Happy Gotcha day to Lola. 9 years of being photogenic when she is asleep or dozing.
A woman who lives her most adventurous life when travelling in a camper van with a bed.
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.
#1182 theoldmortuary ponders.
I have migrated from the East of England to the West with some long term living in London and the South East. On this map I grew up in pale blue and have lived on both green and dark blue areas. I currently reside on the cusp of red and grey my words for the evening meal have never altered.
Lunch occurs between noon and 2pm.
Tea is almost always just a drink unless it becomes an event with cake and sandwiches and is called afternoon tea. Small children have a late afternoon snack which I could call tea but never do.
A meal after 6 pm is supper unless I am in a restaurant choosing from a ‘dinner’ menu but I would still call it being ‘ out for supper’
All this written before breakfast which seems pretty secure in its identity as the first meal of the day unless it slips rather too close to lunch and becomes brunch. Actually my favourite meal.
#1181 theoldmortuary ponders.
One calendar month since Christmas Day. I am very aware that the last vestiges of the festive season are ebbing away. We finished the Christmas cake this week and yesterday I made some very fancy cheese straws from the last of the hard cheeses. We still have some festive lights up to twinkle during the remaining long winter evenings.
I expect my Christmas books and shower products to last until the summer. Christmas chocolates might make it all the way through February or even March. A whole winter’s worth of small treats.
Time shape shifts for me in the winter. 25 Nov to 25 December the days hurtle past,while clocking up a whole month after Christmas has seemed like a slow plod through porridge.
So much for me taking a new attitude to winter. Is it OK to say that I have certainly addressed each day with a positive attitude and that has greatly improved my journey. But winter still lags at the back in my list of favourite seasons. Maybe I should try harder next year or maybe I just shouldn’t worry. In every list there is always a least favourite.
Winter Day at Mountbatten.
Hibernation would suit me very well if I could do it in a snug place with my Christmas Leftovers and my books. Is that too much to ask?
Positive Languishing in a cozy spot. Winterization goals.
#1180 theoldmortuary ponders.
Storm Éowyn drove the bobbers indoors. Two intrepid bobbers, bobbed briefly and then joined other bobbers in a warm kitchen for a fabled ‘ dry bob’. Always a joyful gathering full of giddy chattering, crumpets and coffee.
Not that Éowyn caused a huge amount of upset to life on our peninsular. The sea was much too rough for regular bobbing so a dry bob in a kitchen was the very best of plans.
Éowyn may not have caused much local upset but she sent a pre-storm which really kicked a punch.
While not exactly in the eye of the hurricane we spent ten minutes unable to drive or do anything until the hail/thunder and lightening moved on. The pre-storm may also have driven us into a lovely warm café and interiors store. Those particular storm clouds had a gorgeous rustic interior rather than the traditional silver lining.
Storms on the horizon have not been a bad thing at all.
#1179 theoldmortuary ponders.
The silky morning of yesterday’s blog bloomed into an entirely gorgeous day.
#1178 theoldmortuary ponders.
We resolved to max out on the apracity of the day and took ourselves to Rame Head for an afternoon of walking and book reading.
Our destination gives me the chance to share a tiny nugget of Cinema trivia. From the film Jaws.
Rame Head is mentioned as one of the first points sailors can name as they sail close to the English shore.
Jaws meets @theoldmortuary on a sunny day.
The road home was not too shabby either.
#1178 theoldmortuary ponders.
A silky morning walk with some breaks in the cloud. The quiet chug as the river ferry collects passengers. Just a whole lot more charming now the Greige has lifted. I fear this is a temporary lull. Storm Éowyn has booked herself a place on our coast from tomorrow.
Having never read or watched Game of Thrones I don’t really have an expectation of the name Éowyn. My JR Tolkien reading days are long ago and I have no recollection of his character Éowyn. But it is a really beautiful name so I am hopeful of a storm that does no harm and creates beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Most importantly I would like the winter greige banished for more than a brief moment. For now I am more than happy to accept the silky calm that precedes her.
