National Letter Writing Month 2015

April 1st has finally arrived and that means the start of National Letter Writing Month, "an annual effort to promote literacy and celebrate the art of letter writing" by the U.S. Postal Service.  This marks my third year participating in the group started by Lindsay Ostrom - you can read more about the whole process here (one of my blog posts from 2014) and here (a post from 2013).

This year's format is a little different - we have each been paired with one penpal and asked to send them at least four handwritten letters this month.  I've already received my first letter from my new friend Marissa who lives in the Philippines.  Check out the cool stamps!

I love how she wrote my name on the envelope, don't you?

Yesterday, I paid a visit to my favourite postal employee, Jovy - you can read about her here.  I stocked up on stamps, as you can see:

Those red lip stamps are unusual, aren't they?  It's a photo by Montreal photographer Genevieve Cadieux, part of a series entitled "150 Years of Photography".  Rather a strange choice for international stamps, if you ask me, but who knows how Canada Post makes these decisions?!!

It's been a long time since I've written to a stranger in another country. I'm looking forward to hearing more about Marissa and her life in the Philippines. It's going to be a great month!

If you want to join in the fun, get your pen and start writing some letters!