Category: autumn

#1521 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn autumn, Bobbing, Urban Jungle, Yardening1 Comment

What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive?

Waking up in the morning, needing a wee and a cup of tea and having the good fortune to be able to achieve both with ease. I have no need for fireworks or sequins to feel alive. Just being it is enough.

Our yard has largely been put to bed for the winter but last night she was quite gorgeous for an October night . The studio light was on, the washing was drying on the line and the sculptural plants were being sculptural throwing extravagant shadows onto the laundry. Everything has sprung back from being baked to a crisp in the hottest summer on record. The yard is feeling truly alive too.

Boring as it may be, but October the second was a day of being truly alive. Something I will always be until I am not.

I went swimming with some of the bobbers, the sun was out, the tide was high and really very bouncy.

The water was warmish and swirled us around like grubby clothes in a washing machine. One of those days when it was tempting to stay in too long.

One of those days of many moments of feeling truly alive.

#1519 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn autumn1 Comment

So long September. There was a lot of different arty strands pulling together in September. I just created a quick grid to remind myself of the many ways my head and hands were pushing different ideas. There was also a fiendishly long and ultimately, unsuccessful,proposal to bid for a grant for a year long art project. I suppose I can say my words failed me. Althoug there is every chance my maths failed me as there was also a budget to set.

September was also a holiday and yesterday we bade the month farewell with lunch on a farm, where we ate food that had all the colour of my September paintings and photographs.

September has also set quite the workload for October. There are fantastical sea creatures to be created out of discarded wooden ships.

And, as always in October, pumpkins and probably Storm Maidens and Men. Busy days ahead @theoldmortuary.

Clearly without any common denominator beyond me. September had a colour scheme all of its own.

#1517 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn autumn1 Comment

Sailing home to normal life and a day of domestic admin without the excitement of a foreign language. Lola went to.be groomed and we went to the opticians. Some very dull shopping was also a pre planned task. Although perked up no end by some tiny pumpkins that forced us to bring five of them home. I will in turn force them to pose for me as I love painting autumnal and harvest still life.

Let Autumn commence.

#1405 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn autumn, Scrag End of Summer, Yardening1 Comment

Washing on the line in a heatwave. This picture exudes the heat of our recent heatwaves. Washing dried in less than two hours.

Another happy heat-loving space is our tropical bed . Less happy are the pot grown plants of which we have many. Pot grown plants failed to thrive and went into a protective phase, not dying but not doing any growing or ripening.

But nearly a month since the last really hot weather all plants have snapped back into action. Tomatoes and Strawberries are prolific and as red as you could hope for. Everything else is growing away. The potted palm trees are throwing out new leaves. But days are shortening so yesterday all the potted palms were moved into the areas with maximum daylight in September. My hope is that their new leaves will unfurl and get stronger before the high winds of October.

With October in mind I decided to start on Autumnisation of the yard. It feels wrong in bright summer-like, September sunlight, but it is a job that must be done. A grubby job but satisfying with the reward of a cleansing swim. Chillier than I have become used to but still lovely reward for my labours.

Full disclosure there is vitually no difference between autumnisation and wint**isation but I really cannot contemplate that word just yet and neither can my potted palms.My washing is already suffering day-long drying that is not quite 100% . Autumnisation sucks.

#1402 theoldmortuary ponders

On By Juliet CornellIn art, autumn, Paintings, pondering, Procrastination, Scrag End of Summer1 Comment

I have had a surprisingly arty week. This should not have come as a surprise because 2 days were set aside to fill in an on-line application for an arts grant, that included a budget proposal. I was always going to find other things to do rather than knuckle down to admin of that sort.

Betond normal life my procrastination of choice was two pieces of preparatiry work for known future projects. A huge and colourful watercolour with fantasy fruits and flowers and a coven of laughing, giggling women. Neither of which have anything to do with the Ocean based, arts grant, I was filling in.

One so colourful and the other monotone.

In other painting news, I bought some nice fat figs to pose on a favourite plate.

