Tweets from afar

It has been many years since I resumed exchanging handwritten mail with people, being more prolific at some times than at others. So I’ve just received another beautifully printed animal illustration from my good friend who says everything changes always. Between Berlin, Chicago, Santa Cruz, Lisboa, Alentejo and London, from the ghetto in Portugal to a yurt in the English countryside, through different stages, several skies: I feel that we have really been trying to keep our arms open for sharing. I don’t think we can stop taking the time. My friend was never big on social media, I almost entirely gave up using the phone this year. Video calling hasn’t been much of an option for me lately either. Still, we do write. These greetings are steady and so is my smile whenever they arrive. She’s got me a Christmas Robin on snow and berries this season, I am sending her a closeness voucher possibly to redeem next year. I hope that at least the letters are still arriving in Great Britain though...

 

The European Robin, or robin redbreast, is a chat-thrush (subfamily Saxicolinae) that breeds throughout Europe, western Asia, and parts of North Africa. It is migratory in northern Europe but only partially so or sedentary farther south. It is a plump, small-billed bird, 14 cm (5.5 inches) long, with brownish olive upperparts, white belly, and rusty-orange face and breast. The European robin feeds mainly on insects. Its nest, built of leaves and moss and lined with feathers, is placed in a hole or cranny in walls, banks, and trees. The five to six whitish eggs are incubated for 13 to 14 days by the female, who is sometimes fed by the male. The young fly in 12–14 days, and then a second brood is reared. The European robin sings all year round, uttering high-pitched warbles. https://www.britannica.com/animal/robin