blog friendships.
DeleteIt is very good to read another tribute to CJ. I do miss his blog, his clever wit and humour, and his interests covering such a multitude of topics. He certainly was the kind of person one would never be short of things to talk (or write) about.
ReplyDeleteI hope his wife and children as well as of course his brother are all able to fondly remember him now without that sharp raw pain that usually is there first after a loved one has died.
Meike, he was certainly one of those bloggers that inspired me to continue (after really just having created my own first blog as an experiment, with no real clue what I wanted to do with it...)
DeleteWhat a thoughtful and wonderful collection. He even sent you a Dawn Treader one!! So sad about his passing, I am so sorry.
ReplyDeleteGinny, he was very perceptive like that, always found interesting cards to send.
DeleteIt is so good to remember your friends. That triggers my memories of some old friends that passed away too
ReplyDeleteRo, thinking/writing about one often makes me think of others as well...
DeleteLoving the Cosy Teapot - so cute. I've never been to SCotland either, but I have a ton of ancestors from there.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I did see parts of Scotland on one of our family holidays back in my teens, for example Inverness, Loch Ness and Edinburgh. But we kept to the mainland, so the Isle of Lewis and other islands off the coast I only know from photos, TV and books - and blogs!
DeleteMonica, what a beautiful tribute to his memory. Thank you. Of course I still miss him in all sorts of ways but, and perhaps people will think oddly, because when I want to identify an unusual insect (they were a passion and of huge interest to him) he's no longer there to answer my queries. He was the fount out all knowledge when it came to flora and fauna of the entomological type.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I think it's probably quite common that it's often certain things more than others that tend to trigger our memories of a certain person. Like "this is something I would have talked/written to X about"... (For my own part, pretty much the only insects I've taken interest in trying to identify are butterflies...)
DeleteWhat a wonderful selection of postacards he sent you over the years - I particularly like the last but one, from Wales. His is not a blog I knew and I feel, reading your tribute, and other's comments that I missed something enjoyable and special.
ReplyDeleteCarol, his blog is still available here: https://scriptorsenex.blogspot.com/
DeleteIt's not the same when one can no longer have two-way communication of course - but if you want to have a peek, you can!