Camelias and celebrations!

Up and about today. Not that I'm fully recovered. In fact, I got even more of a shock than usual when I looked in the mirror. Sunken, dark-rimmed, watery eyes looked back at me... horrible. I should really wear dark glasses to protect the general populace today...

However, needs must. Apart from several jobs needing doing, I got a phone call from Leo's mum last night enquiring after my health and wondering if I could pop over to look after him for a while, as Granny 1 has a funeral to go to this afternoon, and Granny 2 is in Turkey, enjoying some sun! An hour or so with Leo must be within my grasp today! And with any luck, he will be sleeping! And I mean that in a caring way - I don't want him to catch my cold!

One of the jobs is to contact the Pension Service and thank them profusely for not losing my 25 year NZ work history again, but instead agreeing that indeed my hard work there counts, and they will dig deep and fork out to keep me (in Maltesers at least) in my old age. I am entitled to the full UK pension of £107.45 a week! This calls for some sort of celebration!

I took a wee practice jaunt out in the fresh air. Muffled up like I was going to the Arctic, I set off with two pocketfuls of man-sized paper hankies (those girly teensy ones are no use to me!) to go round the block to test the air and to hopefully grab a blip.

The air was fresh, but not windy or cold. There were so many blippable flowers and plants and doorways within a few steps. Who needs a garden? I did ring a bell and ask if I could take photos of her amazing parrot tulips. I think I'd learned about them on blipfoto, but it was the camelia that I chose today.

I liked the shiny dark green leaves, and I fiddled about with a few effects. I can hear all you gardeners shouting "NO!" But too late. I tried the HDR setting. I keep seeing blippers using it, and I'd never heard of it before. I know it involves taking bracketed exposures, which of course I didn't do. It brought out the veins on the petals and the shine on the leaves.

Right. I think I'll celebrate my new-found wealth. Better not splash out too much, mind. Maybe a just wee bag of Maltesers...