Tag: dailyprompt

#1287 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Bobbing, Serendipity, Yardening1 Comment
Full Moony bobbers under a Sturgeon moon.

Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?

Not just me and not just the Bobbers. A little moment of skinny dipping in Firestone Bay under a full moon.

Although with full disclosure I had to paint the Sturgeon moon and add it to the image afterwards, because the sky was densely greige with clouds.

The three swimming bays were alive last night with the happy chatter of swimmers who had discarded swimwear, and their allies who swam alongside wearing textiles.

A Full Moonie is all about swimming at night under the full moon even if the moon fails to turn up.

What got us into it?

Just one bobbers 60th Birthday Bucket List, earlier in the year.

Who  knows if we will keep it up through the winter. Nothing is impossible with the Bobbers but I suspect nudity might be very brief in the winter months ,no matter how hardy we believe we are.

The swim was silkily warm and thoroughly enjoyable. As ever the after-bob chatter was free flowing and wildly multi-faceted.

@theoldmortuary had spent the day working in the yard. Just a small amount of painting left to do before winter. But having painted the moon for the bobbers it would be a waste not to see it over a nearly finished yard.

If only our still green tomatoes could be so easily faked.

Five heatwaves and not a single red tomato yet.

But with a multi-purpose Sturgeon Moon even a ripe tomato is possible.

Following on from yesterday’s blog ⬇️

#1286 theoldmortuary ponders.

Artistic Interpretation and Artificial Intelligence. A.I two ways.

#1286 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, pondering1 Comment
Photograph of an original watercolour of a Mackerel. Artistic Interpretation.

What’s the weirdest coincidence you’ve ever experienced?

No weird coincidences to report. Some strange ones and some lovely ones throughout life but I can’t think of a weird one.

But my pondering head has been pondering the good and bad of witches and wizards recently and how witches are seen as malign and worrisome creatures and wizards  as benign and benevolent, in general.

Language shapes my unscholarly thinking. When a witch bucks the accepted trend she is labeled as a ‘good ‘or ‘white’ witch. When a wizard goes rogue he is considered ‘ wicked’

But it seems to me the default is female witch=bad, male wizard= good.

While creating art I use sketching, painting, collage photography etc to produce an image. Artistic Interpretation if you want a definition. I also use digital manipulation and computer generated imagery. Artificial Intelligence

A.I and A.I

For many years in the production of Medical Images I used skill and radiation or ultrasound. Technology and computers vastly improved what could be discovered and diagnosed during my career. There is a definition very frequently,but only recently commonly used for such innovation. Artificial Intelligence.

A.I.

Now that’s a weird coincidence.

I suspect that A.I is the witch when it is Artificial Intelligence and A.I is a wizard when thinking about Artistic Intelligence.

Also weird.

Digital Photograph of the same painting, tidied up, using art and photography programmes on a computer,
ready for prints to be made. Artificial Intelligence

The original painting looks much better in real life. Artistic Interpretation.

The prints will be as good as technology allows. Artificial Intelligence.

A.I a weird coincidence.

#1284 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Books2 Comments

Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in?

In my case the fictional world would be double fictionalised. Kenneth Grahame wrote The Wind in the Willows set on the Thames near his home in Pangbourne. Every time I read this book I imagined the action taking place in the countryside I was familiar with, the borders of Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

At age 8 that was my lived  experience. The countryside of John Constable. The Thames as I knew it was a wide and softly muddy estuary  washing into the North Sea near Southend.

In my head Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad mucked about in a river that looked a lot like the Rover Stour, which was close to home.

When I was older and more familiar with the Cotswolds version of the Thames I imagined that Wind in the Willows might be better suited to that location. I only usually visited the Cotswolds in the summer, which is the only season I ever think about when Wind in the Willows crosses my mind.

The double fictional location of the Cotswolds.My choice tacked on erroneously to Kenneth Grahame’s  book,  would most certainly be a fun and fabulous place to vacation/holiday in. It is always summer in my mind but not actually in the book.

The landscape of the Cotswolds would seem very familiar to Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad. Shepherds Huts and Gipsy Caravans dot the landscape, as do very expensive car salesrooms. For me good bookshops and coffee places hide out  in small towns and villages. So do very upmarket garden centres, a particular holiday weakness of mine. I know that Toad would regularly shop at Daylesford or the Burford Garden Centre. Ratty and Mole would express caution at some of the prices.Badger would roll his eyes. They would be helpful shopping companions for me too in such places.

