Brow Well

Happy First Anniversary Blip!

A year on, after all the uncertainties, we are now happily basking in the security of the Good Ship Blip, a community site expertly helmed by the wonderful Fab Four. So many thanks to them for all the hard work that they have done.

In the excellent tradition of CB (crap blip) I have harnessed Heath Robinson and an old blip and a bit of Cumbrian bracken to cobble together my Blip celebration effort. And I'm hoping freespiral might let me sneak it into the holy wells canon.

This pretty much sums up the wonder of blip for me. It got me out on an ever so slightly bonkers trip. Seeing as I've been feeling unwell I thought I'd spend a dismal day looking for a well. Bizarrely I got to within a mile of my chosen well and realised I had forgotten my camera (I have barely been without my camera since I started blipping). The great thing is being able to do this and feel that you're not a sad sod doing it on your own!

This is the Brow Well visited by Robbie Burns just before he died.
Your trusty  blipper reporting from the north can report it is currently in better condition than can be seen here and last year it underwent a facelift. This time I was able to see the remarkably orange scum of the high levels of iron salts of this chalybeate spring and the beautifully inscribed words in sandstone around the edge of Burns's poem ... another cheery number delivered to you by SoT!

In the Prospect of Death

O Thou unknown, Almighty Cause 
Of all my hope and fear! 
In whose dread presence, ere an hour, 
Perhaps I must appear! 

If I have wander'd in those paths 
Of life I ought to shun, 
As something, loudly, in my breast, 
Remonstrates I have done; 

Thou know'st that Thou hast formed me 
With passions wild and strong; 
And list'ning to their witching voice 
Has often led me wrong. 

Where human weakness has come short, 
Or frailty stept aside, 
Do Thou, All-Good-for such Thou art- 
In shades of darkness hide. 

Where with intention I have err'd, 
No other plea I have, 
But, Thou art good; and Goodness still 
Delighteth to forgive.