Holmes Minor

This month we find ourselves in Coventry, in order to attend an exhibition dedicated to the bicycle and see just how much it has changed during its relatively short history. Nowadays of course, we mainly see people using the safety bicycle but the “ordinary” (or yes, “penny-farthing” as some people call it. Thank you, Mrs. Frankles) has not yet entirely disappeared. I believe a gentleman going by the name of “Mr. Phoebus” will be giving us a brief demonstration.

Ah! Here he is now!


And as we continue around the rest of the exhibits, here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s work, “The Adventure of the Priory School” to give us further food for thought:

“Well, well,” said he, at last. “It is, of course, possible that a cunning man might change the tyre of his bicycle in order to leave unfamiliar tracks. A criminal who was capable of such a thought is a man whom I should be proud to do business with.”


Here too is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith


So hopefully all this has started… “the wheels turning”! Ha-ha! Hahaha-ha! Ha! Oh, I’m such a wit. (Mrs. Frankles, don’t think I can’t see you rolling your eyes.)

So, after a little hiatus, thank you all for joining me again. This month we are attending a talk on making and applying our own cosmetics! The lecturer will be the knowledgeable and talented Miss Erin Parsons, and I am greatly looking forward to hearing what she has to say. I of course do not use cosmetics myself, being a respectable older lady—

No, my gentle blush is entirely natural, Mrs. Frankles.

Yes, it is.

Well, some people have naturally streaky cheeks. Can we move on?

Ahem. Even though I don’t use cosmetics myself (Mrs. Frankles! Thank you) Mr. Holmes has apparently gained a great deal of useful advice from Miss Parsons and thoroughly recommended her as an informative evening-out for our little group.

So let us all take our seats in the hall! In preparation for writing our poems later, here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s work, “The Dying Detective” to ponder:

“But your appearance, Holmes—your ghastly face?” “Three days of absolute fast does not improve one's beauty, Watson. For the rest, there is nothing which a sponge may not cure. With vaseline upon one's forehead, belladonna in one's eyes, rouge over the cheek-bones, and crusts of beeswax round one's lips, a very satisfying effect can be produced.”



And here is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith


And here is Miss Parsons to the stage!

Using REAL Victorian Makeup

The prompt for this month is:


Border


A border between countries or counties. A border around a card or tablecloth. A border in a garden filled with flowers. Or maybe Holmes and Watson are taking a Border Collie for a walk.


As always, you needn’t use the prompt if you don’t wish to. Once you’re a member, you can post what and when you want—as long as you keep to the 500 words or less wordcount and the ACD Holmes ‘verse. AUs, crossovers and fusions are all permitted, as long as the characters remain essentially recognisable as the original ACD versions.

Please see the profile for the full posting guidelines!

Excuse me? Excuse me, everyone! I think that was the bell for the end of the interval, so if you all could start making your way back to your seats… ( Read more... )

It was a somewhat… involved… journey back from Switzerland, so I thought this month we would have a simple evening at Baker Street of tea, various fancies and an improving lecture.

To this end, I have invited Miss Nicole Rudolph to come and share her findings on the mysterious world of men’s pockets! Miss Rudolph is one of our American cousins, but I believe there is plenty of overlap between the gentlemen of our isles and gentlemen from across the Pond. (Though Mr. Holmes may be a one-off…)

Miss Rudolph, if you’d like to take it away, dear…?


When Men Had Too Many Pockets


( Read more... )

The prompt for this month is:


Gap


A gap in someone’s memory. A gap in the curtains. A gap of some years. An intriguing gap in a scrapbook…


As always, you needn’t use the prompt if you don’t wish to. Once you’re a member, you can post what and when you want—as long as you keep to the 500 words or less wordcount and the ACD Holmes ‘verse. AUs, crossovers and fusions are all permitted, as long as the characters remain essentially recognisable as the original ACD versions.

Please see the profile for the full posting guidelines!

(Once again, sorry for the hiatus without sending any word. Picking up bad habits from S. Holmes, I’m afraid.)


The prompt for this month is:


Crest


A tuft of feathers or fur. The top of a coat of arms. The top of a hill or mountain. Perhaps Holmes is on the crest of a wave because of a successful case. And then he is greeted by Mrs. Hudson and a bill on his return to Baker Street and becomes very much crestfallen.


As always, you needn’t use the prompt if you don’t wish to. Once you’re a member, you can post what and when you want—as long as you keep to the 500 words or less wordcount and the ACD Holmes ‘verse. AUs, crossovers and fusions are all permitted, as long as the characters remain essentially recognisable as the original ACD versions.

