Flint & Steel Prompt

Lighthouses On Postage Stamps

January is National Hobby Month — Philately

Photo by author: Watercolour painting of Lighthouse at Umhlanga Rocks, South Africa with 50c stamp, a cancellation mark dated 6 September 1988 at Green Point; four 1976 Guernsey lighthouse stamps

In response to Ellie Jacobson’s Flint & Steel prompt — Sparks #22: What Are Your Distractions, I Mean, Hobbies? — where she asks a poignant question whether or not hobbies are a distraction or a waste of time.

I seem to have too many hobbies and too little time to enjoy them — perhaps I need to read more Medium stories about ‘Time Management?’ But a couple of hobbies I’m currently reviving are my interest in Lighthouses and collecting postage stamps which carry them.

I’ve always been interested in lighthouses and stamps. It stems from school, and living close both to the North Sea and a major river, the Humber, in the UK.

During English Literature, we studied poetry. One particular poem, ‘Flannan Isle’ by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, about three lighthouse keepers who mysteriously vanish, aroused my interest, especially the part where the search party finally arrive on the isle and enter the lighthouse to find:

Yet, as we crowded through the door,
We only saw a table, spread
For dinner, meat and cheese and bread;
But, all untouched; and no one there

Whilst at school, I joined the Stamp Club, encouraged by my parents to find a hobby to…