Category: blogging

#654 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity3 Comments

On what subject(s) are you an authority?

Today marks 7 years of owning theoldmortuary.design domain. Before that my blog was called the garden painter because that is what I was. A part-time artist who painted in the garden often with a ginger cat as muse.

My blogging in thegardenpainter days was sporadic and not hugely effective. I didn’t know why I was writing a blog but the concept fascinated me in an abstract and unfocussed sort of way. A house move and renovation/repurposing of an actual old mortuary gave me a new title but no greater insight or efficacy at blog writing.

By now I was writing and reviewing for an arts magazine, no closer to actually being an effective blogger. A much younger and replacement editor suggested that I was perhaps too old for a publication that had him as an editor. Exactly the inspiration I needed to create my own publication/blog more effectively. I found a blog writing course by the wonderful Gentle Author who writes a fabulous blog.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/

Between the beginners and the advanced course, Covid 19 stuck and I was caught writing a daily blog for considerably longer than was planned. At some point I did the advanced course. Pandemic Ponderings filled the space between the two courses. theoldmortuary ponders was devised on the last day of the advanced course. Not exactly a diary or journal but just a daily reflection of an ordinary persons life with all the mundane aspects, repetition, chores, dullness set against abstract thoughts inspired by words or pictures. I try to look for the positive or quirky and having that daily need to find something to write about actually makes me observant and better tuned in to each day.

So in answer to the above question.

I am somewhat of an authority on the blogs of my own creation. From pretty useless blogging to daily blogging on the mundane parts of life, via a daily personal record of an International Pandemic.

I can track the development stages that bring me to this point. A little late on a day when I have bobbed, entertained a grandchild, done some Social Media work and right now luxuriating in watching tennis on the TV. Later I will dog walk again, listen to some live music and then tomorrow will be another day. Who knows where that will take us…

What is an authority anyway?

HMS Kent sailing past as we bobbed this morning. Friends and family on the deck. Frigates passing us make the most wonderful artificial waves. A bobbing bonus with thanks to the British tax payers Defence budget.

#645 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity1 Comment

What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?

The answer is, beyond myself, almost certainly my house.

Built in the late 1890’s. So firmly of the Victorian era but with many Georgian era neighbours.

This week marks 2 years since we moved into this house. It definitely takes a while to settle into new homes.

Things that seemed essential works when we moved in, have faded into insignificance. Other,more pressing, projects have risen to the to-do list.

The yard surprises us every day with its fecundity. We have had strawberries every day for about 6 weeks and the tomato crop are forming beautifully in the outdoor planters. Our gifted courgette/zucchini plant is beating its brothers and sisters who are still in their original home on a farm. Our courgette lives on the garage roof, we learned last year how spiky their stems can be against naked ankles in a yard with limited space.

I have to say that only owning the house for two years makes this answer feel a little like a cheat as it just involved exchanging money for something old that has been looked after by other people.

Old things I have had longer to be responsible for include a Sandalwood Chest of Chinese origin which was owned by family friends of my parents,and was in their possession as employees of the East India Company during the Indian Uprising. Last seen very recently on this blog while we watched Glastonbury on the TV this weekend.

The other daily use of an old thing is a bit tenuous but my Facebook profile picture features a fake fur tiger-print jacket that I wear in the depth of winter. But as this blog is posted daily on Facebook I can probably get away with this. The jacket was made about a decade before I was. So here are two other old things I use every day.

My Facebook profile and myself.

#633 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity2 Comments

English Summer Sunshine is a fabulous thing. When sunshine is as predictable and reliable as our current spell of good weather, even busy days slip by as is if smoothed by some sort of magical ingredient. My busy day was punctuated with a visit from my daughter and grandaughter. Will I ever get used to that casual remark ” We are just popping in” . After 4 years of being a virtual or zooming Nana to small people half a world away. Now I am a real hands on Nana to an 8 month old recently relocated from London. When Nona gets home from work now she sometimes gets a sticky welcome to accompany the first post work cup of tea. I’m sure we would both be charmed regardless of the weather but an hour in late afternoon sun with a small person is a great post work recovery mechanism.

Sunshine also smooths the sadder aspects of life. Yesterday Hannah heard that a colleague and mentor had died.

https://www.bsecho.org/Public/News/Articles/2023/2023-06/202306-Mark-Monaghan.aspx

For her he was the reason she moved to London to become better at her job. For me he was a man I met at conferences and barbeques. He danced and laughed, at both, with great enthusiasm. Talking about him in evening sunshine over a bowl of mussels was a good way for us to mark his passing.

#632 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, SerendipityLeave a comment

A very late blog with the working title of, the morning after the night before.

Nothing bad happened but long summer evenings segue into early summer mornings with barely a gap to natter. This bollard clearly had had quite the night. In two minutes the pedestrians passing by didn’t even notice his predicament.

South West Coastal Path walkers.
Royal Marines heading for a PT session.

Mr Bollard was just chilling in the long grass.

