#983 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Colour, Serendipity2 Comments

Another day of painting white walls white or waiting for white paint to dry. I was painting a stairwell in the yard that drops from yard level down to a rear service lane and our garage. Not in the original painting schedule for June. But part of the extended, aspirational plans now the yard looks so fabulous in bright white. If a two graves were dug end to end that would describe my working space.  Hugo helpfully rested on the top level, inspecting and encouraging.

The biggest challenge was not brushing any part of me against the freshly painted walls in such a confined space. Hugo had no such qualms and is now a white dog tipped with bright white  enhancements.

Our lunchtime walk took us past very similar walls with a much more naturalistic appeal.

All of the stone used in this area would have been quarried extremely locally. The original Quarry boundary is 20 yards from our front door. I have qualms of guilt about painting such an ancient natural building material but previous owners made that decision a long time ago. The grubby white I am painting over covers a very strange colour choice. A sort of pinky orange. Texas Adobe walls is my closest colour reference. One external yard wall remains in this dubious shade.  Another addition to the extended, aspirational wall painting schedule.

Adobe is a fabulous colour choice in Texas and other places with extremely harsh sunlight and where the colour is naturally occurring. Not so great in South-West England.

Sharp Shadows in Stonehouse.

Whilst not exactly a ponder, here is an unrelated fact.

Adobe Walls is the site of a historic battle in Texas!

My relationship with the colour of Adobe walls is much less blood-soaked. Two of my favourite women artists had studios in Mexico and New Mexico and used the colour often in their later works. I always rather fancied being an artist in that environment.  Not that I will be rushing out any time soon to replace my newly pristine white walls with Farrow and Ball, Red Earth.

That particular fantasy cannot be lived comfortably in Devon.

Meanwhile a quick romp through my colour theory books gives me a whole family for Adobe walls to live with.

So much blooming nonsense to fill my mind whilst painting walls white.

#982 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity3 Comments

Dogs or cats?

For 55 years I was a cat or nothing  sort of person. Many of those years with house/flat only cats. And all cat-owning years with a dirt box in my home. Then I got dogs+cats and now I am in an exclusive relationship with dogs. Yardening changed everything. We work really hard to have a child safe , beautiful space to relax, in our urban, coastal yard.

What we have never wanted is a cat latrine. We have neighbours in the extended locality who have any number of pet cats that are free to roam, shit and piss in other peoples outside space. Honestly I am so over cats! Apart from this one who was posing so beautifully for a visual pun in Brixton Market.

#981 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
Lessons in Chemistry

These spoons have had quite the life. Not the life intended for them in 1955, when they were gifted to my parents as a wedding gift but a life never the less. When my parents died nearly 30 years ago I had the difficult job of clearing and selling their home.  Everyone who has done that task knows the heartache that such a job brings. These spoons were unused. Still in their wrapping paper, and with a heartwarming and loving letter from my dad’s cousin. I imagine they were never used and preserved, just as they had been gifted, because that cousin killed himself soon after my parents marriage.

Unused spoons are of no use to anyone so I kept the letter and put the spoons to use in my busy family environment.

30 years of daily life without being cleaned. Obviously they have been in and out of the dishwasher, almost daily. A thing not even invented when they were made.

Grubby perhaps, until this week when we made a new-to-us salad dressing. It had eye watering amounts of mustard in it.  The salad dressing was a step too far for our stoic spoons. Something dreadful occured.  Discolouration and a tang or odd taste came off the spoon.

Dr Google saved the spoons. I did things with boiling water, tin foil, salt and Bicarbonate of Soda and then buffed them with a soft cloth. They have never looked better. The spoons were old looking when I found them. Today they are positively youthful.

#980 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering, SerendipityLeave a comment

My rain soaked blog of yesterday was written on St Swithuns Day. Traditionally if it rains or is sunny on his name day then rain or sun will be with us for 40 days. Thankfully this morning   is dull with no rain. Which put St Swithun on the spot somewhat. I thought I would check his credentials. An Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester born in about 800.  A quick google suggests that his actual career has been eclipsed by folklore and his miracle. Folklore is the 40 days of rain or sun theory. His miracle, apparently, was to restore  to perfection some eggs broken by builders on a bridge.

Unlikely, I think. But if those two things have eclipsed his career it suggests he may not have been a particularly effective Bishop in the 800’s. Sometimes these Saints  are best left unresearched.

#979 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Yardening1 Comment
Not exactly a light bulb moment.

An early morning wake-up of rain at the midpoint of July is hardly a welcome sound. But we know that it is summer rain because it is falling softly. Up until now winter style rain has persisted throughout Spring and early summer. The rain is falling softly but may still cause flooding and other inconveniences.

Today, Alexa woke me with a moderate weather warning.

Is moderate a good enough reason to wake a woman up, I wonder.

Alexa was a little late to be honest, the moderate rainfall had already woken me up along with the chirping birds of the 6:15 alarm.

We have two Alexa devices in regular use. They keep the dogs company when we are out, keeping Hugo and Lola fully abreast of world affairs and interesting topics.

This has been a ponder that I never really knew how to address in the blog until now, but Alexa has a different personality upstairs compared to downstairs.

Downstairs Alexa has a jaunty but practical way about her. Reminding us of our looming domestic apocolypses, low on bin bags, charity toilet rolls and vitamins etc. To be honest she gets the tone about right.  I am forever irritated by radio journalists or presenters who use voices, constantly , that suggest they have a barely concealed,but fake laugh or giggle hiding just behind their scripted words.

For what it is worth I prefer friendly with no hint of mirth, unless I am listening to comedy in which case mirth is just fine.

