Holmes Minor

(*sidles sheepishly in*)


The prompt for this month is:



Make Up



This could be a reference to the “subtle” arts that Holmes uses in his disguises. Or perhaps it could refer to characters attempting a reconciliation. For example, perhaps out of curiosity the now adult younger son of Robert Ferguson searches out his older half-brother. Or maybe “make up” could be a reference to inventing a story, or making up a package or a bed…?



And the activity is:


Make Up Mrs. Hudson!


Here is a list of possible cosmetics, taken from Victorian Make-up Recipes on katetattersall.com:


Lip salve - for reddening the lips

Juice of elderberries - for blackening the eyebrows and eyelashes

Burnt cork - for blackening the eyebrows and eyelashes

Rouge - for the complexion

Pearl powder - for the complexion

Cold cream - to soften the skin

Emulsions of Almonds - to prevent and remove roughness of the skin, sunburn and chapped skin

Bloom of Roses - to give an artificial bloom to the complexion

Impalpable powder - to conceal discolourations




Make your selections to “make up Mrs. Hudson”, and state what the occasion is!



As always, you needn’t take part in this activity or 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!

Hello everyone! Mrs. Small-Hobbit and Mrs. Frankles have requested that I host a combined activity and poetry page for December, and indeed I am delighted to do so.

Mrs. Frankles also suggested that I borrow a tradition from our neighbours in the Netherlands. She was speaking of “Pakjesavond” which is celebrated on the 5th of December, the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas—or Sinterklaas, as the Dutch call him.

It goes like this: everyone is allotted one person to buy a gift for, and they must also write a poem about that person—the poem can send up the person rather! The gift must be concealed in a cardboard model, which again must relate to the recipient in some way—something to do with their job or their interests. The Dutch call the models “surprises”, which is from the French and pronounced “sur-prees-suhs”.


You can see some excellent examples of these surprises in this article.


Now, naturally we do not expect you to actually buy a gift and make a surprise. But we would like you to pick someone out of everyone Dr. Watson has written about—that includes Mr. Holmes and the doctor himself, and indeed me—and think of:


a suitable gift

a suitable surprise

and write a poem about them


Though you don’t have to do all three options yourself! You can choose to do just one or two of them. Mrs. Small-Hobbit has suggested that you label your comment with the name of your “recipient”, then if you haven’t filled in all the options, other participants can reply to your comment with their thoughts. Or even suggest alternatives!

Feel free to be as wildly creative about these gifts as you like. And the poem can be a simple piece of doggerel but if you are feeling more ambitious, here is the usual 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



Ik wens jullie allemaal een vrolijke Pakjesmaand!

For the activity this month we are looking at the ghosts that haunt 221 Baker Street. Who are they, which room do they haunt, and why?


For example:


The late Moriarty unfortunately discovered after his demise that the Almighty has a sense of humour. And so the former professor finds himself haunting one of 221B’s lumber rooms, as though actually filed away and forgotten. He spends his time directing his meagre psychic energy towards making up rude messages from words ripped from the stored newspapers. Holmes is oblivious but Moriarty suspects Mrs. Hudson may be aware of her extra lodger.


The sitting room of 221B is haunted by former owners of the house, Mr. and Mrs. Berkeley-Herring. They are both thrilled to be a part of Holmes and Watson’s life, and often can be found playing along with the deductions.


And finally in Watson’s bedroom… Well, there’s a waiting list for haunting that one. But it is currently being inhabited by a young housemaid who sadly succumbed to influenza and has decided to enliven the passing of eternity by taking up life drawing.



Please leave your own ideas in the comments!



As always, you needn’t take part in this activity 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!