Six Years on Blipfoto

Entry 2190.  Six years of posting an entry everyday, I haven't missed a day. Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me on my journey, through the ups and the downs.  

A poignant entry in many ways, six years today since my lovely sister in law Hilary passed away.  She posted twenty eight entries on this site early in 2009, which inspired me to begin my own journal a few days later.  "She who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." Psalm 91.

And Hil loved Winnie the Pooh and A.A. Milne's stories.  A favourite of hers and her Mum's was "Forgiven" - the poem about Alexander Beetle. When I read it, I can hear them reciting it together and laughing about it. 

Forgiven 
I found a little beetle; so that Beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a match-box, and I kept him all the day ...
And Nanny let my beetle out -
Yes, Nanny let my beetle out -
She went and let my beetle out -
And Beetle ran away.

She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,
She said she wanted matches and she just took off the lid,
She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch
An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.

She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind,
As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find,
If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid -
And we'd get another match-box and write BEETLE on the lid.

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,
And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:
"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"

It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be,
And he had a sort of look as if he thought it must be Me,
And he had a sort of look as if he thought he ought to say:
"I'm very very sorry that I tried to run away."

And Nanny's very sorry too for you-know-what-she-did,
And she's writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid,
So Nan and Me are friends, because it's difficult to catch
An excited Alexander you've mistaken for a match.
A.A Milne - First published in 1927.