Which in turn took me down, or up a very tight aperure in a fig and to the tragic story of Fig Wasps. Another known procrastination technique

:https://theoldmortuary.design/2026/09/12/1401-theoldmortuary-ponders-3/

Mentally entering a Syconium via an Oristole. Two words new to me yesterday which led me to a third new word, the utterly delightful ‘Foundress’ meaning female founder.

I suppose I am the foundress of theoldmortuary ponders and it is illustrated with my mistresspieces.

We should reclaim these lovely female- centric words.

Looking at these particular mistress pieces I sense that although my heart is hanging on to the scrag end of summer my head is definitely turning towards autumn. If I look at a few images created this week there is a definite autumnisation to my colour choices.

One last piece of arty news for Sunday. We went to a play about the Artist Beryl Cook. The actress Kara Wilson delivered a one woman show/monologue while painting a man in a turquoise thong. All in the fruity colours of autumn.

#1374 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn autumn2 Comments

We were here, at Dartington Hall 6 weeks ago when Autumn had hardly got started. Today Autumn is in full swing but what an Autumn it has been. Uncharacteristically warm, even today it was 14 degrees rising a bit in sunny patches. Shorter daylight hours and cooler temperatures bring the beautiful shades of Autumn but there are less colours this year. Large amounts of leaves have just fallen. As brown and as unremarkable as sparrows. Now eager to just drop off most are just a uniform acidic yellow

Boston or Virginia Creeper never lets us down, here reflecting a bright blue cloudless sky.  Because the weather was good an autumn day of walks was planned and the walking was fabulous but the gorgeous wide stretching views were not as vivid as most years. The Dartington Hall Estate has been occupied by humans for 1000 years and the countryside around probably hasn’t changed too much in all that time.

Not all walks here need to be autumnal, there are also quiet paths of evergreen to be explored.

A thousand years of country walks. How fabulous.

#1358 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn autumn1 Comment

We love pumpkins in this house. October and November are a pumpkin lovers paradise. Not for any other reason than their gorgeous organic autumnalness.

But yesterday one had to be sacrificed   for the pleasure of a small person.

Winking and smiling was her request . The design was finalised and then the evisceration took place.

Everything marked out with a Sharpie was due to be cut out.

Winky was created in just under half an hour.

Eyelashes any pumpkin could be proud of.

#1357 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn autumnLeave a comment

Diamonds in the street after a morning deluge, with a bright blue sky reflected on Tarmac.

What a morning of changing weather, one moment serious raincoat weather and the next a walk with no coat is entirely appropriate.

Puddles to stamp in for a three year old and sandals for me.

Other rain induced illusions appear on the road

Pretty funky when double exposed together.

And onward to another week .

#1330 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn autumn3 Comments

Truly a day of two halves. Night and day are of equal length.

Fabulous sunshine made long shadows and deep questions.

Why can’t we feel our shadows?

Not as simple as you may think, because a mouse sheltering in our shadow would feel colder than a mouse basking in the sun.

Something to ponder while we take steps towards the darker part of the year.

#1329 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn autumn, SerendipityLeave a comment
Mabon ©theoldmortuary

Mabon is a modern Pagan name for the autumn equinox which occurs in England at 7:19 tomorrow the 22nd of September.

In this image Mabon turns her head slightly to face the colder/crisper days of autumn. Mornings at this time of year can  be glorious so I have surrounded her with warm colours, with just the chill of what is to come on her face.

Harvest Festival used to mark this time of year when I was a child. But as a working adult, who worked in a daylight free environment, the passing seasons  and their boundaries of solstices and equinoxes passed me by. Life as an artist and dog walker makes me far more tuned in to the seasons moods.

This boundary is the one I dislike the most. Anticipating shorter, colder, darker days. However Autumn itself is a lovely time of year. Mists and mellow fruitfulness and Pumpkins.

Always Pumpkins

My harvesting this year has been almost entirely supermarket based. I love big, fat, juicy figs. Fresh ones, straight from Mediterranean trees are my favourite. After that I have to settle for ones that are labelled ‘large’ in supermarkets or market stalls. Mediterranean figs would laugh in the face of that description of large. Here is my diminutive haul from yesterday.

There were 6 but one had to be eaten immediately.

Mabon Eve acknowedged.