Month: Nov 2025

#1351 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
Singapore Slings at Raffles Hotel, Singapore

Today was all about two cocktail bars, some shape shifting and 20,000 sweaty steps.

First stop the Art Science Museum where we shape-shifted in mirrored galleries with lights and projections.

Shape-shifting was exhausting so R and R was required in the tranquil spaces of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

In Festive Spirit we had a Figgy Pudding.

Before heading to Ce la Vi, a popular roof top bar and venue where a family member used to regularly DJ.

We marked the moment and the surroundings with a Singapore Sling.

 

Then off later to another Bar, where Hannah’s Dad had visited, many years ago. The Long Bar at Raffles Hotel.

Although on this occasion we drank a less feminine cocktail, a Straits Cup.

We may well have been at a favourite tourist  location  but not going with the herd was a great choice.

Singapore Slings x 10.

A day well spent, two cocktails made 20,000 steps seem a little easier on the feet until we stopped. And then it didn’t.

#1350 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
Good Evening, Singapore.

What are your two favorite things to wear?

Sandals are my favourite things to wear and as they come in pairs,  that neatly spares me from thinking of a second item. Which would be a hard task.

My feet are free spirits who dislike full enclosure at any time of the year. This year in particular my feet have prolonged sandal wearing until exactly this point when a very late summer holiday has taken us to Asia.

A dark November switched overnight to something warm and exotic. Sunbeams on my toes. They are somewhat tired toes, slightly puffy from a long period of travel but very excited to see sunshine.

My toes particularly enjoyed my evening bob in a rooftop pool. No anaesthetising chill forcing them into socks and boots, just a quick dab and they were ready to see the night.

A rooftop pool from a rooftop pool.

#1349 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment
Otter Valley. The first wee stop from home.

The end of PHEaAT. Pre-Holiday -Ess ntial and Accidental Tasks.

The run up to a holiday has several essential tasks and chores. Known to all the world over. Packing, passports and visas. Dog or pet holiday care ( they took 7 bags) are all fairly standard. As are at least two loads of last minute laundry. I would also add as standard, but the little talked about talent of preparing meals using up the fresh ingredients from a fridge. My tour de force this week was Merguez sausages wrapped in bacon served with organic curly Kale, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. All pushed to the last supper because of their use-by dates apart from the Organic Curly Kale which had slipped from his organic best only two days after purchase. Visually he was in his prime long after his date of despair. Firm of shaft  and as curly as a 70’s film star. He struggled to assimilate with any of my  PHEaAT creations earlier in the week.  I cannot guess if last night’s concoction was too his Organic credentials but his fate was sealed. A green vegetable accompanying the unusual foods last standing in the fridge.

#1394 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn insomnia, SerendipityLeave a comment

If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?

What a perfect prompt for this morning. My head has had a very busy night whilst I slept on.

I have a fair bit of experiencing no sleep. Night shifts, 24 hour shifts and a head that gifts me insomnia when times are tricky. Hence the swan images. I am pretty good at appearing to float calmly while life throws me curve balls and incendiary devices. Under the surface though I am paddling furiously and not always in the right direction.

My head is a bit busy right now but I am sleeping well. But my dream world is very creative. Writing an in depth blog overnight that in dream world was rather good, in my opinion, but that I have no recollection of the details. In another remembered dream loads of paintings in shades of orange.

This more or less accurately answers the question. In a world where I didn’t need sleep I would be more creative.

But we all need sleep and a lack of sleep absolutely affects how creative I can be. However if the streets at night were safe for women I would walk more. Night walks in central London gave me some of the best experiences of walking  through famous and architecturally beautiful streets without crowds. I felt safe in a way I could never feel in a provincial city or in the countryside.

So that just leaves me reading and nibbling. Great for knowledge, not so good for the waistline.

#1393 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays1 Comment
An English Oak tree

We are on the countdown to a big adventure. We  have two more days of pre-trip-prep. Meanwhile in the last hour or so, on the other side of the world our friends have set off on a road trip to collect us  next week. Suddenly it all feels very real.

A friendship that has its roots under an Oak tree. The school bus stop in a small Essex village.  Goodness knows where it will take us this December. Sea pools for sure, beaches and coffee shops.

So far the only thing packed is my pencil case and two sketch books. There is a pile of clothes to be sorted through and gifts to be wrapped. Passports have been found…

#1392 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
©Anne Bobber. New Moon over Firestone Bay.

Bobbers do inspire some random pondering. Anne Bobber took a walk this evening to see the new moon . Some intrepid swimmers and divers were still in the water one of whom said he chased a huge squid.

These are waters that we swim in very regularly, with no idea that we might have close encounters with much sea life especially something squid-like and huge.

Some delving into Squid Fishing websites does suggest that squid are attracted to the piercing clear light of a cloudless New Moon. So the swimmer may not have been mistaken. But that does also make me ponder that squid of all sizes must be there while the bobbers bob, which is not something we have ever given much thought to. And maybe we shouldn’t.

Says one squid to another.

