Blob Thing Develops Unexpected Energy In A Durham Adventure

Blob Thing was enjoying himself by the River Wear.

He felt a little bit crazy because he was going round the bend.

At least around the bend in the river.

Blob knows that to be by far the most appalling joke he's made in his short life.  Blob's person doesn't think it even deserves to be called a joke.  Blob Thing thinks though that it's traditional to make bad jokes when walking by this part of the river.  He spent time after his day out looking at what Blob's person's mother had to say about Durham after the day Blob's person spent there with her parents.  Her mother hadn't enjoyed the Cathedral either.  She didn't have very much positive to say about Durham at all.  Blob's person is more positive about the place and is looking forward to taking Blob there again soon.

What her mother's blog did contain was a terrible joke.  As you walk along the river and pass many people from the university rowing up and down you come to a weir, at which point the rowers have to carefully turn around and row back down the river.  The blog contained the following joke:

We're by a weir on the Wear.

Terrible.  But now Blob is under the mistaken impression that when writing about walking by the river in Durham it is an ancient tradition to make a terrible joke.  He thinks it's obligatory and Blob's person hasn't been able to convince him otherwise.  Fortunately, his attempt at humour appeared right at the beginning of this post.  It's over.  From here on in you're safe.

Blob thought it was really very pleasant to be walking by the river.  The streets had been noisy and while they had contained things he liked - such as charity shops and the cafe at Alington House - he was relieved to be somewhere quieter.  He felt a lot more relaxed and smiled about the way the day just kept improving.  Blob's person was enjoying herself too.

Blob's person likes bridges.  Her enthusiasm for them has infected Blob Thing too.  A few days ago he was out adventuring again along the River Wear.  He has now followed it in stages all the way from Durham to the sea.  He's already told you about how he walked Cuddy's Corse between Chester-le-Street and Durham.  In the last week walked the rest of the way, first from Chester-le-Street to Fatfield, and then from Sunderland back up the River to Fatfield.

He's got a lot to tell you about from that last day.  It was very exciting and his inherited bridge enthusiasm was evident.  On that walk he passed quite a lot of bridges and asked to be photographed in front of every single one of them.  Between the sea and the bus stop at Fatfield there are seven bridges and they are all quite different.  Blob has pictures of himself in front of all of them and he finds that a very exciting thing.  He can't wait to show you one day.  He can't wait, but he has to anyway and somehow he will just have to deal with that paradox.

When visiting Durham he hadn't developed his enthusiasm so didn't get such fine photos.  Blob's person took some pictures though - which she will share on her own blog soon - and Blob wants to share them here.  Because he likes them.  He's spent the last few days pestering his person.  He says they have to go back and visit Durham - and walk all the way there from Fatfield too - just so he can be photographed in front of all the bridges.  He asks you to imagine how much better these pictures would be if they contained the glowing, joyful smile of Blob.

Blob climbed the steps from the river.  He'd climbed down at one bridge.  He climbed up at another.  So many bridges to go back and visit.  He's pleased.  His person has just promised him that she'll take him there and she will take all the pictures he's asking for.  She's even agreed that they can walk from Fatfield to Durham and she can take pictures of him with those bridges too.  It doesn't matter whether the bridge is a concrete monster carrying a busy road or whether it's a pretty footbridge.  He can have all the photos he wants.  That means too that Blob can go back and visit Finchale Priory, somewhere he loved.

He was tired and was ready to go home.  That was enough Durham for one day.  His person felt tired too.  Together they headed through the city streets towards the bus station.  Then his person had an idea.  "Let's have a drink before going home."  Blob agreed it might be nice.  They had already recrossed the river and the bus station was fast approaching.  Then Blob noticed a sign pointing up a steep side street.  There was a cafe up there.  Blob's person didn't really want to climb the side street because she was tired and because she knew she was going to have to carry Blob.  But she agreed anyway because she was thirsty.

At that point the day improved more than they would have believed.  First they visited the Crushed Chilli art gallery and chatted with a glass maker.  Blob told you about that many weeks ago.  Then they walked up the hill.  It was a long way to the cafe and when they got there they decided not to go in after all.  Maybe they could find a different cafe later.  Blob is going to tell you about that amazing cafe tomorrow.

Opposite the cafe they chose not to visit was a church.  It was very pretty and seemed a lot more relaxing than the cathedral.  The door was open and inside a choir were rehearsing some gorgeous polyphonic sacred music.  It was lovely.  Outside the church Blob's person took a picture of Blob.  Durham Castle is in the background. And Blob took a picture of Blob's person with the cathedral in the background.

