Month: Mar 2021

Pandemic Pondering #363

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

The blog about a non-blog. Tech failure today coupled with increasingly early sunrises conspired for there not to be a blog ready on the table at 8:00 this morning.

A small amount of alcohol was taken during a Zoom birthday party last night. Which added to a large amount of exercise during the day to give a very good, very effective nights sleep. Alarms were set for an early wake up and blog composition before our early walk, but the device with the photographs had not been plugged in over night.

Can you believe I got to #363 before suffering daily blog failure!

Hugo is disgusted

He cannot believe his puppymummy failed to charge up her device before writing a blog and going out for a sunrise walk. This is Hugo looking dissapointedly at me.

These are the deserted bays he was forced to suffer whilst a blog lay unwritten and uncared for on a Sunday morning.

Thank goodness for the baked goods featured at the top of this blog. Fueled by half a Cinnamon Bun, this non blog is finally, five hours late ready to brighten up Sunday.

Normal service will resume tomorrow!

Pandemic Pondering #362

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Devon, SerendipityLeave a comment

Another swimming blog! Unapologetically , not just because I can use Friday mornings pictures . But because we decided as a group that the coldest of the winter is behind us. There is no science behind this and we could just be feeling skittish because Spring is about to be sprung. Woolly hats were discarded this morning. Less layers of Thermal underwear packed, for the socially distanced swimming after-party. We are imagining altered horizons! All this on an early morning diet of Horlicks, Hot Chocolate, tea and coffee with a side order of caterpillars.

Not a Crazy South American mind expanding hallucinogenic gathering. Just sensible body warming steps to avoid ‘ after drop’ ( Sudden coarse shivering , a reaction that isn’t pleasant and can occur after cold water immersion) . The Caterpillars were an added bonus not a regular habit.

But for now, post- caterpillars, this is the reality in March 2021.

Have a great Saturday .

Pandemic Pondering #361

On By theoldmortuary.designIn ponderingLeave a comment

Friday!

There is a tranquility in this picture that I’m not quite feeling.

Yesterday I took the scissors to my hair. With a month to go until stylists are allowed to open up it may have been a rash move. Im not even sure why yesterday was the day I decided to do it. Too many Zoom meetings or calls I think. I spend most of my life not looking at myself . Meetings have become a liitle mad. Talking to a group of people, myself included, on Zoom shows me everything Ive ever wondered.

Did I Look Ok.

Do I look interested when others talk and I am listening.

Did I say what I needed too.

Can anyone tell Im also using my phone.

The last worry shouldn’t be a worry, additional devices are the current equivalent of arriving with a sheaf of papers. My actual papers , an old- school reporters notebook is just about full after a year of Zooming. It has a life of its own . There was a plan early on to use different colours for different Zooming. In the excitement, that has been lockdown life, Ive misplaced some of the colours. Without fail for at least the last three months I have forgotten to replace the notepad. In consequence my notes now fill borders and gaps between notes made months ago.

Yesterday I found 6 unused pages in the middle of the pad. The excitement in my room was palpable!

There is a quote in my head , I have no idea where I got it from.

” There is no point in an archive if there is not an efficient way of retrievals”

My Lockdown brain has got this covered!

Ask me for a certain date or point and I get too it really quickly. Somehow remembering the colours or patterns , doodles might be another word, where any particular meetings notes were jotted down. This could all have been done more efficiently with dedicated note books but I wasn’t planning on going on like this for a year. The notepad was temporary. I may never give it up.

If only I knew shorthand it would be a thing of true abstract beauty. A modern version of papyrus with stenograhic symbols merged with hieroglyphs.

The reality is messier. As was my hair.

The notebook is a keeper, the hair is gone.

Friday another week done .

Pandemic Pondering #360

On By theoldmortuary.designIn RitualsLeave a comment

Yesterday was a strange day topped off by a sunset swim. The water was calm but chilly, it was possible to bask in the setting sun when swimming towards the west.

Nothing was quite as it should be yesterday. @theoldmortuary is close to three graveyards, an older church one that has expanded into fields behind it and more recently, on the opposite side of the lane leading to a nature reserve,a new graveyard in more fields for more recent burials. We are well used to funerals of all sorts and their associated traffic. A neighbour but unknown to us, died recently and was being taken elsewhere for her service and committal yesterday morning. Being at the beginning of a final journey rather than the end felt dystopian with the undertaker performing a slow walk ahead of the hearse as they drove away from the family home.

After a year of behavioural changes it is a little unnerving to always witness the sadness of strangers without the balance of being voyeurs to the joyful church events of Baptism and Weddings. Brightly coloured family dramas played out just steps away from our front door.

These things are the rituals that link us to the past. This is probably the only year in more than 400 where the church and the pub, sentinels either side of a lane have not shared in the celebrations and condolences of church based family events.

The two buildings are linked in these moments. People crossing, sometimes wobbly legged and weepy, between the two in the time before and after the main events. Weeping is not reserved for funerals!

Just having the church and bereavement gatherings seems unbalanced. Life will be better when happy and sad people can seek refuge in the pub, before or after church and turn their legs wobbly if that is what the situation requires.

Pandemic Pondering #359

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SpringLeave a comment

The middle of March is a curiously yellow kind of time. After a year of restrictions this March seems even yellower than usual. I checked back through my image file of the last few years and found some lovely yellows. Not just the obvious daffodils but all sorts of yelliw things to make me smile. I think it must be the quality of the light in March that makes yellow so vibrant. This commuting image is my first offering.

Tower Bridge from London Bridge
6 AM

Even yellow underfoot seems brighter in March.

Yellow daffodils were the thing that seemed particularly vibrant yesterday. It must be a wrinkle or crinkle in my thinking though that makes this year seem especially bright because I have loads of lovely yellows from past years. I think previously I have not been quite so desperate to shake off winter and celebrate the coming of Spring. This is quite a statement as beyond Christmas I see no real value or purpose in Winter ever. So I’m always desperate to find signs of Spring. I just hadn’t realised until yesterday quite how pathetically desperate I was to leave winter behind me in 2021.

Sadly a yellow all-in-one covering a snuggly person is no longer on my signs of spring agenda.

But gorgeous yellow, empty beaches have a very positive effect on seeing the bright side.

Closer to home there is always a naughty dog to bring some yellow to the party. Even if there is no party!

Pandemic Pondering #358

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, SerendipityLeave a comment

Last Mothers Day pondering of 2021. We had a Mothers Day afternoon Tea in a box today which bought the event to an end in a lovely way.

The actual day started for us with a really early outdoor breakfast, bacon butties and coffee and delivering some bumches of daffodils to friends. We were joined by George the cockerpoo from Nazareth House.

He encouraged giddiness in the dog world.

Luckily he arrived after the bacon butties were finished.

After a breakfast as tasty as this we needed to get some exercise in. 15,000 steps later we also rewarded ourselves with an eclair each, a nod to both our Mothers who had a weakness for choux pastry.

This is what the rest of our very small family got up to.

Gin and music
Walking in London
Long Ducker

The smallest person in the family went for an enigmatic stroll.

During our stroll of 15,000 steps we met some other friends. We nattered and shared news and dog cuddles, we also learnt the technique of Split Squats. Life changing!

When we got home a message popped up on our Whatsapp.

A message as unexpected as this was a lovely embelishment to the day, it made our eyes water as much as the split squats!

Pandemic Pondering #357

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, SerendipityLeave a comment

Post Mothers Day Meandering.

Just like 2020, 2021 was an unusual Mothers Day. In honesty we don’t really have ‘usual’ Mothers Days even in non-pandemic years. Some of us in our blended family hold firm to gathering together while others hold firm to not participating. Then there is the third category of those who have no choice in the matter, those who have passed into another realm and are forced to join us through our anecdotes and memories or possibly just our private thoughts.

The third category are almost the most interesting participants.

They loom, making us a little sad, not all of them are actual Mothers,some are aunts or cousins, some are unborn or uncreated children, some are unrelated and others,dare I say it are men.

‘It takes a village to raise a child’ is an African proverb that recognises that Mothering/ Nurturing is a complex old business achieved by an ensemble of characters involved with a childs growth and development.

Happy Mothers Day, Nurturers, whoever you are. We wouldn’t be who we are without you, all of you.

Pandemic Pondering #356

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Pandemic ponderings, Serendipity1 Comment

When you leave home in sunshine for a swim and by the time you arrive your car looks like this you know its going to be an interesting afternoon.

The hail did stop but the skies were pretty menacing for our swim.

As this blog is published it will be the second Mothers Day in Britain that has gone unmarked by  gatherings because of Pandemic Restrictions. @theoldmortuary will be at the centre of busyness tomorrow. Situated as we are close to two large graveyards. The only mothers who can be safely or legally visited currently are dead ones and only then if their last resting place is local. Last year was markedly busier in the cemetery than usual and I’m sure Mothers Day 2021 will be much the same.

We are really missing family contact. Our nearest and dearest are hundreds or thousands of miles away. Not that we are unique in this matter but it is irksome. Better to be irked than dead of course or grieving for a recent loss.

Two sea swims in 24 hours when it is chilly is exhausting. Our Sunday regime will involve an early rise to avoid people, especially those who are breaking Covid restrictions to meet their mothers! Being irked also brings a side order of  grumpiness with rule breakers!  Gazing at the sea with coffee in hand and not immersing ourselves in it is the plan. Almost certainly , especially if the weather is good we will regret not getting in. Skinny dipping will be considered and rejected immediately, not seriously but wishfully. Dogs will be walked and another morning in Lockdown will be ticked off.

Pandemic pondering #355

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home TownsLeave a comment

If a picture paints a thousand words then this frame says it all about Lockdown 3. Usually this frame on a wall on The Barbican holds topical graffiti. Currently it stands empty…

A friends retro print, though, might be predicting our 2021 travel plans.

©Marianne Wood

Pictures are the theme of this blog, like many blogs serendipity chose the subject. We did manage a sea swim today. We were super cautious and the weather was not kind.


Really cold fingers after our swim produced this curious image. It looks like a photograph produced on a glass plate from the earliest years of photography. Same location as above.

The ‘ bobbers’ also today at the same location.

©Andy Cole

And finally one last picure, after the swim and the restorative hot drink my warmed fingers found the Silky Water Filter on the camera and the sun came out.

Pandemic Pondering #354

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

Its been a funny old week. Too much domestic admin has tied me to the house and the weather has been too contrary for us to plan any coastal swims.

As soon had we cancelled this afternoons ‘bob’ the sun came out in a blaze of glory.

What you cant see in this photo is a very chilly wind blowing up the river.

The local RNLI have been suggesting all week that sea swimming should be a wisely considered option considering weather and tides on a daily basis.

We also follow a local swimming group for advice on safety.

Link above is to a video taken at our swimming beach at the time we were planning to swim.

Im glad we made the call not to swim today.

The dogs benefitted from a very sunny walk . There is always tomorrow for a swim.