Category: blogging

#848 theoldmortuary pondered

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, pondering1 Comment

This is what happened just after I pondered yesterday. A real life ponder, not a blog ponder, although now it is a blog ponder.

After a fairly normal morning routine. Tea, Coffee,blog,Shower,  I hit a conundrum, 45 minutes between shower and a morning dip in the sea. What to wear in that 45 minutes?

While I sorted out my after-swim attire Hugo took himself into the folds of the unmade bed. My indecision gave him those moments that he needed to catch up on sleep. Normally we would be out walking but the plan was for his walk to combine with my walk to the beach.

He effortlessly goes from pyjamas to daywear without pondering.

I opted for half putting on my wetsuit,  legs and bum only. Letting the arms and body hang down. A dressing gown completed the ensemble. Of course, someone knocked on the door and of course, as I accepted a parcel my two dangling wetsuit arms pushed themselves out from beneath the dressing gown. Nobody deserves that image etched into their morning routines. Which is why I am just sharing pictures of Hugo. The swim was also completely non-photogenic, wild and wet, rough and bouncy. We congratulated ourselves on how brave we are on these wilder days . Not, I might add, dangerously brave, just cautiously brave. Freshwater rain and seasalty fingers do not combine to take good seascapes.

A cheeky dog in the unmade bed is much more appealing.

#807 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, blogging, Daft Questions, Serendipity1 Comment

Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.

An ideal day cannot be predictably planned and is perhaps only recognisable as ideal once it has come to an end. Because I was involved in doing Bloganuary many of my ideal days went unmarked because they did not fit with the Bloganuary prompts. There were many days that would be considered to be ideal in January especially as the sun came out a lot more than usual.

Sometimes the tide was just perfect too. Or the light was in just the right place to catch a wave.

On one occasion some Pilchard Street Art popped up.

In very similar colours to some doughnuts I had just seen.

By superimposing those two images I created the header image of this blog.

An ideal day is harder to categorise than I could possibly describe.

#803 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, dog walks, SerendipityLeave a comment
Thursday February 1st 2024 9:15am.

No more Bloganuary prompts. A reason to be cheerful. Signing up to respond to a daily prompt was very against my serendipitous pondering style. 31 days of responding/conforming to writing about a subject generated by an external source. I knew it would go against the grain. Predictably for the first few days I slightly dreaded reading the prompt, but just digging in and accepting whatever came my way, became a brief and limited new way to think about blogging. The prompts took me to different things to ponder. I absolutely missed my freestyle approach. I also missed the repetitive nature of pondering and blogging about the normality of daily life. But Bloganuary has given me more to think about and I may mix up my blogging offering as a result of my January/Bloganuary experience.

But for February 1st I am straight back onto the daily repetition of the morning dog walk.

Embellished this morning by bright sunshine.

And the continued luminosity of the cows.

Happy St Brigid Day, patron saint of cattle, among her many other accomplishments.

Please disregard the prompt below. I am conducting a small algorithm experiment.

Write about your first computer.

My brain, nobody needs to read about that

#786 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity3 Comments

What is your favorite animal?

I am drawn to Hares, there is an elegance about a hare that a rabbit simply doesn’t have. The elongated body and oversized ears give them an unmistakable profile on the very rare occasions when they are seen out and about. Hares were a popular subject on Christmas cards that we received this year.

Hares are never a common sight in the UK but I grew up in the flat, rural part of Essex with large arable fields all around my home. Traditionally the best time to see hares is in the Spring, when they are looking for love. The best time near us was late August or early September when the harvest had just been done and hares ran across the fields almost unaware that their hidden paths through crops were now fully exposed.

#782 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging3 Comments

Come up with a crazy business idea.

Does anyone dream up a crazy business idea? Surely the idea is dreamed up, fetishised and developed; delivered to the public and then slowly reveals itself to be the crazy idea that it always was and fails. Business has never truly tempted me. There is something missing in my brain that wouldn’t put profit ahead of people. Creatively I could dream up all sorts of wonderful ‘ businesses’ but putting my thoughts into productive, profitable action would be my failure point.

From the age of 14 to 20 I worked for an entrepreneur/ shopkeeping family while I was at school and studying. The family ran several shops and a cafe in two local towns. In 6 years I sold everything from maggots to illegal porn. I ran a fast food cafe for 6 weeks when I could barely fry an egg and worked in a boutique and sports shop where the customers were the beautiful people and my acne embellished face made me want to wear the paper bags we wrapped the purchases in.

I learnt more than I ever imagined was possible about the vivid life of small-town retail. The family were a caricature of family business. There was a matriarch. A diminutive Glaswegian woman with a failing bladder. She ran the business in a fog of cigarette smoke and floral perfumes that failed to completely cover the fragrance of a failing bladder. Her only son was pale and busy, constantly moving and doing everything. He had a large and beautiful wife whose place in the business I never quite fathomed. I rather suspect she was the backbone of the whole thing. Between them they had produced two large and less beautiful daughters who considered themselves to be small town princesses. The companies staff were loyal and libidinous. As an observer and competent member of staff my six years were fascinating and varied. I had worked in every corner of their empire. When it was time to leave and move to London they dangled the carrot of a management training scheme. All graduates got that moment in the office. A few succumbed to the fear of leaving small town life coupled with the anxiety that comes with a useless degree. My head knew it was time to leave the giddy excesses of small town retail. I had learned enough to never dream up a crazy business idea ever!

