Down in the Swamp

If it felt like summer was over in the soul yesterday, it felt like it right through to the bone today. The temperature has dropped ten degrees and there was a distinct nip in the air. With this shot I've hit the 500th consecutive blip today and, of course, I wanted to post something characteristic of my journal and hopefully also pleasing to the eye. The logistics of the day didn't do me any favours though, weather and work conspiring to limit my opportunities to get out with the camera.

When stressed and short of time I usually head up to the tarn before getting the train into the office and, actually, my most popular ever blips have come out of such shoot and run forays. So I applied the same formula today, taking a shot at the opposite end of the tarn to where most of my blips from here have come from. This is the boggy, rather stinky end, but it's still very beautiful when the light is good. I was fortunate to time things between a couple of heavy showers. I wasn't so lucky later in the day when I got soaked going for the train this evening.

Since passing the first year of blipping I've become much more relaxed around this experience. It's rare now that I go out deliberately hunting for a blip. I'm carrying on now much as I first started, trying to record a moment from my day, as it happens to pan out. It's become much more of a journal than ever, and I'm definitely taking photographs for myself, rather than to please an audience - which is how it should be.

But (and it's a very big but), although my journal has become more personal, it just wouldn't exist without its audience of fellow blippers. Your comments, your stars, and especially your hearts give me the reason to carry on, and put an effort into the writing and the photography. Much as though I love the process and the record I'm creating here, it just wouldn't happen if it was a private affair. To every last person who has subscribed or interacted with me in any way here, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are a very special bunch of people.

I've also become (as you've no doubt noticed!) much more relaxed around my commenting. I've come to terms with the impossibility of engaging with everyone as I would dearly like. What I most love about blip is making random journeys around the site, jumping from entry to entry, linking through interesting comments and names I recognise, making new discoveries, chancing upon old friends. This is how I tend to engage now, in a very haphazard way. It means I do catch up with a lot of people on an occasional basis but it may also mean that some people get missed out over extended periods. I'm hoping, though, that trusting to Serendipity in this way will mean that I will catch up with all of you sooner or later. I hope so. It doesn't seem right to approach blip in too systematic a way. I want it to remain a spontaneous and ever surprising experience.

And this is the kind of surprise that I love. Take a look at An Otherwordly View from Reike. My travel wish list has just changed again!