Mary just adored them and did everything in her power to preserve the magical Marigolds that grew along the borders of her garden. She would water them daily, even when it rained. One day there was a loud knocking at the door. Mary went to open it and there didn’t seem to be anyone around, just a huge bunch of sweet smelling gold coloured Marigolds.
‘Wonderful!’ She thought, ‘My favourite flower, they smell so freshly cut and they look so good. I must put them in a vase straight away.’
Shortly after there was another knock on the door and when Mary answered, she saw the local postman with a card in his hand.
‘Here you are Ma’am, someone has remembered it’s Valentine’s Day and sent you a card.’
‘How do you know.’ asked Mary.
‘Easy said the postman, there are kisses and hearts all over it.’
Mary smiled and opened the card immediately when she was alone, sure enough it was a Valentine’s Day card with beautiful Marigolds all over it.
Mary wondered who the unsigned card was from.
Later that day she met Bob, the greengrocer in town and oddly he had a large Marigold in his lapel.
Mary smiled , yet still the penny hadn’t dropped until Bob blushing said to her.
‘I love your Marigolds Mary, your garden is as beautiful as you.’
Then it was Mary’s turn to blush as Bob handed her a bunch of Marigolds with an engagement ring in a box.
George entered the surgery and waited by the reception desk. He was a large overweight man in his early forties, he was conspicuously wearing an anorak with the hood up. Ruth the red headed receptionist bustled in from the room behind the reception area.
‘Can I help you?’ she enquired,
‘Beg pardon?’ George replied.
‘CAN I HELP YOU?’
‘Yes of course! I have an appointment with Dr,Green.
‘Take a seat! Ruth said rather loudly, she was wondering if this patient had a hearing problem.
A few minutes later the buzzer sounded and George made his way in to keep his appointment.
‘What seems to be the trouble?’ enquired the doctor.
‘ Well, Doctor, I’m hearing things.’ Said George.
‘What sort of things?’
George said, ‘Noises, like a train on the tracks.’
‘Ah!’ said the Doctor, sounds like Tinnitus. Let’s have a look at your ears.’
‘’Yes please Doctor, it’s like being on an endless railway journey’
Wally and Mike were off to visit an illegal rave-up. Free music with all their online friends in the local park.
‘Wally, look at all the people here! Hey! Carol and Gloria. How are you both.’
Gloria pushed her long blonde hair out of her eyes and smiled. ’We’re good aren’t we Carol.’
‘Yes!’ giggled Carol, ‘We sneaked out and got here as soon as we heard about the rave.’
Mike interjected with, ‘ My Dad was a bit funny because of this virus thing that’s going around, but everyone says it’s only a scare and not worth worrying about.’
‘Yes!,’ said Wally, ‘We can enjoy ourselves and hope for the best.’
The four friends had a wonderful time dancing the night away. It
It wasn’t until later that they realised that the whole thing had been televised and their parents were sure to see it on the news.
All hell broke loose when they got home. Wally said to his Dad
‘It should be alright as we are too young to catch it.’
I hope so for your sake! You’re grounded anyway.’ Shouted his Dad
It wasn’t until his Grandad was in hospital they both realised how stupidly shallow those hopes had been.
‘What’s Walancha?’ Asked the English student. ‘What do you mean by what’s Walancha?’ ‘ Well, this prompt setter M, has given a cue for a prompt including the word Walancha. ‘The Window to Walancha.’ Mr Sampson wiped his forehead, actually his whole head was a shiny dome, since his wife had shaved all his hair off during a dream. ‘Walancha,’ he mused, you say there’s a window involved?’ I can’t say I’ve come across this word. It sounds just like a place I once knew in the Himalayas. Tibetan monks used a high resolution mirror to reflect the sun into the eyes of their initiates. Thus inducing a state of mind known as Walancha.’ ‘Oh!’ Exclaimed the student ‘Walancha is an altered state of consciousness that can only be reached by getting dazzled.’ ‘Exactly!’ Sampson replied.
The professor was a well known entomologist he had lectured all over the world in most of the prestigious universities. In the jungles of Borneo, he met a local guide called Mojo and together they trekked through some impenetrable jungle searching for a new legendary example of insect life. A life of an unknown species.
‘Listen Mojo, we’re looking for a golden mosquito, that is a pure yellow golden colour But we have to be wary we don’t get bitten as Madness will surely follow.’
Later Mojo raced back from the densest part of the jungle with a dead insect clinging to his bare arm
‘Yai! Yai! I am now the one God and hate everybody, Mosquitoes will rule the world one day. Let’s all die together!’
The Professor was bemused as he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his knapsack, secured Mojo and carefully removed the dead yellow insect.
Here is my entry for today 22nd June2020Image courtesy of pixabay.com
SPOTTY SPINACH
Chef was inspecting the delivery of fresh vegetables to the kitchen at the rear doors
Jim Green was a smallholder who provided as much locally grown vegetables to the businesses and shops in the area as he could harvest.
‘Morning Jim! What have you brought for us today? I hope you remembered everything on my order.’
‘Yes Sir’ Jim replied. ‘I’ve got everything you ordered, luscious Lettuce, healthy Kale and some beautiful Cabbages. Oh! not forgetting the special Spinach you requested me to grow specially for your breakfast customers.’
‘Excellent Jim, let me just have a quick look. The Lettuces look wonderful, crisp and green, and the Kale look beautiful. Just a moment though the Spinach is full of spots.’
‘That’s because they’re special Sir, the spots give it a delicious flavour.’
