Jane Alexander's Blog

It's Sunday and I should be gardening.  I should be tidying, chopping, weeding, pulling things up and throwing things away.  But I'm not.  Why?  Because I rather love the wild.
Yes, the garden is becoming a bit of a jungle but I like that - I like the profusion, the abandonment, the sheer greenness of it all.
"A green thought in a green shade" indeed...have you read The Garden by Andrew Marvell?  Do, do.
Then it puts me in mind of Hildegard of Bingen and her veriditas,...

So, James and I were walking Dan out over the fields by the river, me half-trotting to keep up with his loping stride (when did he get so tall?).
On the narrow track on the way back, we came across a middle-aged couple with a spaniel.
'Is he a male?' called the woman, gesturing at Dan.
'Er...yup,' I replied, slightly discombobulated by the question which contained its own answer.
'Is he intact?'
'Er...' I paused, thought about it, thought about what a strange phrase that is.  'Er, no.'
Poor D...

There's been this 'thing' going round on Facebook, asking people to post a poem a day for four days. My old pal Cheryl tagged me along with the three other members of our short-lived Yellow Dog Sex Toy Clan (don't ask, it's better not to know) and it made me think.  I'm not good with poetry, not really.  But I pondered and The Seafarer came to mind.  When I was studying English, I really loved Anglo-Saxon/Old English/call it what you will. I think I've told you this before.

Ther...

So, as I was saying a while back, I used to love making up my own skincare creams and unguents.  But nowadays I just don't seem to have the time, energy or, let's be very honest, the inclination to faff around sourcing stuff, mixing and murgling. Then Juls of The Body Retreat said (on Twitter, as you do), 'I reckon you'd really like MIMI kits.'  And one thing led to another (the way it does on Twitter) and Jess, the founder of MIMI, offered to pop a kit in the post for me to tr...

It's getting harder and harder to breathe.  It really is.  I have a huge pain in my chest, lodged in my heart, and it won't shift. Today it's beautiful on Exmoor, the sun is shining and the garden is looking soft, shy around the edges as if someone started to rub them out. Green blends into green, so many shades of green - there aren't enough words for green. Nowhere near enough.  Not in English.  Is there a more verdant language I could learn?  I feel the urge to spe...

from loveyourchaos.tumblr.comWhy do we do stuff that we know makes us feel crap? Why do we hurt our bodies and harm our hearts and minds?

I know what makes me feel good. It's so very simple.  My body feels great when I eat light, easily digestible food (and not too much of it).  When I cut out alcohol and coffee and too much tea.  When I exercise, when I do yoga, when I stretch and sleep well.  My mind smiles when I meditate, my heart smiles when I laugh.
When I'm on retrea...

'Do you and James fancy coming to the cinema on Thursday, with me and Gabs?' said Rachel.  'My treat.'
Cinema? An evening out? Entertainment?  Free entertainment?
'Sure!' I said.
'Exactly!' she said.
'What?'
'Shaw.'
Turns out she had tickets for Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw.
'But that's a play thing,' I said.
'It's a National Theatre Live thing,' she said.
Turns out that the National Theatre has started filming certain productions in front of live audiences in the the...

So I had written this long, self-obsessed, whining, pathetic post but then, before I could post it, I had to go to pick up James from school and, when I came back, I stumbled across this picture of...A Variety of Unprocessed Foods Cut into Uncannily Precise 2.5cm Cubes by Lernert & Sander
Mesmerised, I was.  Quite mesmerised.  You have to look closer... In fact, you really should go and see the whole lot - they've been printed on a website called This is Colossal - here's the link...

I am neck-deep in revision, up to my eyeballs in osmosis and diffusion, global warming and biodiversity, Animal Farm and Of Mice and Men.  Yes, James is in the throws of GCSE exams and I'm trying to do my bit to help.  It takes me right back to my own exams, O levels of course, and how my own mother used to do sterling work.  Truly, she was tireless and patience personified.  It's entirely down to her that I can still memorise vast chunks of Latin, a plethora of dates arou...

I've been watching social media today with sadness, as people tear one another apart over conflicting political beliefs.  So I came off Twitter and Facebook and was wandering through some old files and came across a piece I wrote for the Daily Mail many many years ago.  As I read it through, it struck me that it could be worth putting out again.
It's about a book, published back in 1998 called The Quaker Book of Wisdom
 
Here's what I said back then...
Life’s tough.  We battl...