Category: Serendipity

#546 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity2 Comments

Mudflats and meditating may not seem closely related. But mindful that I have fallen into the theme of low tides for this week I thought I would share again the mudflat that was close to my home in Cornwall for many years. I have photographed this mud many times. I have never physically experienced it between my toes. But I do know and love the feeling of soft warm mud between my toes. So much so, that often at the end of yoga sessions when I am mentally sinking into my yoga mat, I imagine sinking into the soft silt of low tide in and near the Thames Estuary near where I grew up.

Hardly most peoples choice of paradise but I know the texture of Essex’s coastal mud so much more intimately than other swankier muds that I may have experienced.

I never thought to photograph Essex mud so Tamar Valley mud illustrates this whole mud hagiography.

The fantasy remains perfectly orchestrated in my head even though I know sharp objects and slippery creatures lurk just below the surface. Beauty treatments involving mud are also a personal weakness.Mud and adobe houses, sweat lodges, wattle and daub dwellings. Mississippi Mud Pie.I’ve even painted landscapes using local to the area mud. On one remote occasion in an American National Park I attracted an audience of sixty or so excited tourists as I painted in the many shades of red dirt that could be found close to hand.

But on a Wednesday morning all the muds I have ever loved fill my mind at the end of a yoga session.

#543 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Gardens and gardening, Serendipity3 Comments

I am a lover of the absolute serendipity of daisies. Daisies are free -spirited, establish themselves wherever they choose and turn their heads to the sun. If only life could be this simple. These daisies are growing at a Lawn Tennis Club that is soon to open the gates to the public to raise money for local charities. Just beyond this photograph there are men and machines spiking and prepping a lawn to look the very best for the ‘Big’ weekend. These daisies are almost certainly gone for now, but men and machines are no long term match for diligent daisies. They will be back.

#541theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

Describe something you learned in high school.

I am warming to these prompts for blogs from Jetpack. I pick up the ones I can best work with. Yesterday this delicious little picture fell at my feet and it would have been criminal not to use it in a blog.

I had to go to Sutton Harbour last night to pick up some printing from a company that I am new to using. They are incredibly efficient and helpful and had printed posters for a gardening event that I did some artwork for.

©theoldmortuary
Homepage
https://www.bretonsidecopy.com/

They were so efficient that I was left with an hour and a half of parking, to use on a sunny evening, in a harbour with blue skies, warm sun and tinkling rigging.

It was perfect serendipity to find this wonderful heart shaped mound of lichen next to a discarded party star in the tracks of a discarded rail track.

Which neatly brings me back to ‘ Describe something you learned in High School’

I was painfully reserved in secondary school. Margaret Tabor Secondary Modern did not get the lofty title of ‘High’ in its name until it became a comprehensive school and became, Tabor High.

I was painfully reserved at age 11, I know shy is not the correct word. Painfully reserved, exactly describes it. Separated from my best friend from Primary School, Manor Street. I floundered in a classroom full of people I didn’t know.

It is obvious to any reader that the names of my two schools are not part of an elite system. I had the free, state- provided, education in my local town.

Being cut adrift from my best friend at 11 made me regress into my natural social position of being on the outside looking in. I am naturally an observer and for the most part I spent the years between age 11 and 18 observing. Occasionally slipping on the mantle of a gregarious person but knowing in my heart that I was just pretending. I learned a massive amount at ‘High’ school but perhaps the most important thing was to be an observational person who can comfortably wear a cloak of gregariousness; while still having the ability to find the magic of a heart and a star in a post-industrial landscape.

Anatomy of a Serendipitous Observation captured on a smartphone whilst waiting for two dogs to eliminate.

Old railway track from the time when this area of the harbour was the Tin Wharf exporting tin from the Tamar Valley all over the world for centuries. Tamar Valley tin has been discovered all over Europe wherever the Romans went.

Broken glass from the party pub just behind this picture. Plymouth Barbican is the Plymouth night-time economy hub.

Lichen Heart , in the South West Lichen thrives in our climate. Before humans this part of England was covered by Atlantic Rainforest.

Confetti star , the Barbican is a magnet for Stag and Hen do adventures. Finding a star was truly serendipitous. Confetti can be pretty and joyful but it can also be earthily pagan.

Thanking the blogging Goddess for a happy Star yesterday.

