Category: Serendipity

#1351 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

I am not sure where this blog is heading it involves Quinces and pockets, Rupert the Bear with a scintilla of handbags.

Before I set off on a meandering blog, here are my timeline notes.

Cooking Quinces

My paternal grandmother cooked Quinces.

She dressed like Rupert the Bears mother.

She always wore over garments with lots of pockets, just like Mrs Bear.

Read the link below for an understanding of women and pockets. And the garment of my grandmother and Rupert’s mother.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20250909-how-womens-pockets-became-so-controversial?fbclid=IwVERTSANawOZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHsam-SYak48p-nVY59P9nH8fRIb0RD1yfoYPOkieRYnfsM31SQh_PCDxHEI3_aem_Q-iuuMw_Y0fe4Abf4q_qgw&sfnsn=scwspmo

When anyone asks what my favourite or most influential book is I ponder long and hard. It fluctuates, at the moment it is The Count of Monte Cristo.

But in researching the Grandmother Rupert link I realise my most influential books are the Rupert Annuals which I received almost every year for twenty years.

1960

Goodness knows when I last opened this book. But I know every page like the back of my hand. Out of curiosity I sniffed it, out of nowhere, if you ignore my lachrymal glands, small pricking tears appeared in my eyes. Maybe it was the dust…

Mrs Bear appears often  wearing a long pinny or a light over-garment with pockets.

I am very much a pocket woman. Since hitting semi-retirement I have relied on pockets rather than a day to day handbag.  That has only changed in the last couple of months now I am obliged to carry an Epipen on any outing that might involve food or drink.

I think pockets were my genetic or literary gift from my grandmother/Mrs Bear. A dress or skirt is not a garment for me without pockets. If there are no pockets in a mass produced garment I don’t buy them or I add them. Pockets should be cotton or a natural fabric. Cotton bags from shops work well.

Dress with Aesop pockets.

Less so now that leggings come with pockets. It is easy to hide leggings under longish dresses and skirts.

Whilst cooking quinces or indeed anything I have apron pockets so large that I could carry a litter of squirming puppies.

Maybe more Rupert musings in a future blog and certainly more Quince.

Day 2 of Quince cooking beckons.

#1350 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Moral Compass, Serendipity2 Comments

What principles define how you live?

Hmmm,

I am mostly very law abiding.

Rules and protocols require a little more consideration and questioning.

Wisdom and my moral compass fill in the gaps. Kindness, good listening and reflection are also good gap fillers.

And the aesthetics of everything colours life, sometimes with little effort and other times with a good deal of thought and experimentation.

Saints are not my cup of tea, so failure on all these principles happens and thank goodness for that. Saints are soooo tedious.

I believe net curtains are the work of the Devil. Especially above ground level. Make them plain and call them Voile. Nobody’s windows need to look like fancy underwear. Another lesser known principal but useful all the same.

#1348 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment
Friday Morning Bob © Kim Bobber

Friday morning bob, high tide, no sun and it was a chilly one. But we had a good time with great nattering. I have been on foot all week due to missing the due date for my cars MOT. Today was the day and the car passed, not with glowing references. A return visit to the garage next week will sort my brakes out and I can get two new tyres this weekend.  Being on foot in Stonehouse there is always the risk of fascinating conversations and my week without wheels has been a cornucopia of great chat. But my productivity has suffered at home. The lists are not quite as short as they should be at 5pm on a Friday. More jolly bobbers to end a blog which is largely about real world chattering.

Bobbers swimming out to the buoy ©Kim Bobber
Bobbers at the Buoy © Kim Bobber

You can tell the sea is getting colder, our post-bobbing conversations are getting a little funkier. Today’s topic is the quality of knicker gussets. Unsurprisingly, there is no good news on the gusset front; manufacturing corners are often cut, and profit-boosting measures do not always result in a comfortable gusset.

Thankfully my other Stonehouse conversations do not feature knickers at all. Have a good weekend.

.

#1346 theoldmortuary ponders.

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What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

I could never identify the hardest personal goal that I set myself because the minute I achieve goals they hold no significance or value to them. Imposter syndrome I suspect or some derivative form of self-deprecation.  The most useful goal was certainly to learn to comfortably swim in the cold sea near my home. Not because it is a hugely valuable skill but for some fairly unfathomable reason it gives me an extra kick up the pants to get on with things and procrastinate less.

A valuable life lesson with an obscure  start in life.

#1342 theoldmortuary ponders.

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What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?

