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.
Is this peak twixtmas? Christmas has started to ebb away and the usual Sunday feelings of a new week ahead has the added frisson of a New Year to consider. My Saturday newspaper looked back. The Sunday newspaper, should I choose to buy one may well look forward. Meanwhile the mist/low cloud/ greige continues to cover our days. Which are also enhanced by the cold viruses we picked up from Merry Mingling over the festive season.
Happiness is knowing where the dry tissues are and making sure the soggy ones are not left in the pockets of garments destined for the washing machine.
Twixtmas comes but once a year, I love the informality and shape shifting of days that never quite know who or what they are. Punctuated at any moment by a snack or drink, sometimes normal year round fodder other times a giddy combination of festive left overs.
Boxing Day dawned with grey and grumpy weather but we made our way to Harlyn Bay with Turkey sandwiches and a flask of tea. The parking gods gave us this remarkable view from the back of our van. A trip to this beach is always on our festive tick list, this year the tradition had a special significance. Hugo, and by default Lola too, were going to be allowed off the lead to scamper about freely for the first time since Hugo was attacked in late October.
They were both giddy with freedom.
And more than happy to mingle with other dogs also off their leads/leashes.
They also managed excellent recall which is not always their finest moment when on this beach.
Twixtmas, a magical week of slight discombobulation when no day is quite as it should be and the question on most peoples tongues is.
“What day is it actually today”
You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?
With that in mind my perfect space for reading and writing is any space I find myself in. I just allow myself to dwell there a little longer during Twixtmas. I like Twixtmas with the extra ‘T’ after the X it gives the word a little more gravitas.
A vital time to recharge our winter batteries before 2025 gallops into view. Not that Christmas 2024 has left me depleted in any way. But Twixtmas is definitely a time to indulge whims and ponders.
The digital age has altered everything about reading and writing at home.
This box bureau in a 1960’s Ladderax unit holds everything I need for actually writing and my laptop for the digital stuff.
Rather trendily I perch on the sofa arm to replicate a standing desk.
But this blog, almost exclusively goes out from my smartphone. That makes my reading and writing space anywhere I choose it to be or where I find myself. Perfect in my opinion. I rarely have exclusive use, wherever I am and that suits me just fine.
Boxing Day. Stillness after the flurries of festive activity and the incremental excitement of the build up to Christmas Day.
I took this picture at 9pm at the end of a lovely Christmas Day with our family. These road and rail bridges carry people into and out of Cornwall. I love it when a great picture of them presents itself. Looking west to east always makes my heart sing, the thought of journeys from the county of Cornwall, across to Devon and on to the rest of the world always fills me with optimism. Big thoughts.
By contrast some of my seasonal small thoughts, ponders if you prefer, can be shared on this last ponder of the festive season.
The big, small one for me this year is the Sellotape question. How many human hours are lost around the world trying to find the end of the sellotape?
How do presents get mislocated by people like myself, who think they have a foolproof system. Obviously my system is not foolproof, but it is a matter of some bafflement that gifts simply disappear or end up with the wrong recipient.
Alcohol before breakfast, how is that ever acceptable? But yet an early morning Mojito was just the thing for Christmas morning. Surprisingly it was a crisp, bright reminder of high Summer . Zings of mint and lime dancing across my tongue on a day that always brings more weighty unctuous osensations.
Last day of 26 Days to Boxing Day. Z is for Christmas Books.
Thanks to author C Pam Zang neatly filling the Z space with her surname.
Reading is the best thing about Boxing Day… and the chocolates of course. Happy Christmas one and all
1 day to Boxing Day . Here we are on Christmas Day. To borrow a theme from Dickens.
Christmas past.
A 24 hour shift, a 300 mile drive and this is the only picture that survives from this Christmas Eve gathering 13 years ago. I suspect the fact that I am sat down suggests that I may not have been a hugely active party goer.
A similar era photograph of my children who are now fantastic parents themselves. Which moves us to Christmas present.
One of our small granddaughters taking Christmas morning one present at a time.
All of us, three generations are likely to be part of Christmas Future, but for now the future is just a ponder.
How are you creative?
My blogging and the images I create for the blog are a daily creative practice.
Which brings us to Y in 26 Days to Boxing Day.
