Category: 26 Days to Boxing Day

#1150 theoldmortuary ponders

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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

#1149 theoldmortuary ponders

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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.

Yule Log, Cornwall 2024.

#1148 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day1 Comment

Christmas Eve. 2 days before Boxing Day.

Who are the biggest influences in your life?

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.

  1. All generations of my family that I know or have known.
  2. My Friends
  3. Books
  4. Music
  5. Colleagues and acquaintances
  6. 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?

#1147 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day, Serendipity2 Comments

4 days to Boxing Day.

Dawn was particularly vivid this morning. Chill and still and golden.

Mornings already seem brighter, mine felt particularly bright because I had already accomplished an early morning mundane Christmas shop.

The essentials of the festive season were sitting on my kitchen floor awaiting unpacking  after the sunrise.

And so on to W for 26 Days to Boxing Day. W is for Walls in London.

Flying teacups at Fortnum and Mason.

Sublimely mad.

Glass Brick wall at Battersea Power Station.

Stick them together and something W onderful happens to two walls.

And W hile I am at it W hy not stick a W all to W ater.

#1146 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day, Serendipity1 Comment

Five Days to Boxing Day.

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.

Street fair at Dusk. © Francis Hamel.

Fortnum’s and the Arts – Grand Masters

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.

#1145 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day, Serendipity1 Comment

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.

#1143 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day, Serendipity2 Comments

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.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day1 Comment

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!

#1140 theoldmortuary ponders

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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.

#1139 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day1 Comment

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.