They walked together through the churchyard and on the other side was a path leading further away from the road.  Blob said, "I wonder where that goes," and said that they should explore and seek out a big adventure.  It was an amazing adventure.  Blob's person especially was filled with happiness about it all.  She took lots and lots and lots of photos on the adventure and spent a lot of time happy flapping about everything.  Blob felt really happy because he had found something for his person that made her very excited and made her smile almost as much as he was smiling.  But there are no pictures of Blob there.  None at all.  So he's not going to tell you about what they found along the path.  Blob's person promises to blog about the day very soon and reveal the truth.

Fatigue is an amazing thing.  Both Blob Thing and his person had been feeling very tired indeed.  But here they were, having visited an art gallery, climbed a steep hill, listened to a choir and then gone on a thrilling adventure.  And now neither of them were tired in the slightest.  It showed them that while tiredness can be due to actually being physically exhausted very often it's due to our state of mind.  They had been so tired.  But it had nothing at all to do with their bodies, except to the extent that their thoughts and feelings had affected the chemical reactions in their bodies.

Blob and his person were filled with life and with great energy after the adventure and they walked back down the hill into the noise and haste of the shopping street with a bounce in their steps that was absent before they walked up the hill.  The day had been marvelous.  They decided that Durham was worth returning to and might be worth returning to lots of times for lots more surprise adventures.



[1335 words]

Blob Thing In Durham - Disappointment in a Cathedral, Life By a River

It was the third of June.  Blob Thing is interested by that.  It's not because it's a particularly interesting date in his life, some special anniversary.  It's because this is his 42nd post on his blog and the 2nd post was about his adventure on the fourth of June.  Forty posts later, forty days later, and he has gone back in time by one day.  Today Blob is starting to write about his adventure that happened on the day he began his blog with that brief introduction.   It seems quite funny to him that he's right back at the beginning.  It seems astounding to him that he has had so many varied adventures since that beginning, so much that he wants to share with you.

At this point of course, Blob's person wants to butt in and tell the world that forty is the only number in English in which the letters are in alphabetical order.  She likes having useless information like that in her head.  Blob has decided not to let her butt in at this point.  He has an adventure to start telling you about.

On the third of June Blob's person decided that they could go and visit Durham.  She had only been there once since moving to the North-East.  She had been with her parents.  They moaned about the place and she had a nasty cold at the time so it hadn't been the most enjoyable of days.  It was time to go back and start to learn what Durham could offer.

The two friends arrived in Durham and walked from the bus station to the river along a street that contained a large number of charity shops.  Already Durham had something to offer them and they hadn't even reached the river.  They crossed the river - Blob's person taking photos but forgetting to take photos of Blob.  Poor Blob.  And they walked up the hill to the Cathedral.  Blob's person had decided to begin to explore the tourist attractions of Durham and the cathedral is the most famous.  She took photos of the outside of the cathedral.  Again, she forgot that Blob might want to have his picture taken.  Poor Blob.

Blob's person wasn't very good at remembering then.  After all, Blob didn't have a blog.  He had suggested starting one.  His creator had suggested starting one.  But his person had been quite reticent about the idea.  She had got used to the idea of taking a small pink soft toy out with her.  She had got used to the idea of taking a picture of that small pink soft toy sometimes to share with his creator.  And she had even dedicated a blog post to that small pink soft toy, just because it amused her and it would make Blob's creator smile or even laugh.

But a blog for Blob?  That seemed to be a step too far.  By the third of June she had come round to the idea.  And that night Blob would sit with her and together they would write something.  But they had no idea that his blog would take on its own life and Blob's person had no idea that Blob would have so many opinions to express about every aspect of life.  In all honesty she can't fathom how a small pink soft toy could ever act or speak in such a manner.  Nevertheless, that's what he does.

Blob entered the cathedral with his person.  She had decided that he could be photographed there.  But to their dismay there were lots of signs telling them that photography in the cathedral was completely forbidden.  And at every point there were men and women standing there who would have rapidly stopped them from taking any pictures.  They know that the good people of Durham Cathedral would much rather have people buy postcards than take their own pictures.  They know that much of the energy and finance running of a Cathedral has to go to the upkeep of an old building rather than the upkeep of the church that Jesus talked about - that is, the people.  They know too that the cathedral is first and foremost a place of Christian worship, not a museum.  And they know that dozens of people wandering round taking photos, especially if they forgot to turn the flash off, would be distracting for the faithful.

