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The company of a dog

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“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” Roger Caras

Today involved the company of dogs. It was sunny and they were happy, spreading the fun of the day in every direction.

That’s how it is with dogs. They do not care about the latest political disappointments, or know anything about international tensions. They have no desire to own the latest in fashion, or to visit the most exotic of destinations, and they have absolutely no interest in debating the pros and cons of artificial intelligence. All they want, or all these dogs wanted, was the company of their humans, and somewhere warm and dry to be, with the promise of food to look forward to at appointed times.

We were able to provide all these, and so they in return took us out for walks and presented us with endless balls to throw. Probably a few more balls than we actually needed to be honest, but the dogs were generous and did insist.

Now the day is ended, we are slumped exhausted in our chairs, and the dogs, at last, have a chance to play with the balls themselves.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The helpers and the help-myselfers in the shops

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There is such art, and so much skill, in the running of an excellent shop – one that attracts many, and offers cheerful service and affordable, worthwhile products.

Today I wandered down to Covent Garden in London. Covent Garden itself, and the streets around it, were like a flower garden of shops, all bright and beautiful and swarming with public. I joined the swarm for as long as my energy lasted, just looking, and wondering, and occasionally buying.

I was about a third of my way through my wander when I saw a brazen shoplifter in action, so brazen that I convinced myself he was part of the staff. He was well-dressed and middle-aged, and it was only when I saw him walk up the stairs and leave the building with his backpack stuffed with unpaid for goods, that I realised that he did not work there. I could only presume that the theft had been done with the co-operation of the member of staff who was standing as close to him as I was, and under the blind eye of the disinterested security guard on the door.

When I went back to the shop later in the afternoon I saw that the security guard was gone, and I heard that a member of staff was absent from the floor below where the incident had happened. I didn’t want to think about how many runs they’d managed that day.

As I walked away I wondered what kind of rent the excellent shop was having to pay in order to offer its goods to London … and I wondered how London would feel without such excellent shops.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Where are stories from?

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“Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. Tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”

I’m not sure who said the words beneath the photograph above. I’ve seen them listed as a North American proverb, but can’t get closer to their origin than that.

Since finding the quotation, I’ve been thinking about it. I have an idea where facts are supposed to come from, and the truth. But stories? Perhaps children are the true gatekeepers of stories, happy always to follow them into the unknown, to escape along their paths into the land of make believe.

As adults do we lose that ability? I certainly seem to have less of it. It’s as though a muscle has wasted away, overwhelmed by the day to day and the every day. However, I’ve discovered that the camera finds stories. It slows life down. Catches it for a second and holds it there, like a challenge.

Take the photograph above. The fact is that I was photographing the birdlife on the Thames. The truth is that there was a man feeding the geese just out of sight of the camera. The story begins “once upon a time …”, and includes a bossy white gull, some obedient soldier geese, and a daring raid on the Tower to rescue a young river swan who the ravens want to make their king.

Who knows how it will end?

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023