#821 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity8 Comments

The best gifts to receive are the ones that take you on a journey. To single out one gift as the best I have ever received would be madness. Gifts are such diverse items. A kind word is a gift, as is a small portion of chocolate or a shoulder squeeze or a cup of tea. To stimulate today’s blog I have chosen a recent gift. A book from one friend’s pile to mine. The joy of a random book.

Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.

As all things have for the last few weeks, Saturday started with DIY. The flip side of a recently gifted book showed this image of a woman doing DIY.

©Hilary Macaskill.

Not just any woman dabbling her paintbrush. The world’s best selling author of all time, Agatha Christie. Her old home is less than an hour from us.  We have the book so why not go and inspect her brushwork?

The longer I live in Devon the more I realise that the world moves in strange circuits. Particularly for the rich and famous.

Our journey started ordinarily enough at a cafe/coffee shop.

The Almond Thief

The Almond Thief in a building that was once the home of Sir Francis Drake.

Greenway, the home of Agatha Christie. The Greenway Estate was formerly the home of the Gilbert family. Sir Walter Raleigh,the first importer of Tobacco to Europe,was a Gilbert and when this land needed landscaping his chum, Sir Francis Drake,from the Almond Thief Cafe,  just happened to have captured a Spanish ship with 166 crew who became prisoners of war who were then gifted to Sir Walter Raleigh’s uncle as ground workers. And that, it seems, is exactly how 16th Century Devon worked. Which completes the coffee shop circle. Back to the book.

Exploring anywhere in February rain is a challenge but we did appreciate all the Spaniards hard work. The grounds were fabulous and the artificially created viewpoints gave hints of gorgeousness but for us just monochrome hints.

10,000 steps in the rain did not give us much time for the house and we had to do it in split shifts for outdoor dog care. But it was amazing, so many stories to tell. But this is a blog about a gift which took me on a journey, as all good gifts should. Plenty of time to natter about Agatha and her lovely house next week.

I loved her lobster plate.

EBay tells me I could have one for £420. Another journey. One I am unlikely to complete.

#820 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Interior Design1 Comment

Saturday dawns and the urge to decorate and Spring clean has abated. Not that we have completely finished but two rooms are just about done. Time even for a good book on a Saturday morning.

The bathroom is as done as it can be until a little mid-century treasure arrives from E-bay.

Somewhere to store towels and products for humans, and possibly some baby bio for the house plants who prefer this room to any other.

Circling nicely back to David Bowie I am slightly tempted to frame this photograph of a print that I took in a pub near Barts Hospital. Original artwork by James Mylne.

Framed this might be rather an homage to two British icons. The plants might like it.

#819 theoldmortuary ponder.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment
On Reflection

Mid-February Friday, feels a little bit of a becalmed space. I am eager for Spring to show its face with some certainty, but not wishing to wish time away. The heavy rain of the last few days has been a dampener in many ways. On a positive note I took a whole bag of stuff to a charity shop and only bought two items home, a 100% cotton jumper to do an upholstery repair and a charming 1930’s tea set to hold my earrings in one definitive area.

Both items were reduced in the sale. The tea set was £5 and the jumper £4. The upholstery job took exactly one woman hour. The earring gathering may take a little longer.

Earring gathering has become essential, we have a toddling grandchild whose eyes and fingers alight on small things in the wrong place with astonishing accuracy.

More than half way through February. Thank goodness, I am not a winter person!

#817 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola1 Comment

Today there is no morning sunlight for Hugo to bask in. The rain is relentless. Having consulted an early morning weather forecast we were up and about to grab the two daylight hours where no rain was predicted. Our reward for the early start was a chocolate croissant.

The dogs love the soft, doughy underparts. I get the crispy bits and chocolate. We are all happy with this arrangement. I am happy that we missed the rain, which arrived early. The dogs have no idea that the morning plans have been adapted and changed purely to keep us all dry. No compromises for them they are sleeping off their croissant and I have things to be getting on with.