Jenny Saunders was a star pupil at St Winifred’s school and she was a well thought of young lady by everyone in the whole school. She was an incredible mathematician who studied figures and always had her head in the clouds. It was Mrs, Wilkinson, the English teacher who gave Jenny the nickname of jiggly. Every time she pulled out her pencil case there would be a loud jingle as the coins jingled and jangled whenever the box was picked up. Jenny laughing always said it was her jiggle box everyone smiled at that and for the rest of her schooldays Jenny became known as Jiggly Jenny. One day she went missing from the school, nobody knew where she had disappeared, she just seemed to vanish. Mr Measures, the science teacher was incredibly worried, especially as they’d been working on the mathematical theory of invisibility.
Suddenly there was a jingle jiggly sound from behind the school book cupboard and Jenny appeared, rubbing her eyes.
Image was a screenshot I took from the English Heritage live video.
SATURDAY 20th JUNE 2020 ~ BLOG POST
SUMMER SOLSTICE
by John Yeo
Today is Midsummer day and the celebration of the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire. I’ve never had the opportunity to enjoy the pleasure of experiencing this amazing sight in reality. To my delight, English Heritage announced they would be setting up a live stream to enable people to view and virtually celebrate the Solstice at Stonehenge. We tuned in to YouTube and set the live video stream going. At first it seemed to be something of an anticlimax. The sky above the iconic stones was quite cloudy at 21:10; sunset was predicted to be a 21:27. There was no commentary but the camera occasionally panned around the standing stones. At one angle the setting solstice sun was quite bright and obviously the view from the other side was almost black, full of interesting evening shadows. I remarked to Margaret that it would probably feel quite uncomfortable if you were there alone.
The wealth of mysterious legends and fables based around Stonehenge are enough to fill the culpable mind full of awesome dread of Stonehenge. The Druids are a religious sect who once used Stonehenge as a temple, in fact I believe the modern day equivalent Druids still use the ancient stones. The famous sacrificial stone is a highlight of every visit, although there is no direct evidence it was ever used for sacrifice.
The sunset was incredibly dark and obscured by a cloudy sky.
The sunrise in the morning will be at 04:52 and should certainly be more of a spectacle.
Sunday 21st June 2020
I woke up in time to view the live stream video of the sunrise over Stonehenge. The sun rose at 04:52 but unfortunately the sky was covered with thick clouds and the spectacular sunrise didn’t occur.
I snapped a screenshot from the live video. Sadly a gray dreary start.
HAPPY SOLSTICE!
Another screenshot of the unspectacular Summer Solstice sunrise.I downloaded this image from the internet to remind me of things that might have been.
Image from the net credited to the Financial Times.
FRIDAY 19th JUNE 2020 ~ BLOG POST
A SMALL ISLAND
by John Yeo
We watched a performance of ‘A Small Island,’ screened by the National Theatre. This is a play based on a novel by Andrea Levy, who sadly passed away from Cancer before she was able to see it.
This play is based on the Windrush scandal. A reflection of the time when many people from Jamaica in the West Indies arrived in England as citizens. Many of these people had earned their citizenship by fighting for their colonial Mother country of England during the Second World War. Jamaica was a colony of the British Empire and this gave these people the right to take up citizenship in Britain.
The play focussed on a few unfortunate people who had arrived in England from their homes in Jamaica to live and work.
The play started in the West Indies by highlighting the shortage of employment and the frequent hurricanes and tropical storms that afflict Jamaica. England became something of a paradise, where jobs and houses were freely available and the expectations of these people’s dreams were clearly evident.
Some had dreams of taking up professional careers or joining the forces when they reached England.
The play focused partly on one couple. The man Gilbert, joined the Air Force and had plans to study to become a lawyer. The scene when he was interviewed for his career was illuminating as he was promised a high position. This never materialised as he was immediately placed in a menial position as a driver. The first example of the huge letdown most of these people would experience.
A young light skinned, half caste lady, named Hortense, wanted to go to England but single young women were discouraged from applying and she was at her wits end. The only way she could get accepted was to go through a marriage ceremony with her friend Gilbert who would then send for her as his wife. Hortense was a teacher and she planned to continue her teaching profession in England.
Meanwhile Gilbert had settled in England and after he had left the Air Force, he desperately tried to get a job. He had little success, due to the overt racism of the times. He was subjected to some terrible racial abuse during his employment and was attacked at his place of work.
He tried everywhere to secure some comfortable accommodation to rent but once again ingrained racism reared its ugly head with landlords refusing to let their properties to black people. He finally managed to rent a shabby one-roomed bedsit from a landlady named, Queenie, who desperately needed the income from a few rooms in her house and she was happy to accept black and coloured people.
Eventually Gilbert sent for Hortense, who arrived and was shocked to discover the living conditions in the bedsit.
The racism and the trials and tribulations this couple went through were harrowing to say the least. This story is riddled with some obnoxious scenes of the horrible challenges facing black people in England during this period.
Queenie, the landlady gives birth to a black child, the result of a liaison with a former tenant. Meanwhile her husband had unexpectedly returned from a forces posting in India and is revealed to be an extreme racist. He demands that Gilbert and Hortense get out of his house immediately.
Gilbert and Hortense find somewhere else to live and the play finishes with Queenie, the landlady, begging them to take her black child with them as she believed this would be the only way her child could ever expect to be accepted into British society.
I was vaguely aware of the so-called Windrush scandal, when thousands of black people arrived in England looking for a better life. This eye-opening play revealed the shocking depths of racism that was ingrained throughout society at that period in time. I’m sure there are residues of these cruel, unfortunate, unforgivable attitudes running through all strands of our society still. I think by screening this play the National Theatre has done a powerful service to the Black Lives Matter campaign.
FRIDAY 26th JUNE 2020
THE WINDOW TO WALANCHA
johnandmargaret1607 