100 ABSTRACTS - NUMBER 55

We are all aware of the ethos of Blip - that we take and post a photograph taken on THAT day, and for me, this is a very important thing to remember.

Whilst I was over at Waitrose doing some shopping yesterday, I glanced across the bridge over the canal and could see some wonderful paintings on the hoardings around another new development and slotted them into my mind for one of my abstract shots sometime.

It was a beautiful morning, and as I had to drop Mr. HCB off at his friends so that they could go for a walk, decided to go back down there and see what I could take today.  The sun was shining and it was so warm, it felt almost be summer!  As I walked across the bridge, I got very excited to see the paintings and then was even more thrilled when I saw large daisies and gorgeous red poppies in a bed adjacent to the path along the canal bank, so started shooting.  It was wonderful to see the daisies and poppies and other wild flowers almost dancing in the warm breeze.

When I got home, Mr. HCB particularly liked one of my shots and I liked another, so having taken them both using the SlowShutter app, I put them together using the Snapseed app and did a double exposure, which I am happy with.  I have also put in as an extra a shot I took of one of the poppies, so you can see how gorgeous they were.

This is Number 55 in my 100 Abstracts Challenge for the Mamie Martin Fund, which those who follow me regularly will know, helps young women and girls who cannot pay their school fees to further their education in North Malawi.  Almost without exception, those who have benefitted from this Fund, say what a huge difference it has made to their lives because it helped them to finish their secondary education.

SALIZA is one of those young ladies, who attended Bandawe Girls Secondary School from 2011 to 2016.  Following that, she studied for a degree in Nursing and Midwifery at Kamuzu College of Nursing and has been helped to pay her university tuition fees by the SOKO Fund, another Scottish charity that helps young women during their university training.

I loved this quote about poppies from the poem, “Endymion” - and I never realised until today, that the first few lines came from this poem:

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
     its loveliness increases; it will never
          pass into nothingness…..
…..through the dancing poppies stole
          a breeze, most softly lulling to my soul;”
John Keats - 1795-1821 - English Poet

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