Telling an entire story in just one hundred words…

A family picnic in the orchard with parasols, white dresses and a tartan rug. Jean-Paul proposed over caviar and champagne, she’d accepted. He said he’d have the ring resized, but by ill-fortune it’d fallen from her finger as they packed away.

The ring was lost for so long, Elise forgot about it.

Children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with their children, came for her hundredth birthday – a picnic in the orchard with parasols and champagne.

Through serendipity, her favourite great-grandson found the ring and Elise wept tears of joy. Then and there, with Elise’s delighted blessing, he proposed to his true love.

E.M. Swift-Hook

A selection of rhymes by Jane Jago, made age appropriate for those for whom their second childhood is just around the corner…

Hippie Frannie

Hippie Frannie somebody’s granny
How does your garden grow?
With poppy seeds and ganja weeds
And hookah pipes all in a row, row, row,
And hookah pipes all in a row.

You can find this, and other whimsical takes of life in On The Throne? a little book of contemplation from Jane Jago.

January explodes upon the world
With fireworks and cheers
And auld lang syne.
Then creeps she neath her soft blankets
Of snow and mist
Within her house walled with ice
And roofed with frost
And on the casement panes
She prints star patterns,
Draws icicles on eave and gable,
Paints the lawn from green to white
And with bony fingers reaches
Like the leafless trees
To caress the greyness of the sky.

Eleanor Swift-Hook

Sometimes we walk the edges of realty…

CHAPTER ONE: JESSICA

           “Well, you know what they say, don’t you pet? What don’t kill you, will make you stronger.”
            Jessica felt her teeth dig into her tongue with the effort of not snapping back. It was one of those glib sayings people trotted out every time they realised there was harm done they couldn’t heal. She wanted to snarl that what didn’t kill you could just as easily leave you broken and bloody, weakened and vulnerable and much less strong than you were before. It could also leave you changed as well as damaged, struggling to know who this stranger was that you had become – the one who jumped at shadows and whose heart started racing when a car engine started up. 
            It was not a good look for a woman who had once been decorated for valour.
            She forced a smile and did not cringe at the hand pat that went with the words of wisdom, delivered from the place of someone whose worst nightmares were about being caught on Scarborough seafront without her make-up on.
            “Your aunt means well, Jess.”
            The voice came from the door of the lounge, which was being pushed open. There was a smell of fresh coffee as Uncle David carried in a tray with a samovar and tiny cups.
            “Oh don’t be so daft, Dave. She knows I mean well, don’t you pet?”
            Jessica nodded and managed a half-smile, then busied herself moving the newspaper, and a couple of magazines about horoscopes and tarot cards, from the table in front of the paisley-patterned settee. Her uncle set the tray down with care then served the coffee as he always did – strong, black and sweet.
            His eyes were not patronising when he looked at her. But then he had fought at Goose Green and brought home his own ghosts to roost in the rafters of the perfect life his wife devised for them both. No children of their own, but then they had Jess.
            “So are you off to Whitby again to see that young man?” Aunt Susan peered over both the top of her cup and her bifocals.
            For a moment, just hearing someone naming the place sent a shiver through Jessica’s spine, and her imagination bridged the miles to place her on top of the cliffs, screaming gulls wheeling overhead, the wind that never slept and Roald, the image of a modern-day viking, hair blowing over his face, shoulders half-hunched in a fleece, face animated, telling her the history of the ruined abbey as if he had been there at the time.

            “It was all started by a woman – Hild. She was an amazing woman and not one you would want to cross. A princess of sorts. And for all she was an abbess eventually, she didn’t decide to become a nun until she was  in her thirties and she’d done one heck of a lot of living by then.” He paused and made a really broad gesture with one arm as if including the ruins and all the headland where they stood. “She loved this place. Would stand up on the cliffs, by the beacon that was here then and look out over the sea, and unbraid her hair so the wind could play with it. And, you know, when she established that first abbey it was nothing like you would think of a monastery today. It was more like a community – both men and women.”
            It was easy to picture Hilda in her Saxon dress, facing out over the waves. Jessica thought of that actress she’d seen playing Rowena in ‘Ivanhoe’.
            “No,” Roald sounded almost angry, “Hild was of Anglic blood – not Saxon. The ones Pope Gregory famously spoke about when he saw some being sold as slaves: ‘Non Angli, sed angeli’.
            Jessica looked at him her mouth very slightly agape. He did that a lot. It was very unsettling.
            “Non angerlee – what?”
            Roald grinned and gave an exaggerated mock wince, as if her pronunciation caused him pain.
            “Non Angli, sed angeli – ‘These are not Angles, they are angels.’ “

Part 2 of Maybe by Jane Jago and E.M. Swift-Hook will be here next week…

Things that make us go poop…

Granny and the ‘ladies’ darts team of The Dog and Trumpet alphabetically collate their collective contempt for the inhabitants of the twenty-first century.

