Ninety-Nine In the Hundred

99th blip!
Today was one of those rare days when I liked almost every photo I took. We went for a walk from Velator along Braunton Marshes. The light was cool, the boats were colourful, the tide was low...

The mud was slippery!

I fell arse-over-tit, trying to get closer to a little rowing boat to take a photo, and got a bit splodged. I nearly used the offending photo here to make it all worthwhile, but this one makes me smile more.

There are about 9 (?) permanent boat residents living here and they've had a bit of bother with the Parish Council in the past but hopefully they are being allowed to stay now. I hope so anyway...

The green and yellow boat is an absolute beauty and comes complete with solar panels, wind turbine and cat.
It must be a beautiful, if not challenging, place to live.

Today I read Louis Macneice's Autumn Journal III just before we set off (if anyone from my OU course reads this they'll now know I'm weeks behind!) and these lines really struck me:
"...
... To an utterly lost and daft
System that gives a few at fancy prices
Their fancy lives
While ninety-nine in the hundred who never attend the banquet
Must wash the grease of ages off he knives."

It struck me how relevant those words are currently. And, of course, I noted the ninety-nine in a hundred as being relevant for my ninety-ninth blip.

I also liked this bit:
" ... There is no reason for thinking
That if you give a chance to people to think or live,
The arts of thought or life will suffer and become rougher
And not return more than you could ever give."

I worry that the current government and some powers in education think of people in tiers - not just in terms of class or wealth, but in terms of academic achievement (which is subjective, in itself!) and I don't like systems that create winners and losers.

Everyone should have the chance to take flight - even if to live on a boat, if that's what they want to do. Although, I'm guessing some people live on boats because it's all they can afford these days.
If you live in North Devon or other popular areas of the South West you'll know what I'm talking about.

I have a collection of photos from our walk today that I need to do something with because I like looking at them. I'll start by making a facebook album. Perhaps I'll pop back and leave a link to them here.

Number 100 tomorrow! I believe I get a balloon!

(I'm grinning)

Later addition: My other pics:
Photo Album of Braunton Marshes Sunday 27th November