It was a great disappointment though.  A postcard would be a pretty picture.  But it wouldn't be a personal picture, a personal link with a place known as the House of God.  More importantly it would just be a picture of stone and glass.   Pretty, but not living.  Blob had dearly wanted to have pictures of himself inside the cathedral.  He felt very sad about it and wanted to cry.  Given how much Blob smiles every day, given how happy he is, that is a profound statement.  In the house of God, the place where life should be most celebrated, he could only take away pictures of stone rather than pictures of life or of freedom.  Of course he didn't cry outwardly.  As far as we know, Blob Thing is physiologically unable to cry real tears.  Inside though he felt the tears rising up and he just wanted to get out of that cathedral as quickly as he could.

At that point Blob hated cathedrals.  He hated churches.  And he hated an organisation that could even conceive of turning life into death.  He's relaxed about it now and recently was very pleased to visit another cathedral - St. Nicholas in Newcastle Upon Tyne - and to have had his picture taken there.  In that cathedral he even made some friends.  Blob will tell you about that on another day.

Blob and his person left the cathedral.  She hadn't liked it much either.  And to be honest her parents hadn't liked it either on their trip several years before.  The outside was pretty though and Blob walked through the grounds and then had a thought.  He said to his person, "It's lunchtime, where shall we eat?"  Blob's person agreed that lunch would be nice and they started to walk back down the hill.  There were lots of cafes but they all seemed quite expensive and were all quite crowded.  They passed the place that Blob's person had eaten in with her parents - a little upstairs cafe run by the Salvation Army.  That was somewhere worth returning to if they didn't find somewhere else.  It was quiet and it was cheap.

Then, further down the hill, they stumbled on a little sign pointing into a building.  It said cafe, but nobody was going in and Blob said they should go in and see what was there.  It was a good choice.

This is the cafe in Alington House.  It was quiet.  The person at the counter was friendly and helpful.  The only other customers were friendly.  Blob liked it.  It's true that the menu for the day was extremely limited.  But that was fine.  There was something for Blob and his person to eat.  It was cheap though.  Blob says that he wants to reproduce the menu in full:

Cheese and onion toastie:  £1
Cheese and ham toastie:  £1
Ham and onion toastie:  £1

That was the menu.  Blob's person would have been happy with any of those choices but decided to be a little cheeky and ask for something that wasn't on the menu:  A cheese, ham, and onion toastie.  When it arrived it was very tasty indeed.  A large mug of tea completed the meal for an extra fifty pence.  They were both happy to have found the cafe in Alington House.

Here's Blob in the cafe, posing with his person's noise cancelling headphones.  You can tell that he's radiating joy again, the sadness of the cathedral having been left behind.  He is a wonderful Blob.

Alington House seems to be a good place.  If you want to know more about it, here's the website.  It's a community charity in Durham.  The website says this:

We target work with groups that face disadvantage, including economic, social and educational disadvantages. We promote the celebration of difference through single gender work, asylum seeker and refugee work, and working with other marginalised groups.

We offer training to unemployed residents in the deprived Durham Coalfields area and work on an outreach basis to offer volunteering roles to those in need.

We have rooms available to hire for local community groups, good causes, and sympathetic organisations.

Blob and his person left the cafe and decided they wanted to walk by the River Wear.  They knew that the old town of Durham, including the cathedral, was built on a hill nearly surrounded by a bend in the river that nearly passed through a full circle.  So they could walk from one bridge along the river and right round the bend to another bridge.

It was quiet by the river and very pretty indeed.  Blob was very glad they were there.  It felt a lot closer to God, to spirit, to life than the Cathedral had.  The water and the trees were much more a temple than that place of worship had been.  They were free and the Cathedral had felt like a dark prison.  Blob knows that there are people who love the Cathedral, people who would be shocked by his words.  But he thinks about God, whatever that concept may mean.  It may be the wonder of the fullness of being or an actual person in the sky like the religious people keep claiming.  Whatever the case, Blob knows that God cannot be contained in a building.  God is life and there is more life in the movement of the water, the wind through the trees, the creatures that surround us, and the cycles of birth and decay, than there ever could be in the shapes of stone that humans create.  No matter how impressive those shapes are - and Durham Cathedral is impressive - they are nothing compared to the life outside them.

So to close, a couple of photos of Blob and the river.  The first was taken from the bridge before Blob climbed down the steps to the water's edge.  The second was taken soon after that.  Blob will tell you more about his day tomorrow, how much he enjoyed the river and then how he found something for his person to wildly enjoy.  She wants to blog about the day too.  Blob has reminded her about how good it was and she's been looking at all the photos she took, of the place Blob said she should go and explore.

[Holy crap.  1831 words, excluding the bit from the website.  Good grief.  This is getting ridiculous.]

