My husband (Mr. HCB) and I are both Christians, have been married for 56 years - although we don't feel that old - and have two sons and 3 grandchildren.  

If you want to see what we did to celebrate our Golden Wedding anniversary (6th March 2018) instead of having a party, have a look at Read more...

My husband (Mr. HCB) and I are both Christians, have been married for 56 years - although we don't feel that old - and have two sons and 3 grandchildren.  

If you want to see what we did to celebrate our Golden Wedding anniversary (6th March 2018) instead of having a party, have a look at my Blips from 20th February to the 19th March 2018.

We love retirement but wonder - as do most retirees we speak to - how we ever found time to go to work and despite what we were told before we retired, we are never bored.

In April 2018, I treated myself to a Canon EOS 200D camera and am struggling to get to grips with it, and am trying to use it more than my iPhone - another steep learning curve, but I will get there.

I gave up with the Canon in late November 2018 and went back to a Panasonic Lumix TZ100.  I wasn't enjoying using the Canon for several reasons, and found it very heavy to carry around, so felt I had given it a good go and must admit I am much happier with the smaller Lumix.

As from January 2022, I am the proud owner of an iPhone 13 Pro, so doubt I will be using my Canon or my Panasonic that much from now on although I do use them occasionally. 

I really enjoying blipping - and can't believe that I have managed to take a photograph and write my journal for over 11 years now, without missing a single day and without having to back-blip.  I would like to pay tribute to my dear husband, affectionately known as Mr. HCB, without whom I couldn't do all I do on my Blips. He is very supportive and is always happy to take me out to find a good Blip.

I find it quite challenging to take a photograph and then write  something interesting each day that will serve, not only as a reminder to me when I read it later, but also something that will be interesting to those reading my journal and many of you know that I do like to research my subjects, so very often my journal entry is quite long, but then, I can still type very fast - at least that skill hasn't disappeared yet!

 It is a wonderful community and I am so pleased that I have "met" many like-minded people, not only on Blip, but also in person and I do try to encourage people to join this great community of people - and have quite a bit of success!

About four years ago, I took part in a programme called "Girls About Town" on our local radio station, Swindon 105.5 and really enjoy this every Wednesday.  However, during the various lockdowns, I stopped taking part, as I considered it too risky being in a small studio with others.  However,  I used my self-imposed "Blip Street Challenge" as material for recording, whilst I was learning the ropes at the radio station and this went out on the local radio weekly, but obviously with no photograph!  That was quite a challenge to "paint a picture" of a street.  I also enjoy interviewing, although haven't done much for quite some time because my Mum was very ill from August 2019 until she sadly died just before Christmas that same year. 

Life is certainly what you make it, and I can honestly say that life is good at the moment. We have managed to stay Covid-free and even during the various lockdowns, have stayed well.  I succumbed to the dreaded Covid in August 2022, 2 days before we were due to go on holiday, but thankfully, Mr. HCB managed to escape!

If you want to contact me, my email address is:

Maureeniles at gmail dot com

My Blog has been sadly neglected but you can find it here : https://lifeisachallenge22.wordpress.com/tag/honeycombe-beach/