#816 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Daft Questions, Interior Design2 Comments

What’s afoot? Not what we had hoped. Our DIY phase has entered a  ‘get someone in phase’  This footprint should be on a floor that looks like a Victorian bathroom. But, when the flooring was delivered, there was a flaw and now we await a new delivery.  Once again our minor renovation of the house is slowed down. Which turns out to be a thing! Unknown to us we are part of a new trend in home decorating.

Slow Decorating is a ‘thing’

Our slowness is circumstantial, financial and serendipitous. Some of it is unplanned, like the bathroom floor. Other times we are waiting to find the right thing for the right place.  Wherever possible we find second hand or recycled items. Very much as this article suggests.

https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/why-we-should-all-be-slow-decorating?utm_campaign=dashhudson&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=instagram

Magazine article homes are all very well but when the photographer and journalist leave, these homes have to be lived in. Stuff needs to move in and find a home.

Part of our bathroom refurbishment is required because nearly all of the houseplants have decided they want to live in the west facing bathroom . The previous owners had wanted an all grey pleasure dome. We just need to be clean human beings. Juggling these three different design needs has taken us some time to puzzle out. Ripping out all of the new fixtures and fittings would have been the easiest but least ethical or affordable solution. The party bath is currently hosting the plants while they wait for the new floor. It will all work out in the end. Which brings me nicely to today’s blogging prompt, daft question.

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

She worked it all out, in the end.

#815 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, Serendipity1 Comment

What were your parents doing at your age?

My parents had stopped map making for me at my age. They both died at the age of 63 and had been terminally ill for some time so map making for their adult child had not been at the top of their to-do-lists for a couple of years before that. Their maps stopped .To use a nautical term, I have been on uncharted waters for some time. Cartography -on-the-go for me.

Anything that I’ve done beyond the age of 36 has had no inherited map, lovingly offered from anyone that shared my own gene pool. But life maps are everywhere. If it takes a village to raise a child then an adult child can look to the village for spare maps.

My how-to-be-an older adult maps are tatterdemalion-like. Made up as I go along with bits stolen from people I admire, books, the media. From time to time I  look at large multi- generational families in awe, as they navigate life with shared wisdom. But if I love the way they do things  I can copy and paste.*

How to be an older adult? I have no idea, I am a stranger here myself.

* sometimes when I copy and paste I have a slight sensation of something on my fingertip. Is that a little odd?

P.S Yesterday, while searching for some fabric I found a barrel of pure white feathers for sale. I know that some people like to think of the souls of loved ones when they see a pure white feather caught in a sudden breeze. I thought a barrel of them was magical. A tiny feather also usefully demonstrates the sensation I sometimes get when copy and pasting.

#814 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity2 Comments

After a weekend of wallpapering and ongoing DIY projects this image seems a funny one to start the week. It is a back staircase in an old cinema built in 1931.

Odeon Plymouth

34-36 Union Street, Plymouth, PL1 3EY

Unfavorite

Odeon Plymouth

Located in the Stonehouse section in the west of the city centre. Built on the site of the 1,500-seat Andrews New Picture Palace, which had opened in 1910, and was demolished in 1930. The Gaumont Palace was opened on 16th November 1931 with Jack Hulbert in “The Ghost Train” and Sydney Howard in “Almost a Divorce”.

The imposing brick building had a white stone tower feature in the central section above the entrance. Seating inside the auditorium was provided for 1,462 in the stalls and 790 in the circle. The internal decorations were carried out by Clark & Fenn of London. It was re-named Gaumont in 1937.

The Gaumont was closed on 2nd December 1961 for sub-division, with a dance hall occupying the former stalls area, and a 1,043-seat cinema in the former circle area, which had been extended forward. This opened as the Odeon on 10th September 1962, a day after the town’s previous Odeon on Frankfort Street had closed.

