Author: Joey Jones

Happily owned and trained by the rescue dog I adore. Enjoying and grateful for a peaceful life at long last. In England. She/her.

Let it rain

Joey Jones5 Comments

What is your favorite type of weather?

Oh dear, WP. You’re asking a Brit about the weather. Don’t you know we have a bit of a reputation for chatting about it with anyone who will stand still long enough?

To be fair, we are islanders, so historically, it was a subject everyone wanted and needed to know about. Farmers and fishermen were especially aware of how quickly the climate can change and their livelihoods depended up on it.

By now, we in the UK have had enough. So when it was the hottest March day recently, since records began, it all kicked off, and it was wonderful. Lawns were mowed. Outside furniture painted. Curtains washed. Way to go!

The atmosphere was bordering on electric, palpable. The relief was immense. It was exciting. It was fun to see folk fired up and living in the moment.

Of course, there will always be miserable gits amongst us ‘ Hello, nice day,’ you’d say in passing. ‘ Won’t last’ they’d reply. Best give these kind a wide berth, but sometimes I want and occasionally do say ‘ look, if the worst thing that happens to me is I get soaked walking the dog, I’ve got off lightly’. Food for thought, I hope. Although it probably lands on deaf ears.

I do identify as a pluviophile. I love the rain. Obvs, it’s not very nice when it is accompanied by really cold conditions and strong winds and you have to be out there. But the rest of the time, it’s great. The icing on the cake is the puddles are where birds can drink and bathe in.

Easy does it

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Who was your most influential teacher? Why?

Mr Grant my English teacher was given the honour, this time last year. He was cool, no doubt about it.

But today thinking about those days I can’t honestly remember a thing he taught me. I certainly wasn’t singled out.

What does come to mind are pictures. I can see him striding into class, all shoulder-length hair and long legs. A coudory jacket moleskin trousers, desert boots.

I also remember his presence very well.This steadiness I have been writing about recently. He was from a lifetime ago,but today I can finally see it was what he brought to the room. And this is something I’m appreciating in fellow humans right now. That calmness.

There is a degree of unhinged I like too. Not in a chronic way. Just a flash of it, now and then is fun. Creatives do that well. It’s the light getting in

So, thank you, Mr Grant, I’m sure you taught me plenty in the short time you were at my school. I was gutted when you left.

What I could do less of, is

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What do you wish you could do more every day?

Who needs a device to doom scroll? Not me, I can do it all in my head.

As Patch ages, he needs to go out more. So there are times I find myself awake, maybe 20 minutes or so, before sun up lying in bed in the dark, too alert to go back to sleep.

And so it begins..I think about animals caught up in war zones, I think about how our amazing planet is getting hammered inside out. The insane few fighting between themselves, but involving millions. I see the oceans, the waterways, and airways constantly polluted.

Our country is currently at the in-between stage of a cash and cashless society. A beggar asks if you have any spare change, and you realise you’ve not held any coins, or notes for that matter, for sometime, let alone it being spare.  The situation must be causing numerous, widespread issues.

I see the kids with their faces, their heads, completely inside their phones. I don’t judge them, it’s what they do, how they live. But I do fear they are not connecting with anything else.

There are more online newspaper articles now by journalists as they watch their craft being replaced by A1.

The students with massive debts are hardly able to pay off the Interest on their loans. How are they supposed to get on the property ladder starting their young lives like this?

There are endless thoughts like these, keeping me company, first thing. And then a robin awakes and let’s me know of his existence with a beautiful song.

As it becomes light, he is joined by the chorus. And I thank the gods for that. Reminding me there is a beautiful world out there and not to forget that.

There’s nothing new about tatts

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What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

This time last year, I wrote about the world’s oldest known evidence of tattooing. Otzi the Iceman. A 3500 year old mummy, but ‘experts’ now reckon getting inked-up could go back 50,000 years.

Me getting a tattoo? Nah, that ship has sailed. But if I had to, they would be tiny symbols to honour my animals past and present, on the inside of my arms.

I see you

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What is one word that describes you?

Just the one word, today, eh WP? Okay Observant

And now, with an empty page below, I will fill it with the words of another…..

