20th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
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Why Aren’t You Listening to Me? – #MIU

Why aren’t you listening to me?

I spotted the little chap on the left while I was in Flores, a tiny island in the Komodo National Park area. He was calling someone who was obviously not taking much notice. He got crosser and crosser and louder and louder and I just couldn’t resist taking a photo of him. But I sympathised with him too, as it’s really frustrating when you’re saying something and you think you aren’t being heard.

There are, of course, other reasons why you might not be heard for example, when you lose your voice. There have been two occasions in my life when I’ve lost it completely. Thankfully, I didn’t have any other symptoms, so I didn’t feel ill. I don’t know if it was laryngitis, pharyngitis or some other sort of itis but I was very glad when my voice returned after a few days. On one occasion, I was on holiday, so arguably, it didn’t really matter if I had a voice or not but the second time, I was working with special needs children in a school, so my lack of voice was a nuisance.

I’ve never, however, had two voices. The protagonist in my ebook ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place, could tell you a thing or two about having two voices. In her search to be rid of the second voice, she finds herself back in the Victorian times. Find out how she dealt with the problem here by purchasing ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’ from the Muse It Up Publishing website. #MuseItUp

19th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
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Well, What Did You Think…? #MuseItUP

Thank you to those who gave ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’ lovely reviews on Amazon.co.uk and on the Muse It Up Publishing website. I really appreciate it!
Please can I ask if
a) You’ve bought the ebook
and
b) You’ve read it
and
c) You didn’t loathe it,
if you’d go to wherever you bought it from and review it.

I’d be really grateful, thanks

So far, people have said:

A marvellous read. It had me riveted from start to finish. It might be a young adult book but it would definitely appeal to all ages.

Easy to read. Good plot with a nice twist at the end. Believable characters and a nice use of historical local references.

If you enjoy a good story then buy this book & dive in! For those who know St Nicholas Church & Laindon it’s great to read about the area in 2 different time frames. This is a book aimed at older children/teens but as a fifty something woman it’s still a great read & an excellent first novel from Dawn Knox. I can’t recommend this book highly enough & every purchase raises much needed funds for a much loved, historic, grade 1 listed Church.

So, what did you think?

And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, why not visit the Muse It Up Publishing website here and purchase a copy of ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’. #MuseItUp

18th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
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The Beauty of Butterflies – #MuseItUp

Little chap enjoying the butterflies

Butterflies mating

Dead Leaf butterfly eating orange

Dead Leaf butterfly showing upper view

I’d never visited a butterfly farm before, so I wasn’t prepared for the abundance and variety of butterflies when we visited the Stratford upon Avon Butterfly Farm. I also wasn’t expecting the butterflies to be so tame!

Butterflies obligingly landed on fingers (see the happy little chap on the left, who proudly displayed his new friend), backs, heads, shoulders, in fact just about anywhere. They also carried on their lepidopteran lives as if there was no one there observing them, (see the mating butterflies also on the left).

I loved the colours and the shapes of the exotic butterflies but one creature which really took my attention was the butterfly which looked like a dead leaf. As we entered the enclosure, there were pieces of orange on a table, on which some of the butterflies were feasting. I spotted the butterfly which looked like a dead leaf on one of the orange halves and took a photo of it. I also photographed other butterflies which were enjoying the oranges and it wasn’t until I got home and looked up the dead leaf butterfly to find out more information about it, I discovered that I’d actually photographed the same butterfly from the top and the bottom.

Apparently, the dead leaf butterfly I’d photographed is the Orange Oakleaf or Dead Leaf (Kallima inachus). The third photo is the underside of the butterfly and the fourth photo shows the upperside. What an amazing creature! Beautiful when it wants to be and camouflaged when necessary!

Luckily for Daffodil, she decided to wear a gypsy-styled outfit to the wedding. She had second thoughts just before she left for the church but it was too late to change. Thankfully, although the outfit took a little explaining when Daffodil found herself in the 1800s, it would have been harder to blend in if she’d been wearing a short skirt! Find out what happened in ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’, which you can buy here on the Muse It Up Publishing website. #MuseItUp

17th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
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Feel the Fear… – #MuseItUp

He’s the stuff of my nightmares!

The question asked this week for the Muse It Up Publishing Sunday Musings was ‘As a writer, what do you fear?’

