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Winnie the Pooh


Raspberry has patiently agreed to be my Blip model forty-eight times during the last year. So, I thought it only fitting to feature her poncing about with red balloon and golden camera, helping me celebrate. T's away at a work related program in Chicago, so our celebration will have to wait until Friday. What a year, nary a gap or back blip, a string of consecutively posted efforts on the most wonderful photo sharing site in the world. I've grown in so many ways, it's impossible to list all the positives, but my expanding list of friends cannot be ignored. I can never thank all the incredible folks who have looked at my journal this past year and those who have left such appreciated and interesting comments.

My personal challenge of pairing quoted language and photographic imagery has nudged me to give meaning to my images on another level. I have to look closely to really appreciate the essence, the spirit and feelings evoked in each. Blipfoto is a completely satisfying experience for me. It stretches my creativity, provides cumulative experiences with images that have vastly improved my eye and camera skills. I'm prodded to write things, to record what's important in my day, my world. Teacher, painter, photographer, perhaps now I can tuck writer at the end of that list.

Heartfelt thanks of course to Blipcentral for their classy and beautiful site. I so regret missing the Cambridge, MA. Blip-Meet in January, with Joe no less! I couldn't make it because of a great sorrow, the loss of a 40 year friend, a woman who meant so much to me. I took the advice of dear Molly and the example of others dealing with deep losses and kept blipping. I found solace in the everyday, the support, the real friendship offered freely. Kindness, I always feel kindness here. Blip has added joy, knowledge and sensory delight to my peaceful(except for the cat feud) retired life perched on the East Coast of the States. I can now go on and on about the weather, interesting folks, sights and events in so many places around this weary and wonderful globe, thanks to all of you.

Blipfoto makes me feel fresh and filled with purpose. It's the daily blip quest for inspiration, the amazing elements that surround us, true camaraderie, and camera-centric joys and sorrows that will keep me here for a very long time. Maybe long enough that Raspberry will like Max, yet again, as before.


Leisure

W.H.Davies

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare??
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.