Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Greetings From Jenny J

When I'm not tromping in the woods in pursuit of LBs, I'm a fiber artist and fiber arts teacher at Access Arts in Columbia. I have two children in their mid-twenties. My daughter joins me on letterbox excursions occasionally - my son just rolls his eyes at the mention of it. My husband shares my love of fiber arts, especially knitting, but, alas, has no interest in letterboxing.

I started letterboxing in the summer of 2002 after learning about it from my sisters in Massachusetts. They urged me to start hiding boxes, assuring me that eventually a local group would sprout up. Well, it took a while but they were right. Late in 2004 Lnd Crzr came on the scene and jumped into letterboxing with both feet. Since then, our local group has been growing steadily, and Mid MO is now rich in letterboxes, really nice ones, I might add.

One of my most memorable finds was the LB at the Norman Rockwell Museum in western Massachusetts. It's a "two-fer" if you like Rockwell - lots of his wonderful illustrations and a very nice hand-carved stamp within walking distance of the museum.

Over this past spring break we made a jaunt up to Galesburg, Illinois to visit Carl Sandburg's home. While browsing the local phone book, I realized - duh! - Galesburg is also the home of Dick Blick Art Supplies. I order Speedo blades and stamp carving material from DB so it was great fun to browse their offerings in person. And yes, my wallet was a tad thinner when we left.

I love every aspect of letterboxing, from carving a unique stamp to discovering what other folks do with their boxes. I also relish hiking in the woods to find little gems of nature's beauty. When I log into a box, I usually try to mention some of the cool things I've seen along the way. I have two bits of advice for new LBers: 1. Remember to be discreet about retrieving and replacing boxes. If there are people close by, take a little stroll and wait until they're gone. 2. Please rehide the boxes well. Even if people don't see them, sometimes animals do and will remove them.

So that's the scoop on Jenny J. Welcome to all of you who are just discovering the pleasures of letterboxing. Good 'Boxing to you all!

No comments: