Tag: dailyprompt

#1216 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

A little extra blog with a prompt.

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?

Not for a whole day . Just a morning or afternoon or evening would be enough.

I would love to experience actually being the conundrum of humanity that is an Alpha male.  Potus or Putin perhaps if I were aiming for infamy or more humbly, any regular Joe who just sees women as inherently inferior. I could wear the invisible Stag Horns of a person who actively seeks out confrontation and domination in the tiny details of life as well as the more significant ones. Actually, any horn would probably do.

Just a portion of a day would be enough to start with, to give me some level of understanding. It would also give me plenty of time to make my apologies and relax my jaw from all that jutting both real and metaphorical.

Meanwhile the Alpha male I have briefly inhabited could perhaps enrol on a Lambda ( Lovely) man course and we would both have been enlightened.

#1212 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity3 Comments

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

A WordPress blog suggestion I am happy to respond to.

Having lived for more than 130 six month periods I know with some certainty that what I imagine my biggest challenge may well be eclipsed by a bigger but unexpected one. I would also not bore you all with my greatest challenge on an open public blog if I could identify one, which I can’t.

But it is one of life’s great mysteries that what we perceive as challenges often turn out not to be remotely challenging and yet seemingly mundane or benign moments can suddenly be challenging.

Sun setting through a skeleton leaf.

#1203 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
The Crocuses have put their heads above the leaf mulch and mud.

Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

Mid-February before I feel the urge to write a prompted blog. But I discussed this matter only yesterday in the real world of random conversations.

I am not particularly patriotic. I love where I live, on an island off the coast of mainland Europe. But equally I love Europe. I was not a Brexiter. I sense I could make a home wherever I washed up and was welcome.

I like the rhythm of my life, because I have a fortunate one. So I am grateful for my English life but not to the point of ever wearing a flag of any sort or getting misty-eyed over our National Anthem or international sport. So I guess I am not a true patriot.

But I am an enthusiast for life, wherever I am and the crocuses yesterday made me feel joy in a muddy place. Yesterday was a two outfit day, caused entirely by damp dog walks in landscape that seemed weary and overwhelmed by the wetness of winter. But the gem like colours of crocuses pushing their heads through mud and leaf mulch were a happy find. Crocuses are flowers of late winter and early spring. Just fabulous news from nature.

#1154 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering1 Comment

If we are lucky twixtmas is a lull with a little more thinking time than the hurly burly of Christmas and the optimism or trepidation of moving gently into a new numerical year. Perhaps a time to appraise relationships both past and present. My blog hosts posed this question overnight. As we gather people close to us this is a hugely significant question.

What relationships have a positive impact on you?

I would say there are  three quality stages of relationships.

  1. Close / Loving.
  2. Intermediate with affection, respect or a combination of the two.
  3. Fleeting.

Of the three I would say only the last can be purely positive, or indeed purely negative.

All other relationships are a balance of  positive and negative impacts. Hugely positive relationships come with some inevitable negatives when people close to you break your heart in some way, not always intentionally. Intermediate relationships can be surprisingly lovely with less impactful negatives.Fleeting relationships  can be amazingly positive, the negative aspects more easily brushed off. 

Some relationships are negative all the way but circumstances force you to carry them around like a piece of pointless heavy luggage.

Twixtmas is a time to reflect on the texture of our relationships. Some regrets but a good balance of loveliness would seem to me to be the optimum choice for a positive impact. We all have to take the rough with the smooth to a certain degree because nobody is perfect or right for us all the time. Or us for them.

Sometimes dumping the pointless heavy luggage is just the absolute right decision and brings the joy of a negative action creating a positive outcome. Not always easy to do.

That is a good old waffle as I stare into the Christmas tree but the festive season often makes us confront some difficult thoughts alongside all the lovely positive ones, about people we share or have shared Christmas/ Life with. The luxury of the time to be able to consider relationships past and present, close or fleeting has a positive impact in itself.

P.s this blog was not written to be downbeat or forlorn. I may have struck a wrong note. I was simply observing that even the most lovely experience will have a piquancy of sadness if you are fully invested. When it ends for instance. And when a dreadful experience stops there is an uptick because the dreadful is gone.

#1151 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Traditions2 Comments

Twixtmas, a magical week of slight discombobulation when no day is quite as it should be and the question on most peoples tongues is.

“What day is it actually today”

You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?

With that in mind my perfect space for reading and writing is any space I find myself in. I just allow myself to dwell there a little longer during Twixtmas. I like Twixtmas with the extra ‘T’ after the X it gives the word a little more gravitas.

A vital time to recharge our winter batteries before 2025 gallops into view. Not that Christmas 2024 has left me depleted in any way. But Twixtmas is definitely a time to indulge whims and ponders.

