When did you last think about your letterbox?

Assuming you are in the UK and within an urban / suburban area, it is in your front door, right? Perhaps it is in the centre midway, perhaps near the bottom, sometimes it has turned 90 degrees and is in the side of the door, but it is there, and you make use of it without even thinking about it. A truly taken for granted part of urban life in the UK.

Not so in rural Kerry, leastways not in our bit of the Kingdom. The house we bought, now our main residence does not have a letterbox in the front door, nor the back door – not anywhere. The suggestion that came from the local Post Office was to leave a window open so that the postal delivery person could pop the mail through it. This felt very wrong to our London urban sensibilities and so we opted to buy a post box and mount it on the gate post.

Stainless steel in place

Cleverly (we thought) we bought a stainless-steel model as we recognised that it would be contending with the wet, windy, westerlies that form a key part of the Kerry climate. Our smugness soon vanished, right after the first period of heavy rain. Sufficient rain found its way in to the box to sodden everything in it.

This week we enjoyed that latest episode of sodden mail and decided to do something about it so off we went to the (very good) local hardware store to get a replacement. They had two models on offer, so I asked an assistant if either of them was weatherproof.

Once he had finished chuckling at the very idea he admitted that neither of them would contend with West Kerry’s driving rain and he recommended that we drill holes in the bottom of the one we had to let the water out. Another customer of the shop, waiting to ask the self-same assistant for help with paint, added that she had taken this course and it worked for her.

Back home, drill out. Slightly surprised to see that the box already has two holes in its base… it now has six. I have my doubts if it will make a difference. (Note to self – make sure the new front door has a letterbox.)