Category: Friends and Family

#642 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, SerendipityLeave a comment

This has been a week of catching up with friends, old, new and concurrent. And cementing a shared life with our middle granddaughter.  I have also, thank goodness finally got some paint effectively on canvas. Which is important. As Sunday approaches I feel like this was a week of effective planning and delightful serendipity.

Dryads Saddle

We found this fungus in an urban street tonight. When we left a friends house. Google lens suggests that it is a Dryads Saddle.

Which begs the question what is a Dryad and why might they need a saddle?

In Greek mythology, dryads, or hamadryads, are a tree-dwelling variety of nymphs believed to inhabit the forests, groves, and countryside of the ancient Greeks. Nymphs is a general term for lesser goddesses in the Greek pantheon, usually associated with the natural world and tied to places like streams, rivers, forests, and fields. As lesser goddesses, they did not wield the power of major goddesses like Artemis or Aphrodite. However, they were often described as influencing human emotions, evoking awe, wonderment, and fear as they looked at the natural world. Physically, they were believed to appear as beautiful young women.

No mention of needing a saddle, but maybe these urban Dryads simply catch a bus.

Mythology seems the way to go with this fungus because further investigation suggests that we could eat it and it would taste of watermelon peel. Which actually just sends me deeper down the rabbit hole. Whoever eats both fungus occurring on trees and watermelon and is able to compare and contrast their taste sensations.

As luck would have it we had eaten very well at our friends house and felt no urge to snack on a random fungus.

A late evening swim was required though. The moon was up and the sun was dipping below the horizon.

There was live music happening not too far away. A swim with the sounds of a Rod Stewart concert drifting in the breeze was an entirely good way to end the day.

Below, woman posing as a Dryad on a Dryads Saddle.

#633 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, Serendipity1 Comment

Not the blog that I expected to write today but a fine example of not being able to always plan ahead.

When the weather is good and the tides favourable I often combine my evening dog walk with a quick, solitary dip. This is my favoured location for the evening plunge. Last night my favourite spot was empty as I arrived and I was quick to get in. Only moments later a family followed me down. There was no sun and the water was a little chilly so my plan was for a quick in and out. But at some point I glanced over my shoulder and saw the family were holding an informal memorial celebration and tossing long stemmed red roses into the sea.

I really had no option, despite the chilly ness, but to stay in the water and keep out of their moment of peace and tranquility.

Soon enough they left and the sea was quickly spreading the many roses, placed lovingly in the sea.

If only I had been a little later they could have had the place to themselves. This really is a perfect spot to remember and reflect on other realms and people who are loved.

#610 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, Serendipity, Travels1 Comment

‘A city can be many things, it’s people and their stories, urban experiences and how it is represented and seen by others. A place is made up of these qualities and impressions and is larger than the sum of its parts.’

This was the starting point, or inspiration for people leaving an exhibition about architecture and art in Hong Kong in the seventies and eighties. Members of the public were encouraged to use words or pictures to explain their relationship with Hong Kong, and then create a wall of art. It also seemed, to me, a good way to start a blog.

My starting point for Hong Kong was always Victoria Harbour, Chinese Lanterns and The Peak. When I was young I had an Uncle who travelled. Occasionally he would come home with gifts. Notably a night light featuring Victoria Harbour in the 1960’s. 10 years ago when I first travelled here Victoria Harbour was as exciting in real life as it was when I was 5 and the lights on the Pearl River were represented by pinholes in a lampshade.

Victoria Harbour May 2023

Chinese Lanterns because my jewellery box featured a large Pagoda with many doors or lids that had little lanterns as knobs.

The Peak was harder to replicate from my childhood memory. My travelling Uncle gazed wistfully out of a hilltop rainforest, in the black and white photos we had in our house, to remind us of his distant existence on The Peak. I have been to the Peak many times in the past 10 years and failed to quite replicate that feeling. But global warming has changed the weather for May and we found a trail we had not done before, along the Lugard Road. The Rainforest and the rain were suddenly recreated.

Hannah’s story begins with her birth and her parents, who had lived in Hong Kong and Asia for 16 years. Not for them the Peak and its aspirational dwellings but the hourly burly of Sham Shui Po.

And now, for the past 10 years Hong Kong has become the home of our family.

We come here, when there is not a global pandemic as often as we can.

Which ties this blog up as neatly as this aerial root in the Rainforest.

Who could guess how long ago someone tied this root in a knot. Many years ago when it was soft and pliable. Now it is rock hard and helps to hold a high tree on the rocky edge of a precipice.

#518 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Family, Friends and Family3 Comments

Today would have been my Dads 92nd Birthday. For many people, including myself, he was the easier person in my parents marriage to get along with. His genetic gifts to me have been reliable, useful and enabled me to see the world and my place in it easily. My mothers character, skills and temperament was more skittish and impulsive. She divided a room, he could bring a room together.Their combined talents have given me a skittish core with a practical, sensible overcoat Sometimes I bore myself, other times I wonder what an earth I am going to get up to next. As their only child I was a puzzlement to them both. Neither could see their characteristics reflected in me because their two strong personalities masked any obvious inherited characteristics reflected in me.I was their conundrum. My skittishness was measured and my steadiness unreliable.

Marmalade is the perfect illustration. My Dad loved it and my mother hated it. There were often five or more varieties in our larder at home, experimental flavours tried once and then left to gather a dome of mould, a source of constant irritation to my mother who, once the mould level threatened good housekeeping, would throw them away with a flourish of delighted satisfaction or sometimes more fiercely, the mouldy marmalade standing in for someone or something that had really pissed her off. If my dad pissed her off she would throw away his absolute favourite, Rose’s Lime Marmalade, whether it had mould or not.

