Dedication

Our dinner party last night, with rather a lot of lentil ingredients in the menu, was a success but has meant a home based morning today for obvious reasons.

I'm hoping to winkle his Lordship out of his study later on so that we can enjoy the sun and sand snow outside.

With a great deal of unaccustomed winsomeness on my part, I managed to persuade him to have his portrait taken as a blip on this special birthday.
There were several provisos on his part: there was to be no fiddling about and wasting his time and he was the arbiter of which of the five shots I was permitted to take would be used.

There's nothing like being under pressure to come up with the goods and it's probably not one of my finer portraits, but I post it anyway as a tribute to his everlasting patience and good humour in the face of my blipping addiction.
He never utters a word of annoyance at the time taken over blips nor is he ever anything less than supportive and appreciative of my efforts...... the last bit is true at least.

And so I'm dedicating my 500th blip to him with a big thank you for putting up with his fblipping wife and all his encouragement throughout the last sixteen months.

Also to the backstairs team who do such a stalwart job to make this site work so well.
A huge thank you all round.