Juicy Crones

A collection of stories celebrating the lives and adventures of post-menopausal women, a mix of adventure, feminist, auto-biographical, well-being and self-help writing filled with an inspiring zest for life. Debut book from a distinguished education and health professional.

‘The average woman will live 30 years after menopause. You can have lots of fun in that time. This is our third act, the time that many women learn to ROAR! I’m now marinating in all the things I love most and writing about them.’ After retiring from a distinguished career in education and health, Jay Courtney found life rather beige. ‘I realised that I didn’t know how to do this part of my life’ she says. ‘There was no route map to follow, only a looming ‘Exit’ sign, so I went on a quest to find a colour that suited me.’ Courtney’s métier transpired to blend travel and inspirational writing, combined with a talent for finding others whose experiences resonate. In Juicy Crones she fêtes the lives of women embracing their ‘third act’ with gusto. Written by a Telegraph travel-writing competition winner and former Women’s Hour guest, Juicy Crones is a joyous celebration of post-menopausal women life travellers. ‘Crones were revered as wise women, warriors, speakers of uncomfortable truths, carrying with them the wisdom of life’ says Courtney. ‘As for the ‘juicy’ part, this is me thumbing my nose at language often used of older women as ‘dried-up’, wrinkled, barren. Many older women I have met have been the very opposite: beautiful, vibrant, outrageously funny, full of self-knowledge, free-spirited. There is no better group to be part of. What we lack in collagen we make up for in wisdom!’ Courtney’s debut is a unique title with an infectious enthusiasm for living life to the full, that blends adventure with feminism, women’s health with well-being, and autobiography with self-help. This is a book for the UK’s 12 million ‘crones’ and anyone who shares their life, for women adventurers and for fans of Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path, Caitlin Moran’s More than a Woman and Helen Lewis’ Difficult Women. And the first subtitle? ‘Free for the Strangest Adventure’ is a quotation from Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse. ‘For me it represents the state of mind that enables a Crone to be juicy!’ says Courtney. ‘This is when the magic happens.’

"For women there is nothing more liberating than age if we learn to use our energy, power and compassion." -- Back cover.

Welcome to the 12th issue of The Travel Club! A whole year has passed since the pandemic first hit, a year that seems to have gone in a flash while at the same time dragging on forever. The Travel Club was launched in May 2020, back during the early days of the first lockdown. As guidebook sales slumped, we knew that our survival lay in the support of our readers, a community of dedicated travellers. Your support surpassed anything we could have imagined, and that is something for which we will always be grateful. But The Travel Club was never a charitable endeavour. We wanted to create something that offered genuine and long-term value to its members, something that would become a much-loved, essential resource for those who are serious about travel. I hope you feel we’ve succeeded. The e-zine has gone from strength to strength each month, withstories and contributions from far and wide – just take a look at this bumper issue! – and we’ve continued to build the list of exclusive membership benefits and discounts too (many of which will come in handy as the world begins to open up). Of course, if you’ve any feedback or suggestions of ways in which we could improve things further, or you’d be interested in contributing yourself, please do drop us a line at [email protected]. We want to do the very best we can and – when we start exploring the world again – to do so hand in hand with all those who were with us during the dark times.

At some point after fifty, every woman crosses a threshold into the third phase of her life. As she enters this uncharted territory -- one that is generally uncelebrated in popular culture -- she can choose to mourn what has gone before, or she can embrace the juicy-crone years. In this celebration of Act Three, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Jungian analyst and bestselling author of Goddesses in Everywoman, names the powerful new energies and potentials -- or archetypes -- that come into the psyche at this momentous time, suggesting that women getting older have profound and exciting reasons for welcoming the other side of fifty.

Find Your Creative Self in the Kaleidoscope of Beads & Color "Beading and my spiritual path are intricately interwoven. It would be difficult for me to separate the two because they are so completely intertwined with one another. As I sit and weave with my beads, I allow the Creative Spirit to flow through me, and though my hands are doing the work, another force is actively participating in the process. This force is a transmission of Spirit that fills me with deep inner peace and joy as I bead. As a result, the practice of my art form has become a creative path to my sacred center." —from the Introduction Believing that beading is a form of meditation through which we can access the Creative Spirit that is always present in us, master bead artist Rev. Wendy Ellsworth offers multiple ways to explore beading as a spiritual journey of self-discovery. Each of the seven chapters is rich with personal stories, exercises, and beading projects, and each project has a meditative experience to encourage a contemplative spirit and creative play. The project results are beautiful, meaningful symbols designed by a master bead artist for both novice and experienced beaders alike. Original projects include: • Geometric Mandala • Personal Mandala • Personal Prayer Beads • Beaded Prayer Pouch • Goddess Archetype Necklace • Beaded Stick Figure Goddess • Chakra Necklace • Chakra Flower Sculpture • Free-form Gourd Stitch Bracelet • Ruffled Cabochon Brooch • Dutch Spiral Necklace • Spiral Vessel • Song Beads • Herringbone Stitch Cuff with Freshwater Pearls

A probing account of the honored place of older women in ancient matriarchal societies restores to contemporary women an energizing symbol of self-value, power, and respect.

Urging the reader to embrace silver hairs, wrinkles and the change of life, this text shows how to create your own ceremony of age and to recognise the power, wisdom and the Goddess within.