Procrastinating, Reading, and Mail Art

After 5 or 6 weeks of lack of interest in much of anything, I'm finally feeling energetic and involved again.  This has been a longer run of dullness than usual, and I never know just what causes these episodes.  My brain goes from enthusiastic, brimming with things I want to do -- to lazy and impassive and procrastinating -- then back again.  It isn't the same as with those fallow periods of creative ideas when I put my energy elsewhere, more like blah to everything.  

When that happens, I read.  A lot.  Sometimes a book a day or more.  And goodness, I'll never manage to catch up with all my reviews on my book blog.  Some books were excellent, most were OK, and some were just pretty bad.   My husband calls it an addiction.  It is, but one that I usually manage better!  :)

Because Carl's Once Upon a Time challenge has been in progress, 

I've read a lot of fantasy.

One right after another.  

And plenty of mystery and even some nonfiction.   

 The Golden Age of Murder is a nonfiction book about the age of detective fiction between the two world wars.  The three most well known writers from this period are Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, and Dorothy L. Sayers, but there were dozens of others.  They formed The Detection Club and had a great deal of fun with annual dinners and more frequent casual meetings.  The book focuses mainly on the above three dames and their work, but the information about the individual members and the time period is simply fascinating!  


The Wicked Boy is a detailed account of a murder committed by a thirteen-year-old boy in 1895.  It covers the murder and the aftermath, but what is most interesting is the engrossing account of the justice system, the press, the school system, and the mental health system of the times.  I'm about 2/3 into it now.  At first, I wasn't sure what I thought--but the information about how the legal system and school system worked really engaged me.  I've just finished the portion about asylums.  Much of the information is surprising.  What the Victorians did poorly and unfairly and the efforts to improve by a few individuals (especially in the Broadmoor Asylum).  I will review the two together on my book blog when I finish The Wicked Boy.  

I have been keeping up with my correspondence, though.  Writing letters, sending postcards.  Here are some more examples of incoming and outgoing correspondence.

Incoming:

from Melody (bookish friend)--

we've been exchanging information about our

very different parts of the world  :)

from Mrs. Duffy,

of the lovely handwriting.

 from Connie an envelope that just

made the mailbox glow!

 from Wendy (another bookish friend) a wonderful bookmark.

AND her daughter Mouse made me a bookmark,

and I've shown both back and front

because

I LOVE it so much.

wonderful postcard from Suzie and Jazz Fest

Letter from Melody.

Because mail to and from Singapore takes so long,

we've been sending postcards in between.

New mail art pal, Emilie!

From Penne M.,

my friend for more years than I care to admit.

Love that birdie!

Outgoing:

To the talented Mrs. Duffy,

whose handwriting I envy.

But--

When I put this one in the mail, I failed to remove the washi tape

covering her address--and it came right back to me.

It is once again in the mail.

To Wendy 

To Melody

Hope everyone has had a good weekend!