Beansprouts from Outer Space

I went to the cinema this afternoon. Handily for me, it is very close to where I work, but unhandily the weather turned very wet just as I finished my session. So I took refuge in the staffroom and read about all the apps for iPads that can help people with autism and other neurodiverse conditions. This is an area I am highly interested in, so the rain was a lucky break!

As I was about to cross the pedestrian bridge, I looked at the sky and reckoned it wasn't a good day for blipping two of Stroud's church spires, which are aligned from this vantage point. So I looked around me, in that desperate manner of blippers, and noticed the huge wall of the Old Convent behind me, and upon it this ivy growing. A quick scramble up a grassy bank in my wet trainers, and the deed was done. I think this was taken in super macro with LED mode, because of the poor light.

Later I looked around three of Stroud's eight charity shops, a junk shop, a cheap bookstore, the library, and WHSmith for the three books I need for my course next week. Not a sausage! Still, five charity shops, two secondhand bookstores, a Saturday stall, and the Stroud bookshop, where I used to work, are left for me to browse. There is always the internet for cheap book buying, but it's not great for business in small towns. I made some shots of Edwardian houses in Lansdown (road) but I have stuck to the ivy shot, because the seed head is so weird in macro, and I liked the rain on it (but not me!)

The film was fun (Hope Springs, one for the older or very slightly greying audience) and when I returned home, I barely had time to read my emails before I had to make rose face creams for customers, then help CleanSteve make soup from an enormous pumpkin that we had been given. (I Think it was the Cinderella coach variety. Hey, it is nearly midnight...)

Just in time for soup, our friend H arrived, and after eating we played Scrabble. I am delighted to report that, for the first time in many years, I won! The high value letters flocked to me, though now I think about it, I'm sure that no one at all had the J! It must be missing ... a case for Inspector Waddington!

So here I am at five to twelve, blipping ivy, pondering my sister TMLHereandThere's 365th blip, and wondering why, in this house of one thousand books, we haven't got any of my social history coursebooks: not a single copy of Rebecca, Cold Comfort farm, or even Down and Out in Paris and London!

Old Convent rear view can be seen here: