Month: Apr 2022

#172 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

Serendipity plays a huge part in these daily blogs. Serendipity gave us some free time on Saturday when we were close to our London home villages of Dulwich Village and Crystal Palace. Proper journalists are writing about Crystal Palace this weekend because it has been voted the best place in London to live. We do not disagree, and for us Dulwich Village is a close second. Below are two links to proper writers singing the praises of CP.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/crystal-palace-london-best-place-to-live-uk-pp7pxvcmc#

https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/where-to-live/crystal-palace-area-guide-anna-jacobs-design-influencer-b951887.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1649438147

The funny thing is that the dogs love being back ‘home’ too. So this blog is a little bit about a dogs view and a little bit about things the journalists didn’t mention.

Starting with Dulwich. Morning is not morning without coffee and a cheese straw from Gails.

The cheese straw is a snack for dogs and humans. It gives us all strength and energy for visiting interiors shops.

Before a walk to the Dulwich Picture Gallery where the dogs can really appreciate Contemporary sculpture from Peter Randall-Page, titled Walking the Dog. The dogs and us have a good bit of history with this place the dogs love the sniffs and @theoldmortuary has exhibited here too.

Hugo with an artistic poo.
Lola with an artistic poo

On our way out we found a lovely complicated image.

Painted scaffolding boards behind an over wintering Beech hedge.

Next stop Crystal Palace.

More interiors shopping, Crystal Palace is known for its Independent imaginative shops and a thriving antiques and second hand trading vibe. We found some antique ceramic finger plates and some lovely coat hooks that look like Tom Daley executing a perfect Olympic dive. All for a fraction of the cost if we bought new or from on-line retailers. The pictures below are fancy glass in bright sunshine.

Second interiors shop of the day and both dogs were still enthusiastic.

Crystal Palace shopping was fueled by a Roti Brothers Vegetarian burger and their signature Rosemary Chips. Sitting beneath some fabulous street art.

Hugo and Lola basked while humans refuelled.

Our whistle stop tour of old haunts over, there was just enough time to collect some Portuguese baked goods and continue on with our journey

But not before recognising that the original village still makes a mark in this street names of this South London suburb.

#171 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn A303Leave a comment
HMS Portland

HMS Portland sailed past some bobbers yesterday, the crew and the bobbers waved excitedly because for some reason it seems rude not to acknowledge one another in relatively close proximity. It was a very chilly swim, but it was probably quite cold standing on deck and waving, so both sides may have welcomed the extra exercise.

Our winter eyebrow growth was removed yesterday all wandering upper facial hair either removed or gathered tidily into graceful arches which can be risen or lowered as situations require. Who could have guessed that ten minutes after this pastoral scene the eyebrows were raised because  of the weather.

We were on the A303 near Stonehenge and  there was the usual traffic queue, so we took a usual detour via Shrewton to avoid the standstill. Just as we approached the Stonehenge car park black clouds descended and snow was dumped on us.

Not what we expected at all. Newly coiffed eyebrows were raised. Getting that cold twice in one day is not acceptable in April. Traffic jam avoided we carried on our journey. Returning to sunshine remarkably quickly.

Sunshine on a Saturday, just what is needed!

#170 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn BobbingLeave a comment

Planning a bob got a little easier last night. Miss Spearmint the over friendly seal was transported away from Plymouth Sound. Unusually for a seal she craved human company. The Bobbers knew not to swim if she was spotted anywhere near our chosen swimming beach. Checking her whereabouts on a local WhatsApp group became the fourth thing to check when a bob was called.

Tide✓ Weather✓Daylight✓ Seal✓

We were really diligent but despite our best efforts we sometimes had to abandon a bob when she casually swam up and joined us. Other people despite plenty of information locally were not so thoughtful and deliberately interacted with her or fed her, something she seemed to love but that was not good for her.

Earlier this week she took her love of humans to a new level and pulled herself into a small village and chose to take her daily nap under a lorry. For her own safety she will be relocated, again. We can only imagine her reaction when she was told.

Bobbers are going to miss her. Had we known she was going, she could have had one of our special waves.

#169 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn HomeLeave a comment

Every picture tells a story. This picture however tells two stories, one a simple story of making and the other, the story of the consequence.

For some time I have tried to be more sustainable in my painting and creating world. I no longer buy new canvasses to paint on but rely on finding donated canvasses at charity shops. Where possible I buy my paints from independent manufacturers. Similarly I like to get all my fabric and haberdashery requirements from our local Scrap Store where all sorts of things are directed away from landfill and sold at very very low prices for upcycling or repurposing projects.

