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.
Actually it was Friday sun and the image has been manipulated to make everything a bit more golden. Dreamlike perhaps.
There is a reason for this. Todays blog is about dreamscapes. I’ve noticed over the last week or so that my dreams that are close to reality have started to take place in pandemic world. Nothing dramatic, not nightmares. There are times when my dreams are so dull and humdrum waking up is a relief. It is these non interesting dreams that have shifted into Pandemic World. I’m not really sure why I’ve shared this, but as an observation of the progress of the pandemic I suppose it has some value.
Waking up today was a tiny shock to the system. We planned an early morning swim. Ooh it was chilly.
Yesterday was International Book Day. Serendipity put this book into my hands. I ordered it because I like the input this psychotherapist brings to a TV art programme. Graysons Art Club on Channel 4. Eponymously named for her husband, ceramacist Grayson Perry.
We have a lot of Grayson’s books @theoldmortuary. He is an original thinker. We go to his exhibitions and his live performances. I’m sure Philippa will not have written a bog standard self-help book.
This might seem like an odd book for me to read . @theoldmortuary our parents are long dead and the Pandemic has rendered us theoretical relations. No hands on parenting, grandparenting , or siblinging in this house currently.
To be honest I just fancied something that wasn’t a novel, biography or a book club essential. I’ve had a great pandemic year of reading , hardly a moment wasted on a below par book. So why not take some time with a book that is not exactly aimed at me. I love reading books by wise women regardless of the theme or its relevance to my life, there is always nuggets of information to be be gleaned and used for the benefit my mind management.
Wise women will also be significant in my next reading project. I’m writing a review for this fascinating book about women who have relocated to Italy.
LostandfoundinItaly.com
Just as with Philippa Perry there is an arty connection. Linda Winter, a friend of mine who lived a similar London/Tamar Valley life as me, relocated to Italy two years ago and is the illustrator of the book. I can’t wait to get a copy in my hands, how delicious to read it with real purpose and a chance to write about art again.
This last few weeks has seen bloggers around the world start to comment on the anniversaries of Lockdowns starting. I use the Bloglovin App and WordPress Reader to follow other blogs.
Being a daily blogger I have another 19 days before I need to confront an anniversary, but no matter what the style or genre of the blogs, that I choose to follow there are some common threads. Puzzlement and incredulity that a year has passed and the changes that they have experienced from the mundane to Life Altering.
Not needing to write my anniversary blog just yet but being aware set me thinking yeserday. We deliberately imposed restrictions on our contacts and travel well before the government imposed restrictions on us. For over a year now we have barely travelled 10 miles in any direction from the Tamar River and that includes periods when we could have gone further. Excluding a couple of essential trips to London , with some stops on the way, we have lived the travel life of the average person in pre World War 1 times. Within that small radius there are only about 5 locations that we regularly visit by car. Everything else is a walk starting at home. I’m certain my life has never been this geographically restricted ever before. Obviously like everyone I am also, culturally, socially and familialy restricted which are far more significant. But I am a Thursdays Child.
Loaded into a motor cycle and side car soon after birth and driven 15 miles from maternity unit to home. 10 miles is just not enough!
It may be somewhat late into our International pastime of Lockdowns to give you a new hobby for your daily exercise. But better late than never, I can give you a new micro hobby of looking for Urine deflectors on buildings during your permitted exercise. Once you know the function of a urine deflector they are easy to spot out in the open . Positioned to discourage multiple men from urinating, repeatedly, in the same outdoor location they are designed to return the flow of amber fluid squarely back onto the urinating chaps own feet. I’m sure all cultures have them. Urine deflectors are built onto historic buildings and contemporary ones. Technology might just be removing the need for this almost annonymous feature. A specialist paint or coating has been developed that bounces wee off perpendicular surfaces. I know this not because I have an unnatural interest but because my flat in London was located on a small unlit lane very close to a railway station and @theoldmortuary is opposite a pub ! In either location I have shouted, used a hose and chased the pisser off on those rare occasions when I have caught them in the act. They are rarely apologetic and mostly indignant. Paint would be the answer in both cases , an architectural feature not really possible.
This urine deflector is on the corner of an old pub called The Butchers Arms. Now known as The Hutong Cafe in Stonehouse Plymouth.
Old pubs and public buildings are great locations to find them. We have a big one in Saltash, positioned between an old pub wall and one of the supporting brick legs of I.K. Brunels Royal Albert Rail Bridge that spans the Tamar River.
Mighty EngineeringPractical Engineering.
Happy hunting!
As soon as there is good light there will be a PS ( how appropriate!) to this blog …
P.S. Last night I noticed these 3 additions to the bottom of our church tower. Are they Urine deflectors? These slopes are only added to one side of the church tower base. Historically this church had its own brewery and Public House. This side of the tower would have been on the way home to the town from the pub.