Upstairs Alexa is a different proposition. She is Eeyore in female computer generated form. If she was a hotel receptionist she would have her forehead on the desk or be crocheting Granny Squares in shades of grey and beige.

Upstairs Alexa wakes me up to tell me the day is going to be average. If she were a friend I would be concerned for inability to find joy in anything. Her mantra seems to be.

” Start your day, the gloomy way”

So in the spirit of upstairs Alexa, rain-soaked images from the yard are the illustrations for today.

Welcome to Monday , it is going to be average.

#978 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, Serendipity1 Comment

I have crisscrossed the Tamar River using these bridges every day this week and sailed underneath them on a ferry yesterday. The river and the sea dominate every journey at the southern end of the Tamar Valley. The first rail bridge was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel between 1854-59. A road bridge was built in 1961.

Before that a variety of ferries powered, intially, by rowers and ropes crossed the river at this point for 800 years.

It was rowers that made us visit again yesterday.

A Regatta with Gig Rowing is always a feast for the eyes. We are ‘resting’ Gig rowers @theoldmortuary.

While the events of a Regatta occur on the water. There is plenty of other action on the Cornish bank.

Regalia and speeches.
Drumming
Bouncy castles
Stalls selling stuff

And because this is England, Morris Dancers.

Oh the whimsy that is Morris Dancers.

Inexplicable. The link below might help.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/mar/03/morris-is-a-creature-of-its-own-a-dance-for-a-new-age-photo-essay

Even our ferry journey home had a curious whizz through history. The banks of the Tamar are edged by small surviving examples of the Atlantic Rain Forest, a habitat that is well beyond being under threat.

Atlantic Rain Forest

In the same small stretch of water we passed this paddle boarder.

A power boat and a Pirate Ship.

And a Nuclear Submarine.

And just like riverside dwellers for centuries have done. We waved to a friend as we left.

Luckily she was wearing orange and white. Which was my theme for making a Morris Dancing/ Tamar Bridges/ Pop Art image later in the day. I was aiming for a Punk anarchy energy.

#977 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity1 Comment

Are you seeking security or adventure?

This blog is supposed to be about me finishing a watercolour after four months. But then my blog host put this teasing question on my admin page . I can answer the question with this painting. After four months of doodling I thought I was done. You could say, I was secure that enough was enough. But the minute the finished photograph was taken I knew that security was never going to work for this string bag of windfall apples.  The leaves are not bold enough, the leaves are going on an adventure. The leaves are going bolder. Flakes of gold leaf are going to make the leaves sparkle.

April

There was never a plan to paint windfall apples in a string bag. I just wanted something to paint in a meditative way while talking at an artists social gathering.

May

First coloured orbs appeared.

June

Then the string bag.

The arrival of the string bag somehow turned the orbs into bruised and imperfect apples.

July

And that should have been that, but the leaves are all wrong so the August gathering of art natterers will see me possibly  adventuring too far with this picture. It could go well . It may not.

In my search for creative adventure I could be…

Gilding the Lily.

Saturday pondering, it is often a surprise to me how a blog will end and sometimes even the beginning takes me unawares.

#976 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity1 Comment
More buttocks

The yard has started to produce a small handful of strawberries. Today’s haul gave us two bums.

This week has been all about gathering things, mostly lovely conversations with friends. And also some stray thoughts because my life is all about gathering virtually useless information.

Strawberries are not called strawberries because they are habitually grown on straw to protect from slugs. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon language when they had a descriptive name of Stray Berries because they throw off runners to create new plants.

I also learnt a new acronym.          ‘ There we are then’ a really polite phrase that neatly responds to the news that someone has behaved in a particularly vile or unpleasant way.

Another offering from the yard for Friday is sharp evening shadows . White Agapanthas and my newly white painted wall.

Random thoughts for a Friday.

#975 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing1 Comment

The bobbers are late getting to our regular Wednesday evening swimming habit. Maybe only a few weeks late. Most years we tend to start in early June. The tide was set well for an 8pm dip. And with no forethought at all I had called the bob for the exact time the England football team were playing a televised semi-final match. A good result for England as they won and a very good result for the bobbers who got a whole glorious seascape to themselves. Moments like this are a real privilege, we could swim out a bit and catch the evening sun. Hugo and Lola could sniff the incoming tide and fish for seaweed without irritating anyone. They do not usually come to a bob. Bobbers who drove could use nearly empty roads . It was a win-win kind of evening. If there was a chink of gloom it is that the water has not really warmed up to normal July levels and there were less bobbers than normal,but everything else was perfect.

#974 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Life Admin, Serendipity1 Comment

When I found a tree with buttocks last week I used the image to share with a choir who had been singing about the Green Man. I quite enjoyed tinkering with the image at the time but had forgotten about it, a week or so has passed. But then Instagram gave me this little mind twister this morning.

This sort of madness makes me laugh. Just a little bit of a wry smile during such moments is such a private, magical, but life-enhancing thing. If tree bottoms were this morning’s ‘private smile’.Yesterday gave me one for different reasons.

Yesterday there were many early morning jobs to be done but the weather was not encouraging .

A free parking space in the city centre and a cup of tea in a local outdoor cafe were two reasons to celebrate early tasks achieved and success in all areas of the dog walking.

In two of the 4 grey seascapes above, there is actually a cruise ship anchored up in Plymouth Sound.

While I was enjoying my cup of tea and the concept of free parking at 8am. Passengers from the cruise ship were being landed out of sight but straight ahead of me.  Out of the mist rose lively, welcoming Military Band music. Honestly, what a lovely sound to perk up a grey early morning. Another private smile moment.

©Plymouth Waterfront Partnership