Tag: dailyprompt

#1080 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone BayLeave a comment

What are you most proud of in your life?

I think pride is a very hard thing to define and also quite transitory. Sometimes a cup of tea is so perfect  that there is a moment of self-congratulation. Is that pride?

If I had clambered onto these rocks yesterday as these men did I would have been very proud. These rocks are covered in razor-sharp barnacles, climbing up is likely to have been very perilous for them and yet it looks almost effortless.

Pride in myself is not really in my skillset. Like most parents I am proud of my children, of course, they are wonderful people. But I can be proud of the most random of things, an observed kindness, wonderful acting, a beautiful garden.

I like my version of pride, it is easy to manage. The simple things that make life more gorgeous are worthy of gentle, transitory pride and I have loads of it to spare.

#1074 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Words1 Comment

What could you try for the first time?

Maybe reading poetry regularly.

‘And that made all the difference’

Is the last line of a poem that has shaped my thinking ever since I first read it.

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost.

I have always known that any decision taken, sets me on a certain path. There is always an alternative.

Poetry resides in Autumn for me, possibly because of this poem. A Yellow Wood speaks to me of Autumnal colour changes.

This poem suggests that free will and decision making go hand in hand. That is not always my experience. Pragmatism is often the path of choice. No matter how verdant the alternative seems. Regardless , right now I have chosen the path of more poetry. Two books, quickly reserved on my Library App.

A poem or two before bed will be my new Autumnal habit.

#1072 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

What have you been putting off doing? Why?

Everything.

I am a great procrastinator and very easily sidetracked. Over my many years I have developed strategies and excuses for this behaviour and believe I have turned them to be positive attributes. Others may disagree. Doing things at the right time is a much better use of energy than doing them too early when things may change and the task needs to be modified or even abandoned. Being sidetracked is just a different phrase, from the more accurate one of doing research on future projects. Today I fully plan on both procrastination and being sidetracked. We are on a jaunt with no firm plans. Since adopting the habit of daily blogging  I have learned to fully embrace the serendipity of procrastination and sidetracking. Allowing  Ispace in my life for unexpected things to happen enriches daily life and in turn the blog. Sometimes I procrastinate on writing the blog and it changes direction completely if I am gainfully sidetracked.

#1071 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?

Grown-up-edness arrived at a cricket match when I was in my mid-twenties.

My father-in-law had been diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer. The cricket team we were with, was formed of young medical people. The talk was about how hopeless his case was.  It dawned on me that this was us being propelled into true adulthood. His diagnosis was the end of youthful free will. We were both only children, and the buck, at that moment, very clearly stopped with my husband. 16 years later 3 parents had endured terminal illness and death. But we had two gorgeous young children whose arrival had kept us sane in rather difficult times. Sometimes in life, you just have to play the ball that is bowled to you, not the one you imagined.

A cricket quote to end.

#1070 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering1 Comment

If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?

I’ve pondered sudden windfalls of large amounts of money for most of my adult life. I have also pondered just how long the words One million would still have the cachet of seeming like unimaginable wealth. I realise all these things are relative.

Lets chip away at the One Million Dollars.

£ 765,155 pounds would not even buy me my first flat in South  London which had 3 bedrooms.

A suburb where people with ‘normal’ jobs owned or rented normal sized flats in unremarkable streets.

Going back further to when I was first properly aware of the true value of money and how I had to work to earn it.

Right now if I had a windfall of  £765, 155 the last thing I would be doing is giving it away, away.  My family could be more comfortable and I could make a difference to small, local organisations and charities by making bigger donations than I  do now.

How much longer can the word Million continue to pretend that it represents unimaginable wealth?

#1067 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Serendipity1 Comment
Lin Deacon

Lin Deacon

Who are your favorite artists?

My favourite artists are my friends who happen to be artists. And artists who I meet and like, whose work interests me.

I realise this may be a poorly written question trying to probe which are my favourite works of art, but just as I would in an exam I will answer the question, not what I think the question is.