The picture above is of some rustic bunting that I have wanted to make for a little while. This is the second attempt. Last week I picked up some fabric from the Scrap store, it appeared to have a plastic backing which seemed a good idea for bunting.  This is the second story.

I always wash anything I get from the scrap store, where possible. A plastic backing did not seem a reason not to wash the fabric.

Towards the end of the wash cycle the washing machine had an error code that suggested the washing machine was failing to drain.  Youtube told me how to clear the problem. Nothing I did, though, could undo the machines filter. More YouTubing took me to places way beyond my strength or competency so I rang a local washing machine repair company who gave me an appointment in a few days time. Once more on YouTube I learned how to drain the water out of the machine and open the door to get the fabric out. In horror I discovered that the plastic backing of my recycled fabric had in fact been a complex and glossy paper backing which was now a glorious gloop of papier maché in the bottom of my washing machine. I feared the worst and felt quite sweaty about the cost implications of washing exceedingly beautiful but cheap fabric in the best washing machine German engineering can provide.

Complete honesty was the only way to approach the engineer and his apprentice on their arrival. They seemed a little surprised but not particularly concerned. Twenty minutes later they emerged with a tiny quantity of papier maché and a bent and tarnished twenty pence piece. The machine was well on its way through a normal cycle.

German engineering can cope with papier mache but not, it seems with a twenty pence coin trapped in the filter.

Finding the twenty pence piece cost me £45. I still have to wash all those pieces of fabric to remove the thousands of particles of paper off them. This time by hand, I have no wish to see error E18 again even if the machine has proved it can cope. My bunting is made with unwashed fabric, another hand washing project for later in the week.

I’ve saved nearly three kilogrammes of fabric from landfill in a week. This does not feel as virtuous as it should! So far even the twenty pence is out to vex me. Every parking machine, so far has rejected it, and handing it over in a shop will just look as if I am trying to pass over an archaeological find rather than legal tender.

#168, theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

For the last few weeks I have been involved in a Wordle Whatsapp group. It involves a group of people connected with a fiftieth birthday party that I went to in Pangbourne. It must be a sign of age that the only significant thing I don’t remember from the party is talking about Wordle. Perhaps even more important is that it appears to be an early morning WordleWhatsapp so I wake up already under pressure from the really early birds.

Now my early mornings have so many possible starts. Dog Walk? Blog? Wordle? Shower? Breakfast? Book? Staying awake beyond midnight gives me the chance to Wordle or Blog before most people are about, but me and midnight are not as well acquainted as we used to be since I swapped NHS life for that of Museums and Art.

All the interiors or fashion magazines mention Wordle Green as a key colour this year.

I’m not convinced, myself, that I could wear Wordle Green or live with too much of it. But some of my favourite colours are greens. When the sun is out in April it makes greens especially vivid. So taking my queue from recent style magazines I’m going to feature some almost Wordle Greens for the end of this pondering

.

Plymouth to Gunnislake railway journey. Bright shafts of sunlight hit overgrown hedges along the track . April 2021
Inherited 1970’s coloured glass tumblers sitting in the sun waiting to be packed for a house move. April 2021
Easter painting from our Grandchild in Hong Kong . April 2021
Seaweed in the tidal pool at Firestone Bay. April 2021
Old door near the Cremyl Ferry. Stonehouse Peninsular. April 2021

All the dates on these pictures predate Wordle Green by a year. If only I were published by the New York Times, the hot new colour on the block could have been…

@theoldmortuary Green. There’s a thought!

#167 theoldmortuary ponders

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

Some days should be celebrated for their ‘ normalness’. Lola has returned to her pre-surgery, happy, self so the dog world, in our house, has returned to near normal. In the outside world, we had a day that was really very similar to pre-pandemic life. We said goodbye to some friends heading off for some prolonged travelling and I went to an in-person bookclub where 90% of the members attended with no-one away with Covid. The only person who couldn’t attend couldn’t come because she was too busy elsewhere. These may be really mundane observations on the activities of a day but the fact that they are so normal is spectacularly exciting. Near normal days have been almost impossible for more than two years. Normal is really rather lovely. A normal day ended with a beautiful, but normal for here, sunset. Pretty much a perfect day.

