#696 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, Serendipity1 Comment

A weekend of expected and unexpected meet-ups and conversations. All enjoyed in crisp autumn weather with sharp shadows and shades of vivid orange. The last time I sat on these cushions, in a coffee shop near Penryn, the Covid-19 Pandemic was nowhere near anyone’s horizon. At the time Penryn was a regular destination because I was studying at Falmouth University and my son lived nearby. Hard to realise that it is 4 years since we were last here and the had Covid-19 not happened there was a good chance that we would have relocated to live here for work and family reasons.

Yesterday we were here to find some long lost but recently found family members from Vancouver Island.

If I was struggling with the passage of four years our hunt for their airbnb was going to give me a bigger thwack with the memory stick.

The beautiful, but strangely named St Gluvius Church, on the road from Penryn to Mylor Bridge pulled me up sharply. It was such a shock to my system I didn’t even take a photograph to record the moment. 40 years ago I attended the wedding of some good friends there and through knowing them this area of Cornwall became one of my favourite corners of the world.

The friendship has not survived, eroded by changing circumstances and life events but how lovely that Penryn still makes me feel welcome however long I leave it between visits.

Funny how life is just a series of moments in a mosaic, some things planned and some things not. And we can never know, as individuals,when the bigger picture is complete.

And those we leave behind will never fully know our bigger picture because we have forgotten half of it ourselves

#695 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and LolaLeave a comment

It has been a whirlwind of family interactions in the last few days. Some planned and some serendipitous. Our dogs love having an increased pack. Yesterday Hugo took a little time out and perched on a small dining chair as if it was the only place he could find a space for a five minute gap.

By coincidence the two British locations our family occupies are represented by these little books in the prayer book shelves.

What have you been working on?

In answer to the above question I imagine Hugo could be wondering where the Little Book of Hong Kong was for him to do research Then he would then fully be able to fall asleep surrounded by books that represent his entire human family.

#694 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, ponderingLeave a comment
Incoming tide lapping at a back gate.

My dad was occasionally moved to say  ” I can read you like an open book, and some of the pages don’t read too well”  In life he was far from my harshest critic, and I think that statement could be  about right.

The question below was posed by the hosts of this blog. I really have a love hate relationship with these daily prompts and probably respond to one a week. This however is right up my pondering street because I can rant against it .

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

How can I possibly know what most people don’t know about me.

Is there anything to be gained by releasing my unknown nuggets of information to the world. At my level almost certainly not.

Thank goddess, I have largely moved on from the world of formal interviews and these sorts of daft bloody questions.

Where would you like to be in five years time?

Tell us about a difficult situation you handled well?

What is your worst characteristic?

Does anyone ever answer these questions honestly. Imagine a world in which such futile questions were answered honestly by people more significant than me.

And so Mr/ Madam World Leader. What is your worst characteristic? Where would you like to be in five years time? Tell us about a difficult situation you handled well? What’s something most people don’t know about you?

Suddenly with the addition of absolute truth futile questions could become the secret to world peace and effective life management.

As luck would have it my dog walking gives me an actual answer to present. It’s not going to affect world peace

My favourite book is Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. Most people don’t know that. For the last two years my daily dog wanderings have taken me past an insignificant looking coastal cottage called Toad Hall. It is a daily little heart warming moment. Yesterday my heart got a lot warmer. Look what a talented Street Artist has done.

©@streetsaint

Happy Saturday blog friends

#693 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Plymouth, Stonehouse1 Comment

Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?

Another prompt from Jetpack that fires enthusiasm into my soul. Lazy days are the opposite of unproductive and being lazy is one of the most deliberate experiences to allow myself. I find lazy days to be some of the most productive, in terms of creative and useful thinking.

I probably had a lazy day yesterday, no actual commitments but a mental list of tasks that could be achieved with ease and some firm future plans put in place.

There is a car park right in the centre of the city which has broken payment machines. Two hours of free parking at least was the chance to walk the dogs somewhere different. They would be exhausted if I walked them there. Then demand a coffee break. I can’t imagine where they learned that habit. By driving them I could avoid coffee, which might still provoke a whimsical digestive system. I could window shop and visit a market while they were enthusiastically sniffing the urban realm. Everyone was happy.

Lazy days make little things really significant. I popped in to see a friend and her fruit bowl looked simply gorgeous with a cute little gourd posing on some plums.