#540 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, SerendipityLeave a comment

The last few days have been rather unpredictable weather wise. For the most part, very windy either with clear blue skies or with heavy rain. Trying to predict exactly when to walk the dogs has been a science that I have not mastered competently. They have no wish to be out in the rain but sometimes need has driven us all out in drenching weather. However just a bit of sunshine, on pavements that were wet moments earlier, are golden moments for dogs, even my enfeebled human nose can pick up petrichor. But for them petrichor plus the exotic fragrances carried by the winds has been life affirming this week. Noses held high they have refused my planned routes and have planted eight paws into the ground if I chose to take a corner that was not to their taste or in a direction of their choosing.

Same picture, different direction.

In the calm of this morning, I managed to note down the sensations of these past few days. This is both swirling seas and gusting winds. I have even added some manual typing to add flavour to this colour sketch. It may never progress to anything else but just making notes feels like a weather experience commemorated.

#539 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, SerendipityLeave a comment

What’s the most fun way to exercise?

Exercising my colour eye is a pretty good way to spend a day. Currently my studio is in a proper pickle. All my own fault, but there are plans to restore order very soon. Not far from home nature is having its way with vandalism.A quick photo records Sunburst Lichen continuing to flourish on graffiti. While frantically finding work for an exhibition, old exercises have come to the surface.

The one below is a classic mini treated to some mindful colour mixing. I combined a limited colour palate with a stencil. Not remotely exhibition worthy but as an exercise very interesting.

And then another colour exercise. Wisteria at Pentillie Castle. This last one was also an exercise in utilising the unwanted water drops that landed on my paper from the resident labrador who decided to shake himself before admiring my colour sketching.

He was everywhere!

#538 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Interior Design, Serendipity1 Comment
©Dowsing and Reynolds

Glimpsing this advert over the weekend I realised, with horror, that I suffer from a complete absence of personality. No knobs on my cupboards. Please excuse the brief blog while I take some time-out to process this revelation.

I have worked in jobs where problems have been excused as ‘personality clashes’ On one occasion I memorably retorted that it was,

” Hard to have a clash of personality with someone who doesn’t have one”

Little realising that the person who had spiked my ire was simply a woman without knobs. I thought she was a controlling, bullying witch without a bone of genuine kindness. If only I had known that instead of attempting to find some soul in her I could simply have gone to a hardware store and bought her some interesting knobs.

Just imagine what this simple revelation could do in so many human interactions.

Knobs…

Who knew!

No knob, no personality.

#537 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home, SerendipityLeave a comment

We are boggle eyed from painting doors, stairs and anaglypta panels a very dark grey. This morning after we made the most of the very early light we went out for an Easter morning walk before most people had thought about breakfast. This fabric hanging from a building, soon to be renovated has a plaintive feel, but the rest of the walk was full of spring colour.

Full disclosure the job was greater than the time we had. We deliberately started with the hardest end of the hallway and it has taken all of the time available to get about half of the ground floor hallway done. Our cut- off deadline was always 4pm on Sunday. Apart from one from one swim and many dog walks we have politely declined social activities all weekend. The work left is, by any measure, much less time consuming and can be achieved over a couple of weekends.

Work in Progress shot.

The under stairs cupboard door will also go grey. It is unimaginable how many hours have gone into this small space. My jaw tells me that I painted spindles through gritted teeth and we both have lower backs that are stretched by the constant crouching to reach hard to reach places. Our minds have been stretched by the music and podcasts we have listened to. YouTube failed me on Spindle painting. Apparently the modern way to achieve the same effect as hours of teeth clenching is to mask everything except the spindles in plastic and use a spray can or gun. After ten such jaunty videos I gave up and did it the Victorian way. When I was a small child living in a house with a much smaller staircase my mum took me away for the weekend while my dad ” Got on with the hallway. “

He arrived triumphantly, at my grandparents pub saying “I’ve boxed it all in”

In the space of 48 hours our between- the-wars semi had been turned into smooth 1960’s minimalism every panelled door or ornate spindle hidden behind sheets of hardboard and painted white.

After this past weekend I understand the sentiment but cannot praise his architectural vandalism. I hope whoever lived there after us was thrilled one day to take off the boxing-in ( thank you Practical Woodworking Magazine) and reveal the real charms of the house.

#435 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

Many months ago we made a plan to decorate the hallway in the Easter holidays. It is a big hall and I could bore the pants off everyone, talking about it but last night we reached a moment when the ground floor spindles were mostly painted and there was a moment when the stairs looked like a clever optical illusion.

We are replacing Nicotine Cream with a dark grey. The hallway links three floors, so getting nearly to the top of the first set is encouraging. Crouching on the stairs to paint is bone aching work but the call of the sea gave us an hour off yesterday.