The Odeon continued until closing on 9th April 1980, and in December 1980, it was converted into a roller disco in the former stalls area. From 1987, it became a nightclub and rock music venue, last known as ‘The Boulevard’ the building then stood empty and unused. I believe the former circle area containing the Odeon cinema remained closed and unused during this time.

In the summer of 2013, it was converted into a religious broadcast studio.

It is currently on the Buildings at Risk list and is part of the local Conservation Area. In June 2021 it was announced that new owners had taken over the building with plans to convert it into an entertainment centre which will also be programmed as a concert and live performance venue. Renovations began in May 2022.

Contributed by Ken Roe © https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/33729

I have no personal connection with this building beyond frequently walking past . I took the photograph a few years ago when the dark and dank building was used for an art installation and open to the public.

This was a back entrance stairway and it was pretty grotty. Predictably it smelt of pee and mildew. But just tweaking the digital image a bit, brought out both the original colours and the acquired colours of neglect. These secret, neglected corners of previously glamorous places fascinate me.

Not completely unrelated to our redecorating efforts I needed to search out this image to turn into a print for one of our refurbished rooms.

Diving into my digital archive always throws out a photographic nugget or two. This is one of my favourites.

So much going on in one forgotten, dirty space.

#813 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Interior Design, Interior design inspiration, Serendipity1 Comment

Write about your dream home.

A good weekend for this prompt. We are in the midst of wallpapering. Not exactly to turn our current home into a dream home but maybe to turn our existing spaces into something more beautiful. When we bought the house it had been done up to attract buyers. It is full of original features and the materials used are mostly of very good quality. We have spent two and a half years trying to love an expensive French style wallpaper chosen by the previous owners.  Love has not overwhelmed us and the pale blue birds on pale blue twigs on a pale gold background have been replaced. A hugely different, concrete, abstract paper burnished with a soft bronze has silenced the already mute birds.  The concrete, just like the birds reflect the morning light from the East.

By this time tomorrow those irritating birds will be gone. One person’s dream eclipsed by another.

#812 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Van LifeLeave a comment

Yesterday was one of those repetitive blogging days when I do a regular activity. About once every four or five weeks, our dogs go to the groomers in Wembury and I get three to four hours to do whatever I want. Unhindered by the needs of two dogs. Sometimes I get on with regular life admin but mostly I take myself to Wembury beach which offers a variety of me-shaped entertainments. A Coffee shop, an excellent swimming beach and the South West Coastal path in two directions. Yesterday was a little different as the weather was shocking and I had driven through a flood to get there. There was no phone signal and the rain was drenching. I had one essential task that could be performed in the local Post Office. Beyond that it was just book reading in the campervan with cups of tea from a thermos flask. Hardly the stuff of blogging gold. But the weather and tides had other plans for the day. The header photograph is not black and white but exactly as the coast presented itself on arrival. The wind was a warm, but strong, south westerly and an abnormally high tide was due at 5pm. In no time at all our little brown campervan had many friends in the car park. Campervan’s and regular vans bringing hoards of excited surfers to the beach. Maybe fifty vans being unpacked by rubber clad enthusiasts eager to make the best of the day on their boards.  I watched from the comfort of the van and the hours passed, but soon enough the tea had worked its way to my bladder and I decided to walk to the public loo rather than use our onboard facilities.  The power of the sea was amazing in a relatively small bay. The surfers or the weather had brought many onlookers who, just like me,  stood on the cliffs and watched the spectacle of nature and the little black specs who were riding the waves. The sunset coincided with high-tide and nature threw out a light show to end the afternoon.

#811 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

Nothing quite went to plan yesterday. Unless a weather forecast is considered a plan. Thursday was predicted to be exceptionally rainy and that really was the overriding sensation of the day. But while my plans changed quickly, in the bad weather, I had a moment in a doorway when this view, of a courtyard reflected in windows, caught my eye. Equally serendipitous was this lovely image of flaking paint right by my shoulder as I took the first photo.