Despite once appearing in a ‘Style’and ‘Lifestyle’ magazine theoldmortuary is never going to appear in a sophisticated magazine shoot at Christmas.
Our festive decorating taste has a ‘hoarder’ aesthetic. We have no colour theme or mood board planning.. We are a rest home for gaudy, exotic and outrageous baubles . Baubles that might not get chosen in other homes are free to swing on our Nordman.
A subset of the bauble collection is the travel section. Either bought by us or gifted to remind us of a specific time or place.
This gorgeous creature arrived today and despite being a little late to the party she was straight up into the tree and asserting herself as the new Queen of the Tourist/travel bauble coterie. She knows she inspired this blog. Ice Skating Canadian Moose. New to Cornwall.
Seriously no one would mess with this powerful Moose woman . She has blades and she knows how to use them.
We have a few Canadian baubles, nothing quite as lively as Ms Moose.
Inuksuk hanging not so far from her hoped she wouldn’t realise there was a fellow Canadian in the room. He has always seemed a quiet unassuming cultural symbol.
Another other Canadian bauble @theoldmortuary looks innocuous enough but the strips of fabric inside this bauble come from the offcuts of fabric from the costumes of Macbeth, performed at the Shakespear Theatre at Stratford Ontario.
The shadow behind Ms Moose is the Elizabeth Tower, mistakenly known the world over as Big Ben.
Big Ben features on a really subtle bauble slightly reminiscent of the infamous London fog known as a ‘Pea souper’ because if its density. I’m not sure who would ever think of producing a fog themed set of baubles. Festive brightness dialed right down.
The London theme continues with a black cab.
The black cab is the first of the transport baubles. He is my favourite and is unlikely to be joined by a novelty Uber any time soon. Even though it would considerably cheaper.
But just like in real life there is a red bus right behind him.
Then we head East to Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong tram is a little bittersweet . We love the city and everything about it . But we’ve had to bury the cremated remains of two family members in Hong Kong in recent years. The administration office and Cemetery were most easily reached by tram so they both took their final journey in a bright red tram which is so much more fitting and interesting than a black hearse. I think we might struggle to find a home for a hearse bauble even on our eclectic tree. I realise somewhat belatedly that a festive hearse might be entirely appropriate @theoldmortuary. However such is the proximity to the local grave yard the customers of 50 years ago would have been carried over.
The tram, however, brings me nicely to the Chilli’s. A good place to stop as they bring good fortune to all.
The Garland attracts 32,000 visitors to the estate. For some it is an annual visit, to rekindle the memories of past visits, for others, it is a unique experience, never to be repeated but wonderful never the less. The volunteer guides at Cotehele are a huge asset. This pondering was all gleaned from talking to a volunteer for less than ten minutes, I don’t think she missed a single thing.
Jackie has written a great article out of a lovely afternoon natter about our two year redevelopment of the old cottage and the adjoining mortuary. What is only touched on briefly, but is the absolute core of this build, is the amazing quality of work of the tradesmen we used. Both creative people, we knew how we wanted the cottage to look but not how it could be achieved.
Jason and Dave, Wayne, Pete and Justin listened to our ideas, many of them mad, and used their skill to achieve what we wanted where possible and found great alternatives when things weren’t possible. We had concrete wall desires that would have cost us a fortune if we’d used the same techniques as Tate Modern. Together we worked out how to get the same finish at a fraction of the cost. 
Wayne was tasked with painting the main room of the house in a dark granite grey. ( Farrow and Ball Railings) . I think he had doubts but then came up with the brainwave of painting the banisters white with a black handrail. It looks epic.
Pete put up our eclectic taste in light fittings including the legendary neon and Justin had the unenviable task of putting up tiles in a herringbone pattern. All these lovely men came to us via http://www.superfit.uk.com/
It wasn’t meant to be an interior sort of day. Today was about painting outside walls, I attempted to paint some walls but the Cornish summer weather got the better of me and as fast as I put the paint on, it was diluted with heavy rain showers and rinsed off the wall.
Nate Berkus a US interior designer has many of the same philosophies that we are adopting at theoldmortuary. As we have mentioned before we are sadly depleted of relations the generation above us. We have a pretty large archive of ‘stuff’ from deceased relatives , it needs to be curated or we would be accused of being hoarders and that has never been a stylish look.
Denby Manor Green Stoneware was produced from the 1940’s until the 70’s,our collection holds pieces from every decade and has been inherited or gifted from family and friends. I can’t say we use it often but it looks good on the range and is really comforting to use , especially in winter. The bowl shape of the cups is perfect to hold between chilly hands and the plates have a bit of a lip that is great for retaining the melted butter that oozes from hot crumpets.
Brixton East is a fabulous multi-use creative space. Currently South London Women Artists are curating their latest exhibition there.
Ten years ago when we left Cornwall , Dulwich Village became our London home. Serendipity took us here and we have stayed within a couple of miles and have home and family here now. For the last couple of years the local pub has been closed for refurbishment and the addition of hotel rooms. The Crown and Greyhound is named after an amalgamation of two former Dulwich pubs and was built in 1900. Known locally as The Dog it has been greatly missed during its closure. Much has been written about the charm of London pubs, and as the grandchild of publicans I am particularly charmed. I have a love of pub aesthetics and the smell of them that I can’t really put into words. I’m all about the place rather than the drinking .
theoldmortuary.design 