Bobbers the Whatsapp group was formed to give a group of friends some safety in their first year of year -round sea swimming. No one ever swims alone and we nearly always have an on-land observer who keeps an eye on the ‘ bobbers’ who have decided a time to swim together. Some of us have known each other more than thirty years, some others just a few months and today a new bobber joined us.
The safety aspect was underlined today when we heard of the sad death, yesterday, of a fellow open water swimmer, in the next bay to our own.
Bobbing has given us all a fresh new friendship group and the topics of conversation post swim are wide ranging.
The startled look on my face on the header image is the effect of two bobbing sessions.
Yesterday Bobbers hit the beach early to avoid too many people. Overnight the beach had been used for outdoor drinking and it was a dreadful mess. One organised ‘ Bobber’ cleared all the rubbish from the beach and stacked it by the rubbish bins.
On the way back to the cars the same bobber saved a dogs life as she swooped him out from under the wheels of a car as he ran away from his owner. She was declared a Saint for the day. Witty chat suggested that we break off her fingers in order to have a valuable saintly relic.
This morning she arrived with a gift.
We swim very close to a convent , it took very little effort to store the finger within its own protected reliquary within the convent wall.
But as things do, in post swimming conversations, one thing led to another and the finger found an amazing spiders trap.
Which pretty much demonstrates a post bobbing conversation. Loudly covering a million topics and sometimes getting lost down a complex and convoluted hole.
March 1st St Davids Day. Monday . The last full month of Lockdown in Britain …
Meanwhile Fools Spring is still in full swing . To avoid too many people we set off for the beach early and were rewarded with a Mediterranean style morning coffee just west of Plymouths Ferry Port on wartime concrete set into the cliffs.
10,000 or so steps later we returned for an evening swim.
We are lucky, now, that we only have tide times and the weather to consider. Sunrise and Sunset have pushed back enough for them not to be a concern. The bright evening sunlight gave us an interesting moment. Is this the oldest Co-op shop in Britain?
If unseasonably sunny weather appears in any February, in Britain, the moment is known as Fools Spring. People usually flood the streets in lighter clothing and floral patterns. Sunshine on the weekend late in February 2021, after nearly a year of restricted Pandemic living was a recipe for quiet sartorial skittishness. The flood was replaced by a gentle trickle but along with floral patterns, shorts were worn and socks were abandoned so blue white toes could lay flacidly on the corky soles of Birkenstocks.
Colours took on a vivacity that lifted our spirits.
David Partner, a world renowned photographer was collecting images for a project he is working on. Here we are swimming off, oblivious to man in small speedos. Also oblivious to man with large Hasellblad. Just oblivious really!
On returning to land David Partner asked our permission to take photographs of us for his project. Obviously we stripped off to reveal our gorgeously honed bodies and our thong bikinis. Just a slick of lippy and we were camera ready. You will be relieved to know the last two sentences are pure fabrication.
Just a regular ‘ bob’ at Firestone Bay.
Links to David Partner and Plymouth Open Water Swimming below.
I could, of course, be talking about the effect of the current Pandemic. Absolutely it has, and will, cast a long shadow on all of our lives. Not all the long shadows will be negatives. @theoldmortuary, in common with everyone, we’ve had some absolute shockers of negative experiences associated with Covid-19 but there have also been some life changing positives.
Casting a long shadow. Part II.
But today , I’m talking about the long shadows cast by our fish sculptures. The bright sunshine caused, George, our 22 year old cat to bask on the stairs. As the afternoon progressed the fish shadows started moving towards her. At the same time her own particular sunbeam left the stairs and started tracking up the wall. She was not impressed.
Being a predominantly black cat George rarely features in photographs, which made todays impromptu photo shoot all the more lovely. It also gave me the chance to consider long shadows.
There was a time when Thursday blogs were based on my experiences as a gallery guide at The Box. A Pandemic put a stop to that but here we are on a Thursday and this blog will be distinctly Boxlike.
Not Real World of course. Another new tech experience .
The Box Quiz
The people with all the questions and all of the answers.Two of many categories
The low tech answer sheet.
What I can’t show you are my fellow competitors. Microsoft Teams was new to me and I had failed to download the system . In consequence only the hosts/quizmasters were visible to me eveyone else was just a disembodied voice as I was to them!
The questions were fired at us at speed, all the better to thwart googling cheats. It was a fabulous quiz and reassuring that I could actually retrieve random facts from my pandemic befuddled mind.
As it happens @theoldmortuary did quite well. Which just goes to prove that straddling the digital/ Analogue divide is entirely possible, especially if you have your comfy pants on. Or even if you don’t. No video evidence!
theoldmortuary.design 