Blip 365: Local Lunch

If you had dropped by at lunchtime today, this is what I would have made for you:
-- Fresh farmstead cheese (Samish Bay Cheese) with chives from our garden
-- Black olive baguette (BreadFarm) and butter (Breckenridge Farm)
-- Cherry tomatoes from our single tomato plant
-- A just-picked apple from our tree
-- Honey yogurt (Grace Harbor Farms) with strawberries from our back garden and wild blackberries from just beyond the fence

I wish I could share this repast with all of you who have become my friends here this year, whether I've come to know you in "real time" or only online, for each of you has enriched my life.

Taking photos and writing journal entries every day for a year doesn't happen in a vacuum. I've grown as a photographer, thanks to your encouraging comments, branching out from early local food shots to local fauna, playful photos, close-up nature photography, and vast landscapes.

I've seen Scotland, Yorkshire, France, Greece, Australia, Ireland, Croatia, England, Wales, California, Pennsylvania, and Oregon up close and personal, on a daily basis, thanks to you.

I've met kendallishere and TerriG and grazingllama in Portland, Oregon, and that brings a special richness to their journals for me, and friendships that I cherish. Right here in Bellingham - in addition to Phil, to whom I am forever in debt for encouraging me to join Blipfoto - I count ArtistAnnie and CelloNerd among my friends. Last September Phil and I enjoyed time with 5000vines, BrodieB, and chaiselongue in the Languedoc region of France.

I'm hoping that the near future holds visits to Scotland and Yorkshire, both among my longtime favorite places and now locations where I have Blip friends, and perhaps a return to the Languedoc, as well. So many places to see, so many Blip friends to meet!

Grateful thanks to all at Blip Central who keep this wonderful world spinning! Having reached the magic 365, I may take a day or two off now and then, but I'll definitely keep blipping. I can't imagine life without it!

(P.S. Apologies for the lack of commenting - I'm still in post-vacation recovery mode, but regular life should resume soon.)