Words and worlds

I start by saying thank you so much to everyone for your wonderful comments, faves, and for putting me in the spotlight for my 100th blip! I was both amazed and delighted, and it was an honour to be sharing that space with Admirer, MaxEllis, the Diva, Gladders, and others whose journals I have followed from afar. I had to sit down and have another coffee when I found out!

This morning, Tess and I went down to the Scrapstore, her domain, where she co-ordinates the volunteers. After briefly joining their meeting and sharing my own scrap/playwork experiences, I pottered around the store for a blip, and then went on a charity shop spree. Stroud has, at the last count, eleven charity shops, but Bridport cannot be far behind. A pair of black jeans and a 'sensible' bag were my major finds, and but these huge 'books', which Tess made for a literary festival, are the blip choice, though it was a tough choice between those, an orange wig, and a selection of pink hats and fascinators in a wonderful old fashioned hattery in Bridport's high street. I've chosen the books because they say more about me than pink hats or orange wigs. Also, I have used the charcoal filter effect (it's in the wonderful photogene app for iPad) because I sometimes work in a studio (as model, not artist) so am very familiar with charcoal, though it's usually messing up the soles of my feet, rather than, er, enhancing my photographs.

Bridport remained grey; Later we drove up Eggardon hill, all sheep and mist and other-worldliness. We were on the edge of the world and the edge of nowhere, simultaneously. I thought I saw a reddle-man, and that's when it hit me that we were on the "Egdon Heath" of Thomas Hardy's 'Return of the Native'. Since I first became acquainted with TH's work, a mere five years ago, I have wanted to visit some of the locations in his books, so this was an unexpected wonder. Tess told me that, over the years, there have been some odd sightings and happenings out on that misty moor.

I caught the train at Maiden Newton, and used the time to delete over 1000 images from my iPhoto library, before leaping off at Westbury for an amazingly short meeting in the cafe with cowgirl. So quick that I even forgot to ask her real name, or tell her that I'm Helena. She'd just come in on a train from Bristol, and I was heading back to Stroud. I hope she will visit our farmers' market in Stroud one day...

Back home, I found I could not pick up the iPad camera connection kit today, so I must wait. Never my strong suite. On a more positive note, two great pieces of news:

1) The trial badger cull in Gloucestershire (and all of the UK) has been postponed until at least next year, so I can stop imagining I'm seeing badger -killing humans everywhere on my country walks. It seems there are too many badgers to be shot within the time frame allocated, and the person who first suggested the cull, years ago, is now saying that it would be at best ineffective at reducing bovine TB. So, rest easy, little and big badgers...

2) The oddly-titled 'Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens' which I ordered after it was recommended by another blipper following my 'Classics classified as Sci-fi' blip of 9th October (?) has arrived. The first copy I tried to get disappeared in the post (alien abduction?) so this one has been peculiarly long-awaited.

And now to bed, for tomorrow another blipmeet beckons. CleanSteve and I are going to Westonbirt arboretum to meet Lozarithm and another blipper (sorry, I will go back and add these other blippers' nicknames when I am not in the Blipster app) and to take some pictures of maple leaves in the mist! What a wonderful half term it's being! SteveHughes, aka Welshman in Budapest, is already convinced that I am a member of the famous five, so I suppose the fact that four of us are meeting, possibly with a dog, in a wonderful countryside location, is further evidence. I just hope it's the Comic Strip version!