Y for Yule! How lucky is that.
Yule runs from 21st December until 1st January. A traditional Pagan festival that has neatly been incorporated into the Christian Calendar.
I knew the topic of this Christmas Eve blog when I started the countdown to Boxing Day on December 1st. As it happens the planned blog melds rather comfortably with the prompt from my blog hosts. In fact the prompt focuses the mind somewhat.
I have a hierarchy of influencers/ influences in my life.
All generations of my family that I know or have known.
My Friends
Books
Music
Colleagues and acquaintances
People that I don’t like.
1,5 and 6 are beyond my control. They just happen to me.
This group becomes A.
2,3 and 4 are chosen, an echo chamber of my tastes and likes. This group becomes B.
Honestly so difficult to say which group is the greatest influence on me. I believe it is a healthy mix of both.
Pondering this is mind meandering. Give it a try if you have a few minutes over the festive season.
And so to X on 26 Days to Boxing Day and a late revelation of another factor in choosing ’26 Days to Boxing Day’. X on Christmas Eve is easy, Xmas. Christmas Day will be Y for Yule and Z will sort itself out on the Day.
Oh dear, how I dislike the abbreviation of Christmas down to a reductive Xmas. My apologies now but I find it such a difficult word to think about. It feels like that awful squeak of chalk misdirected on a blackboard. I have chosen the bright colours on the blog inages to visually create that wince making sensation. The other word I dislike for the same reason is ‘kids’.
Sometimes and rather awfully those two words appear in the same lazy sentence at Christmas.
Happy Xmas to you and the kids.
Eughhh!
Happy Christmas to you and yours.
Same sentence, more or less, but much more comfortable. Or is that just me?
We filled the shortest day of 2024 with colour and bright lights. The day started and ended in Devizes, a town very close to Sronehenge where Solstices are always celebrated. But actual daybreak and sunset were experienced at Battersea Power Station in London.
The shortest day unexpectedly took on the colour of Orange. My raincoat is Orange and it became the theme colour of my day.
We even drove to London in an orange car but more of that at the end of the day.
Breakfast at Borough Market with all the fun and pleasure of meeting up with people we haven’t seen for a while. And all the excitement of Christmas in an authentic everyday market.
Borough Market.
Lunchtime was spent at Fortnum and Mason. A place famed for a particular shade of blue, but even they had used Orange as their accent colour for Christmas.
At Fortnum and Mason, we found some fabulous orange hued paintings that reflected the slightly rainy but warm hued feeling of our day.
These paintings by Francis Hamel exactly reflected our late afternoon return to Battersea.
A sprinkling of rain and fairground rides.
As dusk arrived we hit the road west to home and one last orange encounter.
Our vehicle of choice for the day.
Here is the last orange tale of the day. We were parked up in a rural market town, Devizes, on the last Saturday night before Christmas. The local lads were merry. We were sat in the car outside Marks and Spencer. Bright lights and christmas lights outside made us invisible. A group of lads streamed around the car.
” ‘ere will ya look at that car “
“Boys lets get a photo”
” Mate, mate if my cock was a car it would be this one”
Let’s just think about that.
Conclusion reached later.
Stubby and orange and runs on electric.
And so we get to 26 days to Boxing Day. V for the Victoria Line and Victoria Station.
Victoria Station and the Victoria Line were part of my commuting journey for many years and Battersea Power Station was a twice daily feature of my commute. Which is why I painted it before it was redeveloped.
P.s even the guest towel at our friends house was orange.
6 Days to Boxing Day. Always carry Christmas Lights in your heart.
When are you most happy?
6 Days to Boxing Day. Winter Solstice. The shortest Day. From here,in the Northern Hemisphere the days will start to stretch out. I couldn’t be happier.
And so to U in 26 Days to Boxing Day. As I sit here this morning I am a little flummoxed about which U I should use to natter about. A cheating woman would use Ule but then I would be stuck for Y.
Umbrella. Not exactly a festive word but from the photo above. You can see we needed one last night.
But what is the point if the umbrella obscures the Christmas lights. Better to be damp and enlightened. Or always carry Christmas lights in your heart. Or at the very least, under your umbrella.
theoldmortuary.design 