The digital age has altered everything about reading and writing at home.

This box bureau in a 1960’s Ladderax unit holds everything I need  for actually writing  and my laptop for the digital stuff.

Rather trendily I perch on the sofa arm to replicate a standing desk.

But this blog, almost exclusively goes out from my smartphone. That makes my reading and writing space anywhere I choose it to be or where I find myself. Perfect in my opinion. I rarely have exclusive use, wherever I am and that suits me just fine.

#1149 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing DayLeave a comment

1 day to Boxing Day . Here we are on Christmas Day. To borrow a theme from Dickens.

Christmas past.

A 24 hour shift, a 300 mile drive and this is the only picture that survives from this Christmas Eve gathering 13 years ago. I suspect the fact that I am sat down suggests that I may not have been a hugely active party goer.

A similar era photograph of my children who are now fantastic parents themselves. Which moves us to Christmas present.

One of our small granddaughters taking Christmas morning one present at a time.

All of us, three generations are likely to be part of Christmas Future, but for now the future is just a ponder.

How are you creative?

My blogging and the images I create for the blog are a daily creative practice.

Which brings us to Y in 26 Days to Boxing Day.

Y for Yule! How lucky is that.

Yule runs from 21st December until 1st January. A traditional Pagan festival that has neatly been incorporated into the Christian Calendar.

Yule Log, Cornwall 2024.

#1148 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day1 Comment

Christmas Eve. 2 days before Boxing Day.

Who are the biggest influences in your life?

I knew the topic of this Christmas Eve blog  when I started the countdown to Boxing Day on December 1st. As it happens the planned blog melds rather comfortably with the prompt from my blog hosts. In fact the prompt focuses the mind somewhat.

I have a hierarchy of influencers/ influences in my life.

  1. All generations of my family that I know or have known.
  2. My Friends
  3. Books
  4. Music
  5. Colleagues and acquaintances
  6. People that I don’t like.

1,5 and 6 are beyond my control. They just happen to me.

This group becomes A.

2,3 and 4 are chosen, an echo chamber of my tastes and likes. This group becomes B.

Honestly so difficult to say which group is the greatest influence on me. I believe it is a healthy mix of both.

Pondering this is mind meandering. Give it a try if you have a few minutes over the festive season.

And so to X on 26 Days to Boxing Day and a late revelation of another factor in choosing ’26 Days to Boxing Day’. X on Christmas Eve is easy, Xmas. Christmas Day will be Y for Yule and Z will sort itself out on the Day.

Oh dear, how I dislike the abbreviation of Christmas down to a reductive Xmas. My apologies now but I find it such a difficult word to think about. It feels like that awful squeak of  chalk misdirected on a blackboard. I have chosen the bright colours on the blog inages to visually create that wince making sensation. The other word I dislike for the same reason is ‘kids’.

Sometimes and rather awfully those two words appear in the same lazy sentence at Christmas.

Happy Xmas to you and the kids.

Eughhh!

Happy Christmas to you and yours.

Same sentence, more or less, but much more comfortable. Or is that just me?

#1145 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 26 Days to Boxing Day, Serendipity1 Comment

6 Days to Boxing Day. Always carry Christmas Lights in your heart.

When are you most happy?

6 Days to Boxing Day. Winter Solstice. The shortest Day. From here,in the Northern Hemisphere the days will start to stretch out. I couldn’t be happier.

And so to U in 26 Days to Boxing Day. As I sit here this morning I am a little flummoxed about which U I should use to natter about. A cheating woman would use Ule but then I would be stuck for Y.

Umbrella. Not exactly a festive word but from the photo above. You can see we needed one last night.

But what is the point if the umbrella obscures the Christmas lights. Better to be damp and enlightened. Or always carry Christmas lights in your heart. Or at the very least, under your umbrella.

#1144 theoldmortuary pondered

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7 Days to Boxing Day

What was the last thing you did for play or fun?

A brighter shade of greige.An unexpected hour of Sunshine presented itself in the middle of a very greige day.  The dogs and I just walked and walked. Half of the above picture was our slightly wooded walk which I played with to suggest two options with a magical feel. I also warmed up the sun a little in my pictures of the Hamoaze.

No reason to do this at all really, so clearly done for fun.

And so to T for 26 Days to Boxing Day. T is for time travel.

This new Blue Plaque is about 500 yards from my house. If I could time travel and meet him in a cafe. We could talk about his old School. Dulwich College in London which I am very familiar with. I could also of course warn him to be extra cautious on his last fateful expedition to Antarctica.But that could change the world in so many ways. Which is why Time Travel is not advised. Another observation is that Devon and Cornwall have a Polar Society! How niche is that.

https://www.devonandcornwallpolarsociety.org.uk/aboutus/

Dog walking expands the mind in unexpected ways.