#1177 theoldmortuary ponders.
There has been a touch of tulip mania in our house over the last three days. Bunches of birthday flowers arrived and filled our available vases.
And then a new vase was gifted. A plump pair of buttocks just screaming to take on the overload from our existing tulip supply. Tulips are my favourite thing to photograph in late January. Normally they take over from daffodils but this year, despite us living in the corner of the country where daffodils first grow we have yet to buy a bunch. 80% of cut flower daffodils sold around the world come from Cornwall.
It was only in late December that I realised that in all my yard care of last year I had failed to replant our bulbs in the autumn. My mind taken up with climbing plants and trellis.
With a house full of tulips my weather wish for today is sharp shafts of sunlight to show them off in photographs. The ones illustrating this blog were all taken with artificial light and then tweaked. Let’s hope for better light today.
#1176 theoldmortuary ponders.
Yesterdays blog about an eleven year old event brought up some old photos including this wonderful tree brightening up a January day.
#1175 theoldmortuary ponders
The tree, although beautiful, did not take our attention. The dogs filled the mental space where pondering could have happened.
But this tree turns out to be the perfect specimen for my current experiments with an easy image to double and treble expose digitally altered grey seascapes. I can’t say that I am entirely sure where all this fettling about is taking me but January skies are a lot more interesting with some tweaking.
#1175 theoldmortuary ponders
Exactly 11 years ago Hugo and his dog cousin Barnaby were both a year old and we were in Cornwall for a birthday weekend. Hugo was an urban dog and for Barnaby these fields were his everyday playground. It was permitted that they run free in these fields. What happened next was one of those moments in life when even recollecting this moment makes me feel guilty and uncomfortable. Out of nowhere a herd of deer appeared and the two naughty dogs chased them for fifteen minutes, nothing we could do would persuade the dogs to stop.
Eventually the deer decided that the chase was no longer for them and elegantly jumped a fence back into the enclosure that was supposed to have contained them. Eventually two exhausted dogs returned to us.
Months later we were back in London but on a day out in Kent. The same thing happened but with another dog friend, Monty. Almost the exact same scenario, a National Trust property in an area where dogs could run free. Another herd of deer somehow appeared. Hugo gave chase like the expert hunter he believed himself to be with a much larger labrador friend learning very quickly. They scattered family picnics and we , their hapless owners looked on in horror while hiding their leads in our pockets so nobody knew they were ours. The deer of Kent were as wise as their Cornish counterparts and leapt back into their enclosure.
Once again two exhausted dogs returned to their owners. Hard to pretend they weren’t ours at that point. We all sat down to attempt a picnic and the dogs calmy explored a nearby wooded area. A small commotion and the labrador returned with a rotting deer leg in his mouth. Hugo proudly trotting alongside. I think they were pretending they had actually caught a deer, when it had clearly died of natural causes some time ago. Another picnic ruined!
11 years have passed with no more deer encounters. This is a good thing.
#1174 theoldmortuary ponders.
Here we are in the actual mid-winter. Mid January to Mid February. Lola had a moment of a real photo opportunity on a red Chesterfield in a Bikers cafe today. She is a dog that loves both sofa’s and cafes. Her perfect life would be as the companion dog for a food critic. Lola is not a fan of mid-winter.
I was feeling a bit mid-wintery this morning. Just a bit bored of my winter clothes and wishing for sunshine. Last weekend’s glorious days were just too much of a tease for me to happily revert to the greige of this weekend. The cure was a jar of marmalade.
I have absolutely jumped the gun with this purchase. A good friend makes the best marmalade on the planet. But she is a purist and only makes it when Seville oranges are in season and available in February. Hers is dark, bitter and bursting with flavour. Only Frank Cooper gets close and on a day when the sun has failed to make an appearance I need marmalade to bring some colour to my life almost as much as Lola needs a sofa!
theoldmortuary.design 