Blob Thing Returns Home, Worn Out But Very Happy

Today is a day of finishings for Blob Thing.

He's going to finish telling you about his epic reservoir walk.

And today he will have completed his equally epic quest to talk about all his adventures from the month of May.  This is it.  It is over.  Tomorrow he can start to talk about his many adventures from June.  There are such a lot of them.  Blob has been looking back at the excitements of his life and he wonders where he should begin.  Should he tell you about his life in chronological order?  Or should he pick out highlights that appeal to him each day?  Or a combination of the two?  Or should he even stick all of the possibilities into a hat and pick them out randomly so that neither he nor you know what is coming next?  Blob hasn't decided yet.

There is so much to tell you about.  It's not just cafes and walking, although he has to admit that he has sat in quite a few cafes and has enjoyed some brilliant walks.  He has met sheep, nearly been eaten by a wolf, conversed with the barnacles, pretended to be a worm, dressed up as a bishop, seen Roman ruins, been to the theatre, fought off a dragon, become a lifeguard, been to a war museum, played on beaches, met Noah, and he even visited the Blue Peter garden.  June was a very full month.  Blob Thing can hardly believe that he could have done so many things.

But for today there is this.  The end of his reservoir walk.  Blob was exhausted.  But he was very happy.  He had seen three reservoirs and he had seen some beautiful places when walking between them.  Blob's person has lots of photos of the day and one day she will share some of them on her own blog if she ever manages to get it written.  She might manage more posts but there is only one computer and Blob keeps using it for his own purposes.  How can Blob's person write her blog when she has to contend with Blob always wanting to use her computer?  She may have to get strict and limit his computer use.

Blob and his person left the side of the third reservoir of the day, the only one of the three not to have an amusing name.  They were both glad that the walk was nearly over and they wanted to sit and rest.  But the path from the reservoir was steep.  The end of their walk was at the top of the hill.  The reservoir was, like most reservoirs are, at the bottom of the hill, deep in the valley.  One final climb and they would have completed their quest.  Blob feels that he should have received some kind of reward for his brave questing.  A certificate of some kind.  Or a badge.  But there was nothing except the satisfaction of knowing that he had done a good job and had done it while having to contend with his person's totally adamant nature and her stubbornness in going the hard way round just because a piece of paper told her to.  Sometimes she can be very silly.

The path reached a narrow road and Blob followed it back to Entwistle Station, the start of the walk and the end of the walk too.  He checked the time the next train would arrive and was pleased to find that it wasn't too long.  Entwistle Station was quiet.  Deserted.  Nobody there.  Blob sat on the platform and waited for the train.

He knew that at Entwistle the trains don't automatically stop.  It's a request stop.  You have to wave down the train just like you wave down a bus.  Blob was a little worried about that.  He's very small so how would the train driver see him and know to stop?  And he hasn't got any arms.  So how could he possibly wave down a train?  If you look at him you might be able to see the worry showing through his eyes.  He was still smiling though.  Who wouldn't smile when the day had been so good?  Who wouldn't smile in such fresh air and when they could see the countryside and hear the birds sing and could look at the flowers and the trees?  How could anyone not smile when there was so much that was staggeringly good?

It wasn't too long before Blob could hear the train and he continued to be anxious about whether the train would stop or whether he would have to wait another hour for the next train to pass.  The train appeared round a bend in the railway track.  It wasn't going very fast and Blob became more hopeful that he would be able to get the train to stop.  He began to jump up and down.  The train driver must have seen him because he used the brakes and the train came to a halt at the station.  [That's Blob's story anyway.  His person has a theory though that the train stopped because she was also on the platform and hailed the train.  She thinks that is a lot more likely but doesn't want to disappoint Blob or try to convince him that he hadn't managed to stop a train himself.]

Blob sat on the train and rested.  He was very, very happy.  He had seen so much that day.  He was amazed at his life.  He would have been even more amazed if he had known how much better it would become in June.  Blob leaned back into the chair and sighed contentedly and fell asleep.  He knew that his person would wake him up in time to get off the train in Salford.

