Magic happens when you don't give up...

One of the facts of getting older is how time just seems to fly by. This year for me has flown especially fast. I recently looked back at some of the older posts on my blog and was shocked to realise that it's been five years since I started writing it. At the time I had no idea of some of the incredible and fun things that I was going to write about; from paragliding off a 1,700ft high mountain in Turkey, to singing  the Messiah in the Royal Albert Hall in London. There's been highs as well as lows, but that's life, and as I've said before, the bad times make the good ones even more special. After all, it is the, 'Sunshine after the rain', that creates a rainbow.

This year has had it's challenges. In March, on my birthday, I finally had the surgery I'd been waiting over a year for. Like many women of a certain age, I had developed a prolapse. I hadn't realised how common this was until I began telling people that I needed the operation and I couldn't believe how many women then confessed that, either they had had the operation or needed one. It seems to be one of those taboo subjects, like the menopause, that nobody likes to talk about. I'm happy to report that my being open about my surgery has encouraged a couple of friends and acquaintances to agree to having the surgery. But isn't that one of the things that life's about; helping and encouraging each other?

Recently, amid all the doom and gloom of bad news that seems to dominate the news these days, I had a lovely experience that made me realise that there are kind and caring people out there. Over the past few months, I've been experiencing a bit of a flare-up of my lupus. This has manifested itself as pain in my joints and my lower back. On this particular day I'd popped into town for a few items of shopping. I'd been told by the doctor that I shouldn't carry anything heavy, but on this occasion I bought more than I had intended and as a result had two heavy bags of shopping to carry home. As I was struggling along, I met a young woman who used to be one of my neighbours. Despite the fact that she wasn't going my way, she insisted on walking home with me and carrying the heaviest of the two bags. I was so touched by this act of kindness. I must confess that the pain I'd been experiencing had started to get me down and this cheered me up no end.

Another incident had happened earlier that same day that also helped to lift my spirits. I had the pleasure of doing a Downton Abbey tour for a delightful group of ladies from the USA. They were visiting Cogges as part of a trip organised by a company called, 'Friends on the Fly', which was the brainchild of 'two ladies of a certain age', a bit like myself, who had set up the company after retiring, one from teaching and the other from selling antiques. They realised that there are a number of ladies who are on their own, either because of bereavement, divorce or some other reason, who want to travel, but don't want to go on their own. So these two enterprising ladies, decided to set up a company that organises trips for small groups of women, to enable anyone in that position to get out there and see the world. I found this inspirational on two levels. One, because it was such a brilliant idea, and two, because it just goes to show that you're never too old to start a new adventure. This, after all, was one of the reasons I started my blog, but I'd lost my way a bit on that score this year.

So now I'm re-energised and determined to get back on track. I may have to re-think the type of adventure I can participate in because of my health issues. But it's a big world out there, with lots of different types of experiences to participate in. I'm currently rehearsing to sing the Messiah in the Royal Albert Hall again this year and I've started the final module of my Open University degree, which means that I'll hopefully have a graduation to look forward to next year.

Meanwhile, if anyone has any suggestions for any adventures I could consider, please let me know, because, 'Magic does happen when you don't give up.'

Photos,

Magic happens, http://ow.ly/FA9g30g5Z6q

Friends on the fly, a photo of their business card.

Royal Albert Hall, from previous blog post.

Isabel Johnstone 2017 ©



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Downton, Cogges and me.

December 2015, was a very sad time in our household. Why, what happened, you might ask? Well, 25th December, Christmas day saw the screening of the last ever episode of Downton Abbey. Now if you're not a fan, you'll be thinking, so what! But Downton Abbey has been a big part of my life, for four years and has definitely left a hole.

Not only did it provide me with quality entertainment, it also inspired blogs about embarrassing, as well as exciting encounters and given me a new role as a tour operator. Visitors, from as far afield as Japan, America, Australia and Denmark, are still visiting Cogges to see the site of Yew Tree Farm. This has been an amazing opportunity for Cogges because, not only did we benefit from being paid for allowing the filming to take place, but it's also generated a new source of income, which as a charity has been most welcome.

I've missed the excitement of knowing that they are coming to film and the anticipation of which of the characters will be involved. There'll be no more funny little anecdotes of things that happened during the filming for me to amuse the visitors with when doing a tour. I have it on good authority that there is going to be a film, but have no idea if Yew Tree Farm will feature in it, although I think there's unfinished stories regarding Daisy and Andy and even Mr Mason and Mrs Patmore. But as I'm not Julian Fellowes, I won't have any say in it.

A false dovecot on the toilet block,

one of my anecdotes about filming.

However, I'm very grateful to Downton Abbey as it's helped me to grow and stretch myself as a person. For the past three years I have had great fun talking to interested listeners about two of my passions; Cogges and Downton. It's very gratifying when they laugh in the right places. It's also had its challenges. We've had a group that turned up one and a half hours before they were due and on another occasion, I was on my own with a group of forty four, when a colleague didn't turn up. I was very pleased, if exhausted when they left having enjoyed their visit, without realising that I was being like a swan, calm on the top, but with my feet going like the clappers trying to work out how to handle the situation.

Me, with Charles Edwards.

Then there was the time that I had to work through an interpreter for a group from Denmark. It was definitely a challenge knowing how much to say before stopping to let the interpreter translate. But it was really funny when I told one of my anecdotes about the actor, Charles Edwards, alias Michael Gregson, Marigold's father, taking a selfie of himself when he was filming another period drama here, and sending it to Laura Carmichael, alias Lady Edith, saying, "Guess where I am?". Some of the group did understand English and laughed when I had finished, then the rest of them laughed when they heard the translation. Very gratifying for a frustrated performer like myself. But the best thing of all was when the tour leader told me that the visit to Cogges had been the highlight of their visit. He explained that, although they'd been to Highclere Castle, aka Downton Abbey, it had just felt like they were visiting any stately home. But he said that Cogges felt authentic, that it was really like being at Yew Tree Farm.

