Category: Holidays

#1352 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays1 Comment
Coogee Beach Sea Pool

Pondering being on the other side of the world and taking some time out to bob about in an altogether warmer sea pool than normal.

As it turns out other bobbers have bobbed in this same pool before me .

As is so often the case photography cannot quite catch the vivid colours completely accurately.

But my pre prepared colour charts. Random as they may have seemed in a grey and dismal English November, can be used to accurately pick out the colours I will need to recreate the vivid blues and greens of the sea and the gorgeous cappuccino creamy flush as sand and  breaking waves mingle in the liminal space of the shore line.

Now the burning question is to sketch or swim?

An unusual choice for 6 am. Maybe both if I am quick!

7am and the swim won.

#1393 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays1 Comment
An English Oak tree

We are on the countdown to a big adventure. We  have two more days of pre-trip-prep. Meanwhile in the last hour or so, on the other side of the world our friends have set off on a road trip to collect us  next week. Suddenly it all feels very real.

A friendship that has its roots under an Oak tree. The school bus stop in a small Essex village.  Goodness knows where it will take us this December. Sea pools for sure, beaches and coffee shops.

So far the only thing packed is my pencil case and two sketch books. There is a pile of clothes to be sorted through and gifts to be wrapped. Passports have been found…

#1275 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn HolidaysLeave a comment

I bought these engraved pebbles in a church yesterday. There were loads to choose from but these 5 called to me. The other words just didn’t interest me, their messages were more strident and possibly more powerful . I could hand any one of these to a friend or just pick one myself and they just instantly add a bit of positivity to the day. I also bought them a saucer to rest on. Tinners Hares in shades of blue.

Hares have always seemed to be one of my favourite animals and the base colour matches my pebbles. So two purchases that make me feel very happy and were completely unplanned.

#1167 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays, Home and Away, Serendipity1 Comment

Here we are in an Airbnb in one of our favourite towns. Penzance in Cornwall. Part pleasure, part work, this trip is a brightener for January. As I washed up this morning I realised the universality of the Airbnb experience.

We have Airbnb’d around the world and the international common denominator is often furnishings and homewares from IKEA interspersed by local crafted items.

I realise for many people, this is a terrible travesty of consumerism, but I realised this morning that I find it to be comforting. Holding a hot drink in a familiar-looking mug makes me feel at home wherever I am. Just as I felt at home immediately in Soule and Marrakech with an IKEA mug in hand after a long journey into the heart of significantly different cities.

Local Art.

#1043 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays, Serendipity1 Comment

One week apart, two windows with blinds project sun into a room. This one, this morning heralds a day to be spent in a beautiful harbour and scenic village. Maybe tomorrow’s blog.

This one, last Friday, heralded a day in Spetses. A beautiful harbour and a scenic town.

Sunshine flooding a room in the morning sets the day up well. Last week we had Turquoise sea and water taxis.

Today who knows what we will have?

Both blinds are casting light on holiday clothes.

In Spetses they were contained and orderly, knowing their place in holiday hand luggage. Back home they are scattered on the floor awaiting their turn in the great post- holiday  washing cycle. Sunshine an asset in both endeavours.

#1042 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays1 Comment
Back to home bedding.

Do you see yourself as a leader?

I don’t particularly see myself as a leader because I am happy to follow while observing and learning. But life has a way of sometimes clearing the path and  leadership finds me. At that point I like to be certain that i am providing a safe environment for others to learn and move forward. I worry when people push forward as leaders without the skills or understanding that leading requires.

I am back to my home bedding folds. Yesterday my last holiday bedding fold looked like this.

With the addition of a breakfast tray to bring sunshine to my morning, high up in the attic of a Greek writers house.

I was certainly NOT leading yesterday as we drove from the Mani in Greece to Athens and then on to the West Country of England after a four hour flight

I was a back seat driver on a journey from overburdened Orange trees in vivid sunshineso to a chilly autumnal dawn, with apples already falling to the ground and blackberries on dew covered bramble bushes as we arrived home in the early hours.