The Enemy of  All

The frog half fearful jumps across the path,
And little mouse that leaves its hole at eve
Nimbles with timid dread beneath the swath;
My rustling steps awhile their joys deceive,
Till past, and then the cricket sings more strong,
And grasshoppers in merry moods still wear
The short night weary with their fretting song.
Up from behind the molehill jumps the hare,
Cheat of his chosen bed, and from the bank
The yellowhammer flutters in short fears
From off its nest hid in the grasses rank,
And drops again when no more noise it hears.
Thus nature’s human link and endless thrall,
Proud man, still seems the enemy of all.

By John Clare ( 1793 ~ 1864)

Words making a difference

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What was the best compliment you’ve received?

Since joining the WP community, I’ve received some lovely comments. Compliments that have warmed my heart and encouraged me to keep doing what I’m doing. I can’t thank you guys enough for your time and kind words.

Yellow roses say thank you

My old boy

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The lighter nights are wonderful for lots of us. But Patch is struggling. Kids out in  groups, playing ball, on bikes or scooters

He can’t handle it. He doesn’t know what to do or where to go. He flees noise.

I’ve just brought him early from a walk. He’s out there now, in his own safe space.

Trains n boats n planes

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You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

That would be in my car, WP.

Having said that, the price of petrol at the pumps is increasing by the day. So what to do?

But it’s the total freedom aspect that compels me to say my own wheels. Especially with old boy Patch to think about.

Cyclists, especially the skinny ones wearing lycre, are one of ( and there are a few) his bugbears. A nice old chap happily pedalling along the country lane? No problem. Lycre-incoming is a bit of an issue.

As are buses. He has actually got close enough to a stationary single decker once that found him gnawing at the front bumper ( much like he does with the hoover). Oops.

By rail wouldn’t work, either. He would hate it. I have had more than my fair share of train journeys to be fair, and I enjoyed most of them. But that was then.

We wouldn’t fly, obvs. Although I can clearly remember like it was yesterday, I was on a plane coming back from India with two street dogs ( Tony & Joe) in the hold. 21 years ago, wow.

Where did that time go?

Every day is a school day:Lessons in confidence from Nick Ferrari

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Who is the most confident person you know?

There’s a phrase I’ve borrowed over the years: Every day is a school day. 
Nick Ferrari says it occasionally on his LBC breakfast show after learning something new. It’s a small phrase, but it tells you everything about the man.

When WordPress asked today’s prompt, ‘ Who is the most confident person you know?’ My mind went straight to him.

Nick Ferrari has spent a lifetime in journalism: newspapers, television, political debate, and now radio. He interviews politicians with the tenacity of a dog with a bone, circling back to a question until it is answered or calmly stating that it hasn’t been. He doesn’t let power slip away from accountability. He doesn’t soften the truth. And he never pretends not to notice when someone is trying to dodge it.

That, to me, is confidence.

But it is the other side of him that completes the picture. 
When he stumbles over a word, as we all do, he corrects himself, apologises, repeats it properly, and moves on. No fuss. No ego. Just a man doing his job with clarity and self-respect.

He is self-effacing without shrinking himself.
Direct without being cruel.
Firm without becoming brittle.

I often think what an extraordinary mentor he must have been, or could have been, for young journalists. Someone who would teach them that confidence is not swagger. It is purpose. It is the ability to hold your ground without losing your humanity.

What stays with me is not only his tenacity but the steadiness beneath it. He listens with intent, challenges with purpose, and refuses to be diverted from the truth. There are no theatrics in it, no ego, just a disciplined clarity that invites others to think more clearly, too.

Confidence, in his case, feels less like a performance and more like a practice. And I find that inspiring.

This

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What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

There are many ways people can find to help them cope with negative feelings. Today I choose this….

My head’s in the sand

Dreaming of a land

Of elves and fairies

Fruits and berries

Cities made of trees

Gates without keys

Singing bees, dancing birds

Plenty of unknown words

A realm where jesters rule

And a simple stone is a jewel


By Kostas Lagos ( Greek, contemporary poet)