Interesting question. I thought about it for a while and here’s my reply:

As a writer, I aspire to entertain, uplift, sometimes to provoke thought but I never wish to offend. So my fear is that readers might misinterpret something I’ve written and be offended. Occasionally, whilst speaking to someone, I pause, trying to find the correct words and they jump in and finish my sentence for me with either the opposite of what I meant or something completely different, showing we are not on the same wavelength at all. I then have a chance to explain further but when I’ve written something, I don’t know how it’s been received and have no opportunity to explain my meaning.

To find out what the other authors wrote, hop along to the Sunday Musings here #MuseItUp

While you’re on the Muse It Up site, why not go to this page and check out my ebook, ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’ and buy a copy?

16th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
4 Comments

What’s Wrong with Boring? – #MuseItUp

Dunnock or Prunella modularis

Have you seen the campaign persuading us to Vote for Bob? It says the following:

A vote for Bob is a vote for nature

I may be just one small red squirrel, but I have big ambitions. I want my young – and yours – to inherit a world where they can thrive.

I’m challenging all politicians to take care of the natural places we all need and enjoy. I’m not asking you to become a tree-hugger (that’s my job).

But in the run-up to the General Election, now’s the time to get nature on our politicians’ agenda.

A vote for Bob is a vote for nature. Sign the petition today.

A friend sent me an email asking me to vote for Bob and I voted. The following day, I received the Essex Wildlife’s quarterly magazine, urging people to adopt a species to save today’s wildlife for tomorrow. There are four animals on offer in the Essex Wildlife magazine, barn owl, heath fritillary, otter and soprano pipistrelle bat and I’d probably go for the barn owl from that list. It’s very tempting to select a species based on their beauty and charm and to me, there’s something very compelling about the open eyed innocence of an owl.

With wildlife very much on my mind this week, I wondered which species I’d adopt, assuming I had free choice, and decided it would be one of the plainest birds in my garden, the dunnock or Prunella modularis.
Not the most colourful, remarkable or prettiest of birds, it’s true. Some might even say they are rather boring. But a few mornings ago, in our garden, I spotted a dunnock near the bird food tray which is in a cage to stop the large birds from eating the small birds’ food. It wasn’t doing anything, just standing there and that was what was alarming. It didn’t move for several minutes, even when I went outside. Wondering if it was ill, I thought I’d put the cage over him, so that he had a chance to recover in safety but when I picked the cage up, it caught on something and made a noise which startled the bird and he panicked. He flapped about and flipped on his back, so I quickly picked him up, turned him the right way up and stroked him to try to soothe him. He sat on the palm of my hand for a moment or two and then lay his head down and died. It was so sad. So, I’m probably biased but my species of choice would be the Prunella modularis, in tribute to my little friend.

Owl at Warwick Castle

After meeting Nelson, Daffodil would probably choose dogs but then, if I were to meet a dog like Nelson, I might change my mind about dunnocks! To find out why, click here to go to the Muse It Up Publishing website to buy the ebook ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’ #MuseItUp

15th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
0 comments

One Interesting Point – #MuseItUp

Dave swings his new bride, Kat.

We recently went to the wedding of our friends, Kat and Dave. It was a wonderful day, the sun shone, everyone was smiling and the happy pair had a joyful time – as did the guests. Since Jamie and I didn’t know anyone at the wedding, other than Kat and Dave, it was lovely that they’d thought about seating guests with similar interests together and to have an icebreaking game at the reception. This consisted of place name cards with a difference. On the back of each card was written an interesting point about another guest and the idea was that you had to talk to others to find out who it referred to. My card said ‘X used to be a private eye’ and Jamie’s said ‘X is a retired vicar’. It was interesting to discover who those people were and to find out what had been written about us! Jamie’s interesting point referred to the time on a tiny Indonesian island when our clothes had gone to the laundry and been mislaid, so we only had the clothes we stood up in. And mine said ‘X is a published author’. There was a surprising range of interesting points and it was fascinating to talk the various people about them. We discovered who the private eye was and the retired vicar, in fact, you can just see her back, in the photo to the left (with the red, pink and white dress).

And that made me think. Suppose you had to write an interesting point that represented you to a crowd of strangers? What would you put?

Daffodil would certainly have a very interesting point! Unfortunately, she would have been unable to divulge her secret! To find out why, click here to go to the Muse It Up Publishing website to buy ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’. #MuseItUp

14th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
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Shakespeare’s Line – #MuseItUp

Shakespeare’s Family Tree

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to claim you were directly descended to William Shakespeare?