Blob Thing Relaxes With A Jumping Bean in Durham

Wow!  It had been a good day.  Blob had experienced a surprising number of good things.  He was happy.

He arrived in Durham and all of a sudden the quiet and calm lands he had been crossing for so many hours transformed into noise and bustle and crowds.  There were many people going in and out of shops.  And there was a bad busker singing along to a backing track while a man danced along, in a half rhythm that seemed to have no relationship to the song.

Blob wondered whether the people in the shops were having as good a day as his.  Some people did look quite happy but others looked a bit miserable about the whole thing.  He felt sorry for them because his day under the sky had been so good and free and they were caught up in the city and in the quest to shop.

Blob's person told him that this was what some people liked to do.  Not everyone would think that a long walk in the sunshine was a good day out.  Others would prefer to be in the shops.  Some people liked this kind of thing.  Blob thought that was very strange.  But his person reminded him that she likes some shops too and that when they had been in Durham the previous week they went in quite a few shops - mostly charity shops but those are still shops.  She also reminded him that most of his friends had been rescued from such shops.  Blob had to agree that shops can be good.  He wouldn't like to be without his friends.

Blob needed a rest and a drink before heading for home.  So he walked a little way up a side street.  Just a little way.  And it was quiet.  He wanted to go to a cafe he had been to before - and wants to tell you about.  It's called Jumping Bean.  Blob will post about it at a future date.  He likes it there and enjoyed sitting inside it the previous week.  This time he sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and the relative peacefulness only a few metres from a busy, busy street.

And he sat and thought about his day.  He remembered his trip to Mars, his bravery meeting the big swans, the beauty of the route, his interest in the prison, and that fantastic abbey.  The angel had told him that there would be amazing days ahead of him.  Maybe this was one of them.

Blob sat and said to his person, "This is life."

And he smiled.

[433 words]

Blob Thing Decides That Walls Actually Do A Prison Make

Blob Thing was enjoying his day out immensely.  He felt refreshed and renewed after belting out a liturgical chant in the abbey.  He felt free, and as he walked up the lane and left the abbey behind he felt that there couldn't possibly be anything wrong in the world.  How could there be when humans had such amazingly beautiful places to visit and such songs to sing?  How could there be bad things in a world which contained the ice cream he had eaten?  It just didn't seem possible.

Blob was reminded that bad things can happen, even before he reached the end of the quiet lane and reached a road.  Suddenly there was approaching at very high speed - surely far higher than the speed limit - a police car with its lights flashing.  And then there was another one hurtling down the lane to the abbey.  Was something bad going on even there?  Was that oasis of peace being disturbed by bad people?

Blob's person reminded him that the abbey itself was only a ruin because people a long time ago couldn't get on with each other and had massive arguments and even wars about which one of them was right. The objective reality was of course that they were both wrong but believed their versions of events, of God, of church, of rulership and believed them so stubbornly that others had to suffer and die.  The same thing was happening today around the world.  Blob could hardly believe that human beings were so stupid that they would act in such a way towards each other.

He couldn't know what was happening back at the abbey and a later internet search didn't tell him anything.  So Blob continued along his walk, still feeling very free but a little sad about the utter craziness of so many humans.  And then at the end of the lane he saw it.  Something else that showed him the way humans can behave towards each other.

He saw high concrete walls.  He saw fences.  He saw locked gates.  What was this?  Was this some giant play area that had been constructed so the humans could have fun there?  Was this a place where sensible adults could jump and swing and slide and use climbing frames without stupid adults thinking ill of them?  Was it a place filled with bubble machines and kites and people dressed as unicorns and playing with hoops and yo-yos and having a good time with each other?  Was it a place of free dancing and playing in the puddles?  Had the humans constructed a giant fun palace out here?  Could it really be true?  Blob was quite excited.

But it wasn't true.  It wasn't true at all.  Blob's person told him that the walls were of a prison.  It was a place where humans who have done bad things get put as a punishment, as a way of protecting others, and (ideally) to help those humans reach the point where they can live a better life.  Blob learned that the humans were locked up inside those walls for many years.

He could hardly believe it.  Blob found a bench and sat down to think.  He felt sad.  You can tell.  If you look very closely you can see that he isn't smiling quite as much as usual.  You do have to look very closely though.

Blob Thing walked on.  The route took him past the prison and he walked beside the walls rather than on the official path.  He had heard a phrase, "Walls do not a prison make."  Blob decided that was nonsense.  These walls did a prison make.  It was a prison and these were its walls.  The people being held inside couldn't leave.  But Blob, being outside, could go where he wanted to go and could choose.  Walls certainly did this prison made.  It was a silly phrase.