I am not a huge small talk person. Some people are adept at such things and have one or two key topics to discuss with strangers. When people discover that I dabble with paint and have exhibited a bit, they often ask who my favourite artist is. The truth is that I have a carousel of favourites.

I am not the greatest fan of Salvador Dali but one of his paintings is forever on my carousel of favourites.

So much going on, and that light emerging from the cliff is something I try to emulate often. Just a little peep of unexpected brightness.

Mark Rothko also spins perpetually on my Carousel.

Right now, as I write this, I am eagerly planning a trip to see The Vanity of Small Difference by Grayson Perry. A man who, like me grew up in Essex and observed class and possessions with interest. Same place and we are the same age.

It is 13 years since I last saw his brilliant tapestries. This week I suspect that he, will once again, be my favourite artist when I am fresh from seeing them again.

Does all this switch back of favourites make me fickle? I am the same about everything that I have an interest in. Certainty is, for me, always enlivened by uncertainty and new information.

#1341 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

Sometimes just five minutes in a day is enough to fuel a blog.

This Saturday blog contains the word ‘erotic’ those of a cautious nature should just stop here.

It also mentions a local tennis club and Lidl, both institutions that were collecting books for charity.

A friend is clearing out her house ready to sell. She had gathered 9 bags of books to donate. One bag contained a collection of 18th Century Erotic Poetry and short stories written in Latin. The tennis club declined the donation. So now, in a small town in Suffolk, the Middle of Lidl will be quite the surprise for local shoppers.

I was reading her Whatsapp and laughing while queuing in a local coffee shop.It is not often that baked goods  can make me chuckle but the Bostock’s on offer tickled my funny bone in a similar way.

Shopping for the unexpected.

P.s unbelievably there are two women on Google called Fanny Bostock.

#1340 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
Storm Amy, contemplating how much power she will unleash.

This has been a funny week blogwise. With a forgotten one. A hugely over-viewed one( 384!) and one that I wrote and forgot to publish. In between those three, dog walking, normal life, and many sea swims there has not been a lot of down time. Until yesterday when a squeeze- in late lunch date at the local market was cancelled. I read a book about Sport Psychology instead. Storm Amy is on the way. She is the love child of Hurricanes Humbert and Imelda who were jiggy over the Atlantic. Amy made my swim a little like being a lone sock in a washing machine yesterday. Even though she was in her calm phase.

Once again I plan to paint or create an image of each storm that batters our little peninsula. I would rather Amy was spelled Aimee. For some reason it seems easier to visualise a storm with more letters and a double ee. More screechy perhaps. Sea swimming may be off the diary for a few days.

My phone has become a little judgmental recently. The exercise App takes a dim view of anything less than 10,000 steps a day. Never considering my swims as exercise. I also sense a little judgement about my use of a tide and weather App.

#1337 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn history, Home, Serendipity1 Comment

Maybe I should forget to write a blog more often. Yesterday’s slightly apologetic blog got more views than usual as you can see from my stats bar.

Somebody must have dropped off to sleep with their finger on the view button!

By way of celebration I have featured a golden horse, just because really, and because horses were the subject of an evening ponder, which was always going to be todays pondering.

We are watching a drama based around the time our house was built and set in a similar location.

A house identical to ours was a very brief twist in the plot. A man rode his horse up to the front door when he needed to visit.*

Obviously horses were the key method of transport. But I had never really visualised one being used in my urban street just as a motorbike would be used to transport a single traveller. My lack of imagination of course but the thought slightly blows my mind.

This would have been an entirely normal view out of our front window. In many ways unimaginable.

A bit like my stats of yesterday.

*

  • I realise that visitors may not have ridden to the front of the property and that riding to the front was a kind of dramatic moment. But honestly riding to the back or the front, who cares! Mindblowing.
  • In a different observation, mine was the sort of house where powerful men kept their illicit lovers, male or female. We have a massive fireplace in one of the bedrooms here. Oh the things it may have seen…

#1336 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

Somehow I dropped a blog yesterday. But I did get a weekend’s worth of newspapers read and we did some of our favourite walks in gorgeous sunshine. I spent some time in a second-hand book shop and kept my hand firmly in my pocket.

Second-hand book shops fill me with nostalgia. Had my parents lived until now they would be in their early nineties. An age when people naturally downsize or naturally move to another realm. The books on their shelves finding their way to second hand book shops the world over.

In consequence,  preloved bookshop shelves look very similar to my parents beloved home library. As do the piles of discarded C.D’s.

I also love the smell of old books.

Better blog reliability from this point on.