Category: Serendipity

Surrealism and a small person Quickie #12

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity

Explaining surrealism was not required on this occasion. This is a fine example of surrealism from Salvador Dali. The added surrealism of a landline phone, surely soon to be obsolete, intrigues me alongside a need for conformity which is illogical.

I’m bothered that it bothers me that the lobster has been put into the receiver by a left handed person. It troubles me more than the fact that it’s a Lobster which doesn’t trouble me at all.


https://colchesteroysterfishery.com/products/small-canadian-lobster

Your last time in a darkroom.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity

I was driving over Dartmoor on Wednesday. This programme was on the radio. A fine example of serendipity. The artist featured in this broadcast is based on Dartmoor. I had never heard of Garry Fabian-Miller. Something I need to remedy, but for now his subject matter was what interested me.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000d70k

Garry Fabian- Miller creates images with a dark room but not cameras.

His days in the darkroom are numbered as the production of photographic developing chemistry is coming to an end.

He speaks movingly about leaving his darkroom.

Darkrooms are one of the casualties of the digital photography/imaging revolution.

I don’t remember the moment when I left a darkroom for the last time.

It’s madness that such a significant part of my professional life slipped away unnoticed and without a fitting farewell.

Medical darkrooms could be massive spaces serving many x-ray rooms with automatic processors or tiny cupboards with smelly tanks of developer and fixer for hand processing. Darkrooms have a strange life of 24 hours of darkness illuminated only with red lights. The similarity to nightclubs doesn’t stop there. Darkrooms are not unused to illicit liasons, or it has to be said, cockroaches. Either way it was always wise to clatter about a bit before entering a dark room, particularly at night or weekends. I rather wish I had taken the time to say goodbye.
Half an hours listening to the programme in the link is worthwhile even if darkroom nostalgia or art are not your thing. This is a gentle conversation about more than those two subjects.

Greyscale

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Medical imaging, Paintings, Photographs, Serendipity

Diagnostic imaging was my trade for many years. The majority of modalities in imaging produce pictures in black and white or more correctly in Grey scale. As an artist grey scale has always been my guide when judging my coloured work. A black and white photograph always lets me know if a painting has the balance I am hoping to achieve.

Cookworthy Knapp © theoldmortuary

In photography I often search out a monotone image in the real world.

Petersham Nurseries
https://petershamnurseries.com/

Hugo and Lola have been known to pose in locations that lend themselves to Black and White.

In this case at Dungeness, Britain’s only desert on the Kent coast.

The unusual environment lends itself to greyscale.

All round the coast of Britain, black and white somehow brings peace and silence to an image that could, with colour be garish or over ripe.

Wells-next-the-sea

Gigs at Saltash, Cornwall

Another monotone shot in real life colour.

Retaining walls at Samphire Hoe Country Park. An artificial land mass built from the extracted materials created by the tunneling for the Chanel Tunnel. A Nature Preserve.
http://www.samphirehoe.com/uk/visit-us/

And finally back to Radiography.

A cardiac angiogram of the left coronary artery, the basis of the pattern that heads this blog.

Left coronary artery

January Mornings Battersea and Saltash.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity

The return to work after the festive season is still a dismal dark business despite the days slowly getting a little brighter. Sunrise is around 8 am in January.

I took this photo a few years ago in the quiet period before commuting really gets going in London. I love it now because it is a lost image, redevelopment at Battersea Power Station has robbed rail commuters of this iconic silhouette.

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Gilbert Scott’s Battersea Power Station

Giant structures lend themselves to cold misty mornings, another commuting photograph popped up in my January timeline. Unlike the Battersea photograph for the next one I am a voyeur rather than a participating commuter.

Tamar Bridges at Saltash

Trains and sunrise play a part in both photographs. Obvious in the Battersea picture , it is more difficult on the Albert Bridge Saltash. Just a bright straight line of reflected light on the Penzance to Paddington train as it leaves Cornwall.

Both photographs are taken facing East.

Both structures are also favourites for paintings.

And sometimes a photograph.

4th January, no Advent, blogging wilderness?

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity

There is a slight hesitancy in emerging from the last blog of an entirely self created Advent of 34 days . I’ve had to remind myself that this is, in my own words, a blog of no consequence.

It feels a little like my personal New Year’s Day, without the pressure of resolutions or plans. Whilst writing Advent blogs, other stories, photos and paintings occured that didn’t fit my writing brief for those 34 days. They will have their moments in the sun soon enough.