I is for Invented Languages.

Before anyone gets all hypercritical on me, yes, all language is invented.

But.

We have quite a few world languages already. Roughly 6,500 according to Mister Google. So why do people keep on trying to add more?

This is certainly not a new phenomenon, my researches have found Lingua Ignota which was first seen in twelfth-century documents.

Then we can gloss over a few centuries to the genesis of Esperanto – which was going to resolve all the world’s communication problems.
Did that happen?
Nope.
All it did was add another nail to the coffin of linguistic simplicity.

To explain my irritation further; a number of invented languages are referred to by the intelligentsia as being a posteriori – that is to say that they came about backwards. I groped around with this concept for a while before deciding that it means a book/film/television series has, as part of its storytelling, a race or species that probably speaks a language of its own. Which is fair enough.
Until. Some person with too much time on their hands invents a language for the aliens/ape men/insects/unicorns.
That’s where it just gets weird.
Can we stop it.
Please.

This is one of those areas in life where being able to do a thing doesn’t make doing the thing sensible.

Remember the term a posteriori is taken from logic and refers to reasoning that determines cause by its effects. Which can lead to some interesting conclusions. As an example, the fact that sunrise often follows the crowing of cockerels could be extrapolated to mean that cock crow causes the sun to rise. Equally, then the ‘fact’ that Johnny Alien probably doesn’t actually speak American English could be extrapolated to mean that somebody needs to study Johnny Alien’s native tongue – except, of course, that Johnny Alien is fictional…

I rest my case and I am now going out into the rainy garden to smoke 20 Gauloises and drink a litre of Pernod – so that one could reason in an a posteriori manner that I only wrote this because I was wet, drunk, and smoke dried.

Things are not quite how you might remember them in the 100 Acre Wood for Christopher Robin, Pooh Bear and their friends…

***** ***** *****

Jane Jago

Namaste you wonderful, desirable and aspiring individual! This bijou blog is here to help you achieve your best ever ‘you’ in this new year. Here, I offer my help and assistance in reshaping your shape and doctoring your decor internally and externally, to bring your lifestyle into line with your aspirations.

Names

When you think about it your name is more than just the specific noise that someone makes to attract your attention. It is also the most intimate aspect of your public self. The core of your essence summed up in a single word. It stands to reason that your name should be the summation of your aspirations – it should express to the world the way in which you wish to be seen.
This means that the first step to the new, glorious, bountiferous and amazing YOU has to be setting that goal and reorienting your whole being towards it by making that name change.
You must, of course, meditate deeply and dwell on the matter in the consensual sanctity of your own unclouded consciousness, but here are some suggestions to show how this works:

Pianoforte – this, you might think, is a name for one for whom music is central to their lives, but on the contrary it is a name for one who strives for balance and harmony, who seeks to show how the dark and light of life’s path can be combined into an upright, a grand – or at least baby-grand – lifestyle.

Avocado – once upon a time this beautiful green shade was the height of fashion for bathroom suites and as such the name is a wonderful reminder of the importance of history – and good plumbing – in our lives. Avocado is someone who wants to show they have strong connections with their roots and is seeking to live an ever greener lifestyle.

Serendipity – the perfect name for one who wants to let go of trying to organise their life, keep a good job, maintain relationships and have a tidy house. Instead they will allow blind faith in good fortune to determine their life, and let the world know that they have abandoned such old-fashioned notions as personal responsibility. Serendipity is a child of the universe and floating free on the breeze of random happenstance.

Prosecco – no, not a name for a wine lover, but for someone who seeks to bring cheer, laughter and bubbles to all around them. After all, who does not love Prosecco? Just to have your name on their guest list will bring a smile to someone’s face.

