A Change Of Plans - And A Blipmeet!

It was time to leave my lovely campsite in Yorkshire and move on. I had already extended two more nights beyond my original two. I didn’t realise how blessed I was to get a booking there. This trip was supposed to lead onto further travels north, into Scotland eventually. September is normally a month when you can wander and book things as you go. Not this year! So many factors, all related to Covid, have meant that campsites are either not fully functioning or the ones that are are completely full. I was spending far too much time researching and making calls and coming up with nothing. It was also becoming obvious that the social group I was going to meet at the end of my trip probably wasn’t going to happen because of the tightening of restrictions on both sides of the border.

So - I decided that maybe my next place to visit would be the Northumberland coast, with a visit to my good friend Anne, who lives near Newcastle before heading further north. The visit with Anne happened as planned, but not the trip north. In the end I just decided I would throw in the towel with my camping trip and head home tomorrow after our visit.

I took a slower and more scenic route today on my way to Newcastle, arriving at dinnertime. The route was beautiful! And it was so good to see Anne. We worked out that we first met when I was just 11 years old and Anne and her dear husband John were expecting their first child. They had recently moved to Reading, attending the same church as my family. I’ve mentioned in my blips of the last few days that I was exploring the part of Yorkshire where we had gone on our church youth group holidays. Anne and John were our much-loved youth group leaders, and so it was they who had planned those wonderful trips! It was nice to share with her the places I’d been visiting the last few days. Anne is also a blipper so it was officially a blip-meet! These pictures were taken outside the front of the house. There were many beautiful flowers in her garden - Anne said she did LOTS of gardening during lockdown. And it all looked beautiful!

(I have to confess I took these pictures not today, but I’ve ‘borrowed’ them from my camera roll from tomorrow - an advantage of posting late! Since I was driving most of the day I didn’t really have anything for today, so I hope everyone in blip-land will forgive me this rare infraction!! The visit actually happened today, even if I didn’t take pictures on the day!)