Blob's person tried to explain that there was a deeper meaning to it.  But Blob couldn't see it.  He's not good at metaphor.  His person said that was perfectly acceptable.  She isn't that good at metaphor either but has had many years of practice whereas Blob is still very young.

Blob left the prison behind and soon reached the open countryside again and felt a lot better about life.  He loves life.  How can you not love life when it contains places such as this?:

When Blob got home his person suggested that they look up the phrase about walls and prisons and find out more about it.  Blob learned that it was a line from a poem that was written in 1642 by Richard Lovelace.  He wrote it in prison.  He'd been locked up as part of the long argument that century and the previous one about who should rule a country and which church people should go to.  The same argument that had turned Finchale Priory into a ruin.  A very long argument - that had happened a hundred years earlier.  Blob read the poem carefully.

When Love with unconfinéd wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
And fettered to her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly round,
With no allaying Thames,
Our careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deep,
Know no such liberty.

When, like committed linnets, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my King;
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlargéd winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage.
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

Blob didn't quite understand what a tippling fish might be.  He does see that point that there is freedom in love and that our outward circumstances don't remove that freedom unless we let them, even if those outward circumstances are prison walls.  But he's firm on one thing still.  Stone walls DO a prison make.  And he knows.  He has seen them.

Blob's research of the poem led him to some music.  A band called Fairport Convention had made it into a song.  Blob thought that was a funny name.  His person said she had grown up listening to that particular band and still listened to the album she has on her phone.  She had posted songs from them very recently on Facebook because their fiddle player, Dave Swarbrick, had died.  Here's the song, music written by Swarbrick, who plays fiddle and is vocalist on the track too.

[988 words plus poem - I'm sure when we started this, Blob said it would just be him posting a picture every day so the world could, if it chose, share in his exuberant joy.  What happened to that idea?]

Blob Thing Sings The Kyrie And Gets Ruined

Blob Thing was really enjoying his day out.  He's laughing now because his person wrote that and then he remembered a tip for writers that he read last week.  It said to not use the word really.  If something is happening, it is really happening and readers can spot that it's happening without that word.  Blob reminded his person of the tip and told her to start again.

Blob Thing was enjoying his day out a great deal.  He had already been to Mars, talked with swans, seen marvellous views while walking along the river, and now he had arrived at an ancient abbey.  It was very nice but he could see that it had fallen into a state of disrepair.  Blob's person told him that the abbey had not been used for that purpose in a very long time.  All the monks had been thrown out of it nearly five hundred years ago.  Blob could hardly believe it.  That seemed to him to be an unfeasibly long time.  But his owner assured him it was true and that a king called Henry had done it.  Blob has been reading about it since he got home but is still confused by what possible connnection there could be between someone wanting to get divorced and a disused abbey in County Durham.

He loved the abbey but wished it had a roof.  He got slightly worried that all the monks must have got very cold and wet living there.  But his person told him that all the rooms would once have had roofs.  It would still have been cold though because the monks did not have central heating and they had to get up very early even in winter.  Every single day.  Blob wasn't sure that he would have liked to be a monk.

Blob explored Finchale some more and then he went down some steps and got very, very excited to find himself here.  A room with a ceiling.  It was beautiful.

Blob asked his person a question but before she could answer he spotted the room had a rather brilliant echo and he asked if they could sing something together, something suitable for a monastic environment.  And so they sang together Blob and his person.  They sang the Kyrie and they sang it loudly, not caring that someone might enter the room, think them weird, and stare at them.

Kyrie, eleison

Christe, eleison

Kyrie, eleison

Lord, have mercy

Christ, have mercy

Lord, have mercy

Blob enjoyed the singing.  He really enjoyed the singing!  He doesn't even care about ignoring tips for writing because he enjoyed it so much.  The echo was wonderful.  The setting was wonderful.  And the sound of his voice was so beautiful.  His person's voice wasn't quite so pretty.  At least she was in tune.

Blob doesn't believe in that particular Lord that he was singing about but sometimes you just have to sing for the joy of singing.  He had learned that not many days earlier when singing shape note from The Sacred Harp and from Shenandoah Harmony.  That was a fantastic weekend which is why he began his blog by talking about it.

Blob couldn't keep singing forever.  There were still miles to walk and he hadn't finished exploring the abbey.  He was in ruins.  And at that moment it seemed to be the perfect place to be.

Just look at him.  Have you ever seen a happier Blob Thing or one more satisfied with the simplicity of going for a walk.  He is possibly the most amazing blob in the entire world.

