Blipmeet (Thursday 4th June)

Some time ago fellow Blipper Chrysanthemum arranged to meet up with visiting New Zealand Blipper MummaHen and her husband Rod in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and invited other blippers to join in.

So it was that I met up with them, Chrysanthemum's husband, CoffeePotter and JohnH1989 at the Royal Pump Rooms, where everyone was having a leisurely chat over coffee. I did not participate in the group photos as I like to keep my online identity and name separate from my actual self, and Lozarithm's corporeal being is unfortunately not wholly unlike my real one.

The weather was kind and we all had a gentle slow stroll through Jephson Gardens, crossing the Leam at Willes Road Bridge and returning through Mill Gardens. We had a couple of friendly encounters with this couple rowing up the river, and indeed I ran into them again when I eventually returned to my car later on, so this seemed a fitting image, especially as the river ran between the two gardens we walked.

We emerged on Mill Road opposite my car, which needed to be moved so I re-parked and wandered back via Mill Bridge and Passage to Jephson Gardens, where I found a pair of swans with a cygnet, had a chat to a woman with a bunch of flowers on her way to a cemetery, and fed a banana peel to a squirrel, before rejoining the blippers on the patio outside the Pump Rooms.

They all went their respective ways after 1430 hr, so I explored the town further and had a walk along the Grand Union Canal as far as Clapham Terrace and back to the Pump Rooms for a second coffee. It was there I discovered that at some point along the canal my glasses had become detached from my neck cord and were lost. Luckily I had a spare pair of varifocals in my camera bag.

I had another look at Mill Bridge and the swan family before driving off at around 1630 hr, using delightful little back roads and lanes between Radford Semele and Hook Norton, and stopped in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire for a swift half and a chat to a couple of the customers of the Red Lion.

I had another stop in Bibury in Gloucestershire by the River Coln to stretch my legs on Awkward Hill and photographed the houses that make up Arlington Row NT from behind some flag irises growing from the dry mill stream. This displeased a local woman who mistakenly thought I had trampled the adjacent wildflower common meadow and an altercation ensued!

After a long and enjoyable day (mishaps as detailed above excepted) I was home in time to put my feet up and watch Springwatch.

L.
17.6.2015 (1220 hr)

Blip #1596 (#1846 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #004
Day #1898
LOTD #830 (#951 including archived blips)

Blipmeet series
River series
Landscape series

A Visit To Royal Leamington Spa, 4 June 2015 (Flickr album)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Piney Brown and his Blues Toppers - Sugar in My Tea (Cream in My Coffee) (1959)

One year ago:
Bowood 2014 #20: Rhododendron Walks