Author Archives: Jimjan's journal

If someone had asked me ten years ago, my favourite place, I’d have said by the water.  I love water.  Any kind of water.  Whether it be the sea rushing to shore, a river flowing, a pond glinting, a burn, a puddle, a shower, a hot tub, I don’t care, just allow me to beContinue reading “Water”

‘You’re not a rabid Tory, are you?’ he asked out the blue.  Why would he think that?  Why would he care?  Would he take back his welcome if I replied in the affirmative.  Of course, he couldn’t see my face.  We were on a phone call.  I was always told, from the age of eighteen,Continue reading “left unsaid”

It’s Sunday afternoon.  The month and year January 2023.  The vicinity, my daughter’s married home town, Bonnyrigg.  I was minding my grandsons.  Life does indeed go in circles.  My paternal granddad lived in Bonnyrigg, but I’ve yet to find out if that was his birth town, and one day, I will.  The large cast ironContinue reading “Branching Out”

I’ve lived in Penicuik most of my life, but it is only now, after sixty-six years, that I find the threads of the past unravelling.  The local mill women I’ve researched in the library thrive in my imagination, now not so faceless.  The vision is strong.  I see them cut and de-button rags.  History reelsContinue reading “Keep Granny Alive”

Have I moulded into mum say dad I thought I was you musical and fun Mums are the one’s who say no you can’t follow my leader do as I do Women rationalise it or not irrationalise hormones strung too tight These melt Or derange themselves go aft sailboat to somewhere if only I sayContinue reading “transform the tanka”

Whenever I play the organ at a remembrance service, I think of a story told to me by a vicar.  I believed his story.  There was no reason to disbelieve him.  Each service, from my position in the organ well, I leant with passion towards Rector Beaumont’s every word.  The pulpit shone as light beamedContinue reading “The Crypt”

As I look at the TV screen, distanced but part of the demise of an era, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, I see a country swollen with people.  Queues, traffic jams, tears, sorrow, confusion in the very young.  I’m saddened by the Queen’s death, which with it brings poignant memories of my mother, aContinue reading “The Red Pony”

Times are hard.  We’ve had a pandemic, money is tight, our children have had disruption in class.  It might seem like things haven’t evolved very much, after all we heard about the Spanish Flu in 1918 when more than fifty million people died worldwide.  Soldiers returning from war carried the virus onto trains, into citiesContinue reading “Child Labour”

Two years.  It’s been two years.  A lonely two years, relationships put to the test, tempers tempered, on some heads, not all.  Yes, the world has twirled madly on its axis for two years, a whirling dervish of disease and other things.  What other things?  Video group singing, guitar playing, saxophone, trumpets, drums.  A veritableContinue reading “Unfurl the Curl”