My mother, the psychic

An example to all older ladies: I spotted a woman waiting for the same bus as me, intently reading a rather hefty tome entitled “Algebra: An Introduction“. I figure she’d have been about 70-80. Of course, it might be that she’s gone a bit mental and she thought it was an Agatha Christie. I’d rather think she just thought it was the right time to learn a branch of mathematics that uses mathematical statements to describe relationships between things that vary over time. Maybe she wants to figure out how much better it is shopping in small independent shops when compared with supermarkets.

Being a Tuesday, I rang mum and dad this morning. Whenever I ring them, I text first with a ten minute warning, just to make sure they don’t have a mouthful of something and that they’re just generally ready for the phone to ring. Apparently, mum said to dad that I was calling early which meant I was going to see Dawn today.

When they answered the phone (they have a handset each) mum asked why I was ringing early. When I said it was because I was having lunch with Dawn today she gave a self-satisfied chortle, claiming she was psychic. I can’t think of any other reason for it. It’s not like it happens that often.

One of the reasons I was having lunch with Dawn today was because today was our 500th blip and we wanted to blip together to celebrate. You can see mine here, and Dawn’s is here.

I introduced her to Blip (I’m sure she hates me for introducing her to something which has dominated her last 500 days) and, although she started after me, we have reached 500 together. The reason I missed a few was from when I had no camera during our trip to Oz in 2010 which allowed her to catch up.

So we had a lovely lunch, purchased from the small independent bakery in Liphook (I also had a piece of bread pudding which was about a million miles from my mum’s), before bundling Basil and Polly in the back of her car for a walk over Chapel Common, a place which features in quite a few of her blips.

Basil lagging behind a bit

We wanted to blip each other, blipping each other, which is why the photographs are like they are. Because Dawn is so fussy, we had to take about 20 shots. Of course, each time one took a shot the other had to follow suit, otherwise they wouldn’t be blips of blips. It took her a while but she eventually settled on the one I posted. As for mine, I wasn’t at all bothered.

After a coffee back at Casa Cansfield (so I could hornswoggle Dawn into witnessing our signatures on a document that needed it) she dropped me back at the bus stop for lovely (but long), scenic trip home.

And, finally, here’s a photo of Basil, especially for Mirinda.

Ok, ok, I'm coming. Don't hurry me!

And, just because I like it, here’s a very fast magpie carrying some sticks back to its nest, taken on our early walk this morning. He had about ten goes at picking them up but then, successfully flew off at great speed.

Travelling at the speed of light...almost