One last photograph from the day and from the month.  Blob and his person reached the Salford house and at last found a reward.  A sofa to sit on.  A mug of tea.  And a cake.  What could be better?  The day had been stunning.  To finish it with a sofa, tea, and cake was the most excellent and beautiful scenario that Blob could imagine.  Just look at him.  That wide smile and the face of a friend who knows that life is something to be celebrated.

[1049 words.  As always, basically free written without any editing whatsoever.]

Blob Thing Sees Yet Another Reservoir, Argues With His Person, And Gets Very Tired

Blob is pleased.  His quest to share his ancient experiences from May is going very well.

Today he doesn't want to write much at all.  He's written so much in the last few days and he is all worn out from it.  Instead he just wants to share some more photographs.

Blob Thing had been on an epic trek.  He had visited two reservoirs already and had crossed a moor that seemed to go on for ever.  His feet would have ached a lot.  Except that Blob hasn't got any feet.  When Blob's person has feet that ache Blob can only look at her and smile sympathetically.

Blob and his person descended from the moor and finally reached their third reservoir of the day.  This was the Turton and Entwistle Reservoir.  Blob thought it the worst reservoir name of the day.  He liked Wayoh Reservoir and the predictable song he sang so loudly.  He liked Jumbles Reservoir and the way that name had brought him so much laughter and enjoyment.  But this one?  He thought it was quite a dull name.

Turton and Entwistle.  Those two could have been characters in a 1950s B movie about detectives uncovering a plot to steal a flask of magic tea, the contents of which would give the drinker magical powers to control the population without even having to brainwash them through unscrupulous use of national media outlets.  Turton and Entwistle.  Yes, not a bad name for a fictional pair of private eyes.  But a name for a reservoir?  No.  Blob didn't like that at all, not after the excitements of Wayoh and Jumbles.

However, Blob had to admit that the actual reservoir was pretty special.  It felt very different from either of the other reservoirs.  It was set in a steep sided valley with trees all around and it felt very enclosed and would have felt very wild and bleak had it not been for the well made up path that ran round the entire body of water.  He may not have liked the name but he liked the reservoir and he had to admit that the people who had driven their cars to the nearby car park were wise in their choice of destination.

Blob was tired.  It was true that he didn't have aching feet.  It was true that for some of the distance he had been carried by his person rather than walking the whole way under his own power.  But he was tired.  And it was a long way round the reservoir.  It felt to Blob Thing like it could easily have been the largest lake in the world.  Later he learned that it wasn't even the largest lake in England.  It wasn't even the largest artificial reservoir.  In fact it was tiny compared to some of the others.  But in Blob's state of near exhaustion it felt massive.

Blob later looked it up - because his person had told him that in the grand scheme of things Turton and Entwistle wasn't that big.  Blob was doubtful and wanted to see that his person was wrong.  He was very surprised to find out that she was totally correct.  Wikipedia has a list of the largest 47 reservoirs in England.  None of those from Blob's adventure appear on the list.  The 47th largest reservoir contains roughly three times as much water as Turton and Entwistle.  The largest contains over sixty times as much.  Blob would love to visit the largest and it's not that far from his home.  He may not be able to though because he hasn't got a car.  He relies on buses and getting to Kielder by bus is very difficult indeed.  Especially if you want to be able to walk for a while and get back to civilisation the same day.  If there is anyone out there who wants to take Blob Thing and his person on a special day out please let him know.

Blob didn't want to write much.  He's written far more than he planned.  He only really wanted to share his photos.  Here's Blob posing in front of the reservoir.  [I don't know which is more beautiful, the scenery or Blob himself.]

And here is the reservoir, looking towards the dam.  If you're in the area it's worth a visit, either by car or by train.  Even on that day, with fine weather, there weren't very many people around.

At the far end of the reservoir Blob felt very, very tired.  He was confused too.  He had been expecting to walk round the rest of the reservoir and then climb up the hill and wander back to the train station where his journey had begun.  Blob's person looked at her route guide.  It didn't say to do that.  It said to climb another hill, cross some countryside and then climb down yet another hill and back to the reservoir.  Blob couldn't understand why they would want to do something so strange when walking round the water seemed much easier and couldn't possibly be less beautiful than trekking into the unknown.