Anyway enough of Mr Bollard, I was at a lovely summer party last night and then up at the crack of dawn to walk the dogs before going off to do some research in the most idyllic settings imaginable.

Life has eaten up my time today. The few minutes when I could have blogged I dead-headed our lavender bushes. Surely one of the most fragrant jobs on earth.

Normal service will resume tomorrow.

Ps. I have only just realised that the coastal path walkers were part of a celebratory walk for the 50th Anniversary of the South West Coastal Path being formed. Two teams walked the entire North and South Paths meeting at The Royal William Yard which is where the Headquarters are.

© Lynette Selbie

#625 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, pondering, Serendipity2 Comments

Using a prompt today, not because I was lost for a subject to ponder, but more because there is always something to ponder.

Early morning pondering in the van, waiting for coffee. Two dogs on my lap.

What are you good at?

I’ve always been a ponderer and on the whole pondering is a private occupation, unless a daily blog is written. So with some self judgement I would say that I am a particularly avid and accomplished ponderer. Being good at something carries responsibilities, I have been accused of having too vivid an imagination or being lost in my own world. Well I adore vivid, that’s why some of my images are over-saturated and trust me,I have never been lost in my own world. I know exactly where I am.

So after all that self-justification here is todays ponder which is a little late and ludicrously vivid.

A chance encounter with a patient took us to Buckfast Abbey early this morning.

It was the most peaceful spot for an early morning dog walk with friends.

So peaceful that, beyond the vivid stained glass,I forgot to take photos.

The whole place is rather overwhelming and the Stained Glass is certainly a show stopper.

But coupled with an organ recital of some contemporary music the whole experience was quite other worldly.

Which I suppose is the point of an Abbey.

#484 theoldmortuary ponders

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Today was a big day for the blog. I swapped to a new platform for publishing. Pushing the button and uninstalling the old system was a moment of anxiety. But guess what happened? Nothing, everything slipped smoothly into the new format and off I go. Everything is pretty much the same except every day there is a spunky little suggestion as to what I might like to write about. I may not take their suggestions seriously, the first one thought I might like to discuss what my parents did at my age. Well let me think..

Their ashes had, at this point, been buried in a country churchyard for two years. Idyllic in many ways but I am sure they would rather have been living and laughing. As it was they had been moved from their last resting place by a very industrious mole. This does not make for a great travelogue or even a great blog. So this is the first and last time I will seek my inspiration from spunky suggestions from Jetpack. WordPress was never quite so frivolous. I prefer raking through my own thoughts for these ponders. For reading to the end of this transitional blog I gift you an earworm. Answers tomorrow.

#458 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, blogging, Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

Some blogs are slow burning, ripening slowly over many days, weeks or months. Others present themselves in a moment. This one is a hybrid, the Pondering has been bubbling away for a couple of months, the moment today, was perhaps 60 seconds of decision making. That moment is the top picture. After a small amount of walking, the coastal path at St Ives, we came upon this idyllic beach. After a moments paddling the decision was made to throw caution to the wind and strip off completely for a swim. Confident that my weekly sea swims, or bobs, as they are known, have equipped me with the ability to quickly submerge in any chilly sea temperature.

It would not do to fanny about, frightening fellow walkers, with my nakedness. The long, slow, ponderous part of this blog has its inspiration from a comment made by a fellow course member at a blogging course.

” Your blog would be better with more of you in it”

Since November I have tried putting a little more of me into the blog. In truth I have always been there, peeping from behind words or hiding in pictures. Trying to find my voice, or style, while nattering on about not very much. I wonder, sometimes, if anyone has noticed the slight changes since November.

Ten or so minutes of swimming in a cold sea, off the North Cornwall coast was just fabulous this morning. I could be evangelical about the benefits of cold water immersion, likewise the buzz of not giving a moments thought to just taking my clothes off in a public space. Put the two together and the skills of fully clothed camera- wielding friends and the blog gets all of me for one time only.

.

I got a life boosting, energy creating, moment. Fizzy as a firework, giddy as the giddiest goat, happy as a human hippo. Naked, cold and loving life. All time stood still, the sun was out and I was feeling elemental.

#316 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging1 Comment

We’ve had a fab weekend of doing lovely stuff, all ultra local and within walking or swimming distance of home.

I was reading a review of a travel programme over the weekend and realised that with a few alterations the sentence above more or less describes this blog. I’m aware that my thoughts and feelings are not always lovely but I do try to extract the positive out of anything that I put on the blog. My inner bitch kept firmly out of blogland.

The same newspaper also ran an interview with the actress Angela Griffiths and two of her answers could have come straight out of my own ponderings.

I do try to always be kind and although the word ‘nice’ has been devalued over the years, the sentiment is what I strive for. My personal mantra, though, when people try to take advantage is, I fear, delightfully passive aggressive.

” Don’t mistake my tolerance for indifference”

I rarely need to say it but have perfected a look which should leave the erring person to rethink their strategy towards me. I found it really refreshing to see my thoughts so eloquently expressed by someone else. A look I definately used during one those awful annual appraisals that the NHS does so badly.