Blob had adored being at Finchale Priory.  But it was time to go.  So he and his owner left behind the monastic walls and continued their trip to Durham.  It wasn't long before Blob passed some other walls.  He wants to tell you about them next time.

Blob Thing Discovers A Hidden Ruin: Finchale Priory

Blob was having fun.  He thought his day couldn't get any better.

And then it did get better.  Much better.

He had to walk along a section of road, which wasn't a thrill for him but then the path suddenly turned from the road and descended down steep steps through a wood.  That felt a lot preferable.  It was good to be in a place where he couldn't see any cars.  Blob wondered what he might find at the bottom of the steps or whether they would go on for ever.  There did seem to be an awfully large number of them.

But the steps came to an end and as he approached the edge of the wood Blob Thing could see the river again.  He was glad.  He had been told his walk was along a river valley and he hadn't seen any sign of the river in ages.  He stepped out of the woods and looked at the sight.  It was beautiful and Blob gasped in amazement.  Not only was the river spectacular in the way it curved and in the way the light reflected from it he could see something else.

Across the river were some ruins.  It looked like a church and monastery.  Blob later learned that this was the ruin of Finchale Priory or Abbey, built in the 13th century.  Blob was quite staggered by its existence and the complete surprise of finding something so amazing hidden at the bottom of some magical steps.

He was very pleased to have accompanied his person on her walk.

Blob crossed a little bridge over the river and started to explore the priory.  He was quite surprised that such a place cost nothing to explore.  Nobody wanted to charge him any money to go in and they didn't even want to charge his person anything.  It's fair to say that she was quite excited to find the priory too.  It's true that her one page PDF map on her phone included the word ruin but she hadn't expected anything as wonderful as this.

Blob decided that it would be a good place to stop for lunch so he sat down in the priory grounds and looked out at the river and rested for a while.  It was so relaxing and because of their choice of lunch spot Blob and his person were alone and undisturbed with only the noise of the river and the birds, and with the sun shining on them.

It was a marvellous day.  Absolutely marvellous.  Blob says that everyone should go and visit the priory.  It's that good.  But he does warn that if you take a car someone will charge you some money to get out of the car park and it's a long walk to the bank if you happen to forget your purse.

It's fair to say that Blob Thing enjoyed Finchale Priory immensely.  He explored every last bit of it and he still has pictures to share on another day.  Just look at his smile.  Have you ever seen him smile more than this?

Blob Thing Goes Hiking Along The Wear Valley

Blob was having ever such a good day.  But there was much walking to be done and he knew he was going to be tired by the end.  Still, the weather was excellent and he knew that, unlike his person, he was not susceptible to sunburn.  There are advantages to being a blob rather than a human.  Blob was going to make the most of the weather and enjoy the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the landscape of this part of County Durham.

He doesn't want to say much about the walk and knows he's said an awful lot about the day already.  He wants to show you pictures though.  This first one was taken right at the start of the walk while still in Chester-le-Street, even before Blob knew that he would be going to such a place as Mars.  He likes holes in trees and decided that finding on so early in the walk was an omen for the rest of the day.  It is unclear how Blob Thing got so into omens and signs and portents.  Maybe it has something to do with his message from the angel.  Or maybe he's been reading just the wrong books from his person's shelves.

Blob wants to share this picture.  He was amazed at the size of this particular plant.  True, it's much smaller than the trees he passed but he was astounded by it and wondered how leaves could grow to be so big.

He especially asked for this picture to be taken because of his happiness that something like a leaf could support his entire weight.  Blob finds the world to be a mysterious, fantastically curious place.

Here he is again in the woods above the River Wear smiling and chuckling about having a little rest sitting on a branch.  His person couldn't sit there with him.  She had to keep standing and didn't get a rest.  Blob couldn't decide whether he should feel very sorry for her or whether it was immensely amusing.

Either way, he was happy.  The air smelled good, the shade of the trees made the light staggeringly, stupendously soft for his eyes, and the sounds of the birds in the trees filled him with such joy he thought he would almost burst.

He wondered why most people wouldn't experience a wood in this manner, why people are so often unable to find such contentment in the simple things that surround them.

The path rose out of the woods and the sun was hot on Blob's pink head, as it would be for the rest of the walk - many more miles.  Blob was glad that he would not be the one doing the walking.

He sat down in a field and looked across the river valley at the view.  It was beautiful.  So totally beautiful.  He could see for miles across the valley, far to the left towards Durham and he was massively excited by what he could see far away to the right of the view.  He could see his friend, The Angel of The North and he remembered what the angel had told him.