But that’s unlikely to happen. Sadly, his only son, Hamnet died aged eleven, of Bubonic Plague. His eldest daughter, Susanna married Dr. John Hall and they had a daughter, Elizabeth, but despite marrying twice, she didn’t have any children. Hamnet’s twin, Judith, married Richard Quiney and had three children – Shakespeare who died aged six months, Thomas who died aged nineteen and Richard who died aged twenty-one. And with that, William’s direct line finished.

Of course, since William lived in London and his wife, Anne, lived in Stratford upon Avon, he might have had illegitimate children but presumably, they wouldn’t have had his surname. There have been whispers of illegitimate children but there doesn’t seem to be any proof, so it’s unlikely anyone will ever be able to claim to be directly related to the Bard, with confidence.

But we can all dream, can’t we?

Daffodil was in a unique position of knowing people in a family tree, who were several generations apart. To find out how, click here to go to the Muse It Up Publishing site to buy a copy of the ebook, ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’. #MuseItUp

13th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
2 Comments

Puzzling about Plumbing – #MuseItUp

Incomprehensible Tap

One day, someone will invent a tap and plughole that obey voice commands. Perhaps they already exist? If they don’t, and your life’s ambition is to create such plumbing, I’d be really grateful if you’d get a wriggle on – please.

There’s a lot of embarrassment to be derived from not knowing how a tap turns on in a public place. It often happens that while everyone else in a public toilet is merrily washing their hands, I wave my hands round like a demented thing, trying in vain to get the sensor to recognise them. And I’m fairly certain I’m not the only one to fall foul of the tap that delivers a jet of water so powerful, it splashes over the rim of the sink and drenches stomach and legs.

Recently we went away for a few days and stayed in two different hotels – one very old and one quite modern. The old one had, what I thought was a traditional bath tap and shower attachment (see left) and I confidently turned on the coloured taps, expecting to balance the temperature of the water that came out of the tap, turn the large middle knob and then enjoy a shower. But however I turned the coloured taps, the water was too hot. I turned one off and left one on. I turned the other one off and left the other one on. But it made no difference. In the end, I wondered if I stood at the far end of the bath, whether the water would cool sufficiently by the time it hit my body. It didn’t and I scalded my foot. Since by this time, the bath was beginning to fill up, I decided to give up on the idea of a shower and run a bath. If I let it cool off a bit, it would be perfect. Once there was sufficient water in the bath, I tried to turn the water off and then discovered that once turned on, the tap was reluctant to stop delivering water, even when turned off. In desperation, I wrung each tap up in what I thought must be the off position as hard as I could but to no avail. How could a tap that was off, still keep delivering water? I finally threw in the towel and put my back up plan into action – I called Jamie and he sorted it out.

In the next hotel, I was defeated by the plughole. The shower tap was a horizontal tube, with cunningly concealed moveable ends. Neither of the ends was labelled but having encountered one of these types of stealth taps before, I knew that one was for temperature control and one was for water flow although I had to experiment to find out which was which. Feeling rather smug that I’d worked out how to turn the shower on, I finished my shower, then ran some water in the sink. The plug had been left closed so I hadn’t needed to worry about that, however, when I wanted to let the water out, I groped at the back of the tap to find the lever to raise the plug – but there was nothing there. Had the lever broken off? How was I going to let the water out? I put my back up plan in action again and called Jamie. With one jab of the finger, he poked the plug itself, tilting it and allowing the water out. No lever, just a very, very simple central spindle on which the plug rotated. How stupid I felt!

Plughole closed

Ta-dah! Plughole open!

There wasn’t a great deal of plumbing in St. Nicholas Church during the Victorian times. Water was drawn from a well. The wooden annex in the church, where the school was housed, did have a toilet and the cupboard is still there. It’s under the unusual staircase and has a round ‘window’ in the door to let in light. Naughty children in the school were put in the toilet and the round window was covered, so they were left in the dark to consider their sins. Not so much a Naughty Step but more a Naughty Toilet. If you’d like to read the ebook, ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’, it doesn’t mention the toilet but there was another form of punishment that it does mention. Find out more here on the Muse It Up Publishing website. #MuseItUp

12th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
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Our Jessant-de-Lis – #MuseItUp

Stained glass window above the altar, containing the jessant-de-lis

Detail of the jessant-de-lis

One of the first things Revd. Diane Ricketts noticed when she came for her interview to be the vicar of St. Nicholas Church, Laindon with Dunton, was the strange animal head high up in the window above the altar.

