Good things come to those who wait... and wait... and wait...

Hello Post Office!, a photo by badskirt - amy on Flickr.

October was my month for both Ringo Pie and The Beehive. So it's a joy to say that the last of my bee blocks have arrived in October!

How long would you wait before giving up on missing post? A few weeks? A few months? How about a full year?! These things happen, right? Nevermind! They are here!

And there was much rejoicing!

The four envelope blocks belong to Craig's favourite quilt which he often mistakes for a toga. I thought it might be nice to surprise him at Christmas with a matching pillow using the blocks from Jo. They were delayed, but are now ready to be a part of something special. The film strip and polaroids come from Marit and Corey for Ringo Pie for my camera theme quilt.

All of the blocks went missing after we moved house. We moved in February, and I thought I'd updated my address to my bee people but things like that always are confusing. By the time October came around, the blocks were sent old address. We had mail forwarding, but didn't make it through. At one point early on, a postcard was sent to the new tenant to ask if they gotten any mail for me. We tried to find them, but it wasn't in the cards.

I even went to the lost mail auction so see if the blocks turned up in an odd lot of things for sale. They had a lot of odd things (including a bong) but there were no bee blocks in sight. At that stage, I'd written them off as permanently lost.

Then a few months ago, the new tenant found me online and emailed me to say they had some of my mail. I got excited hoping the blocks had finally turned up. He offered to drop it off in my mailbox later that week. I did get more mail that week, but once again the quilt bee blocks were still AWOL. My heart sank again. I considered it a lesson. Don't get your hopes up, Amy.

By this time, ten months had passed. The reality had set in that the blocks were well and truly gone. Yet, I still couldn't bring myself to assembling my Ringo Pie quilt. Something felt missing knowing that two of the nine blocks sent had never made it. So I shuffled the other gorgeous blocks aside with only a whisper of hope.

Fast-forward to last week when I realized that I'd updated my postal address with the elections office far too late. My US absentee ballot hadn't arrived. Voting is a privilege and I wanted my voice to be heard. Since I had the new tenant's email address, I asked him to keep an eye out for it in case it showed up. I got an email from him on Friday and we arranged for me to pick up the ballot today.

Oddly, he handed me a stack of ten envelopes. I don't know when they arrived or where they'd been. I was just happy they finally made it.

A day ahead of my birthday and in October as scheduled, six little bee blocks came in my door ready to join their friends. How great do the Ringo Pie blocks look together?