Clare Law

https://www.clarelaw.co.uk/

Obviously this only works for contemporary artists or artists who I feel I know through reading biographies, autobiographies or watching documentaries.

Jill Coughman

Jill Coughman RIP

I am far too much of a diplomat to write about artists and their art that I dislike, but I can say that I love the work of Rothko but I rather doubt if I would have liked him one bit.

#1065 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Family1 Comment

What would you do if you lost all your possessions?

I would be devastated. I know things are just things but I quite like things. To lose all my friends and family would  be so much worse, but either is unthinkable.

Goodness I have been hanging onto these prompts this week.  We have been hiding out in the campervan keeping our germs to ourselves. The weather has been kind. But pondering has been a little on the back foot.

Powered by a morning bun that looks like a comma we geared up for a two year olds birthday party.

The weather was kind. It’s been a good week for the weather.  And today was a good day to be two.

Especially if you love bunnies.

#1063 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Daft Questions, Serendipity1 Comment

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

This is an interesting question. I often feel out of place even in the most comfortable of situations. I often feel like I am on the periphery of a group. So much so that I feel that that is my place and I am quite comfortable with that sensation

Like being a white pumpkin in October , I lnow that I am in the group but perhaps not quite of the group. When Orange and ornate pumpkins are the season favourites.

This feeling has never bothered me

Although I understand to most people it could seem quite odd.

I am always an observer of new situations at the beginning , I dont jump in head first hoping to survive.

I always consider before committing. Apparently this is quite normal for ‘only’ children who are not brought up in a large extended family. We are just not exposed to the normal rough and tumble of life that growing up with siblings brings. We lack an innate competitive attitude to all things no matter how small.

For me being ‘out of place’ is exactly the place I am used to. Sometimes being the white pumpkin is no bad thing.

#1062 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

Your life without a computer: what does it look like?

My life without a computer. No blogging, more reference books. An analog life, which I have lived before. A different way of being in every way.

Today had been a non computer day, a bit of domestic sorting out and the joy of finding an old book.

2nd of October, just two entries. An exploding barge in 1874, loaded with gunpowder, must have made a massive bang on the Regents Canal. None of the crew survived and were blown up to such a point that there was no evidence they had ever existed.

On 1915 there was a blackout in London, I didn’t know such a thing had happened in the first world war.

Without a computer that would be the end of my knowledge. That would sadden me but I would still have a fulfilled life. But if I had some time on my hands I would be off to the library for a rifle through their reference library. But I have a computer, here is a link to the exploding barge.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/library-archive/macclesfield-bridge-disaster

And Google tells me that London started Blackouts in 1915 to deter Zeppelin raids. The first of which occured in September  1915 so it was probably a good idea.

In my analogue world, a tidy book corner plus wrapping paper.

#1060 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Daft QuestionsLeave a comment

What details of your life could you pay more attention to?

Sometimes these prompts from my blog hosts are useful and other times not at all. I am a life long gatherer of random knowledge. There is so much in my personal hippocampus/ temporal lobe archive, an archive that is not the tidiest,that it seems to be getting harder to retrieve my idiosyncratic collection of useless trivia. A question like the one above has me flummoxed. I have no idea what details of my life I could pay more attention to. Which of my details is not fully fleshed out   or completely explored and understood. Who is the judge of personal details that have been given proper attention to and those that need a little more work?

Flummoxed I maybe but I rather like the thinking process that makes my mind tingle with trying to create an answer. Right now I am trying to work out if this  is a good or bad prompt. I know it is not fully bad or of no interest because I scroll right past those. It is also not fully good because I don’t have an immediate response to blog about in a negative or positive way.

In conclusion I don’t know which aspect of my life needs closer attention, but I have given the matter some thought.

I have spent a few weeks with an old school friend digging out memories that we have both archived for more than fifty years. I am hugely surprised how quickly we could recall all that old data.  Even more impressive is the way other forgotten trivia continues to surface in my mind. All a bit pointless now as we are once again half a world apart.