#129 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, SerendipityLeave a comment

Our second Sunday in a row when the weather determined our location. Without dogs there is often the option of spending a stormy, wet Sunday, hunkered down in front of a fire with a good book or a jigsaw puzzle. With dogs that option is not available. Another option is to just put on the right clothes and get on with the day. We took a different option and headed for the North Coast of Cornwall. Weather forecasts suggested, correctly as it turned out, that there would be an improvement of the weather on the north coast for a couple of hours after lunch. Let’s not pretend swapping coasts gave us a balmy carefree walk in sunshine. It gave us blustery, stormy weather with a side serving of weak sunshine but most importantly there was no icy, horizontal rain capable of penetrating any tiny failing of our waterproof garments.

Hugo and Lola had a blast finding friends and seaweed. The humans skimmed stones and took in the vast expanse of crashing waves as their mental and physical cobwebs were blown out into spume of the incoming tide. We also did our bit and collected waste plastics and other man made detritus from the beach. The odd shell might also have been collected.

Mussel shells were vivid as they were tossed around on the edge of the crashing waves, inviting us to pick them up, but the minute they dried out they lost their glossy intensity. Flipping them over gives a whole spectrum of softer but long lasting colour. Every bit as lovely but different. Just like swapping coasts can be.

#128 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn HomeLeave a comment

100 shades of greige. Serendipity took me to a strange place recently. Strange for no other reason than greige is the opposite of my actual life while I am doing a colour course. A local department store has refurbished its cafe during lock down and come up with a colour scheme devoid of any colour.

With a nod to the city’s nautical history, boats are the theme of the pictures on the wall. All colour sucked out of them by a digital photography programme.

Not to be outdone the wallpaper celebrates a neutral palate.

Not that I helped myself any, ordering a pot of tea was hardly going to set my colour world alight.

Is neutral really a good look for a post pandemic world.?

Thankfully this restaurant does a fine breakfast and we populated our time there with colourful memories. Too much neutral made my eyes hurt…

#127 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment

A birthday bob yesterday with some of the usual surprise guests. A warship sailing past as we are waiting to get in. We love a busy swim. However it may appear, we were not lined up to wave to homecoming sailors but were waiting for Spearmint the seal to swim away from our bay so we could start our swim. We love her but she is not invited to our Gatherings because there are restrictions and responsibilities that protect her. There was far more action in the next bay and attracted by the noise she swam off. We jumped in but probably had only ten minutes in the water before she returned. Current advice is to get out of the water and give her 100 metres space.

Clearly she was going nowhere this time, so we retreated to eat birthday cake. Some of us had hardly got our shoulders wet. There was great disappointment but copious amounts of cake cheered everyone up and nature provided the perfect birthday card.

©Debs Bobber

#126 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Devon1 Comment

Complicated image of the day. Last night we went to Exeter Cathedral to see The Museum of the Moon.

A seven metre representation of the moon by Artist Luke Jerram.

About

A quote from the website.

The moon has always inspired humanity, acting as a ‘cultural mirror’ to society, reflecting the ideas
and beliefs of all people around the world. Over the centuries, the moon has been interpreted as a god and as a planet. It has been used as a timekeeper, calendar and been a source of light to aid nighttime navigation. Throughout history the moon has inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians the world over. The ethereal blue light cast by a full moon, the delicate crescent following the setting sun, or the mysterious dark side of the moon has evoked passion and exploration. Different cultures around the world have their own historical, cultural, scientific and religious relationships to the moon. And yet somehow, despite these differences, the moon connects us all.

Museum of the Moon allows us to observe and contemplate cultural similarities and differences around the world, and consider the latest moon science. Depending on where the artwork is presented, its meaning and interpretation will shift. Read more in Research. Through local research at each location of the artwork, new stories and meanings will be collected and compared from one presentation to the next.

#MuseumofTheMoon

My complicated image at the top of this blog was a happy accident. Whilst standing in the queue for coffee I found one of those mirror trolleys that tour guides use to point out architectural features in the ceiling to avoid their visitors fainting due to overstretching their necks.

What better way to view a ‘cultural mirror’ than through an actual mirror. There was a very stern message not to move the trolleys.They were in a dark corner. So I just contorted myself a bit and got the best shot I could without breaking any rules.

An indoor moon and Mediaeval Cathedral looking like the best roller coaster in the world.

#125 theoldmortuary ponders

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

Not a muddy puddle, yet. Tasked by my on-line art course to take 3-4 hours creating a medatitive painting. Using only red, yellow and blue watercolour with colour mixing and just painting shapes. With the washing machine and dishwasher taking the load I set up the radio. Set to talk shows so my synesthesia was shut out of the process. My synesthesia bends and blends music and colours together and often informs my art, but not today. Watercolours are tricksy things and quickly turn to mud even when you least expect it. Who knew 3 hours could pass so fast.