“I was in Firestone Bay for the new moon, and I saw a huge bobber”

#1391 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, Words1 Comment

Last November I was given a rose for my birthday.

For some reason I just accepted the name without ever looking up its meaning . To be honest I thought it was rather a clunky name for something quite so pretty. Moving on to yesterday evening  when our dog walk took us to the furthest part of Devils Point and the Royal William Yard. There was a beautiful sunless sunset and this historic gas lamp had been fitted with a bulb that glowed with a warm light.

Only moments earlier at the top of the staircase I had seen delicious clouds basking in the light of the departed sun.

In a perfect world I would have been on this spot five minutes earlier. Those clouds deserved a visible light source. I stuck the two images and came up with this one.

I was never going to pretend it was genuine but felt it needed a name. Only to discover the French word for twighlight.

So , I am doubly educated . I no longer think my rose has a clunky name and I am quite delighted to realise  that I planted it , by accident, so that when it has grown the sun will set behind it. Both crepusculing together.

Crepuscule in Stonehouse 2025

#1390 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for saleLeave a comment
A Facebook post from 2017

It is not often that I know the afterlife of a painting once it is sold from a gallery.

My flower heads project started whilst I was living and working in London. I was fascinated by the need to refresh the flowers in public gardens and parks while they seemed to be still in their prime because the gardeners schedule dictated a plant regime change. Skips and wheelbarrows filled haphazardly with glorious blooms . The picture above was inspired by a similar phenomenon. I worked near Harley Street in London for a long while. Bleep in hand , I could wander the cobbled mews out of hours while waiting for emergencies to call me back to work.

The Mewses of Marylebone are fascinating places. Very famous and or wealthy people live there and use their back lanes as more discrete ways of accessing their homes. They walk their dogs there and have  deliveries delivered. Royalty and celebrities are dropped to the back of prestigious medical clinics for treatments and appointments.  For the subject of this blog, Florists change very posh flower arrangements in homes and Medical Clinics every day. Flowers still beautiful and vivid are tossed into large buckets or skips and dumped. Smart phone in hand I used to take pictures of these crazy juxtapositions of beautiful flowers chucked out with newspapers or take-away food boxes.

The Underpainting. The purple was a Liberty of London carrier bag.

Many exhibitions later the smaller paintings had sold. The big one went off to Cotehele. A Mediaeval Dower house in the Tamar Valley

In these auspicious surroundings my painting found its forever home.  Which should be the end of the story. But unknown to me a friend had bought it.

She was somewhat surprised by the size of it as she tried to get it in her car. And even more surprised when she had it in her own hallway.  With only millimetres to spare it snuggled between her picture rail and dado rail . Very much a statement piece.

P.s I popped this painting in the sun to dry. Hugo had a pee close by and was no respecter of wet paint.

#1389 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art1 Comment

It is a good day when some bright colours arrive to join the pencil case gang. I’ve not had a chance to give them a good run out yet . Just a quick check for colour. Not all coloured water colour pencils are created equal. Some like to dominate and others are more timid.

They have all had a gentle first outing  as pale washes of themselves and two have gone in a little stronger. I never know who the dominant personalities  will be with any different  brand or type of art materials. I always create an organic colour chart, just letting them flow over each other or just sit side by side. A deep red called Shiraz, a mustard and Leaf green are the early strong personalities. But who can guess what tomorrow’s tinkering will bring. I am heading to some vibrant places very soon so I need to know who to rely on in vivid corners of the world.

#1388 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Books1 Comment

The two weeks after my birthday were pretty well mapped out with appointments, normal life and creative periods. I am half way through this two week period and it has not panned out at all as I expected. Normal life and creative periods are the soft tissues that are formed around the skeleton of life which is formed by meetings, appointments and essential admin. This two week period would have pottered along  quite nicely. A virus slightly knocked me off the tracks until yesterday and then I was all set to get things done. Almost as the virus  walked out and shut the door a series of phone calls cancelled four appointments that I had scheduled over the next few days. Some will not see the light of day until 2026. With diary gaps I planned other things.  This morning I decided to go for a pedicure and some foot care. My normal place is always buzzing  and I never need an appointment. Except today I did, so it was a very brief visit and I have booked for Saturday.

So instead of pampered feet I decided to move a book case ready for the hallway to be painted.

I knew it was a mammoth task. This bookcase is both a transit hub and a dead end.

There was never a before picture and the picture above is certainly a temporary set up.

A load of random paperwork has gone into recycling and I have a small bag of books for a charity shop.

But what of the bookshelf. So many books I will never read again, some I have never read. 

My mums text books from her sexual health clinic. More than 50 years old they are an amusing and at times uncomfortable read. My dad’s books that carried him through brutal and ineffective chemotherapy . My childhood books and the books belonging to my children. Maybe 20 or so books that will be read again.

So is this a bookshelf or a repository of mine and other peoples memories? I think it is both, and before it moves back to the newly painted hallway I will empty it again to move and paint it so it isn’t quite so shabby. I bet I won’t be able to get rid of any more of these books to a charity shop, but they will be tidier after the next move.