Not only were we rewarded with a long cool swim but there were many after swim snacks to fuel the rest of the day’s painting.

Our bones felt very happy after an hour or so away from grey paint. The fiddly painting makes me clench my jaw but there were plenty of bobbers yesterday, to chatter to, which gave me all the jaw relaxing exercise I needed.

There is a lot to ponder, in this picture of warmly wrapped up swimmers. Some of us have been doing this together for two and a half years. What started as therapy for one bobber, who had been given a diagnosis of an immune system disease, quickly became exercise for the Covid years. Our numbers peaked at about fifteen for quite a while and are still under twenty. These occasional group photos link the missing bobbers with the active group of the day. The bobbers themselves link up on all sorts of dry land endeavours. Our lives have been enhanced, in unexpected ways, by this regular dip in cold water. All this for an activity which is officially discouraged.

49.1 F is 9.5 C

But who could resist this.

#533 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, WordsLeave a comment

Alliteration is everywhere in Social Media, blog writing, marketing and life. I believe a little alliteration goes a long way. My heart does not skip a beat at the thought of always having a W thought on a Wednesday or Thursday always being Thrown Back. I know that many people love it as a pattern for creativity. A blog writer that I follow always had a mid-week rest with Wordless Wednesdays. A beautiful or interesting picture is published instead of words. Having said that I only like to use alliteration sparingly, today turns out to be a rare example of a possible alliterative adventure. Wordy Wednesday. But in a twist the illustrations will just be out of my archive and left wordless. And so with all that waffle off we go.

Wordless Wedneday

A school friend and I have a love of all things wordy. Not that we knew that at school because hormones and teenage awkwardness spared us the problem of actually speaking to each other. Despite that we shared geographical proximity, an Oak tree and a friend called Fred.

Wordless Wednesday

Our recent correspondence has included nattering about a Literary Festival, nearish to his home. The Queenscliff Literary Festival. In all respects this festival has become something of a fantasy for me. Particularly because in a lucky past life there were two excellent literary festivals near here that were always fabulous to visit. Port Eliot Literary festival at St Germans and Ways With Words at Dartington. The first closed in 2019 and the latter last year.

Wordless Wednesday

Queenscliffe has a micro fiction competition open only to Australian citizens. A narrative expressed in only 50 words. Of course I had to have a go, what was the point. None really, but sometimes a gauntlet is thrown down and must be picked up. My International entry, not wanted or required follows.

©theoldmortuary

https://www.queenscliffeliteraryfestival.com.au/

P.S the joke is that today is Thursday! In a world where I am only painting staircase spindles the days are beginning to blurry…

#532 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Peninsular Life, SerendipityLeave a comment

Spring is definitely asserting itself now. A bright shaft of sunlight caught this blue bowl yesterday.

Ferries to all sorts of places have started their summer services. Great big passenger ferries travelling to France and Spain leave from in front of the house. Although there is a cliff between us and them, we can feel the gentle power of their engines and hear their public announcements. Things that would quietly excite me if I were  a passenger.

dav

I have never actually caught a ferry from here which is why the name of the Ferry terminal was a big surprise to me while writing this blog. I had always assumed that it was just part of the Millbay dock complex. But actually the Ferry terminal is called the St George Terminal.

Not knowing the name of a Ferry port that I walk past every day is not as mad as it seems. From my side,the port is labelled Plymouth Port and it shares gates and staff areas with the Royal Marine Barracks. Like many places in Plymouth the outlook from my home was changed forever during World War II. Currently we overlook a school playing field beyond the field is the rocky outcrop that forms the small cliff that blocks the view of the port.

Before the war I would have looked out on two rows of Georgian houses, and tucked in amongst them a Primary School called St Georges. Further away there was also a Church called St Georges. The school, houses and church were all destroyed by German bombs and incendiary devices. The land was eventually cleared after the war and only the Primary school was rebuilt. It is very weird to think of the carnage that occurred a few steps from my front door. But beyond the rebuilt Primary School the name St Georges is not used in this area at all, so it is a huge surprise to discover the real name of the ferry terminal.

There is a strange tie in with all this and our Easter activity. We are painting our hallway, it is a big job and my task is the bannister and spindles of the staircase. The bannister shows a huge scar where something must have fallen during the bombing. Some of the spindles also show signs of damage and repairs. We will need to do more repairs just to give the staircase a bit more rigidity too. The rest of the house though is as solid as the rock it is built of and on. Luckier than its neighbours.

It is amazing what plaids can be made with some painted spindles. Time spent when I should actually have been painting spindles!