#1063 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Daft Questions, Serendipity1 Comment

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

This is an interesting question. I often feel out of place even in the most comfortable of situations. I often feel like I am on the periphery of a group. So much so that I feel that that is my place and I am quite comfortable with that sensation

Like being a white pumpkin in October , I lnow that I am in the group but perhaps not quite of the group. When Orange and ornate pumpkins are the season favourites.

This feeling has never bothered me

Although I understand to most people it could seem quite odd.

I am always an observer of new situations at the beginning , I dont jump in head first hoping to survive.

I always consider before committing. Apparently this is quite normal for ‘only’ children who are not brought up in a large extended family. We are just not exposed to the normal rough and tumble of life that growing up with siblings brings. We lack an innate competitive attitude to all things no matter how small.

For me being ‘out of place’ is exactly the place I am used to. Sometimes being the white pumpkin is no bad thing.

#1062 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

Your life without a computer: what does it look like?

My life without a computer. No blogging, more reference books. An analog life, which I have lived before. A different way of being in every way.

Today had been a non computer day, a bit of domestic sorting out and the joy of finding an old book.

2nd of October, just two entries. An exploding barge in 1874, loaded with gunpowder, must have made a massive bang on the Regents Canal. None of the crew survived and were blown up to such a point that there was no evidence they had ever existed.

On 1915 there was a blackout in London, I didn’t know such a thing had happened in the first world war.

Without a computer that would be the end of my knowledge. That would sadden me but I would still have a fulfilled life. But if I had some time on my hands I would be off to the library for a rifle through their reference library. But I have a computer, here is a link to the exploding barge.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/library-archive/macclesfield-bridge-disaster

And Google tells me that London started Blackouts in 1915 to deter Zeppelin raids. The first of which occured in September  1915 so it was probably a good idea.

In my analogue world, a tidy book corner plus wrapping paper.

#1061 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn YardeningLeave a comment

Here we go October. The Solar festoon lights have been taken down from the yard. Poor attendance by daylight,recently, has powered them up only enough to limply glow for about an hour.

Here they are having their last glow on the floor, while they dry out, before they are boxed up until May. Taking  them down was a much more difficult task than putting them up. The climbing plants had made good use of their wires as supports,

So I had a couple of hours of plant wrangling and weaving shoots into new support networks, while removing the festoon lights.

Many solar powered lights have been replaced by less mains operated bulbs. Just enough to light up the way to our garage.

The other set of lights will permit tomato harvesting in the dark evenings. Our outdoor tomato plants often keep fruiting until December. Careful storage means we can often eat a home grown tomato on C#ris##@s Day.  Apologies for mentioning the C word.

In other news here is a photo that has all the components of a prize winning candid shot and is not a prize winning shot.

Moments before this shot the seagull slid down the small childrens slide. Here he is composing himself after his ‘thrill’ ride. He teased me by returning to the steps a few times but never quite plucked up the courage to give me a photo opportunity.

Leaves however have no choice. Nature imitating  drive-through coffee.

Welcome October, play nicely and I will write good things.

#1060 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Daft QuestionsLeave a comment

What details of your life could you pay more attention to?

Sometimes these prompts from my blog hosts are useful and other times not at all. I am a life long gatherer of random knowledge. There is so much in my personal hippocampus/ temporal lobe archive, an archive that is not the tidiest,that it seems to be getting harder to retrieve my idiosyncratic collection of useless trivia. A question like the one above has me flummoxed. I have no idea what details of my life I could pay more attention to. Which of my details is not fully fleshed out   or completely explored and understood. Who is the judge of personal details that have been given proper attention to and those that need a little more work?

Flummoxed I maybe but I rather like the thinking process that makes my mind tingle with trying to create an answer. Right now I am trying to work out if this  is a good or bad prompt. I know it is not fully bad or of no interest because I scroll right past those. It is also not fully good because I don’t have an immediate response to blog about in a negative or positive way.

In conclusion I don’t know which aspect of my life needs closer attention, but I have given the matter some thought.

I have spent a few weeks with an old school friend digging out memories that we have both archived for more than fifty years. I am hugely surprised how quickly we could recall all that old data.  Even more impressive is the way other forgotten trivia continues to surface in my mind. All a bit pointless now as we are once again half a world apart.

#1059 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Van Life2 Comments

Saturday arrived with a nasty twist in its tail. Hannah has Covid

She felt rotten but the sun was out. We do still take Covid seriously in this house and choose not to mingle with people.  But a campervan to lurk in is a perfect plan . A bed on wheels that can be parked anywhere is a great solution. 