It took me about five years to notice it and even then, I think someone had to point it out to me before I spotted it.

In my defence, it’s not very large but now I know it’s there, I often look at it wondering where the rest of it is and where it was originally.

In 2008, one of the teachers from James Hornsby School, Christopher Parkinson, gave a talk about stained glass but unfortunately, I was away on holiday and I missed it. However, most of his talk was reproduced in the St. Nicholas Church Parish Magazine here and I learned more about stained glass and about our quirky stained glass animal head.

Apparently, Christopher wasn’t able to find out much information about our little stained glass chap other than that he is a Jessant-de-Lis, which is a leopard’s head with a fleur-de-lis passing through it and it has been dated by the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments (RCHM) as 16th Century. Christopher had not been able to find out the significance of the Jessant-de-Lis, apart from them being in heraldic arms of noble families and he wondered if they may be to do with representing royal connections. If you know more about them, please let me know!

Interestingly, the Jessant-de-Lis can be found in other churches in Essex, such as Kelvedon, Sible Hedingham, Purleigh and Pebmarsh so our little chap in St. Nicholas Church isn’t unique but I still find him fascinating!

Our Jessant-de-Lis would have looked down from his window, on Daffodil when she first went into St. Nicholas Church for her cousin’s wedding, in the ebook ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’. He would also have watched her interacting with the pupils in Puckle’s School when she slipped back to the Victorian Times. If you’d like to know what he saw, click here to buy a copy from the Muse It Up Publishing website. #MuseItUp

11th August 2014
by Dawn Knox
0 comments

Wonders of Wisley – #MuseItUp

I’d expected to be wowed by the flowers, trees and shrubs in the Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley, Surrey. And I was – in spadefuls – but it was more than just the plants that caught my eye.

Grass sculpture

I know that grass is a plant but it’s not one to which I usually give much thought, unless our lawn is too long and needs a trim. However, I found the idea of the grass sculpture was really interesting. ‘Grass’ and ‘sculpture’ are two words that aren’t normally found associated with each other but not in Wisley! As well as abstract shapes, there was a message mown into the grass. The full beauty might have been more apparent from directly above, but even from the modest height of 5ft 2″, I could still appreciate the line and shape. It’s a very simple idea and with a bit of flair, plenty of time on your hands, good lawn mower skills and probably a sharp pair of shears, I imagine it’s fairly easy to sculpt grass – well easier than stone or wood, anyway. When I’ve had a good idea and got some time, I’ll get Jamie to get the lawn mower and shears out and give him the plan!

I’d also expected to be looking exclusively at plants, so I wasn’t prepared for the frenetic fish nor for getting up close and personal with a family of moorhens.

The feeding in the lake was so frenzied, fish were leaping over the top of others, slithering on to the shore and then flapping madly until they made it back into the water. The writhing mass of bodies and gaping snapping mouths was one of those things that was quite compelling – it looked rather hideous but for some reason, I just had to keep watching! Nearby, mum and dad moorhen ran back and forth, so focused on feeding their chicks, they were oblivious to the crowd of people watching or to me, crouching down really close, snapping them with my camera. The chicks were fearless too and waited patiently for mum or dad to find tidbits to place in their beaks. Perhaps they reasoned that the audience who’d come to Wisley specifically to watch plants, probably consisted of peaceful and trustworthy people!

Ironically, when we went into the bird hide, we didn’t see one single bird – not a sparrow nor a robin. Not that you’d have guessed it from the bird sightings list inside the hide, where people had recorded three pigeons, a golden eagle, a dodo, a vulture and a pterodactyl.

Someone in ‘Daffodil and the Thin Place’ had a mini ‘feeding frenzy’ of his own. Find out what happened to him after Mr. Hornsby saw him eat a small piece of bread before grace was said by getting your copy of the ebook here on the Muse It Up Publishing website. #MuseItUp

Feeding frenzy in the lake.

Mother Moorhen feeds a chick

Blackboard with bird sightings recorded for 15th July 2014

Knox Box of Miscellany

Dawn Knox – A rearranger of words into something hopefully meaningful…