Monday 2nd November - I accidentally...

...went to the seaside. What I really did was a dash to Ikea when I realised they'd nearly sold out of the table I wanted for my office shed desk with only three days until lockdown, and then on the way back I caught a glimpse of blue on the satnav and realised how close I was, and then... this happened. *g*

I had thought I might find something for lunch, but then I saw the ice cream stand still open, and then malteser and coffee ice cream happened instead. *g* That's not two ice creams, it's the same one (I'm not that bad!) - but I loved the sunny skies on one side and the rather threatening glower on the other!

Which led to a rainbow. *g*

I was particularly impressed with the two women who went swimming!



The glowering got increasingly gloomy though, until we were being rained on. But it soon passed, leaving things even prettier... And look at the colour of the sea! Washed down from the cliffs, I suppose, and somehow rather stunning to see.



Loved the colour of the cliffs! Loved these chaps, too. *g*

Sadly I couldn't stay long, because it was my night for foodsaving, and so I headed in a generally homeward direction... and then took a detour when I saw the signpost for Blackberry Camp, because I've been there when it was carpetted with bluebells, and I wondered what it would look like in the autumn. I accidentally went past it, but it was down this road, so not a sorrow...

And I somehow managed to loop back around to it anyway, so that worked out even better. And it was just as magical as I remembered, although the colours were different... *g*

It's very atmospheric too - it was once a hillfort, and you can feel it somehow. The Hooded Man (Robin, Robin...) could have stepped out from behind any tree...


And then I really did have to head home and unload my various purchases, and go foodsaving - but tired though I was, it was so refreshing! I'd been planning to venture out come November-ish when I figured the diseased hordes might be staying home a bit more in the cold - only to find I'd left it too late and been gazzumped by Bojo, so I'm glad I snatched these few hours. I'm hoping to manage a bit more wandering on Wednesday, but then that will be it for quite some while...

Tuesday 3rd November - the one with the old friend

I'm a day late now - this was yesterday! Tuesday, that is. *g* And I'm getting a kind of Christmas-y vibe from these two pics, for which I do apologise (since we've not had bonfire night yet...), it wasn't intentional! I think it's all that white paint looking like snow... It was the first time since covid that I went and sat in a pub - socially distanced, with a long hall open to the outside at either end and open doors leading off to the room we were in, but still - an enclosed space with people I didn't know! I thought about wearing my mask at first, but obviously you can't do that and drink coffee and talk effectively, so... well, it would be really really unlucky if I went into somewhere once and caught it then, right?

Anyway, the occasion was meeting up with LW, who I knew way way back when at Manchester Uni, when we started up Warped - the University of Manchester Science Fiction and Fantasy Society! And the cool thing about that? It's still going! Thirty-five years later (we counted - and gulped), our SF/F society is still going. *g* I think it might be the most long... longev... longevitous thing I've done in my life. You know - it lasted a long time. *g*

It was very cool to meet up with LW again (thank you for hooking us up, helenraven!) - I swear she looked the same, very much still her, and a couple of hours passed pretty quickly, catching up all those thirty-five (thirty-five!) years. She lives not too far away, and hopefully when all this covid stuff is sorted out we'll get together again. Amongst other things there's some metal detecting to be done at her place too... *g*

(In a bizarre twist, LW is a science fiction author, and I ordered one of her books from the local Waterstones a week or so ago, after a rec from Helen Raven. I phoned on Tuesday morning to see if it was in/expected/what's going on with book orders in lockdown, to be told that the distributor didn't have it in stock after all, and they couldn't say when it would be back again. Sigh, but okay... Only this morning (Wednesday) I had an email from Waterstones saying the book I'd ordered had arrived and I could go and pick it up at the branch. What?! How can it be out of stock and simultaneously being sent to the branch...? Did they send it and then report to me that it was out of stock cos actually I'd ordered the last one, so it wasn't there any more?! Anyway - at least I can read one of her books now! *g*)