So much blogging to be had in the next few weeks, sometimes I will lead but other times I will follow, always pondering a random thought.

#958 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Greece, Holidays, SerendipityLeave a comment

Traditional end of the holiday shot. The real life one, is of course, the washing machine churning her way through piles of sandy but barely worn clothes.

Our beach had two ends Bougie and Boho.

We were primarily Boho in our choices . Towels not sunbeds, happy Greek families not Golf Club types.

But the people watching and the coffee were fabulous in Bougie land. Bougie land had pool bars and women with inflated lips and men with inflated egos. Book covers on the bookshelves in Bougie land were as pneumatic as breasts and lips.

Both ends of the beach were rather fabulous. The snippets of conversation were infinitely more interesting in the bougie end, significantly because we could understand 50 % of them.  Although listening to Greek families nattering is what Greek holidays are about. A simple conversation always sounds like a drama.

And then the flight home, Bougies and BoHo’s all sat on the same coach and the same aircraft. All happy that they had achieved their holiday goals. All fairly similar in the cold light of an airport arrivals lounge. Everyone has dirty washing.

#957 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Greece, Holidays2 Comments

A bug eating her supper. Someone else’s rose bush so I am charmed rather than irritated and so much prettier than a slug. Slugs are the main consumers in our yard. They never exude charm, just slime. A slug slimed across a pencil sketch I had left in the yard recently. Instead of a twinkly trail , she left a luminous yellow stream of consciousness. I pondered the point of slime that is twinkly in most circumstances but luminous yellow on white paper

There must be a reason but I’m not certain I can work it out for myself. On a dull day I will google slug slime and learn something which may or may not be ponderable. I know the beauty industry uses something euphemistically called Snail Serum. I have never seen anything slug related.

I’m just squeezing the last rays out of my holiday sun. Hoping for dry hair before the transition stage of coaches, queues and aircraft.

Paperbacks all cast out into the world of perpetual holiday reading for strangers, while I return to the electronic world of Kindle.

Long before daily blogging became a thing, we were regular Greek Holiday goers.

Covid put a stop to all that and then catching up with far flung family took a few years to achieve. Greece became one of the many things associated with the COVID hangover that we are all living through. Adding Greece as a tag and category in my blogging world feels like an achievement.

Tomorrow I will be back to less forgivable bugs eating rose leaves.

But before I go .

#954 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Books, Greece, Holidays1 Comment

Book 4 of the holiday reading pile includes a lot of rape. Hardly surprising as the core of the narrative is the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during World War 2. In this book , so far , none of the main characters are involved. The brutality of the Japanese Occupation is the background to the narrative. I can revel in knowing the location well and slotting history into well-known locations is always fascinating.

In other news two new-to -me, Greek words have cropped up this week . Thanks to my fellow bookworms.

It was too tempting not to include a book and buttocks in a beach sketch . Surrounded, as I am, by buttocks both beautiful and not.

All that buttock sketching has revealed an error on my packing. No pencil sharpener!!

The second word is Ekphrasis.

Vivid description, oh how I wish I had the words. I may no longer have a useful pencil but I do still have my paints and a camera to enable a vivid end to the holiday.

The first book from the hotel shelf has been picked up, lets see how that goes.

#949 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays, Serendipity1 Comment

@theoldmortuary are off on holiday. Despite home looking an awful lot like our chosen destination, Greece.

The dogs are also off on their holidays where the hollyhocks are signalling the need for a change of Government very soon.

Our Greek-style yard has settled into new pots and new locations.  Despite a much colder than normal June things are starting to bloom. The Agapanthus that we grew from seed are going to bloom very soon.

Its 5 years since we were last in Greece and the last time we were in Skiathos or Skopelos the first Mama Mia film was being shot. Two weeks of  bumping into  Abba and famous actors, and inadvertently appearing as extras on a shot that took a whole day to film but ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor. We even bought the DVD that included the out-takes and we didn’t even feature on that. Oh the ignominy!