Blob's person was adamant though.  They must follow the plan.  Blob shook his head and entire body in disbelief.  There was a new plan they could follow.  A better plan.  They should go the easier way and enjoy the scenery rather than follow a plan invented by someone else on a website.  Why trust a stranger's map when a better way forward was so obvious?  Unfortunately, Blob's reasoning couldn't sway his person from her view.  The plan must be followed.  She said so.  And there was no convincing her otherwise.

Blob Thing sat down and rested on a bridge over the stream.  It wasn't the first bridge, the one that would have taken him round the water's edge.  Oh no.  It was another bridge.  It was marked with a sign for a long distance footpath.  Blob didn't want to go this way.  He couldn't see the appeal.  And he argued with his person.  He argued well but to no avail.  They would go this way.  Because the route map said so.  Because it was part of an official path and the sign said so.  In the end Blob gave up.  He knew he couldn't win.  And his person was the one carrying the map and the supplies.  And Blob knew she would carry him for part of the way if he asked nicely.  So after his rest they set off together into the woods and up a very steep hill on a path that was almost invisible.

Half way up the hill the path seemed to vanish.  The route guide said it turned right.  But there was no clear place to turn right.  And no visible path.  Blob suggested going back down the hill and following the clear path round the water.  But his person was determined.  They must go on.  And so they did.  They were successful too and returned to the water at just the point the guide said they should.  And from there the walk back to Entwistle railway station continued without any trouble at all.  Success.  Three cheers!

It was success at a price.  They had lost the path for ages.  They had to back track at one point because there was no way forward.  They got mucky in a bog.  They had to back track from the bog and find a way round it.  Perhaps they had turned right at the wrong time.  Blob's person started to get quite grumpy about the route.  It was a silly route she said.  Why didn't it just advise continuing round the reservoir if that's where they were going to end up anyway?  It wasn't as if the view from the top of the hill was anything spectacular.  Why had they come this way?  It was all a bit crazy and stupid and the route was silly, even if it did form part of an official long distance footpath.

Blob's person wished she had listened to Blob.  She wished that she had been able to deviate from her plan.  She wished that plans weren't engraved so deeply in her head.  She wished that such rigidity of thinking wasn't a part of her being autistic.  Blob reminds her that it's not always the case.  Sometimes she can be spontaneous.  Sometimes she can jump in and embrace sudden changes.  She just couldn't do it that day - a day on which Blob Thing could embrace the change.  Blob loves his person but sometimes the way her brain works can be a very difficult thing.



[1431 words.  That's the most Blob Thing has ever written.  Blob's person reminds him that he didn't want to write much at all and that it is she who has to type it all due to Blob's lack of fingers and due to them not having the finances to buy him a neural interface so he could just think his words onto his blog.   Blob is amazed.  He didn't think would be able to use words very well today.  Yes, he is totally amazed.  Including these words mean that the word count is over 1500.  It's 1529. ]

Blob Thing Celebrates A Jubilee Before Getting Moored

Yesterday Blob Thing began a challenge to finish writing about all the adventures he had in May.  He had plans to write about a different adventure today but they needed to be temporarily changed.  He will tell you about that tomorrow and is looking forward to it immensely.  Instead, he has decided today to tell you a little more about the adventure he began to tell you about yesterday, his epic hike round three reservoirs.  At least, it felt epic to Blob then.  A couple of days ago he completed an even longer hike.

When we left Blob yesterday he had left Entwistle station and had walked the length of Wayoh Reservoir.  He was having a very good time.  Everything was so beautiful.  How could a place contain so much countryside?  Then the countryside vanished.  Blob and his person followed the path until it reached a road.  They were in a little place called Edgworth.  Blob's person was wondering whether they would be able to walk all the way they had planned.  Her knee was hurting.  It often hurts.

And then the intrepid travellers saw an amazing sight:  A bus stop.  And the bus was due any minute.  They could stop walking there and then.  They could rest.  It was a lucky thing too because if they had missed the bus at that bus stop they would have had to wait another four hours for the next one.  But the bus went to Darwen and neither Blob nor his person knew where Darwen was and they didn't know how they would ever get back to Salford were they to catch the bus.  So, in equal measures joy and despair, they decided they would have to walk for many more miles.  Looking back, they are both very glad not to have caught the bus because the day walking turned out to be great and Blob's person's knee felt a lot better.

