WHAT THE POSTCARDS SAY

The metal locker, in my dingy office in London’s Paddington, was disguised with a great array of postcards. They cheered up the room and were a useful conversation starter when people came in. The cards were mostly pictures of landscapes and cityscapes and invariably showed blue skies and glorious colour.

That was decades ago. I’m not sure people send picture postcards of their holidays now. And did you know that it costs the equivalent of 14/- (fourteen shillings!) in old money to buy a first class postage stamp in the UK? Unsurprisingly, greetings now are sent electronically and received instantly. The pictures are often selfies taken against a backdrop of wherever the sender happens to be.

This last week, however, I received no less than three postcards through the post. One was a picture of a daffodil, the flower crafted in yellow and white scrunched-up tissue paper; another was a picture of Mr Greedy and the third was a picture of Pooh Bear sitting on the branch of a tree in the rain with eight pots of honey for company.

What, I wonder, does the subject matter of the cards say about the senders – and the recipient? It doesn’t actually matter; the important thing is that the cards communicated love and made me smile. And that means a great deal in uncertain times when, if you read the news stories, there isn’t much to smile about. It makes me wonder what I could – and should – do this week to demonstrate love and bring a smile to someone else’s face.