Category: Holidays

#105 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn HolidaysLeave a comment

Yesterday did not go as planned. But I knew the best laid plans had failed by 6pm the night before so a different plan was hatched. Serendipity stepped up to take the place of forward planning and for the first time in just over two years we got a seat in our favourite and now local coffee shop, so the birthday fairies were not totally having a bad day. First World problems and all that but it was lovely to have coffee in a cup sat at a table indoors. The surprise element of the birthday outing still happened but not in the way it was meant to be. A pair of pyjamas in a carrier bag does not have the same impact as pyjamas served in a biscuit tin which depicts the destination of the next couple of days. The irony is not lost on me that 6 months ago we moved out of a Cornish cottage and yet I had booked our first break away in a Cornish cottage. To be fair to me my search area for a cottage was anywhere between Penzance and Bristol. I had four search parameters.

1- Price

2- Dog friendly

3- Plenty of walking with no need to use the car for three days

4-A homely cottage, not cute and absolutely not decorated in blue and white, with beach huts, seagulls or fish as decorative features.

Number 4 turned out to be the deciding factor.

When we moved from a non touristy part of Cornwall to a very touristy part of Devon we moved our decorative fish with us but beyond that one detail we prefer a more organic style of interior design. Stuff gleaned from ebay, skips or dumpster, charity shops or friends and neighbours discarded or unneeded items.

After a sunshine filled hour or two in Truro, we took the road to St Ives.

Truro Cathedral

We arrived after dark and just like short stay tourists everywhere we trundled our little suitcases the ten minute walk from a car park to our destination.

Comfy cottage.

More irony as we settled down with a cup of tea. A programme about Cornwall was on the TV as we settled in.

We did not eat spider crab last night, but fish and chips and sausages for dogs filled us up ready for today’s walking.

Not a beach hut, Seagull or fish in sight.

#37 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, HolidaysLeave a comment

Yesterday the Queen missed the Remembrance Day event at the Cenotaph in London, because she had a sprained back. By coincidence Hugo also has a sprained back and has also had to call off important public duties. Giving him plenty of time to muck about in brackish water set to run into the sea at Knoll Beach near the chain ferry to Sandbanks.

Old chains from the ferries are used to mark the sides of the road, a sure sign that this ferry rarely carries innebriated foot passengers. Unlike the chain ferry nearer to home where some passengers are so topped up with alcohol they often cross the river several times as they sleep off their potion of choice.

These chains could do some serious damage to people suffering from alcohol induced tangle foot. It’s a shame Plymouth and Torpoint can’t use their old chains as a landscape feature.

Rusty brown has inadvertantly become the colour theme of this blog. Yesterday I mostly took photos on my proper camera but the wi-fi where we are staying is so flaky I can’t transfer the images to my phone. This means blogs of Dorset can continue into next week and I can end this blog with some rusty bracken which was captured with a phone.

Pandemic Pondering #536

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Beach Life, Holidays1 Comment
© theoldmortuary, Pollen II

Mid to late September is habitually the time of year when @theoldmortuary are getting ready to set off for a holiday. Holidays always involve some painting, or sketching in the sun. Usually in Greece because that is the destination of space and relaxation.

Pollen II , above was sketched in Greece and then painted at home. A roadside plant possibly a weed bursting with pollen. The paintings that emerge from holiday sketching follow no real theme or style.

©theoldmortuary, Naturists at Paleochora

Last September our usual holiday time was filled with non holiday activities at the height of the pandemic. There was no random sketching. It seems a shame to have given up my regular September sketching habit just because a pandemic has blighted travel and relaxation plans.

©theoldmortuary, Phospherescence on an unknown Greek beach

Last year was such a muddle of Lockdowns, Eat Outs, Stay ins, that September passed without any thought of what a normal September was like. This year I am a little more mindful of what I am missing. There is no reason not to take some time out to randomly sketch just because the pandemic still has travel and many other aspects of our lives twisted out of all recognition.

©theoldmortuary, Elefonisi

We have some holiday booked this year, no big trips and possibly a good bit of home maintenance but I might just pack my self a little sketching kit and take inspiration from closer to home.

Pandemic Pondering #204

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, HolidaysLeave a comment

These were harvested from a friend’s garden yesterday. The vibrancy of my harvestings is a reflection of the wonderful weather we’ve had in Cornwall throughout the Pandemic, that, and the green fingers of my friends Ed and Mel who are currently in Turkey, Lotus eating.

Lotus Eating fascinated me as a child, there was a TV programme, broadcast in 1972 , the story evolved around expats living on Crete. I was too young to take in the nuances of the plot, but watching the programme from a small Essex market town, I was enchanted and the glamour of Crete wormed its way into my head and has never left me.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lotus_Eaters_(TV_series)

The link above takes you to the Wikipedia page of the TV Series.

Lotus Eating has been a life long escape for me. For a long while the bookish Essex Girl that I was and am only did it with imagination. Then foreign travel became easier, and my diligent reading of books gave me a career that could facilitate actual Lotus eating. Just as my childish imagination had shaped it permanently in my head. Lotus Eating in this Essex woman’s head requires travel to anywhere in Greece or Turkey, hopefully not too touristy . Sunshine and swimming are the two essentials that the location needs to provide, I will bring a mountain of books and painting materials.

The reality of becoming my own version of a Lotus Eater has shaped me. I spend way more time imagining myself as a Lotus Eater, particularly in the brutally wet Cornish winters than I ever do actually basking in Mediterranean sunshine.

Our interior design and storage is influenced.

The whole extended family yearns to be owners of goats.

My love of rust and palimpsest probably started with that TV programme. Both are more vivid in sunshine and better preserved in a Mediterranean climate.

Lotus Eating is not, of course, expats living a hedonistic lifestyle or me reading in the sun. In fact it was only ever a myth. See link below to a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lotos-Eaters

But the fantasy and holidays in the sun make it real, often enough, for it to be as tangible as reality, and for everything else there is memories.