Category: Serendipity

Pandemic Pondering #268

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

A quiet day at The Box yesterday. Being in a gallery I’ve talked about a bit gives me the chance to talk about a very old ponder that took place in The Plymouth City Museum, the forbear of The Box more than 25 years ago.

https://www.theboxplymouth.com/

It happened in the galleries that are now called Port of Plymouth. 25 years ago I was a very regular visitor to the museum , particularly when the weather was not good and I had two small children to entertain. We always spent an inordinate amount of time looking at the case that held Plymouth Argyle artifacts and memorabilia, because my son was obsessed with football. On one visit a face and a name caught my eye from a 1920’s team photo. The name , Jack Pullen, and the face reminded me of someone I was at school with and briefly I wondered if they were related. In many respects this was highly unlikely as I went to school in Essex, The player in question though was a Welsh International player and my school friends name was Dai so it was not a completely unreasonable thought. In fairness I didn’t really dwell on it too much.

© http://www.greensonscreen.co.uk

In 2010 I was living and working in London and the internet had changed communication in all sorts of ways. Dai, who lives in Australia, and I would exchange occasional volleys of emails. On one occasion I was nattering about both my grown up children working in hospitality at Plymouth Argyle. He responded by telling me his grandfather had played for Argyle for 10 years in the pre World War 2 era. My pondering of the team photo all those years ago had been correct. I did a little bit of research but didn’t find anything much about the talented player beyond what Dai already knew.

By the time I moved back to Plymouth the old city museum has been closed for a long time and the new museum was taking shape. It was only last week when I was working in the new museum that I remembered that strange coincidence.

Meanwhile Dai had misplaced photos of his grandfather. Once again the internet and chance/coincidence and serendipity took the old ponder and gave it some new life.

Whilst working in London I made a friend of another Welshman called Marc who had introduced me to a woman called Sarah that he had trained with. She is an ardent Plymouth Argyle supporter, not something you meet too often in the capital. Last week I contacted her and asked if she had any books about Argyle history. She didn’t but after a bit of research she came up with a really informative website.

https://www.greensonscreen.co.uk/

The picture I gleaned from the website and one of Dai, published recently in a Colchester newspaper show why this curious long time ponder happened.

©Colchester Gazette

Grandfather and grandson look pretty similar .

Pondering, it’s not a quick process every time.

Pandemic Pondering #266

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

Dog walking can be repetitive, particularly the walks closest to home or favourites. London Park walks became meditative but also made me really appreciate the subtle way the seasons shift and change. Walks in Cornwall have a bigger diversity even if they all start more or less in the same area. In 12 hours I have done the same dog walk twice. Into the town and then off for a run by the river. I wasn’t lacking in options for other walks but I needed to do other things in the same location and not everything was open at the same times.

Last night’s walk was brightened up by our local towns festive project. Winter Wanderland. Local people and businesses were encouraged to make illuminated window displays, using sillouettes to brighten up walking about town, in place of the usual Christmas Carol Festival

The was no worry about avoiding crowds. We didn’t meet anyone else doing any winter wandering. Ours is not a town that gets giddy with excitement at the best of times. The promise of illuminated windows did not tickle anyone’s giddygland in this Tier 1 destination, despite many of the windows being really good.

Less than twelve hours later , nature threw a visual sillouette party of its own.

Still no giddiness or excitement or even any other people , but definitely something good to look at on a dog walk.

Pandemic Pondering #263

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

This is a picture of very happy artists. Only in 2020 could this be quite so exciting. Drawn to the Valley, Art Group have managed the almost impossible feat of arranging two exhibitions in the last two months.

Following on from the fabulously successful Butchers Hall Exhibition in Tavistock this happy group of artists set up the exhibition at Harbour House Kingsbridge this weekend.

Here is a sneak preview of the exhibition.

Looking like a great reason to visit Kingsbridge.

Pandemic Pondering #261

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

Pondering passages.

December and the run up to Christmas is a very appropriate time to fill in a huge gap in my local knowledge.

©The Box

One of the bodies of water I regularly walk along used to be known as Crimble Passage. That’s just as exciting as working near Grotto Passage!

That’s it I’m done for the day.

