Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!

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But I am still very grumpy, and even grumpier now that I seem to have killed my Loopy Letters website with a flurry of plug-in updates. Apparently I do not have the required internet speed to service a WordPress.org blog. I blame the weather – it is bogging every thing down. ‘Devon’ is such a sweet sounding name, but what it actually means is: vat of mud.

Anyhow, before I accidentally destroyed Loopy Letters, I was going to write a joyous little post about Valentine’s day, which would spread love and…er… joy. There were going to be dancing nymphs; a ray of sunshine; chocolates; flower garlands; love hearts aplenty; fluffy poodles; cute kittens; cashmere mittens; jolly bunting; a toaster; a coffee grinder; and a cuddly toy… BUT, I have been thwarted, and my mood has again been sullied, so my only option is to inflict one of my vintage poems upon you instead…

*Clears throat and tries to speak proper English like wot the Queen does*

Shall I compare thee to a changeable afternoon in June?
Thou art bad-tempered, moody, but thou oft make me laugh:
You may have wind summat rotten and sad elasticated pants,
And that afternoon that doth flashed by a bit quick:
Sometimes you get blinky in the eye and you miss it,
And oft’ it gets tiresome and overdramatic;
And every country fair has a beer tent,
By chance a brisk breeze showing nature’s bush untrimm’d:
But thy changeable afternoon in June shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that wobbly chin and come hither expression;
Nor shall Death wander off and brag about nicking your bling,
When in eternal lines deeply scratched on a tree:
So long as forests are protected, and there are opticians and designer glasses,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

And here is a very poor, deliberately off centred photograph of this stunning piece of literature made real…

aged-calligraphy-sonnet-for-valentine's-day

Damn, spilt my tea again….

And yes, this will be sent out under the banner of The Loopy Letter Project… yes, it could be winging it’s way to YOU!!!!

Some of you may recognise this gorgeous little verse from HERE. As part of my ten years of blogging celebrations I shall be revisiting some of my most lauded work and republishing for my legions of new followers.

So there you go then, have a wonderful Valentine’s Day, my lovelies!!

SXXX

P.S Should I keep all the Loopy Letter stuff here??? That site gives me such a headache… and it seems to have vanished completely… apparently I have to access some behind the scene files… excuse me whilst I go backstage.
*Exit, pursued by a bear*

Seriously Grumpy Now

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Ifell over again! This time a not so innocent young dog WAS involved in my downfall. My knees are black, blue, light ochre, mauve, and there are also unseasonal shades of orange, but this might be to do with an ink spillage.

AND I AM FED UP. I am fed up with the weather. I feel as if I’m a character living within a cartoon and every time I leave my cartoon house another character comes along and throws an enormous bucket of water over me and then the whole audience watching the cartoon fall about laughing as I stand there dripping from eyelash to well manicured toenail. FED UP I tell you.

Meanwhile, I have completed ONE Loopy Letter. I have written about it on my Loopy Letter website. But, I am fed up with myself for not getting more done. It is an awkward time of year for me though, what with being preoccupied with towels, and hair dryers, and trying to stop the mud from coming through the front door. And when I am not doing battle with what other people fondly refer to as ‘the outside’ I am feeding a wood burning stove a large chunk of forest. Do you know how much dust a wood burner makes???? It looks so cosy on Pinterest – stylish, clean, tidy. The reality is a thick coat of dust over everything, and chips of wood and sawdust trodden into rugs and carpets. Apologies, I am whingeing.

Anyhow, here is a snippet of my first Loopy Letter…..

calligraphy-cursive-script-for-letter-writing-project-2018

First Loopy Letter….

Coming Soon….

News regarding The Scarlet Blue Ten Years of Blogging Celebrations!! To be held in June 2018!! Watch the space…. but move aside swiftly if you see a grey cloud clutching a bucket of water heading towards you.

A Letter of Complaint – Loopy Letter no. 1

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Istared at the flickering cursor on the screen, and wondered how to explain my first Loopy Letter to my legion of fans. Perhaps I should remain mute and allow the letters to speak for themselves, as letters and words so often do. I doubted that further advice from me would be of assistance, and what was the big deal about having to explain everything anyway? I have always liked nonsense.

I could perhaps include a few photographs, a glimpse of my scribblings….

calligraphy-cursive-loopy-letter-1-UK

A letter of complaint….

