Gorgeous candles from Rome, look amazing against centuries old Cornish slate flooring.
Andrea Moraes, http://www.candlestore.it
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.
A coffee/style addict in Cheltenhan
Baker and Graze
Whilst working away from home, I’m always desperate to find the best coffee. At the moment, I’m based at Cheltenham General Hospital and having tried all the coffee shops within the hospital, I can confirm its all terrible. The stuff ‘palpitations’ are made with.
So whilst only given 30 minutes for lunch, I decided to check out Baker and Graze. It had the look outside of somewhere that cared about coffee and good food. They serve food, many types of chocolate brownies, also freshly baked bread. The brunch type servings looked delicious.
The ‘flat white’ was superb and gave me the hit required with no ill effects. Needless to say whilst working away, this will be my cafe of choice.
Peanut butter , oat and Fig tray bake
A trip to Jacka today and this was one of the cakes of the day. I bought it for the coffee addict who is once again checking out the coffee shops of Cheltenham. Check out the following link for the original Jacka story. What a difference the sun makes.
The Hutong Cafe, Plymouth.
My dogs are urban dogs, they like a circular walk on tarmac with plenty of green space to run around on and a dog friendly cafe for a bit of a nap. I’ve been trying to recreate that for them in Plymouth. Today I struck gold for all of us.
We parked at Devils Point and had half an hour of fabulous sniffs and running about before descending the steps into the Royal William Yard to call in at Ocean Studios before taking the road back to Devils Point.
The Hutong Cafe just outside the grand gates of the Royal William Yard used to be a pub. Now it’s a stylish cafe serving great coffee.
I’m not the main coffee addict at theoldmortuary.design but I do know a good cup of coffee when the bubbles on the crema reflect beautiful oily-looking copper colours on the top of a simple black coffee. So there we go, top marks for the look of a black coffee, top marks for flavour. My piece of cake was great too , but as usual I’m really more about the style of the place.
Hutong has great style. Easy on the eye, industrial retro , done impeccably, which is not always as simple as it looks.
Style is also about the ambience of the place and Hutong gets it right. Dogs are welcome either outside or inside, nearer to the front of the cafe.
George, one of the owners, was welcoming when we arrived and he and Owen the barista were involved in conversations with everyone in the cafe at some point during my visit. Later I met Jack , George’s brother and co-owner, who is equally engaging. George and Jack have great plans for the future of this cafe and they were a pleasure to natter to. Chris the chef made a brief appearance to smile , completing what seems to be a winning team. A cafe this good is a great addition to the area and a fabulous place to take the most dedicated of coffee lovers.
Dungeness
Dungeness, I’ve loved this place for ever through the work of Derek Jarman. When I relocated to London it became my favourite place to visit when I needed a fix of sea air. The boardwalks are a gift to photographers and I can never resist them. This one makes it onto the website because the vapour trail mimics the direction of the distant boardwalk.
Queueing to put nobody in the chair.
Children and their parents were puzzled by me today. Puzzled is putting it mildly , quite frankly they thought I was mad.
The chair is an oversized deck chair that easily accommodated 6 children just before my turn.
Queueing not to put someone in the seat was an alien concept to the children in the queue and , to be fair, their parents. I had to virtually push the little buggers off when it was my turn. Something that didn’t please the devoted parents.
Of course without a human in the seat you can get no sense of scale unless you know the local geography very well.
So perhaps I was a little mad.
theoldmortuary.design- our style
Theoldmortuary is furnished predominantly by recycled and repurposed furniture and fittings. The Barcelona chair here was an eBay bargain bought in Kent. The yellow cushion is by Harlequin from John Lewis and the one behind is from Hoi An , Vietnam. The pouffe comes from Habitat and the picture above was painted by Juliet Cornell and represents the mineral pollution that exudes into the mud of Devon Great Consuls mine at Gunnislake. The walls are painted with Farrow and Ball Railings.
This cuddle sofa has been recycled from our flat in London. The bee pillows come from John Lewis. The wallpaper is Flying Ducks by Mulberry and the painted wall is Railings by Farrow and Ball. The prints are simply illustrations of insects printed by inkjet printer on pages from an old book.
Too late for breakfast
Today was supposed to be breakfast at The Canteen, Maker Heights, but somehow the morning slipped into afternoon . 
Breakfast is the reason we go to Maker Heights , not the only reason , but the main one. To arrive too late was a shock, one which required coffee and quick thinking .
As it turns out missing the breakfast slot was a good thing, we just ordered random things and were blown away , metaphorically and actually, by the amazing tastes of the food and the wind . Potato wedges with cheese, Asparagus Salad, Smoked Mackeral Pate and a tasting board, all delicious. This is not however a food blog, there are a million bloggers out there who can write good stuff about the food here better than me.
If I were a food blogger, I would go on and on about just how tasty the food at The Canteen is, but this is an Art, Design and Style blog. So I’d say get over there ,check out the funky art, Hope that it’s not too full for you to see the eclectic style and enjoy some fabulous food whilst you discuss the design and landscape.
The Canteen at Maker Heights@makercanteen
So beyond breakfast why do we go to The Canteen at Maker.
1, The views, they are spectacular .
2. The Coffee, seriously good coffee.
3. Most importantly for a design blog . The Style
4 The Welcome, all the staff here are lovely every time we come.
5 The countryside around South East Cornwall is known as the forgotten corner of Cornwall. Getting to Maker Canteen takes you through spectacular countryside.
6 After today, we will be going for all the other lovely food, we may well miss breakfast more often.
7 The Vibe. This place makes you smile, a lot. Sometimes too much.
And then you fall off the bench 
theoldmortuary.design 