Helen Cox
LightNews LightNews
banner
helrae1461.bsky.social
Helen Cox
@helrae1461.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1K following 3.1K posts
Ageing hippie, writer, gardener, cat-slave, socialist tofu-eating wokerati eco-freak history anorak - see also www.herstorywriting.com & helenraerants.wordpress.com. I don't do DMs.
Posts Replies Media Videos
helrae1461.bsky.social
Pass it on. Farage is a traitor who, given chance, would sell the 'sovereignty' he so vaunts to the corrupt foreign billionaires & oligarchs he sucks up to. No sense, no policies, nothing to offer except the same sort of shit the USA's enduring now.
October 31, 2025 at 1:36 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
This stranger-than-fiction story began 70 skating seasons ago when Courtney Jones (right in pic) met trainer Gladys Hogg (centre) & June Markham (left) & embarked on his accidental rise to global stardom. Find out how in his amazing autobiography: yorkbookshop.com/biography/84...

#skating #icedance
Black and white photograph showing a line of three people in ascending height from left to right: a young, pale June Markham wearing a white headscarf, short dark skating dress with white V-neck stripes, white tights and skating boots; trainer Glady Hogg, black haired in a dark belted jacket and trousers; and Courtney Jones, dark haired and clean shaven, wearing dark trousers, black skating boots and a top with white V-neck stripes to match June's, standing on an outdoor ice-rink.
October 20, 2025 at 9:45 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Please enjoy & share widely! 🤣
Cartoon showing N Farage in blue suit lying on brown couch next to psychiatrist in fawn suit sitting on swivel chair, asking him, 'And these big benefits from Brexit - are they in the room with us now?'
October 3, 2025 at 11:50 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Christmas present to self has arrived! 2 dolly-girls with costumes from Ancient Egypt to 1980s, to stand on mantlepiece on Dec 1st & a daily clothes change cut out for them throughout festive season. Such fun, what a treat. They need better names than Doll 1 (white) & Doll 2 (brown), though. 😊
An A4 paperback book, 'Paper Doll Dress-Up, Fashion Through the Ages' by Georgie Fearns, open at title page. Frontispiece on left shows Doll 2 with brown hair and a long purple Victorian dress, surrounded by 4 items of different period headgear. Title page on right as a small central picture of a yellow and red medieval hat over brown hair.
September 12, 2025 at 1:00 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
More brag: been v makey-bakey this summer, dresser laden with preserves & fruit liqueurs for Christmas gift hampers, & cake tins with flapjack, cookies & cheese scones to die for. Am worshipped as domestic goddess by Hubcap with v happy tum. 😊
A traditional orange-brown pine dresser with assortment of tins and jars on top against background of a dark red wall decorated with hanging plates. Top shelf, left to right, has two jars of multicoloured veg salad, sundry serving dishes and tureen, three jars of yellowish curried courgette chutney, and glassware. Middle shelf has a greetings card, pestle and mortar, vintage scales and repro vintage yellow and white placemats, assortment of apple, damson and plum jams and Kilner jars containing plum brandy and cherry vodka, a Rumpot and a vintage glass jelly mould. Bottom shelf has cookery books, a stack of red and white cake tins with a white plastic box on top, a brown vinegar pot, three bottles of real ale and a bottle of gin, with wooden bowl of tomatoes and mess of miscellaneous objects in left foreground.
September 11, 2025 at 1:50 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
I do so love our little fluffy cat-friend. 😍
A long haired black and white cat with green eyes, sitting on a brown wooden patio table in front of a green lawn with grey paved pathway on right.
August 27, 2025 at 12:24 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Goodness me! What a cheeky tomato. 🤣
A big fat red beef tomato on a grey kitchen worktop, looking exactly like a plump, round, pinchable bottom.
August 2, 2025 at 10:56 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Me, last autumn.
July 29, 2025 at 9:01 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Well pickled! Currently awash with allotment produce, this weekend I've made pickled cukes, various veg salads/slaws, & a batch of curried courgette & apple chutney, all home-grown/organic. So proud of my ace gardener Hubcap for growing all this good stuff. 😋
An array of eight glass jars, three large ones on the left containing vegetables pickled in sweet spiced brine, and five smaller ones centre to right containing turmeric-yellow chutney, set out on a grey kitchen worktop with a grey kettle, grey breadbin, coffee grinder and butter dish in the background.
