Category: Scrag End of Summer

#1282 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 2026, art, Family, Firestone Bay, Scrag End of Summer, Summer1 Comment
© theoldmortuary

One week left of August and I feel the itch and anticipation of the arrival of September. Although I have never formally worked in education I always feel the 1st of September is a far more significant New Years Day than the dreariness of the 1st of January. The summer months, especially the summer months of 2026 have imbued a more relaxed feeling to life in general and to my art based creative life. September 1st will be the time to galvanise and gird my arty loins.

Girding your loins means to prepare yourself physically, mentally, or emotionally for a difficult task, a hard challenge, or a conflict. It functions like saying “brace yourself” or “roll up your sleeves”.

The last of my, summer, arty play dates with granddaughters occurred this week.

She sailed off to France yesterday taking us from 3 arty workshop girls down to none.

I don’t buy any special, inferior, art materials for them . They use what I use. I fret a bit about my  fancy brushes but not much else. I do catch them diving into my store cupboard for stuff I haven’t laid out for them but so far we have not had any arty drama’s beyond the normal drama that 3 girls can create in any situation.

Official Summer 2026 has sailed. We are in the liminal space that I think of as the ‘scrag end of summer’

Scrag end is an inexpensive cut of meat from the neck of a lamb or mutton. It contains a lot of bone and connective tissue, but it is very flavorful and becomes tender when cooked slowly.

I very much enjoy the ‘scrag end’ of summer. It is more tender and a little slower, more relaxed and less pressured. Poignent because it is an end but enjoyable because, for now, the actual end is unknown and unexpected pleasures will occur before that happens.

#1281 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for sale, Hybrid Printmaking, Scrag End of Summer, SerendipityLeave a comment

Does bright yellow signify the beginning of the ‘Scrag end of Summer’.

We have had a most unusual summer, 5 heatwaves have rendered our back yard almost unusable because of  excessive heat. Evenings being the only time we could comfortably sit out, or tinker with our plants.

Nearly a week since the last heatwave left the area, the later part of sitting in the yard last evening required rugs.

So heatwaves apart, we are now in an entirely normal late summer pattern. Mentally we extend summer into the whole of September. Optimistic that Autumn will only descend on the 1st of October with a crescendo of pumpkins.

A very interesting question in light of the 5 heatwaves + 1 more scheduled for September, is what will the 2026 Pumpkin season look like? 1st World Problems.

Painting pumpkins is one of my favourite fruit and Vegetable art moments.

Which leads me somewhat circuitously to the the art drama of my past week. Two hybrid prints featuring the moon were sent off for a test print. One came back looking  good the other did not.  So back to the drawing board in the literal and actual sense.

For my image I wanted the moon to look soft and mythical, exactly like cream cheese.

The Moon is made of green cheese” is a statement referring to a fanciful belief that the Moon is composed of cheese. In its original formulation as a proverb and metaphor for credulity with roots in fable, this refers to the perception of a simpleton who sees a reflection of the Moon in water and mistakes it for a round cheese wheel. It is widespread as a folkloric motif among many of the world’s cultures, and the notion has also found its way into children’s folklore and modern popular culture.


Queso fresco (“fresh cheese”), a green cheese, with typical white, round appearance resembling a full moon.
The phrase “green cheese” in the common version of this proverb (sometimes “cream cheese” is used),[1] may refer to a young, unripe cheese[2][3][4][5] or to cheese with a greenish tint.[6]

My first attempt , which I was entirely happy with until the test print, did in fact look very much like a green and slightly misshapen cheese. I wanted gentle swirls of Philadelphia.

Cream Cheese Moon 🎬2

Cream Cheese moon, created by swirling wet Posca pens with my finger has successfully been inserted into my original image and the nasty green moon banished. Another first world problem to ponder on a Sunday evening in a yard which is, for the first time this summer pleasantly warm rather than roasting.

Crossing the Bar 2 ©theoldmortuary

#1526 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Scrag End of Summer, SerendipityLeave a comment

Yardening and painting, a pondering.

Grasshopper in our yard.

My blog diary entries remind me that we moved here exactly 5 years ago.

Pandemic Pondering#461

The grasshopper on our mint plants is a lovely sign of what we have achieved in the yard in 5 years. We bought a home with a sterile, stone-walled yard with any flat surface covered in artificial turf that was used as a toilet by the two dogs that had previously lived here.

We moved plants from a rural cottage garden and an urban city garden. Some survived and thrived others failed.

The Yard in Summer

We increased our vertical growing area by increasing a north facing wall with a lateral slatted fence and planted climbing plants in pots. If there was an actual plan beyond attracting pollinators, we have forgotten it. The yard dances to its own tune. There is a well established jungle area in a south east facing corner, and anything else that does well are plants found in the Mediterranean.

The Yard in Summer

Our insect companions are very diverse. Yesterday was the first sighting of a grasshopper. But for two years now we have had our own colony of  Unarmed Stick Insects.

They live on a hugely successful climbing rose and apparently live a peaceful and non combative, sedentary life.

The pollinators love the jungle area.

When we moved into the house we were plagued by small black flies that came into the house during good weather. Making the yard more hygienic didn’t seem to make a huge improvement but this year, now the yard is more verdant there seems to be an improvement. But maybe at the scrag end of June I am talking too soon.

Five years on we are not the only creatures to have moved in.

I took these two photos within a couple of minutes in the yard yesterday.

Hot pink and bright green is one of my favourite colour combinations. When I was under 16 it was a favourite colour pairing to doodle with.Since then not so much. Last December I was thrilled to see the colour combination used for the Sugar Plum Fairies in a production of the Nutcracker in Hong Kong.