Blob Thing found something to be very strange indeed.  On all the footpaths - except when very close to riverside parks, towns, or some places that he'll tell you about soon - only four people passed him coming the other way.

Blob wondered why?  The weather was stupendous.  The places were beautiful.  The financial cost of seeing it all and experiencing such wonders was zero, nothing.  It was all free.  So where were the people.  Why weren't there more people out having the same happy time as he was.  After all, the route he was walking was on not one but two official routes - The Weardale Way and Cuddy's Corse.  Where were the people?  What were they doing?  And why are the shops so full when the stunning places are so empty?  He has wondered that while walking in other places too.  How can a shopping centre be more exciting than the view he had across the valley?

That's part of the view.  Durham International Cricket Ground is in the centre.  You probably can't make it out, but just to the left of that wire is The Angel of The North.

Blob thinks that humans can be very confusing creatures.  But he didn't mind that there were so few of them.  He liked the peacefulness of the day.  Blob was as happy as a blob can be.

Blob Thing Meets The Swans of The River Wear

Blob Thing left his Mars Garden and carried on walking.  Or at least being carried around while his person did the walking for him.  It's a good life being Blob Thing.  He could see a river ahead of him and he was happy.  He likes rivers.  He's already walked by rivers and is eager to tell you about those adventures too.  This river, his person told him, was the River Wear and they were walking in a riverside park in a place called Chester-le-Street.  Blob Thought it looked fantastic.  He had enjoyed the gardens and even the tunnel under the road he had to go through to get to the park had been made pretty.

Blob could see birds on the river.  He likes birds but finds them a bit scary.  What if one of them swooped down and picked him up and carried him away?  He likes his adventures but that would be an adventure too far, even for a blob as brave as Blob.  And what if one of the big ones pooed on Blob's head?  How would a blob ever get clean again?

These birds looked friendly though.  There were lots of ducks and Blob especially likes to hear ducks quacking.  He finds the sound extremely funny and every time he hears a quack he feels like laughing.  And then he saw some big white birds with long necks.  Blob had seen such creatures before.  Maybe one, or two, or even three of them.  But here there were so many and Blob found the sight incredible.  How could there be so many?  At one point Blob counted the seventy-eight that he could see.  His person told him that the birds were called swans.  Swans.  Seventy-eight swans.  Blob was amazed and asked if he could go and see them close up.  Would they be friendly?

Blob and his person walked down to a path at the water's edge.  There were some other people there and they seemed quite scared of the swans and didn't want to get close in case they got pecked by the swans' beaks.  They had dropped a packet of crisps and thought that one of the swans was carefully guarding the packet.  How could they get their crisps back from an animal that might be terribly fierce?  Eventually one of the people slowly crept past the swan guard and collected the crisps.  Blob was pleased to see that no pecking happened and that the swan looked particularly bored by the whole thing.

Blob was braver though.  He knew he might get pecked but wasn't afraid.  He knew it wouldn't hurt much and the swans would soon decide that he wasn't good to eat.  So he got close, very close and sat himself down by the swans.

So close.  It felt wonderful to be near such a majestic bird as a swan.  Blob was satisfied.  This had been a good day out.  He'd been to Mars, played chess, and now he was with the swans.  A good day indeed.  He thought after such excitements it must be over.  But his person told him that they were only at the start of their walk.  Blob was amazed.  Again.  There was to be a lot of amazement on this day.

Blob wants to share this picture.  It's of his person.  Blob wants to show her face in his blog.  But she's not quite ready for that.  She's promised Blob Thing that one day soon he can show a picture of the two of them together.  He's happy about that.  He likes being out with his person and enjoys the time they spend together.  So here is Blob's person, including part of her boot.

Blob left the swans, smiling broadly about his experience.  He could still hear the ducks quacking too and he laughed so much.  He walked through the rest of the Riverside Park and decided he would want to return sometime.  There's a play area.  Fields.  Somewhere for his person to buy ice cream.  And out in a quiet corner, a most wonderful sight:  A bucket swing.  Made for sharing.

Blob's views of Chester-le-Street had been raised up high by the whole experience.  He has told his person to go back and explore some more.  And he's beautifully excited.  Because she has agreed.  They will return.

Tomorrow Blob will tell more about his day.  He's got a lot to talk about.  It's going to take quite a few days because the day was so packed.  He knows he is a very lucky blob.  Other blobs - if there were such things and he wasn't the sole member of his blob species - might just be left to sit on a bed or on a shelf and wouldn't get to experience the world.  That doesn't mean Blob's friends are sad with their lives.  They are all loved and have a good time with each other and play lots of games with each other whenever they can.  But Blob knows he is the most fortunate blob in the world.