Cremyl Ferry crossing Crimble Passage

Crimble has in time changed to Cremyl. The tides and currents of The Crimble or Cremyl are complex and dangerous and give the land around which they swirl the name Devils Point. Conversely the beach close by where @theoldmortuary swim safely is called Tranquility Bay.

Pandemic Pondering #257

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment

So long, November.

©Andy Cole

A November like no other slipped quietly into December. Last night five of our informal swimming group          ‘ Bobbers’ took to the sea at Firestone Bay to swim for the last time in November. For most of us it was the first time the end of November was marked in such a way. The positive aspects of Covid-19 can be difficult to appreciate but sea swimming and increased fitness is a definite @theoldmortuary.

The tail end of November was bright and beautiful, our exercise outings were either spent in the water or walking beside it. Fistral is a beach in North Cornwall where ‘ Bobbers’ would not get an effective swim.

Surfers though have a wonderful time.

Good morning December 2020 let’s see what surprises you have up your wintery sleeves.

Pandemic Pondering #255

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, SerendipityLeave a comment

A funny thing happened overnight on Thursday.

©Karen Mills

The picture above was taken at sunset. My Thursday evening started well, witnessing these amazing skies, but then took a more arduous turn when I joined in with a Zoom AGM. The meeting took serpiginous routes through regular business and decision making and lasted three hours. Not many important decisions were made and, as can happen at these things, some folk got on some high horses and rode the poor things into the ground. Thankfully I am not a chairman , I fear my finger may have inadvertantly grazed the mute button on more than one occasion.

Safe to say three hours prepped me very well for sleep. Not the restful sort though. I woke myself up reciting a poem, almost word perfect, that I had no idea was still stored in my brain.

Who could guess why such a volatile poem hijacked my sleep . Maybe that dramatic sky or maybe an AGM where raging and raving were bobbing just under the surface.

Do not go gentle into the night.

By Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

After all that nocturnal culture it was good to wake up to a calm morning.

©Clare Law

Pandemic Pondering #254

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, SerendipityLeave a comment
©theoldmortuary

A commission went off to its new home a little over a week ago. It was a birthday gift so I can only reveal it now. It is the first big painting with washes of colour and a figurative element. Something I’ve been dabbling with since the beginning of the pandemic. If anything the abstract landscape element is simplified in all these pandemic works and the figurative element is symbolic rather than a perfect rendition of an object or person. This was a commission with some guidelines and thoughts from the customer. In an uncertain world many of us like a little certainty. In this picture the certainty is provided by Smeatons Tower and by the words hidden in the rocks.

In other Pandemically created works the certainty is provided by the human form.

I wanted the human to be as serene as a Budha and sexually ambiguous.

One of the things I love about commissions is that they come with a set of conditions that I would not give myself and consequently force me a little beyond my own boundaries. I’ve learnt from bitter and expensive experience not to stray too far from my boundaries to satisfy a customer at the cost of my integrity. All commission’s are a risk but I’ve learned to manage that risk now.

The two pictures seem quite far apart but they are part of my current need to inject something solid and certain into colourful abstracts and they are both an explorative part of future paintings.

For now I’ve just created an apocalyptic high tide.

Pandemic Pondering #253

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

It was another blue sky day today. So blue in fact that any photograph would just have been an expanse of blue. November in Britain is a great time for staring at the sky at night too.

Fireworks light up November skies for many reasons in multi cultural Britain. Divali, Guy Fawkes Night, Lord Mayors Show and Thanksgiving are all a fine excuse to gather together to eat, drink and stare skyward to be amazed.

These pictures are fireworks I captured at The Lord Mayors Show in London a few years ago. I’m not sure why I succeeded to capture something worth looking at that year, I’ve tried and failed since. It is almost never worth the effort.

This November, of course, is marked by an absence of big firework displays.

As I write this, my home city of Plymouth should be excitedly planning an evening of lights and Fireworks to mark Mayflower 400.

400 years since the signing of the Mayflower Compact. Thanksgiving Day.

50 years ago, The United American Indians of New England declared the 4th Thursday of November The National Day of Mourning, as a reminder of the slaughter of millions of Indigenous people and the theft of their lands by outsiders.

It has taken a Pandemic to allow that day to pass quietly as perhaps it should. Below is a link to a ceremony held in Plymouth last night.

I will just leave that thought, and walk away.

©MarkCurnow