100 ABSTRACTS - NUMBER 68 - BLOWING IN THE WIND

After several days of rain and cold, almost November-like weather, this morning looks much better and the sun was out, but it keeps being obscured by clouds;  I hope for Mr. HCB’s sake it stays dry, as he is about to go out for a walk with his friend, Barry.  

Because it's rather windy, I decided to do my bit to help the planet this morning by putting my washing out on the line rather than tumble drying it, although I must confess, I do like my towels and sheets when they have been tumbled because they are always much softer.  I will just have to watch those clouds.

I have noticed that since Mr HCB has left the grass to grow much longer, the pigeons are getting rather frisky, chasing one another in and out of the long grass, so I needed to watch them while I was hanging out the washing - I didn’t want to interrupt anything!   

We have also had an influx of starlings, adults and babies, and they obviously find lots of food in the way of insects in the long grass.  It is quite amusing to watch the baby ones following Mum or Dad around and then squawking until they’re fed.  We can sometimes have up to twenty in the grass and then something spooks them and they all fly off - but they soon come back.  Now that the grass verges have been mowed to within an inch of their lives, the birds seem to like our garden and it’s hardly surprising, especially when one neighbour has no grass and the other side has artificial grass!

This is Number 68 in my 100 Abstracts Challenge to raise awareness of the Mamie Martin Fund, which enables girls in North Malawi to obtain a good secondary school education, after which many go on to university and then come back to their communities to work.

I rather liked the movement in this shot, which shows our new purple sheets - one of my lockdown purchases - with the flowers and the long grass in front.  I just tweaked the saturation a little in Snapseed and then put a frame around it in another app called Carbon. I think this is one of my favourites, probably because of the colour, so I might even think about putting this on a canvas.

KARONGA GIRLS’ SECONDARY SCHOOL - this is one of two schools in which the Mamie Martin Fund supports girls’ places in Karonga, St. Mary’s being the other one, which was featured in my Blip on 20th June. 


Karonga Girls’ Secondary School is owned and run by the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP).  It is a boarding, girls-only school situated in the city of Karonga in the North of Malawi and the school provides boarding education to 300 girls across four Forms, with each Form comprising two classes/streams.  The Mamie Martin Fund supports 42 girls here in 2021.  

As fees at a boarding school, necessary for reasons of distance, safety and allowing the girls to study, are approximately £350.00 a year, to support 42 girls, at least £14,742 is required.  This is one of the reasons that I and many others are taking part in the Pledge 100 - you can see the different and innovative ways this is being done here.

“I raise up my voice - not so that I can shout, 
     but so that those without a voice 
          can be heard…
               we cannot all succeed 
                    when half of us are held back.”
Malala Yousafzai 

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MaureenIles