Their inspiration is easy to see in any Asian market.

At the time I remember thinking I should experiment a little with these colours at home. I had completely forgotten this until exactly this moment.

Maybe July will become a month for dabbling in hot colours and vibrant greens.

#1376 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Scrag End of SummerLeave a comment

Our house faces East. The sunrise greets us every morning. Our evenings begin as the sun dips below the five storey houses that share our back lane to the West of us. Now there is more equilibrium to day v night and the mornings are brighter, every wake up  is also an early prediction of the day ahead. Yesterday was as dull as ditch water. Today already promises to be better.

Spring is struggling to get a good hold on things. Which is doubly disappointing after a long wet winter. Boots not sandals are still the better bet for dog walks at either end of the day. 

Is this still the scrag end of Winter? My clothing choices would suggest this is the case but early  mornings are beginning to suggest that Spring is on the move. Easter weekend is upon us in a weeks time. 7 days to get Spring sorted out. No pressure.

#1305 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Scrag End of Summer, StonehouseLeave a comment

A stormy day yesterday provided the perfect illustration of a safe harbour. 100 yards and less than five minutes walk divided these two photographs yesterday. The difference is almost unbelievable.

The storm and some commitments kept me out of the water yesterday. But my short walk along Admiralty Road on a stormy day gave me some lovely hugs as I met fellow Stonehouse friends also making the journey from storm to safe harbour.

#1303 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering, Procrastination, Scrag End of SummerLeave a comment

My feet, and the rest of me woke up at a normalish time 6:00 and needed a light on.  Wind and rain outside, but not quite visible.  Sunrise was at 6:24 today.  Another sure sign that the ‘scrag end of summer’ is fully established in these parts. At this time of day I am accustomed to considering an early dog walk to avoid the heat of the day. Today the consideration is rain avoidance. Hurricane Erin is the cause of our disturbed weather, she is heading to our shores in a less powerful but still disruptive way.

Among my many youthful plans, being a weather forecaster was one potential career path, as was Agony Aunt. Both could easily be revived as interests in semi-retirement.I also wanted to be a window-dresser at Selfridges on Oxford Street, maybe less transferable to the dabbling level of interest that I currently operate on for the other two. One can casually offer advice to others and comment on the weather. Not always at the same time of course.But rearranging a shops window display is not something that can be dabbled at without both causing alarm and probably setting off  an actual alarm.

It must have been at this time of year, a year ago that I considered getting a little App operated weather station for our yard. Maybe I should do something about that.

Semi-retirement is like that, so much to do, so little time to do it with all that other dabbling and procrastination going on… Not to mention the weather, because here it comes.

©Kernow Weather Team

And this my friends is what procrastination looks like on the dog walk.

#1278 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Scrag End of Summer1 Comment

How would you design the city of the future?

I am no town or indeed city planner so this is entirely a personal fantasy. My city would be a port with a large deep river flowing into the sea.

The river would have islands.

And bridges.

The central area  would be traffic-free and would have independent retail outlets and restaurants, parks, libraries and cultural destinations. Book shops and cafes would edge  the canal banks while other retailers would cling to the river banks. Low rise mixed use accomodation for holiday makers and long term renters would  create calm and shaded squares and back streets. Most importantly the streets would be paved and cobbled with trees providing shade. The real world would be held at bay by the river and canals so the central space could be a kind and comfortable beating heart of the bigger city. A place to connect with people, or not, and to expand thinking and life experience before returning to the real world via water based public transport.

In this fantasy I am simply a city centre kind of designer. The money making, practical and essential suburbs are someone elses responsibility.

#1274 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Family, Scrag End of Summer1 Comment
Dartmoor Sheep

Here is a Dartmoor Sheep demonstrating where a Scrag End of  Lamb is anatomically. However for the purpose of this blog the sheep is actually chasing down the Scrag End of Summer. Which has been officially declared in this house. Just like Swifts, the birds ; the last of our summer visitors have left the building today. Our Swifts, our family have flown, not for sub-Saharan Africa but for Hong Kong and Canada. So the main events of Summer are done.

However I am a big fan of the scrag end of summer. The slightly faded landscape, the gentler heat and even the unpredictable weather.  Sometimes I fool myself that Scrag End Summer is a pretty long time period. But right now we are missing our summer visitors and a bustling busy house. It will take a little adjustment and a few cups of tea before we fully embrace the reality of the Scrag End of Summer 2025.

#1051 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Scrag End of Summer1 Comment

We’ve had great success with our  Canna growing this year.  All of them have bloomed. This from a historical and geographical perspective is quite the achievement. Our Cannas have been with us a long time. Some moved from the garden in Cornwall and others from Crystal Palace , they were always grown for the architectural shape of their leaves but we would have loved some flashes of red against the black fences of our two previous gardens. It seems they prefer a white stone yard to show off their blooms. Better late than never. Red is so energising. I just looked red up in my photo file and was hit by some great eye popping reds

It’s funny how the shortening days of autumn make me want to enjoy red and orange in my visual life but I don’t ever really wear a lot of red. Maybe the scrag end of September is the time to change that. Is it brave to wear red at any other time than Christmas?  I’m a bit shocked at how much I love these red grids. All started by my red  Canna blooming for the first time.

#1024 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn flowers, Scrag End of Summer, Serendipity1 Comment

Scrag end of summer in a wildflower meadow. Late August always feels a little worn around the edges but these wild flowers were as fresh as daisies this morning.

The sunflowers were turning their heads to the sun and all felt right with our world.

I enjoy the transition phases of the seasons. Autumn into winter is my least favourite but Christmas and the shortest day pull me through that slump. But right now the joy of sunflowers makes me smile.