100 ABSTRACTS - NUMBER 100 - YAY, I'VE DONE IT!

I still can’t believe that I have come to the end of my 100 Abstract Challenge - and I am so grateful to all of you who have supported me in many ways on this Abstract Journey. I know I don’t need to tell you why I have done it - but I’m going to!  

When I saw that a Blip friend, HarlingDarling, was doing a 100 Drawings Challenge, I thought I could do the same - not drawing though because I’m useless at it - but I believed I could do some abstract photography.  The main reason for doing it was to raise awareness of the Mamie Martin Fund, so that impoverished girls in North Malawi could obtain a good secondary school education.  

Mamie and her husband, Jack, who went to Malawi 100 years ago as Church of Scotland missionaries  are still remembered today in North Malawi and of course, the Fund set up in her name, in 1993 by her daughter, Margaret, will ensure that their legacy lives on, hopefully for many more years.

It hasn’t always been easy finding 100 abstracts, but I am thankful for various iPhone apps that have helped me in this and I think that some of the abstracts have been recognisable, while others have been completely “off the wall”.  However, we all see things differently, so I hope that most of you have enjoyed their quirkiness - even if it has taken some of you a while to work out what they were!

So I want to say a huge THANK YOU or “ZIKOMO” (in the Malawi language) to you all - those who have donated and also to those who are unable to donate, but who are still sympathetic to this worthwhile cause.  Your donations will really make a difference to many young girls in North Malawi, whose parents cannot afford to pay for them to attend school.  Hopefully with all the money raised, not only by me but by others through various challenge and pledges throughout this year, 100 years after Jack and Mamie first went to Malawi, more girls will be helped.

In order to learn more about Malawi, I bought a book entitled “The Spirit of Malawi” by Susan Dalgety, which explores the country through the voices of its people.  I have only just started reading it, and I know I am going to learn a lot about the country from this book and I don’t think it will always be a “comfortable” read.  

We have just got back from Salisbury, where we visited The Hat Shop in The Maltings in order to buy Mr. HCB a new Tilley hat - in fact he bought two!  If you want to know more about Tilley hats, have a look here.  A delightful couple, Dave and Lisa, own the shop - and their two children Harriet - appropriately nicknamed “Hattie” and Charlie, who were helping to count the new stock that had come in, kept us amused.  I also bought a new hat, which you will probably see at sometime on Blip and we also bought some special Tilley facemasks!  Dave even gave us the 10% discount that they normally give for online purchases - so kind of him.  I have put a collage in as an extra and you will see Dave in the top left explaining to Mr. HCB that the head expands when it gets warmer - there was much laughter and a few rude comments!

The riverside view is just outside the Hat Shop and the various cockerels and a smaller chicken were roaming around at the Cholderton Farm Shop, where we stopped on the way back to have some lunch and renewed our acquaintance with the owners - we used to stop here on our way back from Boscombe when we visited several years ago.  What a lovely day we’ve had - think we’d better go out into the sunshine now to make use of our new hats!

“Kindness is universal;  
     sometimes being kind allows others 
          to see the goodness in humanity through you. 
               Always be kinder than necessary.” 
Germany Kent

P.S.  You can still sponsor me for a couple more weeks if you would like to - and you can donate here:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MaureenIles