July 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Brain needs rest after completing huge mental challenge, so gave it a treat by finally getting round to this jigsaw passed on by my sis-in-law about 3 years ago. It's SO beautiful, gorgeous patterns/colours & full of animal, plant & bird-shaped pieces. Such fun! 😊
A completed jigsaw in the shape of a stylised, sitting fox with yellow head facing right and yellow tipped tail curled round its body. Ears, body and rest of tail are a riot of patterns in primary colours, featuring wave, plant and spiral motifs. The same fox-shaped multicoloured jigsaw with seven shapes removed: clockwise from right, a stag's head, a dragonfly, a toadstool, a duck, a hedgehog, a butterfly and a lizard.
July 21, 2025 at 2:56 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Also 28 months of Foxy's living reality have overlain Hen's image, initially agonisingly clear to the last whisker, his odd green-ginger eyes, the freckle on his nose, his every expression, he was in my face so much. Fox, alas, didn't grow up using humans as heated furniture, so doesn't do Lap.
Close-up mugshot of a handsome ginger and white adult cat called Henry Wowler, (my sadly late feline Muse), with greeny-gold eyes and a pink nose with a ginger spot on the left, facing left and looking past camera. A grey haired, bespectacled woman wearing a white-flecked black sweater and grey jogging pants, lying on a bed with a pine headboard, cream self-striped anti-cat-fur-protective bedspread and dark blue pillows patterned with white roses, next to matching pine bedside table covered in miscellaneous objects including a copper vase, alarm clock and blue bowl of pot-pourri, cuddling a large, handsome ginger and white cat (the late great Henry Wowler).
June 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Our fabulous feral Foxy, having lunched on hand-fed strips of raw lamb followed by dental biscuits & Dreamies for dessert, repairs to his lawn-nest to sleep it off, as might his vulpine namesake. 😍
A fluffy black and white cat sprawled asleep in a bed of tall grass and buttercups in a madly messy garden, with horseradish and raspberries growing wild behind him, and trays of fuschias, geraniums and lavender destined for customers in the foreground.
June 22, 2025 at 12:39 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
😍 I respond with a Foxy McFurson. 😊
A fluffy black & white adult cat sitting in the sun on a grey cement doorstep in front of a white door frame, being stroked on the head by a Caucasian hand coming from left of picture, his face turned to camera and eyes closed in bliss.
June 10, 2025 at 7:24 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Made me feel SO good I just ditched vase given for the birthday they fucked up by making me/Hubcap-to-be all but miss a friend's costume party we were going to FOR OUR 1st REAL DATE. Never much liked, now smashed to cullet in recycling bin & replaced with this pretty made by my beloved cousin. 😁
A wine bottle, sprayed white and decorated with seed-heads in black, pink and blue, containing a sprig of honesty, three teazel heads and a silver sprayed fir cone, standing on a brown hardwood window sill between a dark blue curtain and a white-framed window, next to a slice of blue agate on a clear plastic stand. Designed and painted by my clever artist cousin, Sarah Peterson.
May 24, 2025 at 1:03 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Exciting news: after many years of happy retirement in Spain with his now sadly late partner Bobby Thompson, unbeaten British, European & World ice-dance ace Courtney Jones OBE is returning to Britain next month. Snag his amazing autobiography here: yorkbookshop.com/biography/84...
Two mature gentlemen sitting in a Spanish street cafe with table & chairs, palm trees, passers-by and a red-and-white bus-stop in the background. On the left, with grey hair, sunglasses and a pale blue, open-necked shirt, is the late ice-dance coach Robert 'Bobby' Thompson; and on the right, in a black-and-white striped shirt, sunglasses and white Panama hat, his partner/Irreverent Memoir author, Courtney Jones OBE.
May 24, 2025 at 10:36 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Just posted an anecdote & some lovely pics of my pussy on here: www.facebook.com/helen.cox.33...
A fluffy black and white cat, looking at the camera, lying on an unkempt sunlit spring lawn next to a rose bush just coming into leaf, with a couple of yellow mini-daffodils and purple hellebore flowers in foreground.
April 20, 2025 at 2:31 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Breakfast club...
Foxy McFurson and Not-Our-Tabby: A fluffy black and white cat sitting on a step in front of an open patio door, a brown bowl containing cat biscuits on his left, watching a dark tabby cat a few feet away on the patio, eating from a black bowl.
April 20, 2025 at 12:43 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Aw. Our equivalent is Not-Our-Tabby, now full-grown & considerably larger than Fox. Only cat brave enough to touch noses with him, she's a dreadful cheeky thing who'd move in like a shot if we'd let her. He doesn't mind her pinching his picnics, but gets jealous if I give her too much attention!