The original 1908 illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard and my  2019 photograph will give you a clue as to why I shifted my own fictional location for these stories to the Cotswolds.

1908 illustrations
Daylesford Garden Centre and Farm Shop May 2019

So, my apologies to Pangbourne. Perhaps I should visit for some authenticity.

P.S in researching this blog I realise my  60 year old paperback is no longer capable of the page turning required for research. Time to get a new copy.

This pink Porsche was also parked near the vintage vehicle on the same day.

#1280 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)1 Comment

What’s a cultural tradition from your country that you love?

The need to make or buy a hot drink to smooth, ease or improve any situation. When I was young the drink of choice was almost exclusively tea but in the late sixties coffee took the pressure off tea a bit in Britain. The responsibility for making British people hydrated in nearly all circumstances could be shared a bit. Not that tea or coffee are as good at hydrating as plain water. Water is much more prevalent now but there is virtually no ritual to serving water. The preparation of a hot drink by one person for another adds something intangible to the interaction. Also there can be appreciation or opprobrium thrown in. Hot drinks are commented on in a way that cold or alcoholic ones are not so much.

Speaking ill of the dead, my recently demised mother-in-law was not a good hot drink maker. Her coffee was deplorable and her tea was never more than average. But to her credit she always offered a chocolate digestive biscuit with either. Not complete reputational rehabilitation by any means, but possibly recognition of her shortcomings.

#1277 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Film, Hugo and Lola1 Comment
First Love

What’s the last movie that made you cry?

Not the last movie that I watched that made me cry, but the most significant.

Purely because the whole cinema experience, done well, rips off a skin layer or two of my stoicism and protective emotional guard. The most insignificant scene in a well made film can make me silently blub at its beauty, musicality, prose, costumes, acting, scene setting or some hidden, to others , personal connection. I am a regular cinema sniffer and silent weeper.

Marley and Me.

I had just left my canine first love, Mr Hugo, with his grandmother on his first holiday with her, and my first time of leaving him.  On the flight the person next to me was watching Marley and Me. I was reading a book but every time I looked up I could see the scenes being played out before me in absolute silence.

My book is unmemorable but often enough when I glanced at the film on my neighbours screen, my eyes pricked with emotion, nothing to do with the book. I knew how the film would end and I didn’t want to witness how the love of a dog plays out  before I experienced it for myself.

Marley and Hugo had the same lifespan.Similar life events happened, Hugo was not exactly expelled from puppy school, but we didn’t stay the course. As with many pets,difficult  life decisions were made, not only the final one. Age is as unkind to dogs as it can be with humans.

I have never actually watched the film with the dialogue. I am almost certain I never will. But if I had watched it an hour ago, a week ago or any time span it would be the film where uncontrollable sobbing would occur, probably the whole way through. Nobody needs that as entertainment.

#1274 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn WordsLeave a comment

How do you deal with uncertainty?

I have fairly firm, certain,views on uncertainty and am a little uncertain about the order I should write about uncertainty.

Uncertainty should play no part in certain aspects of life, for those parts of life you need to know what you are doing, have a plan,the skills and materials to turn uncertainty into certainty.

Uncertainty can be banished by confidence and training.

Intuition is a great tool against uncertainty.

Uncertainty can be allowed its own sweet time to resolve.

Uncertainty is not always a bad thing, particularly in the creative world or when dealing with other humans.

Personally I love the serendipity of uncertainty. I prefer people who embrace uncertainty but not to the point of being irritatingly whimsical. People who are forever certain are not my cup of tea.

This prompt arrived less than 12 hours after I deliberately avoided a fellow swimmer who I don’t really know. She is impossible to have a casual conversation because she is certain about everything, often wrong and talks in a series of statements. A little diffidence would benefit her social skills.

Life is just too short for so much certainty.

#1259 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

What is your favorite quote?

My favourite quote is one that has no obvious origin.

‘ You are mistaking my tolerance for indifference ‘

The digital rabbit hole I nipped down to check mentions Al Capone but there appears no evidence that he actually said it.

He and I could not be more different. I believe he would have delivered such a sentence with more than a hint of menace. For me it is more of a mental note against the individual who has transgressed.

Curiously although I love this quote I am aware of its ambiguity. No one individual or organisation knows where my tipping point is for them. Nor do I have a hard and fast rule myself. My head rules for many such decisions as does my heart. More inportantly I don’t always know where the tipping point is.