Then just a minute on digital manipulation and something lively appeared.

Time to return to to the domestic machines and do some meditative domestic. No amount of digital tweaking makes that any more thrilling.

#124 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, SerendipityLeave a comment

I’m a bit over commited for this next couple of weeks. I’ve enrolled on an on line colour course and yet I have given myself no protected time in which to do it. Life spluttered along today with two things cancelled one thing added and a regular commitment re instated. Yet I did find time to do a colour mixing experiment and watch a video tutorial. The colour mixing turned out not to be as easy as I had first thought!

But in a positive way.

Yesterday I cracked on with both the exercise and some homework. Tomorrow I just need to catch up on the actual project for today and then being ahead with the homework should have me almost up to date by Friday. Three hours of meditative painting for me tomorrow.

In Wordle news, there was a shock in store today! 5 letter words with American spelling have made themselves a part of the game. I did not see that coming. Something else to think about with this new obsession. Should have realised of course as it is an American game.

#123 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Gardens and gardening, SerendipityLeave a comment

A busy day crowded with different stimuli, but brought to a standstill by a few lovely flowers. Just twenty minutes spent quietly in a garden easily resets a busy mind ready for the next challenge. I’ve never really been a fan of Primroses but today this ethereal specimen stopped me in my tracks, hiding by a tractor shed.

Building up the colour temperature of this blog is an exploding yellow crocus.

Then after all the innocence and quietude of pale whites, creams and yellows this beautiful purple crocus shouts out for attention.

Its insides swirling like a sensual dancer lost in music.

Re- calibrated I leave the garden.

#122 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, Coffee Hunters, Cornwall, SerendipityLeave a comment
Harlyn Bay

Yesterday was all about avoiding a Storm that was battering the south coast of Devon and Cornwall. We had to go to Truro to collect my typewriter from its service and took a chance that the North Coast might not be so badly affected.

Typewriter collected, and that is a whole other blog, we called in at Strong Adolfo on the Atlantic Highway for coffee and some lunch.

©Strong Adolfos

Sartorial and comestible choices had uncanny similarities!

Lola and Hugo looked on, their doggy colour blindness giving them no clue why we thought this was so funny.

All they really wanted was to get to the beach and blow off some energy.

I’m not sure we exactly avoided the storm by travelling South to North, we just altered the direction that the rain hit us. The video below gives you a minute of wave action. We were not tempted to get in for a swim.

All in all a Sunday well spent, now its time to get on with the week.

#121 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home, Sunday VibesLeave a comment

This is not the way to start a Sunday! I ‘Wordle’ any time after midnight, but this morning I did it with the best cup of tea of the week. Sunday morning tea has a special quality of relaxation. Ten wrong letters in two rows ruined any element of relaxedness! There is also a storm blowing in which is sure to affect the relaxedness of my imminent dog walk with professional coffee and croissant. I am not a huge fan of drinking anything through a lid. My lip anatomy or maybe my technique is faulty but drinking take away drinks through the lid always leads to a bit of dribble on my chin or my clothes.

Normally I just pop the lid off and enjoy my drink just like any normal human. The last time I did that, in a storm, the wind whipped into my cup. Swirled the silky froth of my flat white around a bit and then flung it all over my face, up my nose and into my eyes. It was hard to style out a look that suggested that I had come out with a face pack on. After a rocky start maybe I should listen to my omens and only drink coffee indoors!

#120 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home TownsLeave a comment

A different perspective. Two hours before I took this photograph I was doing the pre-swim dog walk in the area very close to the orange arrow in this photograph. The weather was the polar opposite of this bright blue scene. Literally, ice cold needles of rain were penetrating my warm clothing and the dogs were super grumpy, actually they needed a poo but were both not prepared to spin and then stand still in such disgusting weather. I was absolutely not feeling the love for the morning bob. The grumpy dogs did eventually complete their eliminations and I could return home to the ritual of pouring myself into a damp wet suit. Rumpling chubby bits into neoprene with some degree of speed never improves my state of mind. Achieving a relatively quick turn around I was shocked to discover that the area below the orange arrow had taken a better turn and the water that awaited me looked like this. The bob was absolutely wonderful, and the post bob snacks of afternoon tea cakes,bought by Kim Bobber, gave the morning a proper boost.

Swimming/ bobbing achieved we had another quick turn around and drove off to Mountbatten which is where the top photograph was taken along with the following ones.

Plymouth Barbican and Sutton Harbour from Mountbatten
The Citadel and the Hoe from Mountbatten

Fired up by the sugar hit from Kim’s cakes I decided to do a longish but quick walk around the Mountbatten peninsular. I found some very curiously marked bollards. I was late for a planned meeting time so I was unable to unearth their significance or reason for being. But for now I can use them as a Saturday warning to all.

Re arranged for effect, of course .