Blob Thing Goes All The Way To Mars For A Game Of Chess

Blob Thing came out with his person on another adventure.  He's got such a lot to tell you about it.  Such a lot.  It's going to take him a week because he did so many things.  He wants to tell you about all the other things he's been getting up to recently but he's so excited and satisfied with his most recent adventure that he can't wait and desperately wants to share his news about it.  His other days out are just going to have to wait.

Near the beginning of this adventure, Blob Thing spotted a sign.  "Mars Garden."

He said to his person, "Ooh, ooh, please.  Can we go to Mars?  I've never been to another planet.  Please."

His person, being a sensible woman - at least some of the time, told Blob that it wasn't another planet.  It was just a garden, named after a planet.  She reminded Blob that he had already had his picture taken that day in front of a strange domed building.  A temple that wasn't a temple, named after the Sun.

It did look interesting though with tall circular hedging and she agreed that Blob could pay a visit.  Blob didn't really mind that he wasn't going into space.  He could use his imagination, an imagination powerful enough that a patch of grass could become a trip across thirty million miles of empty, airless space riding in a specially made Blob space ship rather than riding in a pocket.  Blob enjoys imagining.  He's really very good at it.

On arriving at Mars, Blob was very surprised to find a raised platform with a metal chess board on the top.  Blob likes chess.  A lot.  Or at least he thinks he does.  He has seen books about it on his person's shelves and has even read about the game on a day when he stayed at home and his owner went out.  She was very apologetic about forgetting to take him but Blob said he had a good day resting and reading and had learned far more at home than he would have done if she had taken him out to some boring place again like she usually does.  It has to be agreed that Blob's acceptance of the apology was not without some element of grumpiness.  Grumpy but still smiling.

Blob sat on the platform and imagined himself playing space chess against Mars versions of some of the great players.  Blob would use his immense intellect and skill and would beat them all.  He would trounce Bobby Fischer so completely that Fischer would flee to the Mars America, miserable.  And no matter how many Mars Russians were sent, Blob would beat them all.  Even the Martian Kasparov.

Oh yes, it didn't matter how good Kasparov's Sicilian was, Blob would find a way through his defence and win.  Blob was incredibly happy about the thought of winning the Mars World Chess Championship that he bounced up and down excitedly on the chess board.  To beat Martian Kasparov.  What a dream.

Blob moved on from the imagine chess and walked round the garden in between the concentric circles.  And then he saw it.  A thing.  That's what blob called it.  A thing.  At the centre of Mars.  He didn't know what it was but wanted to sit on it.  His person later looked up the thing.  The artist says it's "part chess piece, part medieval mace."  So in effect, it is a thing.  At the centre of Mars.  Just like blob had said.

Here he is, Blob, enjoying Mars.  He was fortunate.  He couldn't climb to the top himself and it's quite a tall sculpture.  His person could only just about reach to put him up there and she had to climb on the sculpture to do it.  He was so pleased to be there, surveying his planet as if he, Blob Thing, were the King of Mars - or the elected president because he doesn't really believe that an unelected monarchy is a form of just government.

Blob believes in democracy even if the electorate can so easily be manipulated into making all kinds of stupid decisions in elections and referendums.  Even if politicians and powerful media owners twist truths and use fear and sometimes lies to win elections rather than using honesty, intelligence and reason.  Blob sees the flaws and misuses of democracy but he still believes in it.

Blob Thing enjoys a Crushed Chilli in Durham

Blob Thing took a trip to Durham last week.  He's planning on showing off lots of pictures of his activities there.  He's never been to Durham before and there's such a lot to see.  It's not just a cathedral and a castle and he was quite pleased about that.  In fact he didn't go to the castle at all and only spent five minutes in the cathedral before wanting to leave.  It's an impressive building but Blob Thing was not particularly excited by being in it and wanted to seek out other things.

While wandering he was pleased to discover the Crushed Chilli Gallery.  He enjoyed looking at all the art, especially the glass, and thought the woman who runs the place, Janet, to be very friendly.

One day he wants to go back and make something simple.  There is a workshop in which you stick glass pieces onto a base and they get fired into coasters or bowls.  He would like to make something for himself or maybe to give it to his creator.

Today's picture is of Blob Thing enjoying the gallery.

Later he found a church he liked more than the cathedral, an exciting graveyard that his person will be blogging about, and a cafe that he wants to go back to.  He even bought himself a badge from the cafe which means he would get a discount for life.