Wembury was our destination of choice and by 4pm we were the only people about. A nearly monotone walk occurred.

 

Hiding out in a van with limited phone signal gave me the chance to read a whole print edition Saturday Newspaper. So complete is my reading that I can fully justify buying a Sunday one. Happiness gleaned from adversity.

#1058 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Daft Questions1 Comment

In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled?

Hard work in itself does not make me fulfilled. Hard work with a positive outcome is very fulfilling. But hard work  that fails to bring a good outcome is not fulfilling in any way. My hard work of the summer, painting an already white, heavily textured wall continues to reward me. I had no idea that a refresh of white paint would make such a difference. Especially now we have lost summer light, the optical brightness of the walls really enhances the more flimsy light of autumn. Hard work seems much harder to recover from when it does not bring the desired positive or pleasing result. I cannot imagine enjoying it for its own sake. I know plenty of people do. Thank goodness I am an optimist or I would never get out of bed without a guarantee of success.

There is a world of hard work for hard work sake that I rarely experience. The Gym for instance, great for physical recovery but once the recovery is achieved I have little interest. Is there any hope for me?

Absolutely, optimism is a superpower that trumps my aversion to pointless hard work.

#1057 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Family, Serendipity2 Comments

27th September 2024, one year since the Sycamore of the Sycamore Gap was cut down by a criminal act and 90 years since my mother was born. The two things are both related and not related. I can’t claim to have a huge relationship with this tree, as others do, but somewhere in the photo albums of my parents there are a few pictures of me at varying heights and ages standing under this tree.  The photos would be horribly aged in the way that mass market photo development from the late sixties and seventies are.  Bleached out colours with a brown tinge. There may be a black and white image of me at age 5 standing under the tree.

Regardless I made the image at the top of this blog of a lone woman under the tree from images I found in a magazine.

Sycamore Gap is the red marker.

Every year we would make the journey from North East Essex, close to Cambridge on this map, to Glasgow to visit my paternal grandfather. Sycamore Gap was where we would stop and have a few hours out of the journey and a late breakfast. My Dad always liked to leave home at 2 a.m for these adventures. The journeys stopped when my Grandfather died and I last visited the tree at about age 15 on a school trip to Hadrian’s wall. That aspect of my family is entirely lost to me apart from their names on my family tree. One stands out.

Why did me and my mum never discuss what a cool name her Grandfather had?

A tree and a family tree are the flimsiest of connections for this blog. Underneath the canopy of both trees is the thought that I never talked enough to my parents while I had them. Do any of us?

theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Words1 Comment

What’s the trait you value most about yourself?

I don’t know that I value so much, as rely on my ability to stick to a commitment once I am commited even if the task or project seems a little beyond what other people might need or expect of me. Until recently I would describe this ability as ‘goat-like’ meaning that no matter what the job, it would be completed. Maybe not elegantly or with style but with confidence and determination. With the diligence that goats show when taking difficult paths.    In recent times Goat has come to mean something entirely different. Greatest Of All Time.

Now that, may I say is not how I would describe myself.

The nuance of my interactions with people changes outrageously with this new Goatish accolade.

” Would you like help with that shopping”

” No , don’t worry, I am a goat”

Meaning ‘I am fine the bags are balanced and are not too heavy’

Or

“Leave me, I am the Greatest of all time at carrying shopping without a scintilla of modesty”

Language is an evolving and perplexing creature.

However I think the world would be a better place if Goat stood for, Gets Onwith A Task.

Greatest of All time is overated.

#1056 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Greece, Serendipity1 Comment
©George Hassanakos

A funny thing happened on the way to the airport a couple of weeks ago. Breakfast, before we left on the last leg of our Greek road trip, was had on Gythio waterfront. A shop selling prints and C.D’s caught our beady tourist eyes. Popping into the shop I immediately bought these 4 postcards. A beardy chap invited us to follow him to another location. He was artist and photographer George Hassanakos, our destination was his workshop, showroom and studio.

https://www.hassanakos.gr/

Without a care for our bulging suitcases we bought more A3 prints of his photography.  His workplace was fascinating, as all creative spaces are. Needing to start the journey to Athens we left him, reluctantly. In an effort to keep us he offered to call the airport and delay our flight. We demurred from his vivid suggestions, the ideas of a wildly creative mind and set off.

The large prints survived our journey to the U.K, just a quick hop to Australia for some of them now. We are all the proud owners of prints signed and annotated by the artist. Funny the unplanned things that happen on the way. Unplanned but never unwelcome.