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.

#1213 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity3 Comments

Far too late in February I have realised that I usually enroll on a creative course of some sort. Three years ago it was a mindful watercolour course with Tansy Horgan which really shook up my way of working with colour.

https://tansyhargan.bigcartel.com/category/in-person-courses

At the time I was working at an art gallery showing an amazing exhibition called Songlines featuring the work of Indigenous   First Nation artists from Australia.

https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/songlines-touring

©theoldmortuary

This was an abstract image inspired by my last day stewarding at the exhibition, created to express what I had learnt and felt about the experience of being submerged in the art of a significantly different culture.

I realised this morning that both learning mindful colour mixing with Tansy Horgan and being drenched in the colours and mark making of  Indiginous Australians has informed my recent hobby of digitally altering  deliberately dull and uninteresting photographs

So much so that I have not painted since Christmas.

I have had a painting project bubbling in my head for some time.

It’s too late now to register for a course in what is left of February. Time to get my bubbling project down on paper and resolve to be better organised next Winter.

©theoldmortuary

For now the Songlines painting combined with the rainy palm tree in my back yard.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18jx1HKCKe/

#1212 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity3 Comments

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

A WordPress blog suggestion I am happy to respond to.

Having lived for more than 130 six month periods I know with some certainty that what I imagine my biggest challenge may well be eclipsed by a bigger but unexpected one. I would also not bore you all with my greatest challenge on an open public blog if I could identify one, which I can’t.

But it is one of life’s great mysteries that what we perceive as challenges often turn out not to be remotely challenging and yet seemingly mundane or benign moments can suddenly be challenging.

Sun setting through a skeleton leaf.

#1211 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment
This is not Olympic Bunny

In the summer we raised the height of our perimeter wall to deter the cats, chickens( and their associated r**s) from our neighbours city backyard crossing into our yard. The deterrent has largely worked until a new creature was added to their menagerie. He bounces onto our garage and balances along stone walls. A rabbit with Olympic skills in high jump and escapology. He has been rescued from the back lane and a local car park. This week he may have made his final escape. He has been missing for four days. His last rescue attempt on Tuesday evening when he was returned to gis own back yard. A rabbit with the 9 lives of his cat companions. Maybe this weekend he turned left and joined the Nuns who run Nazareth House just a hop and a skip from his home.

But for now, no more Olympic Bunny. But if you ever see a handsome rabbit in a wimple and a sturdy pair of shoes…

#1210 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn London, Love, SerendipityLeave a comment

Following on from –

#1209 theoldmortuary ponders.

Aerial views with love involved.

The Heart Hospital and Barts

What a gift to a love of places blog, is a workplace called The Heart Hospital, under the small arrow. So much love for many of the people I worked with there, who are now spread around the world. Love for Marylebone the London village where it was located. Love also for Selfridge’s on Oxford Street which was always on the way home. A corner shop to beat all corner shops. The big arrow is Barts Hospital. The location of my seventeen-year-old self starting a career and also where I finished my professional life 43 years later. An unplanned circularity which is strangely satisfying.

The next picture is looking south to our London ‘home’s’. Dulwich Village, Brixton,Gipsy Hill and Crystal Palace. The greige makes them impossible to point out, but trust me they are there.

Similarly, on a greige day my daughter’s home village of Wimbledon is lost in the mist.

As is the destination of Harrow-on-the-Hill where my son began his international teaching career below the red arrow.

The large green space which is also below the red arrow on the north riverbank is the Chelsea Hospital, home of the Chelsea Flower Show.

And so to conclude my day trip to London. The Shard and the man we surprised there, photographed from Lift 109 at Battersea Power Station. The Shard is on the horizon above his head.

Farewell London Day trip.

Fortunately art can create colour out of greige.

And our friends got giddy and bright after we left. An evening with Abba while we sat on a train.

#1209 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, London, Serendipity2 Comments

I was unsure if I could squeeze another blog out of our midweek trip to London. Not because we didn’t have a great time and the usual laughs with our friends but because our photographs from high up places,The Shard and Battersea Power Station, were, like the weather, somewhat greige.

But first with feet firmly at ground level some serendipity.

While organising ourselves and the Shard security to enable us to execute the ‘surprise’* element of our trip we spent a lot of time in the reception area, watching the moving floral photo opportunity. Countless people had their photos taken against the colourful display.

The mirrors and neon ‘love’ signs were constantly moving, reflecting the flowers and lights so the display was intriguing.

In a rare moment with no humans about I took a picture of the assemblage. This morning I discovered that I had unintentionally created a self portrait.

This gave me the poke I needed to explore our greige aerial cityscapes inspired by the word love, not in the romantic sense.

But I can show you the aerial view of places I love or love to blog about when I am in London. With luck the WordPress algorithm will link this blog to others written about the same places.

Tower Bridge.

I have loved Tower Bridge all my life. Small me could never have imagined her older self driving over this bridge at night for the on-call journey. South London to the City. An extra bit of love because the Dad of a friend used to operate the bridge for his job. How cool is that? Also in this picture the Tower of London. Ten year old me fainted there once when listening to a grizzly tale of public executions. Nothing compares to the fear I felt coming round in a mediaeval building surrounded by concerned men in very fancy uniforms.

Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral

Look for the semi-circular space just above the end of the blue pool. Bustle and serenity. I have shared time at Borough and the cathedral with so many friends and family. A wonderful part of London to love.

Borough Market.

And just like that a 2-year-old arrived !! To be continued…

Watch this space.

#1208 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends1 Comment
The Chimney view at lift 109

It has been quite the week of nattering in the real world. My head is spinning from the snippets and gems of conversations I have had with work friends who become real-life friends. A fiftieth birthday and a retirement party in the same 48 hours were the source of my natterings.

Work friends are an interesting concept. Some slip away when jobs change others somehow transfer into longer term friendships.

Social media has helped me keep some of these friendships alive and relevant,for others there are personal connections.

I have observed the ex-colleagues from hell rarely feature at retirements or other informal gatherings of past work colleagues. Is there some other place where they all gather and share grief, gloom and gossip with as much  enthusiasm as lovely colleagues?

Even as I write this my head is laughing at the shockers I could put in my Reunion Room of undesirable colleagues. The threshold of which I would not cross.

And that is the beauty of time moving on. Lovely people remain lovely. While the less-than-lovely have their toxicity depleted and diminish over time to be irrelevant or laughable.

There may even be another reunion room for the blands. Those people who barely register on the workplace eco-system. I might cross that threshold, in case I missed a gem of a person while I was working or enjoying the company of the lovelies.

Catching up with the lovelies is a great way to spend 48 hours.

#1207 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends, SerendipityLeave a comment

Did the surprise, surprise. Yes it did. Even though we were doing it in an hotel with airport level security. So it took engagement with and the help of security men and a receptionist. What was fascinating and charming was that several hours later the same staff were interested to talk to us  and discover if the surprise was a successful and happy outcome for all of us.

Planning surprises always have a degree of jeopardy, that is what makes them great when they work out.

This set of surprises had all of us with our feet not on solid ground for most of the day. Lunch and a hotel room in London’s highest building and then a trip up a Chimney at Battersea Power Station. 10,000 steps on the ground but many trips in funky lifts.

No photo opportunity ever missed.

Aerial views in another blog later today.

#1206 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn London, Serendipity1 Comment

Today starts with a vintage railway poster and an early start. This is the end of the ‘ big birthday’ season, celebrating birthdays with an 0 with friends in interesting places. On this occasion we are the birthday surprise, so this will be published once we have revealed ourselves.

We are heading to floor 37 of the Shard, where I will be able to overlook my former workplace, which was just behind St Paul’s Cathedral.

Like all the big ‘0’ birthdays there has been much planning and some subterfuge. The denouement could be ruined by an overzealous hotel receptionist not allowing us to boldly walk up to a gentleman s bedroom door fearing that we are some unusually attired ‘ ladies of the night’. We will, of course, actually and accurately be ladies or indeed, women of the early morning.

Let’s of see how this goes.

#1205 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photographyLeave a comment

Is winter ebbing, with spring quietly edging? At the moment. I sense we are entering the scrag end of winter. Daylight hours have increased but temperatures are still challenging. Signs of spring are everywhere, yet the mud of winter pulls at my feet and marks my clothes. Me and mud have never been friends. Even the magical mystery mud of music festivals fails to charm me, the feint aroma of Medieval toilet systems does not enhance my experience. My childhood mud was mostly livestock mud from dairy farms or piggeries. At school we ran through the flat arable fields of the Essex countryside. Probably the purest mud of my experience but I didn’t love it.

And then just like that I remembered that one of my favourite views is actually a mudflat.

From which I must conclude that mud  charms me from a distance. I just don’t enjoy being in it. My apologies to mud for being such a grumpy guts.

#1204 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering2 Comments

Our morning walk gave us a familiar surprise in an unfamiliar place. We used to live in London where street stabbings were, not commonplace, but not unheard of.  Street memorials sometimes lasted years. Supermarket flowers and mementoes, kept fresh by friends and family.

Although we knew there had been a street stabbing on one of our dog walks it was a bit of a surprise to find an informal flower memorial to the person stabbed last month.

Sometimes the unexpected makes eyes a little blurry. As we returned people were tidying away the dying blooms. What a very sad job for anyone to have to do.

I just googled flowers as a memorial.

Google AI was succinct.

Blooming interesting . I had no idea.