Postpeople Pat & Angelika

Back in December when Cumbria was suffering so badly from the floods, I was talking to our postman and explaining what sort of area it was and telling him it was the home of Postman Pat. He had a very vague recollection of having seen something. For Christmas I gave him a self-made card showing Postman Pat & Jess, the black & white cat, and addressed the envelope as such. From there on he is known as Pat.

I keep working on getting him to visit Cumbria as he is a fan of "away from the madding crowd" holidays. Two years ago he fell in love with Scotland and last year explored the Azores.

He's also tries to follow the Paleo, caveman diet so I have an easy job of giving him the odd Easter/Christmas "thank you" with a jar or two of my honey. His wife especially likes it for cooking & baking. 

He is a great postman, always friendly but normally we don't do more than wave, as the front gates are closed. If he has a package for us and we aren't home and he thinks it may be important, he will make the effort to drive back out to us at the end of his run just to check if we are now back. Naturally as probably most country post-people, he knows what you are up to. On Tuesday I happened to be at the gate when he arrived and hadn't spoken to him for weeks. As he handed over the envelope from the hospital he said "Been in hospital then?" and we had a chat about all our common ailments.

His biggest fans are the dogs and he always takes the time to throw sticks and give a good rub. He has a dog too.Today he stopped for a chat to introduce Luna & I to Angelika who will be doing his round every other Monday when he has a day off. She was pleased to see the geese were fenced in but didn't get the opportunity to stroke Luna who was far too busy with Pat.

I think we need sometimes to consider the role of our post people who in many cases are the only ones to visit elderly and single households. My father's postman noticed something wasn't right and opened the front door to find him in the last moments of life. He couldn't have done anything to help but in other cases I am sure they have often saved lives.

After this pleasant interlude on a very cold but sunny day, Luna and I went back to chainsaw and tree felling/log cutting. Angie had seen the forester a few weeks ago in the supermarket and he said we could have the big beech that had toppled in the January storms. As Farmer Franz phoned today that he hoped at long last to get out to us later this week with his winch, I hope he can pull out this trunk which would probably make excellent sawn timber. Had to shorten it to about 6m as it had fallen directly in to a" V" formed by two standing trees. The remaining 10m or so will make good firewood in a few years.

Extra photo is of the lumberjack team, prior to attacking the roots. Anyone who regularly uses petrol cans to fill garden machinery and hasn't used the automatic type fillers, get yourself one. They are amazing and save not only all the spills but so much time and fiddling about. Cost a penny or two but worth every one.