On a busy day I might not have noticed.

Then a long, lazy walk as the moon popped up, no shops this time just the bay and the squeals of after-work swimmers.

The exact opposite of unproductive.

#692 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn WordsLeave a comment

I wonder if nasty viruses are a good way for people with normally robust health to live in the shoes of people who are less fortunate. After 24 hours of exploding insides I was left like a whimsical husk, unable to function in any useful way until my insides decided that they would permit half a can of flat coke and a small amount of plain pasta.

My best descriptive word for my state yesterday was flimsy and the previous few days were definitely queasy.

Goodness I love the word ‘flinsy’. I have not always used it wisely or in a kindly way. In my teenage years I described a friends new boyfriend as flimsy. I thought I was being kind and truthful but maybe finding something good about him would have been what a truly good friend would have done.

The other definition of flimsy is almost certain to be or to become extinct. Hand or type written reports were often created on triple layer stationary. A sandwich of normal paper for the original, ultra thin paper in the middle and thin card on the back. The ultra thin paper was often called the flimsy and most organisations had a special filing system for flimsies. Paper versions of credit card transactions were possibly the last incarnation of the flimsy as a noun.

#691 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

There is not a lot of pondering, or anything else going on here today. A few days of queasyness has turned into a bout of full-blown Noroviris. Bed to bathroom to sofa is my comfort zone. Briefly interrupted by one of my lovely children calling in to walk the dogs, and the other calling from a holiday in Hoi An, Vietnam. Thankfully the pillows I am languishing on is on a far more comfy sofa. This beautiful pillow and wall was captured in Hoi An and is just about as creative as I can get today.

#690 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, pondering1 Comment

I think it might be time to accept that autumn is in full swing and that summer and even an ‘ Indian Summer are behind us. These last couple of days have been liminal spaces with some spectacular sunshine but dropping temperatures.

This was the view two days ago,but last night our evening swim was a chilly, grey affair. The water temperature was a balmy 16 degrees while the air temp was 12 degrees. There was much talk about putting the heating on at home. Our winter swimming kit is slowly making an appearance and we didn’t linger on the street corner for an extended farewell natter. But moments later I did linger to take this picture of an autumnal leaf resting on a curb stone.

This gives me the chance to recount some second-hand Plymouth history.

As regular readers will know Plymouth was one of the worst harmed cities in Britain by the German bombing raids of World War II. I suppose this little historic ponder is about a small part of the clear up that followed.

So many of Plymouth’s historic streets were blown up,there had to be a very clear plan to salvage whatever could be reused when rebuilding began. I browsed an old book yesterday that described the aftermath as an ‘exploded’ city. The small detail of salvage included the collection of all curb stones from bomb damaged locations. Many of those curbstones carried scars from the devastation caused by shrapnel or hot molten metal from the fires that raged. As the city was rebuilt the salvaged curbstones were reused as streets were repaired and returned to normal use.

The location of this particular curbstone may or may not be its original location. It is an old cobbled street, now thinly covered with tarmac, very close to where there was some significant bomb damage. In the photograph above the autumn leaf has settled almost perfectly into the scar. A lovely visual analogy for nature healing the harm that humans cause.

#689 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

When I moved to Cornwall in the 80’s from Brighton, life was not quite as idyllic as I had anticipated. The job I came to do was kicked into the long grass and rather than having a month to find my feet in a new area I had 6 months. 6 long, wet, lonely months. November is not the best time to move house and home many hundreds of miles from friends and familiarity. Luckily I had a small companion, a two year old son who could accompany me on my winter adventures in a strange land . The town I moved to, like much of Cornwall had an unhealthy reticence about welcoming people from ‘ Up the line’ In November toddler groups are part way through their term and our little team of two was turned away. Sometimes with the promise of being put on a waiting list. 35 years on I am still on more waiting lists than I care to think about. Undefeated I joined the National Trust and we set off on a two person adventure to learn about the history and geography of Cornwall in the short daylight hours of winter. It was an adventure and one that gave me the foundation for a life that I have mostly lived in the South West of England. The trouble is that sometimes I have missed a gem because back in the eighties certain places failed our not-too-high standards. Basically anything Pixie/Pisky related. Witchy the same and to a degree Smugglers if Wreckers were not included in the narratives. Poor cafe facilities or being over priced also got a bad mark. Some places I have never returned to.

