The wheel is come full circle

... not in an "I am Edmund, illegitimate son of the Duke of Gloucester, and my villainous acts have caught up with me at last" way, but "Woodpeckers completes 365 blips, and decides not to blip her breakfast cereal this time"!

Yes, last year's first blip entry really was a bowl of porridge! This year the three bears got there first, said it was far too hot for that sort of nonsense, adding, 'why not go upriver and enjoy a cooling pint of cider beside the Severn?'

So we drove up to Ashleworth, near Hartpury, and found ourselves at a massive tithe barn (15th century) with a tiled roof. It was open for inspection, but my compact just couldn't take in the massive scale of it. The roof beams and trusses were magnificent, I must report.

Ashleworth court and farm were nearby, but the tenant farmer doesn't seem to be doing any farming at all. In the distance, I spied this carriage wheel and wandered over to blip it, but found it surrounded by junk from several different centuries: local stone, possibly 15th century, Celotex insulation from the late 20th century, the carriage itself from the 19th, some spindle-backed chairs from the 20th... it reminded me of breaking into an empty house for ' an explore' back when we lived in Co. Dublin. At that time, my sister TML and her pal Louise Jones led us on our merry adventures, of which our mother remained mostly ignorant (just as well). I miss the pre-health and safety days. The British Board of Film Classification recently received its first complaint about The Railway Children.Apparently it might encourage children to play on railways.

After our blip session, we needed liquid refreshment, so wandered up to the Quay (more of a landing stage these days) to the Boat Inn, where I enjoyed a half of Old So and So's Farmhouse cider (Gloucestershire apples), followed by a half of Tumpy Ground (Herefordshire) because the name was irresistible! It slipped down nicely. I was so hot that I was wearing my nightie, but as of course I look just like Madonna(!) in a shift dress, that wasn't a problem. Perhaps I was a tad over-enthusiastic in giving away so many tent-like dresses and sundresses to the charity shop a couple of weeks ago!

No more grand speeches about Blip, I think I've said it all before on my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries. I just want to add that it's been brilliant fun, I love making blipfriends and meeting some of them, and thank you all so much for encouraging me. I didn't start blipping for ages after CleanSteve and TML started, because I never thought that my pictures were 'good enough', or that I could keep it up. Wrong! I have loved having the discipline of writing every day, as well as the photography, and have enrolled on a distance learning course in Life Writing. I hope I can finally get down to writing my memoirs, even though I am not 89 yet. If I keep drinking the Tumpy Ground, of course, I may not live that long...