Well, I certainly spoke too soon in that last post about technology and health issues! How dependent we are on both being obligingly functional - and how frustrating life becomes when they're not. But here's looking forward to an upturn with the spring ...
One real positive last month, though, was a visit to Gardd Newydd, a centre in Lampeter for Welsh learners. I belong to the Clwb Cardiau Post (The Postcard Club) which encourages learning through correspondence with other learners and Welsh speakers. Needless to say, I've always preferred pen and paper to technology! And the art of letter writing, whilst not as flourishing as it once was, certainly isn't dead - I love getting correspondence literally in my hand and enjoy keeping in touch with friends all over the world that way.
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On our weekend in Lampeter we had a visit to the National Library in Aberystwyth where they have the most amazing postcard collection, dating from a hundred and more years ago. It was fascinating to see the cards sent from all parts of Wales to all parts of the globe - and to read the messages that they carried with them. Little did those folks realise, visiting Wales for work or leisure, how their words would be read so widely decades later. Fragments of immortality. And I found that so many of the messages lent themselves to resurrection, to recycling in prose or verse as "found" pieces. The only thing changed in the following (a compilation of two postcard messages from a century ago) is the punctuation. I'm still trying to picture the individuals involved!
Well old girl, how are you?
I have put off writing -
I feel horribly ashamed of myself.
Have they gone?
I am sorry I did not see you.
I should like to meet you
at the same old place.
Could you stay a few days?
I would be so glad of you coming.
I am alive,
nothing more,
not even kicking.