If they had looked at the bus stop on the other side of the road they would have found out that the bus route went to Bolton.  That would have been good.  Except that they would have had to wait for another three hours and twenty minutes to catch it.  Blob is very glad not to live in Edgworth.  The houses are quite attractive and it's near reservoirs.  That would be good.  But there is very little to do there and adventures would be much harder with so few buses.  Blob is very glad that he lives in a big place.  Sometimes it's too noisy.  Sometimes it's very overwhelming.  But it's much better for him and for his person too.  They have many bus routes to choose from and just a few minutes from their house is the Tyne and Wear Metro.  Plus there are so many different things to do and see nearby.  Blob doesn't want to live in a tiny village with such limited travel options.

They followed the road down a hill and entered another place.  It was called Turton Bottoms.  You'll have to forgive Blob Thing.  He's a very young blob.  That probably explains why he found the name so funny.  Turton Bottoms.  Blob laughed about it a lot when he saw the sign.  He was still laughing when he crossed the little river at the bottom of the hill and left the road and the traffic to join a quiet footpath.

Blob was very relieved.   Relieved to be away from the road again.  And relieved because a sign at the start of the path said it had just reopened after being closed for ages due to a bridge collapsing.  He guesses that this is the bridge in question.  In Blob's opinion it still looks to be quite collapsed.  It would have been hard to cross.  Fortunately there was a metal pipe across the stream and Blob was able to cross that carefully.

Gosh, it was pretty.  It was so pretty in places.  Blob marvelled at this path along the river.  He felt it was so magical.  He could almost taste the magic in the air in a way that is most uncommon on a city street.  Walking along this path brought Blob such joy and such inner peace.

Blob's person enjoyed it too.  She finds a lot of strength and peace and joy in walking in quiet places.  She has learned that being outside is good for her, being among the trees and the fields or watching the sea.  For most of her adult life she hasn't taken herself out to many places.  Now she has learned that being out is life giving for her.  It is part of her freedom.  Part of who she is.  Part of the literal and metaphorical air that she needs to breathe.  Blob Thing is glad of that because it means he gets to accompany her and see the exciting places too.

It wasn't long before Blob reached the second reservoir of the day.  This was Jumbles Reservoir.  Blob started laughing again at another funny name.  He later learned that the name comes from the word "dumbles" which is a local word for a steep valley with trees on the sides and a fast river at the bottom.  Jumbles Reservoir was almost as pretty as Wayoh Reservoir.  The banks and the surrounding countryside were much less wild but they were still pretty.  Blob sat and rested on a tree.  He was glad to be here rather than in the unknown Darwen.  He didn't even know whether there would be charity shops in Darwen.

At the far end of the reservoir there was a little visitor centre and a cafe.  Jumbles Reservoir is in the Jumbles Country Park and there is a car park so it gets a lot more people than Wayoh.  It was still quiet though, with only about a dozen cars there.  Blob's person treated herself to an ice cream.  It wasn't the most special ice cream, nothing like the liquorice filled ice cream she would share that weekend with Blob's creator.  But it was ice cream and Blob's person is a big fan of ice cream.

Blob walked on and on and on.  He left Jumbles Reservoir far behind and the path crossed under the railway and then rose very steeply through a wood.  Blob's person is supremely unfit and she got very out of breath and her heart was racing.  Blob felt sorry for her.  He was fine.  His heart kept on beating at the same rate it always does and he didn't get out of breath at all.  In part that may be due to the peculiarities of his physiology.  In part it's probably also due to the fact that he was carried all the way up the hill by his person.  Lucky, lucky Blob.  [Yes, that's his person saying that.]

Together they came out of the woods and were amazed.  They were high up and the views were stunning.  Blob leaped with excitement.  He had never seen anything like this before.

It would be a long walk to the third reservoir, across a moor.  Blob will tell you about that on another day.

[1190 words]

Blob Thing Sings Wayoh, Wayyyyoh, And Visits A Reservoir

Today, Blob Thing is starting a little challenge.

He wants to tell you about everything that happened to him way back in May.  He's told you about quite a lot of it already and about his early adventures in April.  May was a good month for Blob but his life has really gotten a little crazy since the start of June.  He's been looking back on his life and realises that he could tell you about sixty adventures he had in June.  Sixty.  Imagine that.  That's two a day!

