Oh what a lovely bunch....

Of etegami!
I have been lax of late about posting the etagami I have received. I have them displayed in my home and I'm enjoying them a lot, now it is time to share the love!
Corinne has sent this harbinger of spring, a lovely delicate daffodil, Merci beaucoup Corinne.

I love the words on Lisa's card, a sentiment we all have when we see a whale I am sure, her free style is so appropriate to etegami and captures the spirit of it so well, Thanks Lisa.

Fumiko has sent this little work which folds into a  handmade origami book. She says it serves as a kind of business card describing her work in etegami and kiri-e (cut paper work) at which she excels. I notice that her little friend Tororo has insinuated himself into the card, reflecting the importance he has in her life. Arigato Fumiko chan!

The latest card from Mayumi is one of her delightful series of dolls, all done to mark Girl's Day in Japan. Dolls are set up on an altar like arrangement and are said to bring prosperity and good luck. Presided over by the Emperor and Empress they make a beautiful display. Perhaps this is the royal couple. Arigato Mayumi chan.

Poetry

My latest correspondent Ezra has sent me an etegam illustrating his own poem. The poem is a little melancholy ( ( hope it is not his usual state of mind) and reminds me greatly of Keats whose epitaph
THIS GRAVE CONTAINS
ALL THAT WAS MORTAL OF
A YOUNG ENGLISH POET
WHO
ON HIS DEATH-BED
IN THE BITTERNESS OF HIS HEART
at the malicious power of his enemies
desired these words to be engraved
on his tomstone
"HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME
WAS WRIT IN WATER"
FEB 24 1821
is on his grave which lies beneath a sombre Yew in the Protestant cemetary in Rome.
Thank you Ezra and welcome to the etegami community.

Love notes...and a poem.

The usual wonderful offering from Debbie, it is music to my eyes! (is that synaesthesia?) in honour of St Valentine (I'm still puzzling about how he came to be the patron saint of lovers and frankly it is hard to connect most of the lives and sometimes grisly deaths of the saints to what they partonize).
Anyway it is a good opportunity to get a bit soppy with the one you love and to remind friends that there is more than romantic love in the world, so "spread the love people",  as we used to say in the sixties!
Thanks Debbie.