Emily Of Cherry Cottage

The following nonsense is scribbled-by-and-courtesy-of Emi, was encouraged by Julie, and due entirely to Hamlette's Soliloquy, with whom the Roll-the-dice-and-write-your-own-LMM-ish-story game originated.... Once upon quite-a-long-time-ago, but I was Scribble-rummaging and discovered it, rather after the fashion of  Anne and the story she wrote whilst half in and half out of the Cobb sisters duck house (;

Just don't forget, this is happening in the realm of Down The Rabbit Hole (; You must expect nonsense here as a matter of course, and not look upon such things as oddities… I assure you, they be quite and entirely normal! Also note that it is rather a lot like its MC in that it goes in circles, and takes a long time getting places! Clearly I had way too much fun writing it.

(For the record, the Emily in question is technically-but-not-really yours truly, she turned into a personality all her own somewhere along the line. Just in case you were wondering.)

Shall we begin? Right then, so we shall.

I do hope you are not the sort to have adverse reactions to absentminded artists🤔

And IF you are, what on earth are you reading this for?? Stop it at once!! 

Or not. Though I will NOT be held responsible for any side effects or maladies that may afflict you hereafter, including, but not limited to: attacks of whimsy and/or rambling fever. Consider yourself forewarned. And if you find it all hopelessly dull, well, what did you expect from a spur-of-the-moment afternoon scribble??

Now where was I? Oh yes, the beginning.

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                                 Feb 28th, 2023

Emily of Cherry Cottage

Hello, dear people! Delighted to make your acquaintances (: 1 am Emily, proprietoress of Cherry Cottage. But you really mustn't expect to find me there very often! I'm an artist, see, and given to much wandering. Although my sense of direction, it must be admitted, is not nearly so dependable as one would hope.... 

And therefore I tend to do my wandering in somewhat going-in-circles-ish patterns. 

Not that I ever admit to being anywhere other than exactly where I meant to go! And one does turn up such jolly, jumbled adventures this way.... Allow me to share some of them with you?

During my recent-er travels in said circular revolutions, I had the great luck to come across a most unbelievably spectacular work of living art, with such a woefully understated title to it.... The title being Your Mother. I mean, MY mother. And guess what? She really was!

You can imagine what a shock this was to someone who had always believed herself to have been planted in a parsley-bed by fairies. But naturally, being an artist, I do dearly love art.... And am growing increasingly fonder of this piece every day!

Apparently that old adage about temperamental artists who would lose their own craniums had not their Creator quite firmly attached them beforehand, is quite true. I even illustrated it (in colour!) Wednesday before last. I'm a great believer in illustrations, you know. 

What's this? You wish to see it??

Oh dear.... Wouldn't you much rather see a nice watercolour of Mistawis? Or Charlottetown in pastels?

No? Well.... alright then. After all, each one must eat his peck of dirt and serving of humble pie and all that, I guess. So listen, my children, and you shall hear.... 

It happened on a Wednesday, as I said, and I was sitting down to Tea-for-me in the garden, with the morning paper along to keep from being too all-by-myself-ish.... A very companionable few minutes went by, and just as I was settling into a lovely article about Island Talent, I was quite electrified to read an announcement stating the winner of their recent writing contest to be one Miss Emily of Cherry Cottage. I quite naturally jumped a foot at this, spilling my tea (which thankfully had grown cold whilst I read) and frightening away the squirrels who were accustomed to stealing my cookies quite away, proceeded swiftly to polish my trusty specs. The newspaper WOULD keep right on saying exactly what it said what to begin with, however, and so doth the matter lie! It IS rather a pleasant sensation, this winning of prizes unbeknownst to one’s self… Although as a general rule, I should recommend going about it in the customary way. They say starts like that are not overly beneficial to one’s heart, or some such…. So to be on the safe side, do try to remember Important Things once’s you have done them. It may pay, who can tell?

This DOES make me wonder, however, what else l've been up to without my own knowledge?? I do have such trouble keeping up with my own adventures… which is troublesome, because I’m quite certain they would make for excellent source-material.

One adventure I DO remember having recently though, I met the most perfectly story-bookish old sea captain on a ramble-gone-off-track yesterday! 

Can't quite remember what his name was, but he did say the wisest things.... And I'm invited to come for tea again, and meet his famous cats, did you ever hear of such an honour?? Oh, and I really must write this down.... He also taught me that worrying is absolutely and totally pointless, so don't. I told him I would try very hard indeed not to forget, and I'm keeping my promise, as you can see!

And so, Sea Captains, Squirrels, New-Found Mothers and all, we lived very happily-most-of-the-time forever after!