Milestone

Not literally since it's made of cast iron,  embedded in the wall of a chapel that stands on the road out of, or into, Fishguard. It marks the distance to, or from, the county town with  typical Victorian precision. 
Once so important to travellers, milestones are irrelevant to the modern road user who relies on conspicuous signs or personal  GPS devices, and maybe thinks in kilometres anyway. But there's something endearing and vaguely romantic about old milestones when you catch a glimpse of them, throwbacks to the age when weary  wayfarers paused to wipe their brows or rest their horses as they calculated how much further they had to go.
The word itself has not fallen into disuse. Milestones remains the term used for the all-important stages of infant development: smiling, babbling, crawling and so on. It's also a popular metaphor for significant points in one's life or career, or in the progress of an endeavour.

A few days ago I happened to see flagged up in my notifications the fact that I was approaching 1825 blips. The number meant nothing to me but I have since discovered that it represents 5 years blipping. Five years!  Quite a lot of water has passed under the bridge since October 2010 although I see that my first 3 blips were of books, a butterfly and some fungi - not much change there then.
I sometimes wonder how much longer I (or anyone) will carry on. Will my blipping gradually  slow down and peter out or will it come to a sudden stop? Will I simply continue inexorably until halted by death, decay or despair? Who knows? Certainly my options for subject matter are not getting any wider since I rarely go anywhere beyond my immediate surroundings but then the challenge of making something from little is in itself part of the ?pleasure.  I know that I'm not the best responder to comments and I often regret that I can't do better but I certainly value immensely all the interested, concerned, amusing and supportive messages that come my way, and I likewise feel privileged to have so many glimpses into other people's lives, thoughts and interests.

I've just stopping briefly at this milestone to say that and then I'll continue with whatever journey I'm on.