Today feels like a day to explain. I have always loved random information. Before Google or Wikipedia I was often the go to person for random knowledge. I’ve become socially redundant and if I’m honest a little resentful of Messrs Google and Wiki.

Naturally an introvert, random facts or useful knowledge were my carapaces of Extravertedness.

Attending a blog writing course with The Gentle Author gave me the clarity and freedom to examine my motivation for blogging.

Not for me a blog of worthiness or of great usefulness. This is a blog of no consequence, some random thoughts and facts and an occasional English word gleaned from my trusty 1971 Thesaurus.

It is also an occasional platform for the thoughts of Hugo and Lola who are present on most of theoldmortuary adventures

Advent#32

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Advent, SerendipityLeave a comment

Counting down to the end of Yuletide 2020 on the 3rd of January. I’ve enjoyed writing daily on something vaguely festive.

Christmas, New Year and Yuletide has introduced or deepened our knowledge of new- to- us family members. Every one of them is a fabulous addition to our lives.

The sleeping black Labrador is Mr Murphy, who we met for the first time in the Cotswolds. Black pets are notoriously difficult to photograph, so I’m pleased with this shot. His serenity was short lived but he was also really keen to help with the domestica of festivus.

Mr Murphy was our canine companion, one of four, for New Years Eve. New Year 2020 was improvised at the last minute caused by a change of plans. We had supper and then took the four, four legged people for a late evening walk. The Swan Inn Lechlade was our hoped for destination as one of our friends had lived in a tiny barn conversion just behind it and knew it was a welcoming place.
http://swaninnlechlade.co.uk/

Finding space for four adults and four dogs is a big enough ask on a normal evening so we were not hopeful. Serendipity was with us, a table and live music pulled us in. Curiously the Swan felt like a time warp, the price of a round was very reasonable , the music was eclectic and the public bar was comfy and authentic. We could have been awaiting any change of decade from the last fifty years. We’ve all been through more bereavements than any group of friends wants to . Being in the Swan would have really suited all of our deceased and beloved . I did some artyfarty shots of Shadows for absent friends.

Four dogs at midnight in a confined space on New Year’s Eve might have been hazardously daft so we headed home about 11:30 and did what millions do and watched the BBC for Jools Holland with London Fireworks for midnight.

©BBC
©BBC
©BBC

Happy New Year and a delightful new decade.

Advent#31

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity

December 31st 2019, the last day of a decade. The blog has grown into itself. Pondering has become the driving word for narrative and visual creations. All thanks to a writing course with The Gentle Author of Spitalfields life.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/

Pondering the past year, I grabbed one picture for each month from my smartphone. There was no theme. No images of dogs or family or friends. In reality I ponder my friends, family and dogs often in the moments of these images. Taking you all into the next decade is the best gift imaginable.

Time to gently close the door on 2019 and lift the latch on the one marked 2020.

@theoldmortuary , pondering 2019 one month at a time.

Portwrinkle, Cornwall. January 2019

Portwrinkle again. Shells on a rusty GPO box. February 2019

https://gailsbread.co.uk/bakeries/dulwich-village/

Cheese straws. Gail’s Bakery, Dulwich Village. March 2019

https://www.porteliot.co.uk/

Wild Garlic, Port Eliot, St Germans, Cornwall. April 2019

Spring Flowers, Trematon Castle, Saltash. May 2019.

Hong Kong. June 2019

https://www.vam.ac.uk/

Shadows at the Dior Exhibition. V and A, Kensington July 2019

Rusty watering can rose and geranium. @theoldmortuary.August2019

https://kelly-house.co.uk/

Quick sketch of a 90 year old theatrical crown. Kelly House, Kelly. September 2019

Spider web, Waterside, Saltash October 2019

Corrugated cardboard rolled. St Ives, Cornwall. November 2019

Scavenged Festive wreath @theoldmortuary December 31st 2019.

https://www.oceanstudios.org.uk/

See you there …

Advent#23

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity
http://www.dulwichdiy.com/

Tinsel

Is Tinsel ‘ camper’ than Christmas. Is it set to return to Christmas in the next decade?

Tinsel was invented in 1610 in Nuremberg. It is a twinkly metal garland invented to reflect the flicker of candle light on Christmas trees, it is intended to mimic icicles. When the shiny strips are not tethered to a central thread it is known as lametta. Tinsel has been adopted around the world as a festival decoration. It is Tinsels role as a garment or prop in the theatre that has raised its ‘camp’ credentials and given it year round legitimacy. In particular, Drag acts and Pantomime are never knowingly underdressed. Tinsel and lametta are a staple accessory to bring a pop of sparkle to an outfit or even provide a stage name.