Researching this blog I discovered that the company existed for 70 years and closed in 2008. Well done to them.

#776 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, BobbingLeave a comment

The extra blog. Unusually for me I woke up this morning with my cup less than half empty. 3 days early for Blue Monday my mood was definitely on the blue side of the mental health spectrum. No particular reason, some very small clouds on my horizons but nothing of consequence. The grumpies had arrived overnight. I am never too saddened by feeling glum as the artist in me knows that life and art is a combination of darks and lights. Feast and famine. Good days and less good days.

Blogging absolutely helps me pick out the high spots of daily life. But I am a free spirit and conforming, as I am, to the prompts of Bloganuary is not really my thing. I slightly dread the revelation of the prompt of the day.

But how to perk myself up?

1 Agree to go for a bob with the life affirming bobbers.

2 Write a random blog.

3 Put on my new, warm, fluffy socks.

4 Eat chocolate biscuits after the bob. Notice my cup is already more than half full.

5. Take steps in the sunshine to banish the grumpies.

Swimming in water at 10 degrees with an outside temperature of 6 degrees, blogging, fluffy socks or eating a chocolate digestive might not work for everyone but it is working for me.

#708 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity4 Comments

An early or timely blog appears hard on the heels of a late one. Today’s prompt from my blog hosts is a strange one for a whole host of reasons, all of them impractical. But for the sake of a fantasy natter I would choose the ages of 15 and 16 to repeat. In much the same mindset as repeating an exam that I failed or required a higher mark from. Do it again and do it better.

Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?

There was much, in my opinion, that I got right. But goodness, some confidence would have made things better. One thing that I wish I had realised I got right was my choice of Lipstick. If only I had known that No. 7 Plum Beautiful, was the Pinnacle Lipstick of choice for me. Life could have been simpler if I had known that my first tentative purchase at a make- up counter was ‘the one.’

It would not be the ages of 15 and 16 if I don’t mention sex. How I wish I had known less about it, my mother ran sexual health clinics. The nuts and bolts. The nitty gritty. The facts plain and simple, felt indelibly etched onto every part of me. I wanted no part of it because I knew too much. I hid myself in books. Lord of the Rings and War and Peace. Books so big and so lacking in any form of romance or lust that I could immerse myself away from the hurly burly of a normal adolescence.

I discovered a love for live music and dancing. Happily attending gigs all over the place, often alone and relying on public transport. That world was not a scary space for me.

If only I could have lived those vivid, vibrant years with wisdom and more friends.

All my own faults of course, nobody forced me to be that way. Thank goodness I got the lipstick right.

Sometimes I wonder if I should read The Lord of the Rings and War and Peace again…

#678 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity, Travels2 Comments

Why do you blog?

My  inspiration to blog is not particularly noble. Someone, who had already irritated me had said that I had nothing interesting to say and that any blog I wrote would reflect that. I struggled a little to find my place in blogland. Then a variety of things occurred including a World Pandemic when, if we were lucky, none of us had much of interest to say. My blog evolved into what it currently is, a ponder on some small part of my day or a thought that I have had. Like many of us,my life has a repetitive pattern so I need to find a nugget of interest or something different about things I do every day. The photo above is a case in point. Last night’s dog walk took me just across the water from my home, my home is completely invisible, and would be even if the ferry had sailed away. Behind the ferry is a narrow strip of land occupied by the ferry port, the Ministry of Defence and a Primary School sports field. The tiny strip of land occupied by the Ministry of Defence is on a narrow rocky ridge, partially covered by trees. It is this ridge that obscures my view of the ferry from our side . Although as the trees lose their leaves we can see the bridge of the ferry if there is a high tide. If I were any good at throwing a hard ball I could give the crew on the Bridge a nasty shock as I write this blog. Similarly I could get you some fabulous drone footage of happy holidaymakers on the ferry from the comfort of my bed. However the Ministry of Defence would take a very very dim view of me flying a drone over their strip of land, so that is never going to happen. It never ceases to amaze me that so much is happening maybe 200 yards from my home and yet this is one of the most peaceful places I have ever lived. Just occasionally if the tide is right, there is a sensation of a thrum from the engines, or when the wind is in a favourable direction, we can hear the public announcements as the ferry gets ready to leave. As someone who loves to travel and loves the idea of travel I find there is something quite energising about living so close to a ferry port. My mind can travel vicariously every time the ferry leaves port and be equally gladdened by its safe arrival. And that my friends is why I blog, nattering about insignificant things to an invisible audience. Simple pleasures.

Extra #688 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity1 Comment

https://theoldmortuary.design/

What do you enjoy most about writing?

Writing my blog is possibly the most joyful thing about writing. There is something calming and meditative about writing daily and finding a positive in the often mundane pattern of normal life.

A tiny percentage of my life makes it into the blog. The blog is repetitive and often has fairly dull subject matter. But writing daily for several years now has taught me to look for nuggets of interest and pleasure in everything I do.

#679 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity1 Comment

Describe your life in an alternate universe.

I have no idea when I last updated my Facebook Avatar. More than six years ago for certain. I have paid her very little attention. Today I was surprised when she popped up next to a comment I was about to send to a friend.

I have morphed into my Avatar without even trying. I own those glasses, white t shirts and a Chartreuse Cardigan.

Twenty years ago this was her.

Nothing more to be pondered. I am a woman who ditched a Basque for a cardi !