How to use Notes in Mail?

Question

.. e.g.
1. Where are Notes saved on a MacBook after File > New Note ... write note ... File > Save?
2. Can you write a Note in OS X Lion Mail / MacBook, and end up with it in Notes on an iPad/iPhone?
The above covers it, the rest is a rant.
First, when apps have generic names like Mail or Notes, it makes it difficult to search for anything useful about them .. got to live with this. I have a cold too .. got to live with that, but I mention it as I feel under the weather and am getting fed up trying to do something simple and having to trawl the Support Community and Web with searches about Notes in Mail, just to find out how I should make effective use of Notes in OS X Lion Mail.
My question is in the heading. We all create Notes on our iPhone or iPad etc., and either end up with them in the Mail app on our Mac(Book) using IMAP or are using iCloud and can interact with the Notes there. However, I thought I'd try creating a new Note in the Mail app on my MacBook and push it the other way, to my iPad, or whatever. Although I'm using iCloud, my current set up uses IMAP to move my Notes around so forget iCloud for a minute. Great news in Mail, using File > New Note, was that the Note can have attachments, and if you attach a GIF say, you get the image in the Note - maybe everyone knows this and I'm the idiot.
So, I create a Note with attachments and just want to save it so it will end up on my iPad etc. .. File > Save is available, simple. However, where is the Note saved? It looks a lot to me like it's not saved anywhere and if you close it, have fun trying to find it again.
My research found a thread talking about making Notes searchable again by running the following Terminal command: mdimport ~/Library/Mail, but I really am not in the mood to press every button when all I am trying to do is basic functionality that I would expect to find in the "OS X Lion Applications User Guide" that other research here tells me doesn't exist (happy to be wrong).
Sorry to go on but it is mildly theraputic. Back to where the Note is saved, I did find that if you hit Send on the Note and then hit File > Save, you do get a copy of your draft email with No Recipients etc., in Drafts. However, it's an email with a Note in it, not a Note as found under Reminders > Notes, that you get when syncing a Note from your iPhone/iPad - it's also not going to end up in Notes on the iPad. Hmmm, another way to put these questions is: How do you write a Note on your Mac and end up with it in Notes on your iPhone/iPad? This cold must be really bad because this has to be such a dumb question.

Answer 1

I had the same issue. I found the answer on another thread written by an user named "hhoeksma". Here's what he/she wrote:
"You may be able to retrieve your Notes. They are probably in your Home folder under Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes/Notes.mbox. You should make a copy of this folder and save it elsewhere; then look through the folders within this mailbox for files with a .emlx suffix. These files are your actual notes. If you open them they will open in mail and look like messages. You can then copy the contents elsewhere.
If your Library folder is not visible, go to the Finder, hold down the option key and select the Go menu--it will appear in the list.
I still do not have a way to synchronize (without iCloud) the Notes on my iPhone with those on my Mac, but at least I have the Notes accessible on my Mac."
hope it works for you too.