In a perfect reflection of my genetic make-up, I love marmalade. Until recently there was only ever one Marmalade for me. Frank Coopers, Thick Cut, Oxford Marmalade. From shared student homes to home ownership and settled domestic home maker, Frank Cooper has been my bitter preserve companion. More recently one of the Bobbers, Gill, has been sharing, with me,her short season Seville Orange, home -made marmalade. Gill is up there with Frank. A mass produced God and a small batch Goddess. They share the marmalade shelf now, Frank there all year, reliable. Gill fleetingly, only in season, both bitter to their core, both adored.

Wherever my parents are, and they may not have chosen,or been sent to the same other realm destination, both would be satisfied over my adult marmalade development.

My dad , thrilled that I love marmalade. My mother, grateful that it is only ever one flavour, at worst, two jars- no mould.

#516 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Cornwall, Friends and Family, London, SerendipityLeave a comment

We had an accidental weekend of nostalgia. The high point of yesterday was going to see the recently released film Rye Lane. Just about every location had been part of our South London home life. From the very first London Park, Brockwell, where Hugo took his first small, off-the-lead puppy steps in, to Brixton Market where we bought the most amazing fruit and veg, and ate Street Food from around the world. The film cleverly never fully crossed the Thames to the better known and more Iconic north shores. The film was both a rom-com and a love letter to a part of London that, only infrequently, gets a joyful spotlight on its many different faces. I will admit that my eyes stung with a little moistness of the eyes when the film went to places that I had spent time with my family and friends from all over the world. We are now dispersed but South London was where the good times rolled.

Nostalgia of a different sort on Saturday when we caught up with the first race of the Gig Rowing season in Saltash. 85 wooden boats, crewed by 6 rowers and a cox, took part in The Three Rivers Race. I was always on the heavy side for a rower but that is exactly what is needed to keep the back of the gig in the water.

The nostalgia on this occasion took the shape of appreciating that rowing was the only team sport I ever actually loved and thrived in. My eyes stung a little with the memory of fracturing and dislocating my jaw at the back end of this gig when my paddle hit a buoy that was, unusually, made of concrete and did not move in the way that plastic ones do. Unsurprisingly the buoy came out of the encounter better than I did.

These paddles are 13 feet long and weigh just under 6 kg. A quick bang on my chops when paddle and buoy collided silenced me, a bit,for a few days but the race was both continued and lost. The true nature of the injury not realized until the swelling went down many days later.

Sometimes revisiting past pleasures is absolutely the best way to spend a weekend.

#447 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family2 Comments

December and the build up to Christmas has a smooth-curve build up to the festive season. I have no time or interest in creating jeopardy into the mix. We don’t go in for ‘perfect’, our tradition has flexibility built -in, to allow the joy of serendipity to play a part. I really dislike it when someone enquires if I am ready for Christmas. I know that that question only requires an answer that suggests I am in a state of anxiety or stress. The answer ” Everything is at the stage it should be at this point of the month” is usually truthful, not smug, just reassuring. That answer,or a version of it, seems to disappoint somewhat and sometimes gets a response like “Oh well you are a well organised woman”. This sounds complimentary but often has so many hidden little barbs in it, I am in no doubt that it is a weaponised statement punishing me for not having enough festive drama in my life.

The build up to a ‘good enough’ Christmas is like that, no drama, no unrealistic expectation, just friends and family gathering together in the darkest part of the year ( Northern Hemisphere) to bring happiness to one another.

The decorations are put away in the Sandalwood Chest and our tree is off on an adventure as a beach stabiliser. Another ‘ Good Enough’* Festive season tidied away.

* Good Enough,was, of course, fabulous. Who really needs drama or perfection in the darkest month of the year.

#363 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and FamilyLeave a comment

On Reflection. One single sentence brought me up with a jolt yesterday. I was settling down for a quiet hour with the leftovers of the weekends newspapers. The sun was streaming in through the windows and I had just returned from a satisfying walk on the common. I had gathered cushions and was feeling pretty comfortable.

” This makes me feel like the Queen”

A sentence that is no longer relatable. Unless of course I was cosied up in a lead box. Just like the rest of the world, feeling rather special should, now, correctly be ” Feeling like a Queen”

A friends mum, who married in the same year as the Queen, died last week at the age of 96 having been pre deceased by a beloved husband. Achieving a rather unusual imitation of a life imitating a life.

I have been lucky enough to rehome some of my friends parents collection of coloured glass. Such a practical way to reflect and remember lovely people, as we use these glasses nearly every day.

#357 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and FamilyLeave a comment

Currently we are working with a fine ratio of grown ups to new baby. 3:1. Even with that ratio things get a little blurry. Gentle pink roses are a fabulous illustration to a dark tale of gender neutral toilets in a maternity unit.

Gender neutral toilets in a maternity unit reception certainly save space but the reality of sharing such a facility with men who are faced with imminent fatherhood is hardly a fragrant pleasure. The dark miasma of many male anxiety poos is as good a reason as any for some locations having gender specific facilities.

Just saying……..

#263 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn flowers, Friends and Family, SerendipityLeave a comment

Quite the red letter day in the yard today. Firstly the bees were going crazy for the poppies in the early morning sun.

Then a small under gardener arrived from Hong Kong via London and Sennen Cove. Never has the 10:15 from Penzance brought such a precious person.

She quickly set about the watering tasks. Then it was time to find the play park and walk the dogs.

Dog walking is a serious business when you are 3 years old. But for us all wildlife spotting became very serious when we spotted a Smooth Hound Shark at Freemans Wharf, not far from home. That is setting the bar very high for the rest of her visit. We will do our best, but I fear we may have peaked too soon!