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.

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7 Days to Boxing Day

What was the last thing you did for play or fun?

A brighter shade of greige.An unexpected hour of Sunshine presented itself in the middle of a very greige day.  The dogs and I just walked and walked. Half of the above picture was our slightly wooded walk which I played with to suggest two options with a magical feel. I also warmed up the sun a little in my pictures of the Hamoaze.

No reason to do this at all really, so clearly done for fun.

And so to T for 26 Days to Boxing Day. T is for time travel.

This new Blue Plaque is about 500 yards from my house. If I could time travel and meet him in a cafe. We could talk about his old School. Dulwich College in London which I am very familiar with. I could also of course warn him to be extra cautious on his last fateful expedition to Antarctica.But that could change the world in so many ways. Which is why Time Travel is not advised. Another observation is that Devon and Cornwall have a Polar Society! How niche is that.

https://www.devonandcornwallpolarsociety.org.uk/aboutus/

Dog walking expands the mind in unexpected ways.

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8 days to Boxing Day. All Christmas cards are off on their journeys. The foreign ones are being tracked by the Post Office App. I am travelling vicariously with them as the cards slowly venture across countries and continents to my friends and family. Locally, me and the dogs had a fabulous morning doing a walking tour and delivering all the nearby, by-hand ones. Nearly three hours of walking in the wintery sun and nattering to people along the way. The afternoon was already well established by the time I got home. Yesterday and today’s tinkering with an unfinished painting accidentally created next year’s Christmas card. Tinkering indoors was a good thing to do to avoid really grotty weather

Work in progress

Let it snow, even though snow is fairly unusual in Cornwall where this fictional scene is set.

And so on to S in 26 Days to Boxing Day. Snow.

A snowy environment suits Lola’s colouring . Hugo is inclined to look a little grubby.

These are old pictures maybe 5 years or so. I am a theoretical lover of snow . In the mild south west of England snow is rarely this picture perfect. Dirty slush is the most likely iteration here and that is no one’s idea of picturesque.

#1142 theoldmortuary ponders.

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9 days to Boxing Day

Dandelion clocks, the flimsy seed heads of Dandelions are visible between March and October each year. As such they play no part in Christmas folklore. But a picture popped up today which showed a Dandelion Clock looking very festive.

© Phil Barnet Botanical Art.

A few summers ago I took some night time shots of Dandelions. One of mine looks very festive.

The fragility of Dandelion Clocks means they never play a part in any seasonal bouquet. It would be a very clever person who could find a way to preserve their transient beauty for floristry.

Nature’s win but the festive season’s loss

And so onto R in 26 days to Boxing Day.

The closest I have ever got to a White Christmas.

Remembering December snow in Crystal Palace a while ago. But not on December 25 th!

#1141 theoldmortuary ponders

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Is your life today what you pictured a year ago?

10 days to Boxing Day. Most of my life the next day or even the next hour is not quite as I pictured it. This prompt so perfectly fitted my day yesterday I felt compelled to answer.

This shadowy image reflected in a glitterball bauble should not have been standing here. Nana , Nona and our Monday Small Person had planned to be at a festive book reading event. An hour before this we were half an hour early and were enjoying good coffee and weak sunshine. In fact we were one whole week and a half hour early. What to do with that suddenly available two hours of time. The answer was to go Christmas Shopping. Not a concept that a 2 year old fully grasps. She did fine and we were surprisingly effective. We rewarded ourselves for unplanned shopping with unplanned  Christmas film watching. Not the day I pictured at all.

And so to Q on the 26 Days to Boxing Day. Q is for Queen.

©James Mylne

I am not particularly a Monarchist but I feel the cranky, eccentric, British system of a Royal Family works better than many Democracies with a Presidential figurehead. Our last Monarch was Queen Elizabeth II. Her reign of nearly 71 years was the longest in history.  And there is a link to the festive season.

Postboxes , which most of us will use to send Christmas Cards.

British Post boxes are sturdy things and are marked with the reigning Monarchs Cypher at the time they were installed. Post Boxes are very long lasting.

Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years. So these two long lived womens’ Cyphers mark almost 80% of all the post boxes in Britain, six Kings , King Edward II, Edward III George V, George VI, George VII, and Charles III, get the remaining 20%.

King Charles seems to only have 1 post box installed in July 2024.

So for the forseeable future Christmas Cards in Britain will be posted in Queenly Cyphered post boxes. Random fact, unimportant but interesting.

1936- 52 George VI Postbox
Festive Topper on a postbox.

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11 Days to Christmas and the last full moon of 2024.

Appropriately named the Cold Moon. A few bobbers went in for a dip at high tide. The water was a balmy 11 degrees. We didn’t stay in long but were rewarded, regardless, by warmed Mince Pies, coffee, and sparkling conversation.

Our Coach keeps a watchful eye.

And so on to P for 26 Days to Boxing Day.

P for photoshopping and painting. The moon didn’t really put in quite such a perfectly composed image, the clouds were too dense. On this occasion moon and bobbers were brought together by the power of photoshop.

While I was hunting for a moon to use this painting popped out of the archive.

In real life it recently popped out of storage. I’ve  never been quite sure if it is finalised.

I played around with the randomised digital manipulation. It rarely works well on photos of paintings but this one seemed to get a new breath of life.