…and perhaps I could tell my faithful readers that the letters are related to the now infamous ramblings about bottles on the Wonky Words blog. I chewed my lip as I thought about this confession. Some readers would turn away from this post in despair wishing that I would just let it go; they were perplexed enough by the posts about bottles of greed, and other deadly sins, how could they possibly cope with 100 letters in a similar vein?

I sighed. It was Tuesday afternoon and I really should have published something by now. The first Loopy Letter was complete with its own envelope; I had taken my reader over a decade back in time to 2006, to when the first bottle came into existence. It had been a turbulent time for all those around me, for my friends, relations, and especially my neighbours. I had been renting a tiny mid-terrace cottage in Mogwash, no. 2 Owl View….

casual-modern-calligraphy-used-for-a-letter-of-complaint

A letter of complaint….

Coming Next Week….

Loopy Letter no.2 – Who is Taramind Dewhurst??? Also, the possibility of copperplate in colour. Perhaps there will be gold, and maybe I will sign off with a flirtatious flourish. Or maybe the letter will be black and white and read all over. Groan.

Happy New Year!! And a Mishap.

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Apologies for my tardy, and possibly tawdry felicitations. I have been involved in a minor mishap involving Storm Eleanor, a tree, and a muddy public footpath. The dog was also there, but is a blameless innocent creature. It was my own stupid fault for trying to jump down from the trunk of a fallen tree and misjudging the distance from trunk to ground. I landed badly, twisted my ankle, and possibly caused some damage to my knee. I shall gloss over the part where I nearly passed out in a deserted country lane. I am not one to make a fuss, it’s not like I was going to lay there undiscovered for weeks on end – hell, if the worst came to the worst I could have simply pulled out my smart phone and published a blog post to alert people of my distress, failing that I could have rung the emergency services.

Anyhow, all is well now, other than a twinge in my knee, and I still feel a bit odd. As part of my recovery process I have been propped up on the sofa watching box sets. So far I have watched all seasons of Stranger Things; Feud; and The Tunnel. I have become something of a TV drama addict, so imagine how thrilled I was when Killer Women with Pie appeared on my TV guide….

New Bake Off!!!

What could this be? Could it be a new Bake Off programme featuring female serial killers showing off their soggy bottoms? Or was it about dangerous femme fatales with a weakness for pastry nibbles? Even better, was it a new psychological drama whereby a crusty British detective and his French female counterpart race against time to prevent a batch of mince pies from going stale midway between Folkestone and Calais? Sadly, it was none of these, it was Killer Women with a pasty, patronising geezer. Programme makers please note that Killer Women with Pie had so much more potential.

Happy New Year!!!! Here’s hoping that all major drama in 2018 is fictional and confined to our TV screens!

So typical…

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….of me to come up with a genius idea and then vanish off-grid. Apologies. I have been doing the festive thing, but I am back now. The festive thing included some of this…

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Happy Christmas!!

Yes, Christmas calligraphy!! But Christmas is over and now I must get on with The Loopy Letter project.
Many thanks to all who have emailed me with their addresses! I am rather chuffed by the response and pleased that the project has generated so much interest. Obviously I am going to be rather busy for the next ten years replying to everyone [my calligraphy is rather slow handed], but thank you!
So how far have I got? The first letter is typed and ready to write out in a suitable script. My aim is to have it in the post to the first recipient by the end of the week – it is over 300 words long, gulp. I shall be back next Monday with a further update. Wish me luck!

It’s that Time of Year…

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….but first let me say a HUGE, ENORMOUS THANK YOU to everyone who responded to my Loopy Letters project!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! I am looking forward to getting stuck into the letter writing in the New Year – I have now worked out that all the letters WILL form a loose narrative, and I have begun writing them on my laptop before I write them out in calligraphy. I am excited to get started properly.

Meanwhile, I have been doing some of this sort of thing….

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Festive envelopes!!

Mistress MJ has just this minute reminded me of Blue Peter and the annual Christmas Advent Crown – it’s amazing what can be achieved with four candles, two wire coat hangers, a bundle of tinsel, and a handful of golden balls. My mum would never allow me to make one as she perceived it to be a fire hazard. I still remember the excitement I felt when John Noakes lit the first candle, which meant the countdown to Christmas had truly begun. I promised myself that when I was old enough to be trusted with a lit candle then I would make myself one…. unfortunately I am still not old enough, so we will have to make do with this…

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

RIP John Noakes 1934 – 2017