Happy Mail – Snail Mail

I received this beauty through the post recently.  Happy Snail Mail. There is no better sort, and even more lovely because it was completely unexpected and had a really lovely message about my creativity on the back. I’m too embarrassed to show you here, but it was lovely to have someone say kind and complimentary things about me, completely unprompted.

The postcard was a complete surprise from my friend Ruth Hinman, in Montana, USA. I’ve written about her and her work before. I admire her totally. She is completely open to any new form of media or technique and gives everything 100% of her time and effort. Ruth is the most prolific artist I’ve ever come across. Just take a look!

She is totally unafraid. (Except. I think she might sometimes actually be a little bit afraid and then just does stuff anyway! Boom!) As well as having a pretty high-flying job and a family. And then a bazillion friends to whom she sends random supportive postcards. Where she finds the time, I have no idea at all. I suspect she might be a witch. If I ever have the pleasure of meeting her face to face then I’ll be sure to use the infallible Monty Python Witch Test to check . If it’s not witchery, then she probably has one of those golden time-turners that Professor McGonagall gave to Hermione. Now I’m a big Hermione fan, having been something of a boffin at school myself. But if I’d been given one of those, I’d have  a whole list of stuff I’d be wanting as well as extra Muggle Studies.

1. An hour between 6am and 7am – a lie in without being late!
2. A hour-long bubble bath that didn’t involve small children with ducks and/or toilet needs.
3. An hour or two added for marking school work without it eating in to my evening plans.
4. Laundry Hour
5. An hour between 10pm and 11pm to read, guilt free.

With all of this sorted in my “extra hours” only then might I have enough free time to keep up with Ruth’s work rate.

Did we ever find out if the time turner worked the other way in the book? Because I can think of a few times when moving forward an hour would be useful too. PD Day springs to mind this close to the new term. Dental appointments. Rainy February afternoons.

It all sounds so good. In the spirit of must-get-out-more-often I did a quick search for a golden time turner… and would you believe they’re available on Amazon here for the bargain price of £6.49 with free P&P?! I imagine that, with the end of the Harry Potter series and movies, Professor McGonagall found herself at a loose end and short of Galleons, so she set up her own little mail order company. I’d’ve thought she was more of an Etsy lady myself, but there we are.