No one knows how long we will benefit from the Downton factor. But I'll always be grateful for the opportunity it has afforded me to add to my skill set. It's also given me more confidence when meeting new people. I even accost visitors at Cogges and ask them if they're here because of Downton and offer to give them a tour. I'd never have done this a couple of years ago. I'm also considering extending my knowledge and becoming a history tour guide at Cogges, but that might have to wait until I finish my degree.

Scene from first filming at Cogges.

I've still got my fingers crossed that Yew Tree Farm will feature in the film which, rumour has it, is due to start filming next Spring. We have had more filming at Cogges this year, but I'm not allowed to say anything about it yet. I can say that it features three well known stars of the big and small screen. You'll just have to watch this space.

I've certainly been challenging myself over the past few years and I'm really glad that I wasn't afraid to try. Now my next adventure is that I'm about to start the last module of my Open University degree. For the next nine months I'm going to be immersing myself in the Roman Empire and to get me in the mood, my hubby and I are off on a cruise which will include a visit to Rome. So I'll finish now as I have some packing to do.

Photo's Isabel's own apart from:-

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1709270949086116&set=gm.1649751095097609&type=3&theater&ifg=1


Isabel Johnstone 2017 ©

Sometimes we feel that we are being held back, but...

"154 people who like, Isabel Johnstone, haven't heard from you in a while. Write a post". This popped up in my notifications feed on Facebook recently. First of all, I'm very flattered that 154 people like my page. But I'm sure that they've not been sitting at home pining away because I haven't posted in a while.

My last blog was about persisting even if, or especially, when something happens to discourage you. I'm still feeling chuffed that my short story was short listed, but I've been too busy working on my Open University degree to get down to any creative writing. But I'm now on my Summer break, so no excuses. If I'm being honest, part of the reason that I've not been blogging much recently is that I felt that I'd lost my direction.

My blog is meant to be about proving that 'Life can still be an adventure', but for the past few months it's felt like anything but. I began to feel that I was a fraud, who'd fallen at the first hurdle, and was letting life drag me down.

When I first started blogging I used to get inspiration from photographs with captions that people shared on Facebook. Just recently I saw one that made me think that perhaps this past few months haven't been a step in the wrong direction after all. It was a photograph of an archer and the caption said something along the lines of, 'Sometimes we feel that we are being held back. But we're actually being pulled back in order to be launched into even greater things.'

I'm not sure about the 'greater things' part, but I believe the point is that sometimes we need to take a step back, be still for a bit and decide what our next target, or goal is. It would be lovely if life was all fun and adventures, but we all know it isn't. But we also know that we need life's challenges to help us to grow, become stronger, so that we can deal with the hard times, which are an inevitable part of life.

Life is full of surprises. In December of last year, we were told that our 17 year-old cat, Chutney, had a type of lung cancer and only had a month or two at the most, left to live. We were devastated. But decided to make the most of the time we had left with him. But 5 months later, he was still with us. We decided to take him for a check up. To cut a long story short, he doesn't have cancer after all. He has chronic bronchitis, but is still enjoying life. In fact, only last week I had to take him to the vet as he'd been fighting and had an abcess on his ear.

We could've got upset and even angry with the vet because of the wrong diagnosis. But actually, we were so relieved and let's face it, we've all made mistakes.  To me, this just goes to show that, there is always hope. You never know what lies ahead.

I'm ready to keep living this adventure called life. I'll hang on in and see what I'm being 'fired into' next. Who knows what that might be?

Girl archer pic, courtesey of: https://pixabay.com/en/girl-sport-bow-arrow-exercise-1909006/

Isabel Johnstone 2017

Taking on the challenge: leap of faith.

Hello people. It's been a while since I've written anything, blog-wise. Life has been a bit of a challenge recently, but I'm not going to go into that. Suffice to say, I'm glad 2016 is over. I've learned a few things about myself and others, but it'll take me some time to fully process what that might mean.

Towards the end of last year I was invited to joint the Niume blogging community. At first I was really flattered and I even earned some money from it. I shared a couple of my old blogs from here and 2 of them were chosen to be featured, which was a great honour. But I soon began to realise that my blog doesn't really fit in. Most of the other blogs seem to be about sharing recipes, photographs or travel features. They have a rule that the blog must contain a minimum of 5 lines and the majority of them stick to the minimum, which makes my blogs appear quite verbose. Well to be fair, I guess they are, but I write as I speak, which is quite a lot.

So I stopped contributing. 

But this picture popped into my Facebook memories this morning and is challenging me. I realised I was scared of what would happen if I continued to contribute when I didn't seem to 'fit in'. Which was crazy really as they invited me to join in the first place, which means that they must have felt that I had something to contribute.

2016 didn't turn out as I expected. I had it all planned out that it would be a year of celebration, when I would be continuing my adventures. I did have some adventures, but a few of them were eithe,r not on my list, or didn't go to plan. I literally have scars to prove it for a couple of them. But instead of embracing the challenge, I let it rob me of my confidence and left me fearful about doing anything in case it goes wrong.

I'm still feeling a bit cautious, but, as of today, I'm choosing to not let it stop me living life and having adventures. I could see the Nuime blog as an opportunity to try something new, or just take the chance that what I write will continue to be well received.

Who knows? But I'm going to take a leap of faith and try not to let the fear of what might happen, stop me from trying to achieve what could.




Isabel Johnstone. 2017 ©

Photographs courtesy of:-

https://pixabay.com/en/achieve-fluent-adventure-barrier-1822503/

http://ow.ly/UhA2308E1JH