Lucida – and no, you may not take this one as it is all my own, chosen to express my fluid and fluent ability to communicate the essentials of improving your lifestyle and decorated with a charming letter ‘a’ to show that I am an A lister in my art.

So once you have made your new name choice, how do you tell the world that you have made this momentous step?
The best way is of course to have a reveal party and invite all your family and friends.
Picture the scene, you are all gathered around a pinata shaped to resemble you, and all your favourite people beat that old you with sticks until it bursts open and frees a rain of multicoloured cards each with your new name inscribed in a flourish of expensive calligraphy!
Could there be a more magical moment?
And once you have your new, motivational, name, you are ready to take on the challenge of changing your lifestyle to become the you that you always wanted to be!

Namaste!
Lucida the Lateral Lifestyle Coach

Things that make us go poop…

Granny and the ‘ladies’ darts team of The Dog and Trumpet alphabetically collate their collective contempt for the inhabitants of the twenty-first century.

I is for Intentions, and why the very best ones usually go wrong…

I know, even as I sit here with a large glass of something restorative, a new packet of ciggies, and Gyp beside my feet snoring and farting gently, that all around the world there will be people who are about to begin 2025 with their good intentions firmed up into New Year’s Resolutions….

*pauses for a large drink and wonders where to begin the diatribe that is burning her brain*

Okay. Here goes.

Whatever possesses anybody with even half a brain to think drunken promise made to their other half in the pub (in the vain hope of oral gratification) is going to last beyond Tuesday? Worse though are those persons of a prim self-improving mindset who will have written down their plans/resolutions at some time in mid-November. (In my opinion they just need a slap/a life.)

Anyway, whoever you are and whatever you have resolved to do. You. Won’t. Do. It.

The gym membership card will grow dust on the mantelpiece and, by August, you will throw it in the bin thinking wistfully about the amount of  Prosecco/Doom Bar/WHY that seventy-four quid could have bought you.

The packet of ciggies you dramatically throw in the dustbin at 12.01am will be retrieved and tenderly cleaned before breakfast time.

The jog you set out on will only result in you laying by the footpath bringing up your toenails, while a whole slew of elderly ladies will walk their dogs past you and make no attempt to disguise their mirth. (Some of the dogs will piss on you as you lay there sunk in your own misery. Do not attempt chastisement. Old ladies will set about you with their walking sticks if you abuse Tinkerbell or Fluffy.)

The bicycle you were going to ride to work will appear on Craig’s List before the end of February.

The bread ingredients will just sit in the cupboard until they are so far past their sell-by date even my friend Ruby would think twice before ingesting them.

The strange computer thing that you were going to use as an aid to exercise will have become the property of your teenage son/husband and will now be either a golf course or something I wouldn’t pretend to understand – or want to.

And the book on self-improvement (by whatever skinny prune-faced female is currently in fashion) will join hundreds of others in the window of whatever charity shop you hate the most.

So you see, whatever way you cut it, making New Year’s Resolutions is the last resort of the pathetic – and is absofreakinglutely not the way to sort out your life.

Go away and have a proper think about what you need to do, and stop wasting money on crap to make yourself think you are seriously taking charge….

Writing inspired by the art of Ian Bristow

George was a gentle creature, slow moving even for one of his kind and deliberate of thought and speech.
When Mabel was introduced to the group, all the males hustled around her puffing out their cheeks and making their most macho grunting noises.
She ignored them, choosing instead to come and munch some fresh greens at George’s side.
When Alfred attempted to mount her she flipped him over onto his back and continued munching.
“A girl likes to be asked,” she said quietly.
It was many days before George did ask, shyly.
Mabel nodded, and they tended the eggs together.

 Jane Jago

Ian is an awesome artist and cover designer, you can find his work at Bristow Design.

In come I, December, with hale and hearty cheer!
With mulled wine and with wassails
With claret, port and beer.
With winter winds and woollen scarves
My breath in air a-misting
I’ve chocolate treats and holly wreaths
And presents all a-gifting
I’ve hot mince pies and sweet plum pud
And bulbs on wires a-hanging
See my pine trees in tinsel gowns
And children on drums a-banging
My carollers sing the ancient songs
That frame this time of cheer,
I bring you joy and laughter in
And leave with the new year.

Eleanor Swift-Hook