The Passing Years

A few days ago Blip informed me that I was approaching a milestone, an anniversary.   This is my three thousand and six hundred and fiftieth entry.   Ten years.   In reality, I posted my first entry on October 7th 2011, almost eleven years ago.   I missed the odd day in the early years, quite a lot of them in fact!   When I started out I chose the journal name ‘Crocusman’ thinking that Blip would be a place to share my (then) National Collection of Crocuses with a wider audience.   The journal soon became much more than that although crocus (407 entries) still appear quite often.   A gentian in the first week signposted my love of alpines and flowers remain the most popular subject.   The Talyllyn Railway (268 entries) has featured over the years and my move to coastal Wales late in 2019 has seen a sharp rise in sunset blips (107 entries.)   

Most of all this is a life journal.   Ups and downs reflected in the tone if not always the content.  Friends may have learnt to read between the lines.   Over these years I have faced disability overtaking both my children, family mental health problems which led to a sudden end for my career of 33 years, bereavement, marriage breakdown and I’ve had to leave what I once thought would be my forever home and the garden I had worked on and in for a quarter of a century.   It’s been a roller coaster.  

Living here in Tywyn, in an area I fell in love with as a child, has been a life-saver.   The countryside and coast are astonishingly beautiful - and on my doorstep.   I have family and near life-long friends here and work I enjoy.   Through Jamie I have inherited Meg, a four legged friend who keeps me fit and helps my sanity in other ways too … even if her excitable, nervous nature occasionally tests it!   I cannot say that life is complete - can any of us?   Am I content?   Still working on it, getting there I think.   Lonely sometimes, I am comfortable with my own company but I never wanted to live alone.  It’s good to have someone to share life with.  And that, dear friend, is maybe where you come in, reading my ramblings and musings.   The Blip community and the many friends who dip in to the journal from outside bring me the warmth of support through comments, likes, hearts and stars.  A heartfelt thank you to all.

Today I thought that I must find a ‘special’ image to mark the passing of the years, this anniversary.   Blessed with a glorious, bright, clear day, opportunities offered themselves throughout the day but the main blip was captured early, en-route to a physio appointment in Dolgellau.  Talyllyn Lake perhaps the iconic view in this area, still cool, the foreground still in the shade of the mountain above.   As I breathed in the view an otter appeared at the jetty, the first I’ve seen in Wales.  It didn’t stop long at the water’s edge but reappeared a few yards out, if you look carefully you can see it above.  Physio was pleased with my finger although there’s a way to go yet.  Returning via the coast road the view across Cardigan Bay was very clear (extra pic looking north) and closer to home I stopped at Dysynni bridge where the clear air gave another fantastic view (extra pic.)    Walking Meg before work we stopped and sat in a field by the railway for a while and as we got up I spotted a Comma butterfly which landed and posed for the camera very obligingly (extra pic.)

No doubt about it.  Living here, I do feel blessed.