Yesterdays trip to Golitha Falls is a case in point. From my recollection both Pixies and a poor cafe were involved.

What a chump I have been, not to have given the place a second chance until now!

No Pixies in the 21st Century and a fabulous cafe. Free parking and the most beautiful woodland river walk. Golitha Falls perhaps suggests a rather grander drop of water than exists but the area is beautiful and despite the carpark being full, really quiet once we were in the woods.

Golitha Falls is the location of the drowning of the last King of Cornwall.

King Doniert, not a name that has ever come back into fashion ,died in 875 either from fighting in the river or frolicking. Nobody knows. What is rather unbelievable is that these ancient woodlands would have looked pretty much identical to what we experienced yesterday.

Serendipity took us there yesterday. My, rather daft, prejudice against decades old tourist tat has denied me some rather lovely walks. Maybe I need to revisit some of the other places that were crossed off my list more than 30 years ago.

And how lucky was I to have 6 months exploring such a fascinating county with a 2 year old in his wellies.

#688 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Music, pondering, Serendipity1 Comment

Striking images make you think. Two striking images this weekend have provoked widespread pondering. Despite being musically aware throughout the career of Black Sabbath, their music has largely been an outlier for me.Breakfas today, with Black Sabbath was an easy way to reconnect. Although there is a lot to like, my somewhat flimsy reason for limited knowledge is that Heavy Metal gigs were uncomfortable places to be, with sweaty leather and testosterone laying heavy in the air. As contemporary ballet goes this one was somewhat patchy but with moments of unforgettable beauty. For the reasons above I can’t be knowledgeable about the music choices but my favourite snippet was included,so it gets a ✓from me. The audience was wild for the performance by the time the final curtain went down. Despite the fabulous image on the programme this scene did not exist in the performance we watched. We were rather disappointed, but not on the scale of disappointment that many people felt when there was no moment of joy when an actual Black Sabbath band member appeared out of the orchestra pit. Maybe that happens in Birmingham.

On a sartorial and olfactory note the atmosphere of the theatre was not filled with too much sweaty leather or testosterone.

©Banksy

Banksy, of course, made everyone think this week. Two hours of googling and research cannot make sense of a subject that makes no sense. But refreshing knowledge always shines a little more light. Madness for me, that the history homework where I first tried to understand the history of the Middle East would occasionally have had Black Sabbath as my background music of choice.

My dad would have shouted up the stairs ” How can you possibly understand what you are studying with that noise on”

My response now would be. ” Tell me what music makes any of this understandable”

#687 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn history, Serendipity1 Comment

Meet the neighbours. If our neighbours were in any way’normal’ I would not take photographs of the stuff I saw in their home. Our neighbours are the Royal Marines and we live exceedingly close to their actual and spiritual home. So close in fact that when their guests arrive by helicopter our house trembles a bit. As a significant military establishment the area is not open to the public and is guarded night and day by armed guards. Yesterday their neighbours were invited in for a tour. Three hours of fascinating facts and historic architecture. Since I love both those subjects I was fully engaged and could have listened and learned for many more hours. Rather than regurgitate all I learned I will share a link to two useful websites.

https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/our-organisation/bases-and-stations/marines-base/stonehouse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehouse_Barracks

Leaving me to natter on about two things that we can all relate to. A chair and a sandwich.

I had no expectations of this visit beyond getting to look beyond the gates of something I walk past every day. We were very well informed and entertained by Charlie, an avuncular Royal Marine with many years service and much love for the organisation he represented. As a civilian I have always struggled with the military being a mirror reflection of the British class system. See below.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/feb/24/privately-educated-elite-continues-to-take-top-jobs-finds-survey

It will come as no surprise that the Officers Mess was a very grand building but it was here that we met a fairly normal chair. That once was the place where Napoleon Bonapart placed his bottom for three years of his incarceration. With its original upholstery.

It is said that Napolean died at the age of 51 from a gastric ailment. Oh the things that velvet may have had to endure.

Moving swiftly on,to the upper end of the gastrointestinal tract, we come to the 4th Earl of Sandwich. A man, who as First Lord of the Admiralty was not a fan of the many formal meals that Officers were obliged to attend and socialise at. Instead he liked to have working meal breaks and had cold meats, cheeses and bread brought to his office. Where he assembled what came to be known as a sandwich.

Here he is presiding over the grand dining room. Somewhere he avoided in favour of a humble sarni.