Author: intrepidjane

Adventure 235 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [8]

/ intrepidjane

hedera helixSummer is coming to an end : my son has just returned from spending his school holidays with his father, and the leaves are turning on the trees.

Today I was drawn to ivy . Evergreen, it feels like something to “cling on to” as Autumn no longer lurks at the edges of the day : it’s making a confident advance. The Turning Time is striding in, blowing cool, damp breezes on the last of Summer’s embers.

In Irish folklore, ivy is associated with fidelity and immortality. Druids used to wear “crowns” of ivy to encourage clarity of thinking. The latin name for ivy is hedera helix ~ “hedera” is derived from the Celtic word for cord, and “helix” means twining. I tried to capture all these elements in today’s haiku.

You can read today’s haiku here, and I read it out loud in today’s video-blog.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 234 ~ Write To Joan Aiken’s Daughter

/ intrepidjane

I’ve been trying to remember Joan Aiken’s name for about 3 months, and last night I sat up in bed and exclaimed it out loud!

The reason I was so keen to remember it is that Joan wrote a book that I loved in the 1970s : it was a book of Eastern European folk-tales. The book was beautifully written and wonderfully illustrated, and I was trying to explain to an artist friend of mine the kind of feel I wanted to create in a book I was thinking about writing. I wanted to use Joan’s book as an example, but the author, illustrator and title eluded me (until last night!)

This morning, I Googled Joan and found that, although she died in 2004, her daughter, Lizza, has created a website in her memory, celebrating her life, her work and her illustrators. I was able to find the book from my childhood (and the illustrator) with ease.

The book was called “The Kingdom Under The Sea And Other Stories” and the illustrator was none other than Jan Pieńkowski . I’d call it a magic book : I don’t know where it came from, I’m not exactly sure when I got it, and I don’t know where it went. All I know is, it left a footprint that has remained after all these years.

For today’s adventure, I emailed Lizza to let her know how I had loved her mother’s book and how that book has remained with me for such a long time.

(Oh – and when I fell back to sleep , I had a dream-and-a-half! … You can hear all about it in today’s video-blog 🙂 ).

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 233 ~ Try A New WordPress Widget

/ intrepidjane

I was so excited about my “technological victory” yesterday, that I just couldn’t help myself today 😛 . As I was pretty certain that it would be impossible to put any kind of sign up box in the right-hand side bar of my website, I thought I’d g adventuring and see what I could manage.

And… if you tilt your eyes up to the right, you’ll see that I managed it! I really enjoyed myself working out how to do it (I feel rather pleased with myself, I must admit 🙂 ).

If you’re a WordPress.com blog/website owner, and this is something you’l like to do for your own site, then this is how you do it :

1. Go to Dashboard

2. Go to Appearance

3. Go to Widgets

4. Select and drag “Image” to the side bar

5. Make sure you already have the image you want to put into the side-bar loaded into your Media Gallery.

6. Paste the URL of your image into the appropriate box (you can get the URL if you go to your Gallery, and then click on the image ; scroll down the right hand side, and you’ll see the URL).

7. Paste the target URL (where you want people to end up when they’ve clicked on the image) into the appropriate box.

That’s all there is to it!

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 231 ~ Embrace Failure

/ intrepidjane

J K Rowling quoteToday I received my first reply from a literary agent about my children’s story, The Faerie Thorn. It was a standard email – and it wasn’t a “yes”.

In today’s video, I explore my reaction to the email : it’s probably worth watching if  you think fear of failure may be holding you back (or if you’re worried about what others may think if you don’t succeed).

The “take-away” from today’s adventure is : “failure” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be 😛 (and if you’ve got things that you really want to do, go right ahead and do them!) .. oh … and whatever you do…  hold your nerve!

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 230 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [7]

/ intrepidjane

Evening ash treeFor today’s poetic adventure, I experiment with extending my range : I’ve managed to create a riddle-haiku!

The haiku was inspired by one of the old ash trees on our farm. In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil (The Tree Of Life) is an ash tree and is closely associated with one particular god in the Norse pantheon.

I wonder if you can work out which of  the Aesir I am describing? (All the clues are “hidden” in the haiku 😛 ).

You can read today’s haiku here, and I read it out loud in today’s video.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 229 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [6]

/ intrepidjane

Rushes blown over in the windHaving camped out last night, I feel very close to the essence of the wind (it roared at me for most of the night 😛 ). To me, it sounded like a winter warning, a song of things to come ~ perfect material for today’s poetic adventure.

You can read my haiku about wind here. I read it out loud (in very windy conditions!) on todays video too.

 

 

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 228 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [5]

/ intrepidjane

Thistle For today’s poetic adventure, I write a haiku about the thistle. Over the past couple of months, I’ve grown to love this intrepid weed : from humble beginnings, it carves out great empires for itself.

As the wheel of Nature turns, the bright purple flower-heads transform themselves into ethereal whisper-clouds of seed : I’ll miss the warrior army as it goes off to conquer new lands.

You can read today’s haiku here. On today’s video, I read the haiku out loud and show you the warrior army as it prepares to move camp!

 

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

 

Adventure 227 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [4]

/ intrepidjane

Dog Rose Berries AugustOut on my walk with my dog this morning, the jiggling dog rose bushes caught my eye. They’re not in flower yet here in Northern Ireland, but their berries look fit to burst!

When I stood still and observed the berries, I noticed that I had quite an unexpected (and powerful) emotional reaction to them. I hope that today’s haiku captures the energy of the emotion :).

In today’s video, I talk about how I experience the dog rose (sometimes known as the briar rose), and I read my poem out loud. You can read today’s haiku here.

 

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 226 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [3]

/ intrepidjane

August WheatWell, I’m beginning to realise why I like  haiku so much : writing a haiku can instantly pull you into the present moment (that’s really handy if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t find it easy to “leave work at work”); and writing a haiku is a quick and simple way of keeping the creative channel open (that’s really handy if you haven’t got the time you’d like for your novel or non-fiction work, but you’d still like to “keep your hand in”).

You can read today’s haiku here (it’s called “Wheat”), and I read it out loud in today’s video. If you’ve been following my blog for a while now, you might recognise one of my favourite themes emerging 😛 .

 

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT