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.

#1203 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
The Crocuses have put their heads above the leaf mulch and mud.

Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

Mid-February before I feel the urge to write a prompted blog. But I discussed this matter only yesterday in the real world of random conversations.

I am not particularly patriotic. I love where I live, on an island off the coast of mainland Europe. But equally I love Europe. I was not a Brexiter. I sense I could make a home wherever I washed up and was welcome.

I like the rhythm of my life, because I have a fortunate one. So I am grateful for my English life but not to the point of ever wearing a flag of any sort or getting misty-eyed over our National Anthem or international sport. So I guess I am not a true patriot.

But I am an enthusiast for life, wherever I am and the crocuses yesterday made me feel joy in a muddy place. Yesterday was a two outfit day, caused entirely by damp dog walks in landscape that seemed weary and overwhelmed by the wetness of winter. But the gem like colours of crocuses pushing their heads through mud and leaf mulch were a happy find. Crocuses are flowers of late winter and early spring. Just fabulous news from nature.

#1202 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Words2 Comments

Yesterdays ‘love’ blog was one of the least popular for a long time.  Just 15 readers registered on the WordPress stats page.

#1201 theoldmortuary ponders.

Perhaps most regular readers were out loving life rather than reading my words, which is much the better option.

This morning brought me a Wazz baffle from The Londonist. One of my favourite reads.

Wazzbaffles have long intrigued me. I worked in the City of London for a long while and Wazzbaffles were quite the thing  as an architectural feature. Similarly, opposite our home in Cornwall, the local church has wazzbaffles in the architectural corners between the church and the local pub.

Wazzbaffles were a large part of a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a group of friends who had never realised that historic parts of most old towns and villages have these things.

The point of today’s blog is twofold. I can natter on about a weird little fact and hopefully whoever I was talking to will see this and realise that I wasn’t talking nonsense. Because I have forgotten exactly who I was talking to a few weeks ago.

Low stats and forgetting the exact members of a conversation three weeks ago are linked.

I mever know, exactly, who reads my blogs and that is actually a huge part of the joy. In real life I sometimes forget who I have had which conversation with. I take no joy in this and see forgetfulness as an irritation and a disservice to my friends.

But how lucky am I to have so many conversations in different formats  that they get jumbled, misaligned and partially forgotten.  Even more lucky because I consider myself to be not the most outgoing person in any room.

Anyway non-outgoing me is dipping my nattering toes into Substack. Every now and then I will ponder my ponders. Nothing much to see there yet but here is the link.

https://open.substack.com/pub/theoldmortuary/p/longform-pondering?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2zszs8 no

P.S

I love the description and the inappropriate location of the Mount Pleasant Wazzbaffle.

‘ Swollen and lichenous ‘

Wordporn at its best. Have a good weekend.

#1201 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, Royal William Yard1 Comment

14th of February has been saturated with the colour red and messages of love for centuries. Specifically romantic love. I have always felt a bit uncomfortable with the whole day, specifically anonymous cards which always seemed a bit stalkerish. But recent years have seen the day gently eased from the grip of heteronormative love/lust to a day celebrating Love in many forms.

John Betjeman, a British poet, invented the word Topophilia. The love of place.

I am a Topophile. There are lists in my head of places that I love , places where I have a sense of connection and wonderment about.

The two pictures in this blog are either end of a short lane near where I live. They have visual beauty and the mystery of history coupled with an unpredictability  because their appearance is always shaped by tides, weather and human activity.

Love is love on Valentines Day.

#1200 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn flowers1 Comment

Spring is on the air. It may be a fake Spring but Sunshine + Daffodils is a hint towards better things.

Posters for a genuine Spring exhibition are another sign that we are on the homeward stretch towards Spring 2024.

1200 Blogs of unfocussed ponderings. A daily pondering pilgrimage, pulling a nugget of nonsense out of my daily life. A few hundred words and some pictures tossed into the abyss of the internet. Landing on the devices of friends, family and strangers. Thank you for taking the time to ponder along with me.

Spring, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere is just in the next room.

The daffodils have arrived.

#1199 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Words2 Comments

Today was the first time I heard the word sunsetting to describe something being cancelled or discontinued.

The context was President Trump ‘sunsetting’ Equality, Diversity and Inclusion legislation and the consequent race by business leaders to ditch EDI to gain favour with the new president.

Even in writing that sentence it was easy for me to write the more common word ‘ditch’  for ending something. I could have used ‘dump’.