My line manager at the time said I used kindness and niceness to manipulate people for my own purposes.

Words failed me then , but really, what a twat!

The words Ultra-local and slow burn in the first newspaper cutting so accurately reflect this blog I felt another little grain of comfort. If BBC4 think that ultra local and slow burn is OK then all is well.

Here is a giddy thought, ultra local in the blog tends to mean what is ultra local to my geographical location, which for three years now has definitely been confined to England. Mostly confined to South West England with very rare forays to London and usually set in a ten square mile radius of my home. Later this week my ultra local is crossing the Atlantic. Travel may broaden the mind but you will be treated to the same old ponderings just stimulated by North American coffee shops, beaches and museums. No dog bottoms though, they and their bottoms will stay here. I’m sure there will be some dogs bottoms but no guarantees.

Which brings me to another pondering pondering and explains the two photographs in this blog. Our daily walks always take in a bit of The Royal William Yard and I often mention it in passing but have never actually blogged about it. After the transatlantic adventure I will give you a proper tour. This amazing image came up on an Estate Agents website. I thought it was good enough to share. The back of our house is even in this shot.

©Rightmove.com

If you cant wait for my return there is a website with information.

https://royalwilliamyard.com/

#235 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Friends and Family1 Comment

Blogging about pondering is an almost inexhaustible subject. There are often a few potential blogs bubbling away in the background waiting for a denouement or an illustrative image. Todays blog is a little different as it only really has one image and no denouement in sight. I ping these words out into the ether never knowing where or with whom they will land. The daily stats on any blog tells me how many humans and in some cases bots have looked at the blog on any given day. People are also kind enough to comment on various platforms. This week has been a week of real world interaction and talk of blogs when I have been out and about. I’ve had some fabulous chats about how motherhood impacted the career trajectories of women who created families in the eighties and nineties and about the power of lateral chatting. The thing is with these lovely gems of blog induced natterings, they are never long enough and I always think of something useful to add ten minutes after I have walked away.

The gentle art of lateral conversations.

The picture above and the link below illustrates lateral conversations in a far better way than I can. Thanks to Jack for the real life conversation that inspired this particular train of thought.

https://www.stylist.co.uk/fitness-health/wellbeing/walking-benefits-talking-therapy/601584#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWalking%20side%2Dby%2Dside,person%20they%27re%20with%20directly.

Talking is the thread of this blog, this next conversation may not be so easy to have, laterally or otherwise, but maybe the women who held on to careers and some who couldn’t, need to talk about being a working mother in the eighties and nineties. Being a working mother was not about banging our heads on a glass ceiling, at least there was a chance of breaking through that. The bondage of being labelled a ‘Working Mother’ by society was the most disempowering title ever applied to me and a whole generation of women. Thanks Clare for our chat that made me realise what we all achieved against the odds.

©Matt Holmes.

And so back to my original illustration which nicely shows how life, and blogs, is a series of interconecting shapes all created by the line we walk and that even computers can’t make it perfect. Life like this image is made more attractive by its imperfections. The imperfections are what make great conversations.

#215 theoldmortuary ponders

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Yesterday my early morning dog walk sent me down a Google rabbit hole. The picture above is from one of the emergency on -call rooms at St Bartholomews Hospital in London. St Pauls Cathedral and St Bartholomews Hospital have always been a big part of my life. I realised, yesterday, that there is another St Pauls in my life now.

This St Pauls is the early morning sniffing zone of Hugo and Lola. At the very least they must sniff across the forecourt once or twice a day. Yesterday the trail around the church was very enticing for them, and having nothing better to do I allowed them to make the most of the good sniffs. It occured to me that I have no idea how Churches or any other religious institutions get their names. St Pauls is remarkably common.

Not all St Pauls are created equal.

So while the dogs sniffed round rusty pipes, I googled. It seems that as this is a subject of faith rather than science the whole naming thing can be quite arbitrary. Arbitrary suits me very well in fact.

Gladioli and Sunburst Lichen in St Pauls Church Yard

Am I drawn to know more about St Paul, no not particularly, I’m sure he was a worthy and wonderful chap since so many places, both great and small are named after him, but my nature is always to search out the less populist things in life . The saints in the shadows perhaps, the ones at the bottom of the class or on the reserve list. To return briefly to the City of London there are two churches, St Bartholomew The Great and St Bartholomew the less. Surely the lesser Bart, as he would have been known to his chums, would have been the more interesting.

Pondering such things can bite you on the bum though. While I was pondering the lives of the saints and the places named after them, the dogs found their own interesting topic. Urban fox poo. Jerked out of my unusual ponderings I was alert enough to save myself from a morning of dog bathing. I wondered, briefly, which Saint I should thank for that.

Reflecting on St Paul and other Saints. Link below for an interesting lift ride.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02CYqszb3JFEBawnvtaxqBxuawG8MhqLPM6jBVnUQbHfYK8Ko29qnyUbEGWoWfMDiZl&id=526761673