And the crazy life has continued at the start of July too.  We're writing this together on July 3rd, the night before we'll publish this little post.  Blob's been adventuring today.  He sat on beaches and cliff tops, nearly got blown away - which was scary, met a soldier, encountered a caterpillar, and saw some pretty amazing things.  It's been fantastic but he's very tired now.  He wants to sleep but first he wants to start this challenge.  To finish posting about May.

He and his person were staying for a few days with his creator.  His creator was busy with something else.  No, not the dog.  Don't be silly.  Ooh, you don't know about the dog do you?  Or the unicorn who had surgery on the same night as the dog?  Blob will introduce you to the unicorn sometime, and maybe to the dog too.  But the dog lives a long way away.  Then again, the dog's child lives here with Blob so he can introduce you to Something Else's child too.

Blob's person decided that she wanted to go for a long walk.  She wanted to revisit somewhere she had been to with Blob's creator and then to walk a lot further.  Blob Thing hadn't shared that day.  Blob Thing didn't go on adventures then.  His person didn't know about such freedom things as taking a small pink toy everywhere and sharing the fun.  Blob decided that he wanted to see the place that his person and creator had enjoyed together - the very place where his person had discovered the scarf of a witch and taken it home.

So together they caught the train from Salford Crescent to Entwistle.  It doesn't take that long but leaves the city and enters the countryside.  The plan was to walk round a reservoir.  And then to walk to another reservoir and walk round that.  And then to walk a long way to another reservoir and walk round that.  And then to return to the train station and probably collapse on the station platform.

They left the station and Blob's person told him that the steep path they were following down the hill was exactly the same one she had followed a few months before with Blob's creator.  Blob was ever so excited.  It's not everyone who gets to walk in the footsteps of their creator.  Some people travel thousands of miles to walk in the footsteps of a holy man.  Some even travel to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, who they believe to be fully God as well as fully man.  They don't know how that can be possible.  It's a mystery.  But who gets to walk in the footsteps of their creator?  Who?  Well Blob Thing was doing just that.  What a thrill.

At the bottom of the hill they came to a bridge and stopped for a while.  Blob's person told him that she had stopped on this very spot with his creator.   She even had a photograph of his creator there, enjoying the outside and everything that went with it.  Blob sat on the bridge so this his picture could be taken where his creator had once stopped.

Perhaps you may think that it's strange for Blob to be quite so excited and enraptured about these things.  After all, he had met his creator.  He was even staying with his creator.  He knew what it was like to be held by her.  So why get so ecstatic about this walk?  That's another mystery, just like Jesus.  Whatever the answer is, just be assured that Blob did feel this way.  Blob's person too looked back on that other day and smiled because it had been so good.

Blob continued on the walk and soon came to the first reservoir.  This is Wayoh reservoir.  Blob sang it out.  He couldn't restrain himself.  "Wayoh, Wayyyyyoh ..."  He supposed that countless people had sung that very same thing.  He knew it was a completely obvious thing to do.  Yet it was also a completely fun thing to do and he laughed so much about it and could hardly stay calm enough to have his picture taken in front of the reservoir.  If you look closely you can see how hard he's finding it not to collapse in a heap of giggles.  Blob's person laughed too because the sight of Blob laughing so long and hard was funny.

Here's a special picture, taken by Blob Thing.  This is his person.  She is trying to smile and trying to look respectable.  Blob thinks she should have just let go and let out the largest guffaw that she has ever done and she should have had a hysterical laughter photo instead of an almost enigmatic smile.

The two adventurers walked on together along the length of the reservoir.  The path rose up the hill again and entered grassland, before descending again to the reservoir right at the far end.  What came next can wait for another day because that's quite enough typing for one day.  Blob Thing liked this tree that they passed.  It's likely that the tree will appear on Blob's person's blog too when she finally gets round to writing about the day.  She desperately needs to write a list of all the things she has been doing.  And she needs to get on with writing her blog.  Blob thinks that would be a good idea.  He's getting on and writing his blog.  Every day for thirty-two days in a row.  So why isn't his person finding the time to write her own blog?  Blob just cannot understand it.

[1027 words]