By using the word sunsetting are the president, big business and the reporting media polishing a turd.

Sunsets and therefore sunsetting suggest a gentle transition towards the bible-blackness of night. A benign feeling of anticipated change.

Unexpected change doesn’t quite fit the sunsetting phrase either.

No lover scorned is ever going to suggest that they were sunsetted.

Words are a constant source of fascination. I love them and sunsets.

Sunsetting not so much.

#1198 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment
Devonport Park Bandstand.

What a difference a week makes. Last week I was happy to have created an image that shows rainfall on a February Day. Yesterday someone was brutally attacked, at night near the bandstand and this location is currently swathed in police tape.

I immediately feel differently about an inanimate object that was created for pleasure, and wished I had represented the bandstand more joyfully. I suppose rain and bad people are inevitable in life. The impact of negativity always seems to leave a disproportionate mark on landscape and our minds. When the police tape is gone I will go and take another photo and make sure I create something that reflects the joy that this structure deserves.

P.s A brighter outlook

#1197 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering, Procrastination1 Comment

Monday’s blogs are either early or late. Not because I am sleeping on the job like this sloth. Mondays we do childcare and choose not to be on our phones when she is around.  So a blog is written early or late.

This is the late variety while our small person sleeps. I love this picture from a friend’s recent holiday in Costa Rica.

I am very fond of sloths and envious of their lifestyle under normal circumstances.

But dozing like a sloth in a tree and proper pondering is not for me today.

Normal service tomorrow.

#1196 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn history, Serendipity1 Comment
St Andrews Ashburton.

Sunday morning and a gift of church bells, should you choose to watch the video above.

Today’s ponder was seeded in my head by the smallest of coincidences. Saturday found us on a back street walk at Ashburton, a market town on the edge of Dartmoor. We were pulled in the direction of the church by the bells ringing. On the way I caught sight of this blue plaque.

When we arrived in the churchyard we saw a small crowd of beautifully dressed wedding guests having a cheeky last minute smoke before going into the church.

Something Sir Walter, despite being entirely responsible, would never have seen during his stay in Ashburton. Smoking tobacco was only an upper class habit in England until the late 19th century and did not become commonly used by all of society until the end of the Industrial Revolution.

And with a delicious coincidence, there is a mural of Sir Walter actually pondering, overlooking the pub where he spent his last night of freedom. Before being locked up for twelve years in the Tower of London.

His ponders must have been far more consequential than mine ever are.

Not pissing off James 1st might have been a good thing to ponder. And after 12 years in jail and 3 years of freedom, not pissing off James 1st a second time would have been a prudent ponder in my humble opinion.

#1195 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

Picture yourself in a boat on an Ocean.

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.

My apologies to The Beatles for lyric altering.

Mid-February and a Friday Bob brings the gift of Marmalade.

Gill’s marmalade is fabulous and we have been given a pot, or two every year since Covid lockdowns.

Inspirational Bobbers

A chilly bob warmed up by the thought of marmalade and butter on hot toast.

And for me the challenge of creating a marmalade sky to accompany this blog.

You can just about see the tangerine trees on the end of the island.

Here is Gill the Marmalade Goddess and Lola as you have never seen her before; as a doggy hot water bottle for intrepid February Bobbers.

Let’s get the weekend started.

#1194 the oldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, PhotographsLeave a comment

I picked up this postcard at The Archaeology Museum (Acropolis)  of Athens in early autumn.

I’ve added the heart because it has become a favourite image. A girl standing with her dad.

I am fairly certain I don’t have a similar image of myself with my dad. Not for any estrangement or complex family dynamics, but because in our family my dad was the photographer and therefore never in pictures.

This is an almost unimaginable concept in a world where smartphones allow everyone to be a photographer.

In our spare room there is a big blue Ikea bag of family albums to be gone through before I put them back up in the roof. I can’t say I hold out much hope of finding a father-daughter picture   of us together until I was in my teens.

In pondering and googling this thought I found a really interesting article which I have shared below.

https://www.itstartswithadam.com/blog/what-smartphones-have-done-to-photography-and-our-capacity-to-look#:~:text=Smartphones%20have%20made%20photographs%20fluid,does%20the%20remembering%20for%20us

And just like that I have found a long form blog about artiness that I really enjoy. I like New World art writing for the same reason that New World wines are so interesting. No snobbishness, less entitled twattery.

Pondering and googling and a day walking in the sun.

It makes me think and that is always a good thing.