Please see the profile for the full posting guidelines!

Welcome, everyone!

As you know, I have recently become interested in filling in the gaps in my family tree and I managed to discover that my great-great-great-grandfather came from a little village on the Isle of Mull. Thank you all for agreeing to accompany me on the lengthy journey to his birthplace in the near future and for attending this planning meeting today!

Now, travelling from Baker Street to the Inner Hebrides is no mean feat, and plotting the railway connections using our familiar Bradshaw’s Guides is a task for the keenest brain! But unfortunately Mrs. Small-Hobbit was otherwise engaged when I needed to assign the job, so I asked Mrs. Frankles if she wouldn’t mind taking a crack at it.

How are you doing, dear? You’ve got us out of the Home Counties? Oh, almost. Well, I’m sure you’ll get there, dear. How long have you been at it now?

Five and a half days. I see. Well, we’ll come back to that.

Mrs. Small-Hobbit, there is a… delicate matter that I need to discuss with you. I’m not a superstitious woman, but I can’t help but notice you have a certain effect on the trains when we travel by rail and so I was wondering—

Heavens, of course I’m not suggesting you stay behind! I was simply going to suggest that you give us a fighting chance and consent to be driven up to Scotland in a private automobile. At my expense naturally.

What’s that, Mrs. Frankles? Why, yes… I suppose it might make more sense for us to pool our resources and book a larger vehicle and drive up together. We could stop along the way and make a proper journey out of it. Excellent idea! Let’s do that!

Mrs. Frankles! I really don’t feel there’s any need to hurl my Bradshaw into the waste paper bin though.


Perhaps we should move on to composing some poetry to soothe all our nerves. To assist with inspiration, here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s work, “The Valley of Fear”. (Mrs. Frankles, you are not to throw my copy of the Valley of Fear in the waste paper bin either! I know. Dear God, we all know. But Doctor Watson very kindly signed it for me and I am somewhat attached to it.)

“Our search is narrowed down to standardized books which anyone may be supposed to possess.”

“Bradshaw!”

“There are difficulties, Watson. The vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous and terse, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to the sending of general messages. We will eliminate Bradshaw.”



And here as always is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith

And so, let’s get on track and let off some steam! (In written form, thank you, Mrs. Frankles.)

Welcome, everyone!

This month I thought we could concentrate on elocution! Learning how to become more persuasive and eloquent speakers when reciting our, and others’ poetry. And perhaps we could touch upon received pronunciation—pronunciation suitable for when we all occasionally enter into more elevated society. We wouldn’t want anyone to… stand out, would we?

What’s that, Mrs. Frankles? No, dear, everybody is not staring at you. Well, I’m sure it was a coincidence. Your Northern accent is charming. Absolutely charming.

Yes.

Moving on! (Quickly.)

So, I thought perhaps we could write the poems first and then work on performing them.



Here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s work, “The Sign of the Four” to assist with inspiration:

Holmes could talk exceedingly well when he chose, and that night he did choose. He appeared to be in a state of nervous exaltation. I have never known him so brilliant. He spoke on a quick succession of subjects,—on miracle-plays, on medieval pottery, on Stradivarius violins, on the Buddhism of Ceylon, and on the war-ships of the future,—handling each as though he had made a special study of it.



And here as always is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith

And so, everyone take a deep breath, and express yourself!

Welcome, everyone, once again!

For this month, I thought we would examine the world of ladies’ cricket! Miss Stirling here is temporarily lodging with Mrs. Turner for a few days, and has graciously agreed to come along to give us a little talk on her very own ladies’ cricket club, based in her home village of Shepstock.

If you’d like to begin, Miss Stirling…?



And you’re done, dear?

Yes, thank you, it was most entertaining… Full of colour!

Um, I did just wonder… Might you… have embellished details at all? It’s just… Well.

(Mrs. Frankles! We do not call guests unreliable narrators!) Though to be fair…

You’re not related to our Dr. Watson at all, are you, Miss Sterling? No, it was a long shot. Thank you again, dear! You’ve given us a lot to digest.


Here as well is a short pamphlet on ladies’ cricket, giving a broader look at the sport. (And perhaps keeping a little closer to the factual side of things…)


And thirdly, here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s work, “The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter”:

”Yesterday we all came up and we settled at Bentley's private hotel. At ten o'clock I went round and saw that all the fellows had gone to roost, for I believe in strict training and plenty of sleep to keep a team fit.”

Hopefully this will all act as inspiration for your poetic endeavours.



Here as always is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith

And so let us have a quick visit to the pavilion, er, kitchen, for a tea break, and then on with the poetry!