Tag: dailyprompt

#1509 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn SerendipityLeave a comment

What’s one thing you wish you had started doing earlier in life?

Not so much me as an individual but my birth family as a whole. I wish I had had holidays with my grandparents and foreign holidays with my parents. I am just being whimsical really, but this morning’s dawn picture is from a campsite founded in 1963. It is obvious that people have been coming here for many years. Some of them from the day it opened. The small beach bar buzzes with conversations that bounce from table to table. Not pretentious Bar Fly type boasts and swaggers. Just people catching up with people they have known in this particular holiday spot for many years. We are here on the last week of the holiday season but nothing feels like it is winding down. A fishmonger arrived last night selling freshly harvested oysters, there was no announcement and yet there were queues of people, both campers and locals excitedly buying oysters for their supper. Maybe that has always happened on a Friday night.

The toilet and shower block is very modern and high tech. A tree has been preserved in the atrium entrance and there is recorded birdsong. Presumably the new building replaces a smaller one that was more open to the elements. Birdsong whilst abluting is curiously relaxing. I think having this location as a regular holiday destination would be fabulous.

This was our second choice of camp site. Our original choice had excellent on-line reviews. But just driving into the reception area made us reconsider. It was very busy, full of people bustling about and doing performative activities, bikes, kayaks and alpine walking sticks were everywhere. Strangely and worrisomely like a cartoon version of a camp site. A lot of Lycra. I don’t need lycra to do not very much, although for the good of other peoples holidays and nostalgia, I am not skinny dipping near the convivial beach bar. A little lycra was a good thing in that instance.

#1407 theoldmortuary ponders

On By Juliet CornellIn art, bloggingLeave a comment

If you had to switch lives with a fictional character for a week, who would you choose?

Absolutely and without a doubt, a privelidged and well educated male spy or diplomat. I want the connections, an elegant apartment in central London and most importantly I want an extensive tailored wardrobe. If possible I would like my week of being a privelidged sort of fellow to be a week off , so no actual spying or diplomacy are being done. Just a week of hanging with my equally elegantly dressed chums, doing chap stuff like watching a top level sports match in an exclusive box, whilst sipping or quaffing a drink or two, and still have a razor sharp mind for a witty or erudite conversation, about my latest motorbike adventure and the pitfalls of a damaged sprocket. I would take my mother out to dinner and actually spend time talking and laughing with her.We would travel on a London night bus in our beautiful clothes to prove how in touch we both are with all levels of society, and we would go to a delightfully retro all-night cafe, to top up on unsophisticated calories because our dinner choice was so beautiful, exquisite even, that it failed to fully satisfy us.

At the weekend I would go to the countryside wearing tweed or to the coast wearing quiet luxury, and meet more well connected friends.Mindful that I would be running out of time as an extremely lovely and likable Alpha Male impersonator. My Saturday and Sunday would be spent talking about anything other than myself, in order that my week-long research into being a very lucky man has been as well used as it possibly could.

Would a week be enough? Could I become addicted to a life of testosterone and privelidged living?

Would my vocabulary alter to use words like rusticate or flunk instead of chucked out and fail.

Could I possibly wear waistcoats more often in daily life? Calling the garment a ‘weskit’*

Obviously before my week away as a chap or chum I would do some homework. The Guardian article above would be invaluable.It is well worth a read even without a fictional adventure into manhood. Pull up a chair and relax.

What would be my takeaway from this tiny adventure. Without it ever likely to happen, it would absolutely have to be the clothes. I worry that the combination of privilege and testosterone might quite turn my head, and no self respecting woman wants to run the risk of being a knob. Thank goodness for all the lovely men in the world who prove that that outcome is not always inevitable.

#1404 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By Juliet CornellIn Serendipity1 Comment

What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?

I am not someone who habitually hands out unsolicited advice. I don’t always like to receive advice or instruction that I neither need nor desire, so out of respect to others I limit my offerings to those who ask. That is not to say that unsolicited advice is always a bad thing, but too much, too often is just patronising.

However, the question has been asked and I would say to younger people,try to develop a positive outlook on life. Wear rose tinted spectacles when you can. Try to find the sunspots in a field of gloom.

Constantly negative people are not my tribe, now I am semi-retired I like a life topped up with positive energy. Not everything in life needs to be polarised or adversarial. We do not always have to agree with someone to find some common ground that is relatable

Practice makes perfect. Pink lenses can help you focus on the one good thing, the beautiful thing, a small kindness, an act of love, the inappropriate giggle even in the darkest of places. Pink lenses are a metaphor for finding something good in every day and the more you do it the better you become at it. In my humble opinion, if anyone is interested.

#1294 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment

What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done when no one was watching?

I don’t  believe I have ever done anything remotely brave. Witnessed or not. Were I to contemplate bravery I think I would choose to do it with no one watching in case I failed or misread the situation and bravery was not required. I am also someone who immediately devalues something if I achieve it. So if I was both brave and successful. I would immediately recalibrate the situation  to one that required no courage at all.

5 years ago I would have considered swimming in the sea in England in December as the action of someone who was either brave or daft

After 5 years of doing it I know that cold sea swimming is a pretty daft hobby . Definitely on the lower end of the Brave/ Daft spectrum.

I know my place and am brave enough to say that daft is where I sit most comfortably.

#1292 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, weather1 Comment

What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised?

It has been welcome to have a fabulous British summer, but also slightly discombobulating. Normally I approach September with great optimism that we will get lovely sunny days in September whilst making all the normal September adjustments to shortening days, darker mornings and more bedding.

As a cold water swimmer I look forward to September being the warmest water temperatures in our small bay but we have had warmish water for two months already.

So I suppose what I am saying is that normally I view September as a compensatory month. Put in place to make up, when needed ,for a typical mixed weather summer. This year no compensation is required.

Late September is when I choose to take my holidays, some guaranteed sunshine before the cooler grip of autumn has me layering up and thinking of stews.

September has always seemed to me to be a month to be especially optimistic. For someone who was raised to be annoptomistic person that is a very comforting month to be in.

What is completely different this year is that I am utterly satiated by good weather vibes. We have lived through the warmest British summer since records began 200 years ago. I don’t need to be especially optimistic about September. Nothing was cancelled in Summer 2026 because the weather was inclement.

September can be whatever it wants to be. Its own changeable self with absolutely no responsibility to make up, in any way, for June, July or August.

For the first time I can actually acknowledge that September is the first month of Autumn.

#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.