Also on reflection I can see that some people were given way too much slack when I was younger.

If only I could choose a simpler quote.

#1258 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn insomnia1 Comment
See *

If you had to give one life-changing tip, what would it be?

My life-changing tip is not a quick fix and may not even change lives but the tip does enhance life and that in itself changes everything.

Live life as it is, and not as you hoped or expected it to be.

Don’t dwell on what isn’t but embrace what is.

I have to say this seems glib and simplistic when written down.

My own regular insomniac relationship with 3:30 a.m suggests that my head does not always find my own tip easy to put into practice . But even if I have to force my own theory on my chaotic over- busy mind at times. I know my head and heart benefit in the long run.

And Oh My Goodness! The mental long run can often be an exceedingly long run, arduous and exhausting.

But living life as it is , is as good a survival tool as a tin of Brown Kendal Mint Cake.

*I am a sucker for a retro branded tin. This one fell into my shopping  yesterday. When I was young our family holidays always involved long walks, scrambling over or up rough terrain and admiring the landscape. The only safety equipment was some water and Brown Kendal Mint cake.And my mum left somewhere nearby reading a book. Mini me thought I was conquering Everest. That was unlikely as our holidays were always in the U.K. Non holiday adventures requiring Mint Cake took place in Essex or Suffolk. No dizzy heights in either place.

50 years since Brown Kendal Mint Cake has passed my lips. It will find a way into my life as it is, but only tiny little pieces occasionally. It really is possible to have too much of a good thing. Bigger bits may be allowed if I have to consider things of Everest proportions during my 3:00a.m tribulations.

#1255 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity3 Comments

What’s a song lyric that has stuck with you forever?

There is nothing sophisticated about the lyrics of this 1970’s rock ballad.

Hold your head up.

By Argent an English Rock Band.

And if it’s bad
Don’t let it get you down, you can take it
And if it hurts
Don’t let them see you cry, you can make it

Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head high
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head high

And if they stare
Just let them burn their eyes on you moving
And if they shout
Don’t let it change a thing that you’re doing

Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head high
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head high

Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up
Hold your head up

Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up,oh
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head high
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head up, woman
Hold your head high

And if they stare
Just let them burn their eyes on you moving
And if they shout
Don’t let it change a thing that you’re doing

Hold your head up, woman

The tune is a hugely masculine feeling composition of the era, the testosterone bounces out of  every note, but it was a supportive battle cry for the emerging Womens Liberation Movement.

I have found it immensely useful to just have in my head during tricksy moments. But it would never be my Karaoke tune of choice I just don’t have enough testosterone to carry it off.

#1352 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment
Summer Bobbers.

What’s a promise you made to yourself that you’ve actually kept?

8 summery bobbers met yesterday for our regular weekly swim. About half of the number of registered bobbers who turn out at Firestone Bay in all weathers to swim, chat and eat cake.

If there was anything positive to come out of the Covid era this group of acquired aquatic friends is my favourite thing.

There is nothing good about my swimming. I am not fast, strong or stylish. But during the Covid years I learnt that being in the sea, bobbing about was something that I loved doing.

Before the Covid era I was not someone who made promises to myself. I was fortunate, a boomer, a post-war child born into an optimistic era. Too young to understand the threats of the Cold war. Covid was the first time I felt threatened in a way that was beyond the control of  myself, society or the world. I promised myself I would keep swimming with the bobbers and keep writing a daily blog.

Faced with a Global Pandemic those were the only two intentions I had to battle an invisible enemy. Written down that looks quite pathetic. Also as promises go they are hardly earth shattering.

But history will probably call us the Covid Generation. The big stuff will be researched and discussed at conferences and academic institutions. But the little stuff is what we all had to do to get through.I do little stuff.

5 years ago we were just emerging from Covid restrictions. We attended a wedding. The blog I wrote on that day is below.

Pandemic Pondering #487

My promises to myself may well be a bit inconsequential but so far I have stuck with them and that is good enough for now.

Reflecting on this I realise there were two pivotal moments that made both blogging and swimming both possible and promisable.

In early Covid I was recalled back to work in London. At the time I was living in Cornwall. Even in normal times that would be a near impossible commute. Had that happened there would be no sea swimming.

In early 2020 I had been accepted to train as a theatre critic,  barely had the email landed when Covid arrived stamping its big gnarly foot on training or aspiration of any sort. Had the Theatre Critic thing happened there would be no blogging.

My tiny promises were created by a massive global  crisis.