#166 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)6 Comments
©thelounges.co.uk

This blog owes its very existence to normal life, however dull that may be. Normal life is going on around me, but 5 weeks after getting a really nasty virus, that constantly tested negative for Covid, I am just about back to normal. But without any sense of taste or smell. Possibly a sign that I did actually have Covid but never actually trapped it on a Lateral Flow Test.  Curiously this really does impact my life. Yesterday I spent ages at a food market with not a glimmer of greed for anything that was on offer. Who actually knew that taste and smell are such a huge part of how we judge our surroundings. I suppose this is a warning to you all that I may mention this subject more than once in these blogs. It looms larger in my life than you might imagine.The early weeks of my impediment were spent bullying my taste buds back into action with chilli, mustard and horseradish. It didnt really work on the taste buds, but my blocked sinuses are wonderfully clear now, beautiful echo chambers in my face. My sense of taste and smell can fleetingly return, but only for a few seconds,it isn’t always an accurate flavour of what I am eating either,but after thirty seconds of the same stimulation and all my sensors switch off and I am left enjoying, or not, the texture of what I am eating with nothing else going on. I have two main flavour sensations, everything else is hit or miss. The first called ‘Burning Galleon’ and illustrated by the drawing above of a wooden ship. Burning Galleon happens whenever there is smoke in the air. I love the smell of Burning Galleon, a gorgeous mix of woodsmoke and tar, but it is hugely indiscriminate and can cover a bonfire, barbeque, cigarette or spliff but for a few, brief, seconds my nose lifts into the breeze to capture the passing sensation. The other flavour sensation is “Lemon Disgusting’, so called because I use the flavours below at such intense levels that normal people would wince just having a tiny taste.

I am superbly fortunate that I only get one horrific flavour and that is the ripest manure imaginable. It occurs only where vegan cheese puts in an appearance anywhere near me.

5 weeks on I’m in an eating and drinking no mans land. Living for the first few seconds of food and drink, desperate for clashing textures. Aware that only the first few mouthfuls have any credibility or true value. Constantly leaving mugs of tea undrunk.

Monday moaning done…

#165 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Coffee Hunters, SerendipityLeave a comment

Quite the command on my early morning walk. Our usual, quiet, morning walk was enlivened by the arrival of many vendors for the monthly food and craft market. This coffee shop got our business later in the day. The sun was super bright, but the temperature was only just above zero. Beyond a dog walk I was also up early to catch some mussels in the sharply angled sunshine.

Mission accomplished.

#164 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola1 Comment
Dawn April 1st 2019

I need no excuse to republish this photograph. A tributary running into the Tamar at low tide.I love it. 2019 was the last time April arrived when the arrival of Spring was anything like optimistic, yesterday April 1st blew in with bright sunshine, sharp shadows and icy cold blasts. Some optimism but not on the heady scale of 2019.

Lola has another week of convalescence, with only two walks a day of fifteen minutes. Hugo was booked in for a haircut so we had a couple of hours of being out and about when we could only be out and about in an extremely leisurely way. Some gentle Charity Shop shopping provided a brand new cashmere jumper that made outdoor breakfast a much more comfortable affair than it would have been, dressed as I was originally.

There are rules though about Charity shop shopping, if things come home with us other things have to be donated. With Lola comfortably settled on a sofa in the studio I set about a bit of a spring clean with donation in mind. The studio became the last place of the house to be sorted out when we moved. I had sorted it enough to be a usable space but there is plenty still to do. Lola will happily oversee my efforts in the next week from the comfort of a velvet sofa.

Yesterday Facebook gave me a time hop photo of Hugo as a clean white five month old puppy 9 years ago. A lovely coincidence as being groomed yesterday has given me a clean white mature gentleman for a few days. A picture comparison was inevitable.

Just for balance here is a recuperating Lola cautiously extending her love of cuddles

And some late narcissus that make the house smell beautiful every morning.

April , not exactly optimistic but better than March.

#163 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, PhotographsLeave a comment
©Angela Bobber

There has been an abrupt cold weather change this week. The sun is out but the temperature is decidedly chilly. Goodness knows what the sea is doing, from a distance in the early evening it appears to be very dark in colour. Closer up during a bobbing session on Wednesday the bay was this gorgeous teal colour. Bobbers can have lively imaginations about the sea creatures they can see when the water looks like this.

This week I’ve started work on a longstanding commission for some paintings of things that are actually in the sea.

My starting point is Mackerel.

Three jolly mackerel posed in the bright sunlight this week.It was so cold they didnt thaw out at all during the half hour posing session. Natural sunlight brought out all the colour on their backs and the subtle iredescence of their bellies.

It must be amazing to sail close to shoals of mackerel. I find them a really beautiful subject to photograph and paint. But being near them alive and swimming must be really special.

For this commission mackerel are going to pose on the fishmongers paper they arrived in. The crumples and creases make some really interesting shapes on a neutral background when lit by sharp morning light.

Enough of fishy posing and pontificating we are nearly at the weekend, we have arrived in April and here the sun is shining. Happy Friday, take care with cunning April Fool jokes, my early morning wake up by Alexa was the first to catch me out this morning. Enjoy the weekend.