Two cats in an early spring garden with greenery in foreground, plant pots, tubs, and wire rack in background, and a few yellow daffodil, celandine and mustard flowers dotted around. On the left, a female tabby writhes in a patch of catmint, showing her peachy belly. On the right, our fluffy black and white male cat turns to the camera, bemused by what's going on.
April 20, 2025 at 12:19 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
It's a must for our fab former feral Foxy, who practically lives outside in summer & needs it to keep cool... sort of swims about in it, & will spend a whole hot day curled up in the damp/shade of a tall tussock.
A fluffy cat, black on top and white underneath, stretched out full length in the sun on a long, unkempt, rich green lawn.
April 20, 2025 at 11:59 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Celebrate Caturday, support small business & help needy cats - buy my fun Easter read for kids & cat-fans of all ages, & I donate £1/sale to Henry's Haven Cat Rescue! It's a bit like Thru the Looking Glass with cats, & lovely pics by artist Janet Flynn - only £4.99. yorkbookshop.com/humour/166-h...
A black & white drawing of a tabby tomcat in a garden - Ginger, Henry Wowler's father (probably) - with his back to the viewer and tail erect, spraying onto a bush. An illustration for Henry Wowler & the Mirror-Cat by Janet Flynn
April 5, 2025 at 2:06 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Boycotting Amazon? Fancy some Easter light reading? Then support local business & buy my special bargain book pack for a tenner - my funny illustrated cat fantasy & an ex-ice-dance champ's stranger-than-fiction autobiography! yorkbookshop.com/fiction/471-...

#cats #iceskating #humour #books
Two paperback books on a grey and black background. On the left, skating history autobiography Around the Ice in Eighty Years, an irreverent memoir by an accidental champion by Courtney Jones OBE (grey binding with a photo of Courtney aged three), compiled, edited and published by me. On the right, my fictional Henry Wowler & the Mirror- Cat, with coloured cover showing a ginger and white cat sitting on a windowsill next to a red curtain, looking out into a dark blue night, painted by artist Janet Flynn.
March 11, 2025 at 9:30 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Boycotting Amazon? Support local business & make a 93-yr-old ex ice-dance ace/the man behind Torvill & Dean's iconic Bolero happy - buy his great autobiography! Full of skating history & hilarious anecdotes, it's on sale for just £5.99: yorkbookshop.com/biography/84...
#icedance #skating
Black and white official photo of Courtney Jones OBE with his first world-beating partner June Markham, posing on an ice rink with outstretched arms. Courtney is all in black, June in a short black dress with white decoration and white boots. Photo taken shortly after winning the World Ice Dance Championships in Paris - captioned below in French, CHAMPIONNATS DU MONDE DE PATINAGE ARTISTIQUE ET DE DANSE - PARIS 1958 and signed lower left 'To Helen, much love June x Black and white photograph of Courtney Jones OBE with his second world-beating partner, Doreen Denny, posing with outstretched arms on a sunlit outdoor ice rink in Davos, Switzerland, where they won the 1959 European Championships. Their matching outfits were in powder blue with black trim. Courtney's boots are black, and Doreen's are white.
March 10, 2025 at 7:54 AM
helrae1461.bsky.social
Live in the UK? Fancy treating yourself to some juicy tongue-in-cheek fantasy for Easter? Then DM me your address & I'll mail you my Game-of-Thrones style romp - all 3 volumes for a mere £9.99 plus P+P!
Three paperback books comprising the Lay of Angor fantasy trilogy: Gondarlan (bound in black, with a white heraldic wolf-head on a red background), Breath of Gaia (bound in blue, with a painting of a galleon) and Wolfsbane, bound in brown with a black monk in a silver wolf-mask).
March 9, 2025 at 2:28 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
These are ours: L-R, Woollies Socks, Scarf & Bobbin, & Foxy McFurson the cat.
Three Boreray wethers (castrated males) eating from a black trough in a brown hay and dead leaf-scattered enclosure, in front of a wooden rail fence with a green field beyond. All have white fleece with auburn markings round their necks, and creamy-white horns. Socks (left) is a big boy, nearly six. Scarf (centre) and Bobbin (right) will be a year old in April '25 - they're twins, although Bob's a good deal bigger than his bro. A fluffy black and white adult cat curled up asleep on the arm of a pale brown couch, with his nose buried under one white foreleg.
March 7, 2025 at 1:46 PM
helrae1461.bsky.social
My nice freshly shortened hair.
Selfie of ageing silver-grey haired woman with transparent-framed glasses and a dark blue top smiling at camera because she likes her new very short back-and-sides.
March 5, 2025 at 3:10 PM