Author: theoldmortuary.design

theoldmortuary has been a blog for about five years. It has evolved into an almost daily event. Pondering on the things that are inspired by my daily life. Often mundane, sometimes repetitive I swerve from hyperlocal activity to big and small thoughts without blinking an eye. I am an artist and writer. My hometown is Plymouth in South West England, part of me will always be connected to London and another part loves to travel.

Pandemic Pondering #475

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Books, Moving HouseLeave a comment

Yesterday the hardware for our domestic WiFi was installed. Today at some point we should be back in the world of Broadband.

©Debs Bobber

The last three weeks have been frustrating. When we told our network at the old house that we had a moving date the company switched us off immediately. Installation at the new house has not been a smooth operation. Coupled with a very poor 3/4g signal at the new house we’ve been out of the loop. All news and entertainment was provided by a radio. We blagged our way into a friends house to watch the Euro 21 final on TV. Curry, football and a discussion about African Wax cloth was a great experience.

Emails and WhatsApp arrived in a bunch whenever we left home. It has been a great leveller, we are as out of touch with people a mile away as we are with friends and family all over the world. Face to distant face chat outdoors has been our most reliable form of contact.

©Debs Bobber

Yesterday more than 6 book group readers met in a garden to talk about a specific book. This is going to hurt by Adam Kay. ( mixed reviews) Then we shared our good reads of the past month.

All the lovely pictures in this blog were provided by Debs, a Bobber. Bobbing has probably kept us in the loop more reliably than anything else over the last few weeks. Three days a week, at least, regardless of the weather we all meet up at Tranquility Bay and swim and natter. Last night the bay reflected its name.

©Debs Bobber

And there may have been underwater seal activity.

Is this a seals eye. ©Debs Bobber

We await activation!

Pandemic Pondering#474

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)1 Comment

It’s been quite a red and white weekend in England. There was a significant football match brewing. Sadly the result didn’t go the way England would have wanted and we are not Champions of Europe in Football. On the other hand strawberries and cream nourished and consoled us through penalties and ultimate disappointment. A different red and white army, an English summer served in a bowl. Reliably successful every time.

Pandemic Pondering #473

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home TownsLeave a comment

Christmas In July! Not exactly of course but certainly a flavour of the festive season. The last of our furniture and ‘stuff’ arrived yesterday, out of storage. A large old chest arrived ready to be stacked with Christmas decorations. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen our Christmas trinkets in the summer before. Yesterday was probably the last hard day of furniture positioning and curtain hanging. We rewarded ourselves with a Caribbean platter. Nothing rewards hard physical labour in quite the same way as a takeaway.

The work of the day was doubly rewarded with a trip to a comedy club at The Leadworks in the evening. This really was a milestone in the Pandemic, our first night out in a club environment. Normality with just some changes. It felt so good to laugh in public, in unison with strangers.

Chuckling, chortling, giggling, just fabulous. The room was puffed up with happiness and we ordered a cup of tea via WhatsApp at 11Pm because we could. I’m fairly certain I’ve never juggled a cup and saucer in a club environment before. It’s probably not the last time. High on laughter and a warm tummy is a good feeling.

https://www.leadworksprojects.com/

Pandemic Pondering #472

On By theoldmortuary.designIn AnecdotesLeave a comment
Debs Bobber

Hard on the heels of the Friday blog is the Saturday blog. The waters between Drakes Island and the tidal pool is a very busy stretch of water. Some of the most regular users are the Dockyard Tugs. This one is Faithful and is a Twin Tractor Unit Tug, built in 1985.

All the Bobbers love it when a Tug chugs past on a swimming session, there is a delicious thrum that goes through the water and resonates in our bones.

The name Faithful also gives me the chance to share a rare Celebrity anecdote. Sharing is the rarity. Having worked in Harley Street and in proper London Hospitals we’ve many an amusing tale filed away but confidentiality is a hurdle to witty celebrity nattering.

We were at a festival a few years ago when we saw some kitten heeled feet sticking out of a bush, closer inspection found them to be attached to a woman, still holding a glass, we grabbed her arms and pulled her out and she carried on walking without comment. Coincidentally a similar thing had happened to us at a different event about a year before. The women’s surnames were Faithful and Pallenburg. It’s not everyday you find someone in an awkward situation but finding two Rolling Stones muses in separate bushes is quite a story. Of course both the women in question were substantial people in their own right, but it can be argued that their fame and friendship began when they were associated with the Rolling Stones which is why I’ve allowed myself to use the word ‘ muse’.

Pandemic Pondering #471

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, Serendipity1 Comment

The superlate blog, not the superlative blog!

Lamp post heart.

This late blog writing will not become a regular habit. The two things I thought I might write about are so far apart I can’t begin to sew them together but I will try. Coupled with no WiFi and no broadband and patchy signal there is an awful lot of hanging around waiting for deliveries that all the wonderful tracking apps are meant to stop. But currently tracking is not for me and neither, reliably, is a quick call from the driver to say he is close. So we hang around all day waiting for things to arrive. The bonus to this is that there is ample time for unpacking and reorganising, to this end we have sorted out the two large fireplaces that are monumental features in the new house. Not sorted out in a way that will ever see the use of fossil fuels but sorted out in an aesthetic and houseplant kind of way.

The pale gold sofa in the top picture was pulled out of a skip nearly 30 years ago. It lived for years in a conservatory and was the slightly uncomfortable chair of choice for teenagers desperate to think big thoughts away from their parents. Hardly the kindest treatment for a sofa, clearly designed for the finer things in life. A bit of reupholstery brought it back to life and it used to live in the upstairs part of @theoldmortuary. Even that, an undertakers home and workplace was possibly a bit beneath the dignity of such an elegant piece of furniture. Maybe this recent move has brought it more into the surroundings it was designed for.

The houseplants in the bottom picture are gathered together in an old fender found at the house. They need something to control them, it seems not a week goes past without a new one joining our commune. In between titivating and embellishing fireplaces while waiting for deliveries the dogs still need walking and that is how the heart on a lamppost almost inexplicably joins in with this blog.

I spend a lot of time looking at lampposts while Hugo and Lola sniff out the messages left by other dogs and then leave coded notes of their own. Most lamposts are dull for humans but this one kept me occupied for as long as it took my dogs to read the urine news further down. What is going on here? The texture in the heart is keeping me thinking long after our ten legs carried us back to home to more unpacking. Hope your Friday was worthy of the expectation.

P. S I did some digital tweaking on the heart for the header image of this blog. I suspect the heart covers a message that someone no longer wants to be legible…

Pandemic Pondering #470

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Moving House, Serendipity1 Comment

We are broadband less, WiFi less and with a poor signal for 5 more days. 5 more days of constrained blogging. Gardening however is unaffected. The pot grown garden plants have perhaps done the best out of our recent move, they communicate in ancient ways, unaffected by the whimsy of telecom companies. A North and East facing corner plot swapped for South and West Facing yard suits them very well so far.

The move has not been without its casualties. One Acer struggled a bit with being potted then rallied but was beaten by bad weather and a trip in a van. The numbers of plants has not diminished as some new ones have arrived in the arms of precious friends.

Who needs broadband when you have views like this on the evening dog walk.

The sad truth is that in this techno age it is very difficult to navigate many things without a computer or smart phone or a decent signal. The challenge of going through the preliminary stages of a call centre 5 times or dropping out of an on-line ‘ chat’ is one that I am learning to accept with every day that passes. 5 more days will not be so bad.

In other news one of the Bobbers has escaped to London to visit the Hampton Court Flower Show. Seals and dolphins forgotten she is in Green Park with the Elephants.

©Gilly Bobber
©Gilly Bobber

Elephants like plants communicate perfectly well without Wifi. Note to self, be more Elephant.

Pandemic Pondering #469

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment
©Debs Bobber

Screaming man rock. Not on our usual beach this evening. The tide was high and the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, so we moved to the more popular beach near the tidal pool for a safer swim.

©Debs Bobber

We were a split pack this evening with some Bobbers swimming an hour after the larger group set off. Lucky that they did because they caught sight of the seal swimming just behind the earlier group. Not realising such a special swim was occuring would have made the evening a whole lot more dull. Although, as usual, time spent with the Bobbers is far from dull even in the worst conditions.

©Debs Bobber
©Debs Bobber

Dogs were also enjoying a swim. Not ours of course because they get left at home during swimming.

The popular beach even has facilities.

Very useful for hanging Bobbers jumpers.

After a warming shower we returned for the evening dog walk just to keep them happy. Which it did, until the rain returned.

Pandemic Pondering #468

On By theoldmortuary.designIn HomeLeave a comment

Another day with a late blog, no broadband, no WiFi and a very poor signal. Also after two days waiting in vain for engineers we now have to wait 48 hours before we can get another appointment. Instead of scrolling through our phones we continue to unpack. Here is a tidy corner featuring tinned products that Have printed tin rather than paper wrappings. We are not avid collectors of anything but we do love some printed tin. We don’t collect fridge magnets either but the tiny collection below is evidence of how far down the unpacking pecking order we have got.

We are off for a swim soon, so with luck tomorrow’s blog will not be a reflection of cupboard curating. Who could begin to guess when a normal service will resume.

Pandemic Pondering #467

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s blog. Facebook memories gave me four images that I can use for the Monday Blog.

This first one is from the birthday some years ago of the friend who we always, apart from the last two years spend together. The rainbow cake rather nicely leads into a watercolour I did about three years ago. I was taking some watercolour classes. The subject of the week was human figures. I chose to paint a cruising site near Crystal Palace in London. It is called Beaulieu Heights and men go there day or night for casual sexual encounters. I suppose this is about a missed encounter. A man on his phone is oblivious to another man watching him from a park bench.

The word bench leads me rather fortuitously to a stool at Coffee Acadmics in Hong Kong.

Life is often a beautiful journey searching for something but this last picture is me just setting out on life’s journey.

This picture was almost certainly taken at the height of summer on the East Anglican coast. A brisk wind or sea mist often makes a cardigan essential beach wear even in July and August. Not such a problem on the Atlantic Coast which is my current location, although I could do without all the rain.

I have my fingers crossed for the successful instalation of a broadband service later today, that will make blogging and everything else a lot easier.

Pandemic Pondering #466

On By theoldmortuary.designIn BirthdaysLeave a comment

Better late than never. A Sunday morning blog written on Sunday evening. Standards are dropping here. Today is the second year we have missed a friends birthday. The grand Black Labrador Officer is a quirky gift that has still not been delivered. He was unpacked this morning in a box of both random and essential items. Today has completely been about curtains and torrential rain, neither subject particularly blogworthy.

We took the dogs out when the rain, briefly, cleared. The hedge in the middle of this picture is made up of roses that grow wildly on this cliff. Their fragrance is exactly that of Turkish Delight.

The break in the rain was all too brief. Just one look at this sky made us head for home and another few hours up ladders wrestling heavy fabrics onto curtain polls.

Just one more day of tardy blogging. Tomorrow we should have our broadband service connected and a normal service will resume!