ABSTRACT THURSDAY - PAINTERLY

What could be more “painterly” than a beautiful sky with scudding clouds?  Having had my early morning cup of coffee, Mr. HCB was looking out of our bedroom window, as he usually does, when he remarked at how beautiful the clouds were.  I couldn’t resist going to have a look and had to agree with him - so decided that this would be my Abstract Thursday Blip with just a little fartnarkling in Snapseed to make the shot a little more “painterly”.  It was a good job I didn’t leave it much longer, because 5 minutes later it looked completely different.

I have been continuing my daily "Lenten Intentions" (a wonderful phrase coined by my Blip friend, PepperG) by phoning a friend and have had two wonderful encounters.

The first was on Tuesday evening when I rang Lynne, having decided to go from the “bottom up” in my telephone directory rather than from the “top down”.  She was surprised to hear from me because we haven’t been in touch for sometime, so I told her what I was doing for Lent, which she thought was great and we had a lovely conversation.  I told her about the wonderful book, “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse” by Charlie Mackesy and she then told me about a book she liked entitled “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers.  I told her I would certainly look it up, whereupon she said, “Just remind me of your address” and then promptly told me she had ordered it for me - how very kind!  Reminds me of an expression a friend’s mother used to say “If the Lord don’t come, He sends!”

Then, last night I decided that I would ring Margaret, the friend we sometimes see at Jack’s, so duly rang her number.  The voice that answered didn’t sound like Margaret, so when I asked if it was, she said it wasn’t, but she was Margaret’s friend, Millie.  I thought that was rather strange, but I had rung the number I had in my telephone directory for Margaret, but it was obviously the wrong one.  I wonder what the chances are of ringing someone and getting their friend?  Anyway, she gave me Margaret’s number, after I had told her who I was, but I still can’t get through on the new number, so have had to ring someone else to find out if Margaret has a mobile number.  Never a dull moment!

Mr. HCB and I have just spent a lovely hour together in the “green gym” - I have been cutting down and pruning and Mr. HCB has been putting in some vine eyes and wires, ready for us to train our various clematis and other plants along the new fence.  It was great to be out in the garden and I was very warm, having put on several layers of clothing, but didn’t stay out for too long, as I could feel my back beginning to twinge.

"We all have bad days, 
     but one thing is true; 
          no cloud is so dark 
               that the sun can't shine through."
Anon