9E9639F4-4A74-4513-BA94-656C6D8DD750
allevents.in New Hope

Tinsel was hugely popular in the fifties, sixties and seventies. I remember the skinny cheap stuff that came from Woolworths, however by the seventies trips to London exposed us, as a family, to lush, dense, luxurious garlands, from Liberty or Harrods. Tinsel in our house was used year after year , being stored between each Christmas in the loft . It developed a musty dusty smell that became a familiar fragrance of December. As tinsel fell out of favour it stayed in the loft, gathering more dust instead of draping the tree.The skinny Woolworths stuff became stiff and brittle but the luxury version , supple and glossy rested in the roof waiting for it’s retro return.

My parents died in the nineties, the dreadful job of clearing their house was an absolute nadir of life. In the context of Tinsel it was also tinsels lowest point of popularity, without a second thought it went on the discard pile.

Rumour of Tinsels resurgence started on-line in about 2010. 400 years after it was first invented. I realise some people never abandoned it. However it seems to have taken another 10 years to see Tinsel stepping back into the limelight on domestic Christmas trees rather than magazine illustrations or commercially decorated corporate trees. Shops have started offering wide selections of tinsel and I bitterly regret binning my inherited luxury swags.

http://www.dulwichdiy.com/

Coincident with my Saturday ponderings on Tinsel a post appeared on Instagram from an Editor I used to write for. . #nakedforchristmas on Instagram shows Tinsel at its resurgent best.

#nakedatchristmas Instagram

Advent#18

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, Serendipity

The advent series of blogs started as a way to make a daily step towards the festive season. It could equally be called the Festival of Light. It is a way of marking the days towards the shortest day, the Winter Solstice and then on to Christmas Eve and Yuletide. For ease I started on 1st December, the day when chocolate advent calendars start and for completion it will continue until 2nd January the end of Yuletide 2020. Nothing is planned, this is after all a blog of serendipity and chance. For busy or truly uninspired days I do have some nuggets of ideas tucked away.

img_20191217_1315504547558318511512308.jpg

Firestone Bay, Plymouth.
Today was another where the light element of Advent was provided by beautiful midday weather. It also turned out to be truly serendipitous giving me a quite different story to the one I thought I would write. That story has joined the nuggets for a later day.

img_20191217_1317183559442136704608815.jpg

The tidal sea water swimming pool at Firestone Bay.

Firestone Bay is my favourite winter walk with dogs. It is entirely possible to walk for several miles, avoiding mud but still allowing them the freedom of running off the lead on the small beaches or in the non traffic areas of the Royal William Yard. Winter gives ever changing conditions and these two pictures of the tidal swimming pool were taken ten minutes apart.

Tidal pool at Firestone Bay.

Our turning point today was the last accessible beach walking to the east. Since I was last here someone.has given the beach a graffiti sign and named it Tranquility Bay. I have no idea if this is official but it is the perfect name for this lovely place of quietude.

Tranquility Bay.

We retraced our steps but as we approached the car park red fabric blowing in the wind caught my eye.

On turning the slight corner I saw the unexpected sight of two men flying Chinese Dragon streamers, accompanied by familiar Chinese classical music.

It takes immense strength to get these flying so extravagantly.

Three styles of dragon took to the sky overlooking Drake’s Island.

Adding to the atmosphere was a gently drifting smoke haze.

Not what I expected to write today but very definitely serendipitous.

Advent#15

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Advent, Garden Design, Serendipity

Foraging.
Last year I was gifted a beautiful Christmas wreath. It lasted more than a month and when I came to throw it away I noticed it was formed on a very substantial frame. The frame went into the garden shed along with all the other really useful things we archive for an undisclosed moment in the future. Today, our morning dog walk was also a foraging trip for winter greenery. We didn’t particularly plan to break any rules or trespass but secateurs on a dog walk do give a scintilla of being up to no good. It’s a good thing we hadn’t planned anything bad as we met some friends, Mike and Shirley, as we set off. They were dressed as proper walkers, it would never do to implicate bona fide walkers in sculdugery.

The nature reserve where we walk is beautiful, so we just talked and walked for a while.

Soon enough though, a lovely bag of greenery had been harvested and as luck would have it, on our return journey, we also found some thrown away bits and pieces from old flower arrangements that had become virtually dried. It was all gathered together in the kitchen and something festive was created, fueled by tea, naturally.

I’m not sure how much this resembles a traditional Christmas wreath but it cost nothing and will brighten up our home for the last seven days until the Winter Solstice.