Colour,a party and a launch of the book

Hi there,
This is a painting of my back garden with its two old apple trees, the sundance choisir, and the juniper creeping across. However, as you see, I decided to have a lot of fun with colour, after the style of David Hockney !
I find it difficult to get away from an orangey-red.  I wear clothes that colour, and the cover of my new book ENJOYING LATER LIFE, is shockingly bright !
Talking of my new book, I have a big friends and family launch of it tomorrow at my birthday party !. I have even invited one of my friends, who is a Christian mime artist, story teller and clown, to bring his unicycle, like the cartoon on the front cover of the book !  I can see we're going to have fun.
Other colourful aspects of my life continue. Radio Verulam is at the heart of St.;Albans festival, and even I will be presenting an hour of Faith Alive, LIVE on Sunday 17th at  2.00pm. so if you're local , come and have a chat !
Enjoy the day, despite the rain !
Elspeth

Signing at St.Peter's Spring Fair

SUNSHINE AND SIGNING

It was time to get out ! The sun shone !. Passers by bought my book 

ENJOYING LATER LIFE, and my cards and paintings.This was St.Peter's Spring Fair a week ago.
I've also just got the good news that WATERSTONES, St.Albans, will be stocking my book.  So look out for it. It's shockingly obvious in its brilliant orange and red !
Elspeth Jackman

Half way up the stairs

"Half way up the stairs is the stair where I sit.
There isn't any other stair quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom. I'm not at the top........."
I was helping with a local school assembly the other day. We showed a video of Robin singing this song. We asked the 180 year 8's why Robin didn't want to go up a step. Was he too comfortable just being in the middle or was he unsure what it would be like at the top ?
Apply that to belief in God ! What step are these teenagers on ? On the bottom step, not bothered whether God was real on not, or on the next step, occasionally wondering about God ?  Maybe some were higher up, really interested but noy quite there.
I volunteer in the school through STEP, St.Albans Educational Project, an organisation offering to go into schools are share what the Christian faith means in a relevant fashion.
We would never tell teenagers what they had to believe. We'd give options, and and sometimes a challenge.
Moving a step up is sometimes a big challenge.

My own challenges are promoting my new book, Enjoying Later Life, and what I thought would be a new challenge, my new piece of garden equipment, a cordless hedge cutter, but its brilliant ! No more hours of shears for me!

Elspeth

Its time for ART again

ONE OF MY FAVOURITE PAINTINGS- but if you're observant, you'll see that this is not a current view. Look at the size of the trees, and then work out how many years ago I took the photo. I'll be having a stall at the St.Peters Spring Fair on Saturday 26th May so do look out for that.   I'll be selling paintings, but also

PLUS COPIES OF MY BOOK "ENJOYING LATER LIFE"  

AlsoI was encouraged yesterday to get an excited customer on the phone asking if she could buy 9 more !  If you think you are much too young for such a book, buy it for a present for an auntie or gran, and take a sneaky peep at what I say.  You can get it on Amazon, paperback or Kindle or at the publishers onwardsandupwards.org,  or from me personally.

ENJOY YOUR WEEK

Elspeth

 

Complicated Week !

This week has involved SITTING
SITTING  waiting for the new batch of my book Enjoying Later Life, which did NOT come the day it was supposed to !
SITTING in the dentist's chair while he struggled to extract all the bits of my tooth.
SITTING under the stage of St.Albans Arena with 30 plus nuns, waiting nervously to make my entrance in the Sound of Music, as the redoubtable Frau Schmitt, crusty old housekeeper to the Von Trapp family. Actually the whole involvement with the show was great. We did it eight times and everyone seemed to love it. NB if you look at the photo below, remember that I am playing a character part !
There was also time to PRAY for people who wanted healing 
To REJOICE that Ann Widdecombe is reading my book

And if you haven't considered it yet, ENJOYING LATER LIFE is to encourage those a little bit over middle age to be proud of themselves, to be fruitful, to live to the full. You can get it on Amazon, in paper back or Kindle, or you can order it from the publishers, onwardsandupwards.org. 
Elspeth
ps and I did have time to present 4 hours of programming on Radio Verulam 92.6 fm  or www.radioverulam.com 

Healing and Rehearsals

NOTES TO ME !

1) SOUND OF MUSIC.....Must remember when I go through a door in the bedroom scene, to come out of it as well, and not just exit through the wings, like I did at the dress rehearsal !
2) HEALING  .....Believe that God can heal a physical ailment with just a short prayer, like He did in the green room in the bustle of the tech rehearsal in the Arena.
3) ENJOYING LATER LIFE. Take a copy of your new book everywhere you go. Most people are curious.
4) GARDEN  Now we have a brief respite from the rain, must cut the grass .

Quizzed on radio

Hi there,
On Sunday's '~Faith Alive', that's the Radio Verulam programme between 2 and 4 in the afternoon on Sunday 29th April,, I am put in the firing line for a change.  Instead of interviewing others, I submit to the interrogation of someone else ! No, I exaggerate, it's not the Star Chamber. Guy Marshall, manager of the Christian bookshop in St.Albans for over 30 years and now just retired, asks all the questions you would like to ask about

ENJOYING LATER LIFE.
There has been a minor hiccup on the delivery of the books, but do order yours now, either at www.onwardsandupwards.org or on Amazon. You can ask the St.Albans Cathedral bookshop and Waterstones in St.Albans when they will stock it.  If you are local, you can email me at emjackman@talktalk.net and arrange to collect one from my home, and I'll sign it for you. At the moment, the ones I have are going like the proverbial hot cakes !

Whew ! And next week I'm on stage  every night at the Arena in the Sound of Music. Who said that later life is a bit boring !

Elspeth