Curiously it is almost the same composition as the photo of Coach gazing out to sea. The randomised manipulation uses the most recent settings that I have used in the photo editor. I wonder if this is why it worked better on this occasion. Serendipity has shown me how to finish this painting off. Its only been 15 years!

Just one more little experiment.

Coach on a Cornish hillside, overlooking blue horses.

Enough of this full-moon madness.

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12 Days to Boxing Day.

The festive season washed over us like a tidal wave yesterday. In one 24 hour period we attended a Tennis Club Carols and Mince Pie evening, a wreath making workshop and a Pantomime. We also watched the Grande Finale of a favourite televised Dance Competition which beyond dance features glitz and glam with costumes and scenery in the most sumptuous of fabrics and colours with lashings of sequins and sparkle.  Really all of my favourite things about the short dark days of December.  Favourite things but not paradisaical.

The reason I am pondering the word paradisaical is that personally I would never put the words ‘Christmas’ and ‘Paradise’ in the same sentence unless I was away in a five star hotel somewhere warm and utterly gorgeous with my friends and family. This ponder was prompted by a newspaper article suggesting that a fantastically decorated pub was a ‘Christmas Paradise’. I would have used the word ‘wonderland’ Is this just me or a Northern European thing?

Christmas in Britain often has a reminiscent, historical influenced vibe. Possibly to two distinct time periods. Mediaeval and Victorian, neither of which give me a particularly paradisaical response.

To illustrate this blog I recreated some of my pictures as historical images.

And so onto ‘O’ in 26 Days to Boxing Day.

Over-indulging. As yet I have not succumbe.

Over-the-top, guilty. High notes while singing Carols because I used to be able to do it faultlessly, now not so much.

Out Loud , laughter, always.

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13 Days to Boxing Day

Tell us one thing you hope people say about you.

I’ve heard many of the things people say about me. Of course I focus on the unkind, inaccurate and cruel because I am, a woman, a people pleaser and a human. The same can be said for the kind and thoughtful comments. I question if they are deserved, maybe those comments are inaccurate too. I realise that these statements make me sound like a swirling ball of angst but in the spirit of the festive season I will share the gift of wisdom my dad gave me a long while ago.

” You don’t have to be the best or the cleverest, but you do have to turn up”

Goodness knows what fire of teenage drama he was trying to quench when he came out with that nugget of sagacity but I have carried it happily as both my top and bottom line of behaviour. Of course I have learned to twist that sentence to both my advantage and disadvantage.

I am hopeless at over-committing and turning up too often. But conversely I have sometimes ‘turned up’ and unexpectedly scooped the prize.

Somehow, and I don’t really know why it has given me a level of immunity to what people say about me. I don’t really have too much expectation in that regard.

“She turned up” will do just fine.

And so onto N in the 26 Days to Boxing Day.

Nativity.

I have no idea why I am such a pedant about Nativity scenes in public spaces but the storyline of a Christian Christmas is that the run up is all about hope and expectation.  Until Christmas morning there is no baby in the manger…

On a personal level this pedantry has bitten me on the bum. Imagine a working mother of two,staggering home after a long working day at 11pm on Christmas Eve. Everyone is asleep. One job before morning is to put Jesus in his manger.

Where is Jesus?

Frantic searching of nearby shelves and book cases. No luck.

The next hour is spent crafting a swaddled baby of tiny proportions out of a cotton wool ball, a Qtip or Cotton bud. Finger gauze and nail varnish.

Jesus, that was difficult!

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The Barbican at Dusk.

14 days to Boxing Day.

I’ve been asked why I am counting down to Boxing Day . Just to be a little different really, and 26 is conveniently the number of letters in the alphabet. So I can have two running themes. A countdown and a letter to hang a ponder on.

In trying to extract maximum enjoyment out of short days I  have been greatly helped by the gradual build up of festive lighting and by making sure I get some effective reading time. This gem of writing from Virginia Woolf came my way yesterday.

Devonport Park
Devonport Park

I think even great prose benefits from some Festive lighting.

And so to 26 Days to Boxing Day.

M has to be for Music. Traditional, Random, Contemporary, Pogues.

#1136 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day, Drawn to the Valley, Drawn To The Valley Artists, Serendipity1 Comment

15 days to Boxing Day

I did not expect to create a painting today. I did not expect to go to a biker cafe. I did not expect to be writing this blog at 5pm.  But beyond that the day has gone completely to plan.  A regular meet up with other Plymouth based arty people for nattering, exhibition planning and festive high points.

Usually, I can easily paint and talk but Santa was not the most unusual man in the cafe. A gentleman approached to talk about my art for about 45 seconds and then talked about himself for the next  minutes. Even my absolute dedication to getting paint on paper didn’t stem his flow of self-obsession. I was polite and responded appropriately while avidly painting away.

But my mind was a bit fried by the time he wandered off. Thank goodness for the impromptu arrival of a friend, we escaped to a nearby bikers cafe. No chance of self obsessed artists there.

And so to 26 Days to Boxing Day . L for learning . Actually the point of our arty gatherings. We sit together and do small tasks but we share tips and techniques. Artists are by inclination and practice solitary creatures. But our regular meetings over the past two and a half years has created such a strong and effective group of solitary beings. Sometimes 25 of us.

March 2022
December 2024

And guess what? I was painting with the same colours at our first get together.