Tag: dailyprompt

#773 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns5 Comments

What colleges have you attended?

I knew the day would come when signing up to Bloganuary would bite me on the bum and a topic would come up that I would not wish to answer. I just don’t think that the colleges I have attended are particularly interesting. I have studied an Arts and a Science subject to degree and beyond. I could throw in a prestigious college or two. I have never studied abroad and I have never academically studied at any of the Oxford ‘Dreaming Spires’.

https://www.varsity.co.uk/arts/13640

Coffee and cake has been studied in that beautiful city. Great coffee and cake in memorable locations. The places that I am most grateful to are the institutions that gave me the tools and qualifications to access tertiary level education.

1. Manor Street Primary School, Braintree. My mum and dad also attended this school.

2. Margaret Tabor Secondary Modern. My dad attended this school.

3. Tabor High Comprehensive School.

4. Braintree College of Further Education.

These run-of -the-mill, free, educational establishments gave me the basic educational building blocks of my life. Essential knowledge for the under 18 me.

Each of these places was walking distance from my home until I was 10 and then just a bus ride from my 10-18 home. Each of those places projected my mind to different horizons and to different paths.

I didn’t start to walk on all the paths exposed to me. Nobody could. But I did take the first step on some fascinating paths that started in a small, rural, market town in Essex.

P.S. for added interest my old Primary School is now a museum.

https://braintreemuseum.co.uk

#772 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Words4 Comments

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

Having just stepped out of the Festive Season I can answer this slightly awkward question from Bloganuary. Playing is not built into my daily life. Far too much White Anglo-Saxon Work ethic has leached into my core. The Festive season is a rich and embellished few weeks, where hard work and the gathering of family and friends allows time out to play board games or read books. To go on real and imaginary adventures with small or large people. Playtime perfection some might say.

Having semi-retired from a serious and sensible career to take up a second career as an artist, could be construed as being pretty playful all the time.

How is playful defined or calibrated. Who sets the protocols or parameters on play?

The truth is that I struggle with the words play and playful. But if I could replace the word play with fun then fun is a daily activity both the planned and the serendipitous. Fun appears in the darkest of moments or the least expected places. It can be scheduled or awkward. Bubbling up out of the fun gland when seriousness or professionalism are expected and the correct response. I am an exploder of mirth, sometimes inappropriately. Is that playful or just bad?

I struggle so much with the word I looked it up. At last I could feel some comfort with this topic. The hook-in for me is light-hearted.

I can actually sign up for light hearted, so much easier to live with. Unless of course it is the Festive Season when anything goes.

#771 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn insonia1 Comment

What are your biggest challenges?

Sometimes the biggest challenges are the little ones. The one’s that trip you up or arrive unannounced. January the first 2024 arrived and at only 3 hours in, my challenge was to stay asleep. So the first cup of tea of the year was at 3:30 am. Festive season insomnia is like no other. Tasty snacks welcome me into the kitchen world and there is much to fill a mind that just needs to be tricked back to sleep. Sometimes, like today, I can barely stay awake to finish the tea, or indeed this early blog. But nobody needs a lot of pondering on the first day of the year. The picture in this blog was a surprising find on a regular dog walk. We must just have crossed the cobbles in a slightly different place and my first name initial appeared at my feet.

It also works rather well for January.

Happy New Year 2024. My pondering is done and I am off to bed. Again.

#770 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity2 Comments

What makes you feel nostalgic?

My favourite, yet random, images give me nostalgia and great joy. For this last blog of the year I gave myself fifteen minutes to find favourite photos from my phone archive. Some of them are serendipitous and conform to the December theme of #celebrating serendipity. Many of them have appeared in older blogs and some have never seen the light of day before. Some give me hope when I hit artists/writers block.

Here they are in no particular order.

Beach huts are a huge inspiration to me. I have actually only ever been in one once. I am an admirer not an inhabiter.

I love a sunbeam, this one landed on my mother-in-law when we were having afternoon tea.

Firestone Bay in purple mood. One normal photo and one editing error which I love because I don’t understand it.

The picture below has possibly never seen the light of day before but there is a link to my most significant art moment.

Using mixed media I tried to depict my mother and her friends in the 1960’s when they were busy young women setting up clinics to provide women with Contraceptives and specific women’s health needs.

I depicted their story on a pillow that was exhibited at Tate Modern in London.

It would not be @theoldmortuary blog without Hugo and Lola. Hugo looking every inch the smoking matinee idol with a dog chew and Lola in her dark chocolate puppy phase before she faded to beige.

Another perennial blog subject is coffee and this homage to stove top coffee was found in Cuba.

I love a complicated image and this glass and concrete shot is a favourite.

Words too give me inspiration. The seasonal cuteness of an alley near my workplace in Marylebone.

P.s I just found a link to the history of Grotto Passage.

The Weird And Wonderful History Of Grotto Passage

A visual pun or two.

And something that reflects my love of books.

My random paintings that are not commercial in any way but that give me a kick up the arse when I falter.

Including one that has serendipity all over it. I did a watercolour of Mussel shells and my granddaughter dropped actual shells on it.

Other shells also thrill me.

I always love the potential of somewhere interesting to sit.

I love simple acts of remembrance. Sunflowers wrapped in newspaper in a Spanish church.

And finally and fittingly for the end of a blog at the end of the year. Starting out to sea and pondering the future. Dungeness in Kent.

#768 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity2 Comments

#celebratingserendipity. Some time ago I was given a topic to weave into a blog. I just had to wait for my moment. Here we are in mid-Twixmas and this prompt just landed in my lap

If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be?

If I started a sports team I would adopt the colours of Dulwich Hamlet Football Club, my local team in London.

The beautiful heart of this club changes many of the awkward things that occur around football.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulwich_Hamlet_F.C

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/dulwichhamlet

I have never seen a club mascot but given that their supporters are called the pepperarmy1893 I think that may be a good thing.

©vegconomist

Nobody needs a sausage as a mascot, especially near armistice day. Sports mascots showing a mark of respect with a minute’s silence have become an Instagram and X regular feature around the 11th of November.

So my sports club would have the colours and heart of Dulwich Hamlet.

And my mascot would be the beautiful Bourkes Parakeet.

So much more able to show respect than a giant sausage. And no awkward photographs.

#752 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

Only a week until the Winter Solstice and the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere. I am not a fan of the shorter days of winter. Dark by 6pm is just about tolerable with daybreak at about 8am and is about as long a night as I need in winter.The extra shortness of days in December and January are, to me, unacceptable.The hours not in darkness should be cold, crisp and bright with sunshine. Is that too much to ask for?

Despite disliking the short day aspect of December and January I have never actively sought out winter sun to break the mood. I am drawn to the folklore around a Northern Hemisphere Winter Solstice. I find it fabulously creative and intriguing, but the further north you go the shorter the days are. Not for me. My perfect trip at this time of year would need to be further South but hold something of the darker aspects of the Winter Solstice. Greece turns out to be perfect for my needs. At this time of year. They have the Kallikantzaros, mythical bad lads, not dissimilar to trolls or gnomes. Slightly longer days and sea water at a temperature that I would happily swim in certainly sweetens the deal.

Which takes me to the answer for today’s prompt.

What cities do you want to visit?

Nafplion is already a favourite city for three seasons of visits, now I have discovered that winter can provide me with angry, hairy creatures at Winter Solstice, there really is no reason not to visit in December.

No reason not to park overlooking the sea.

No reason not to enjoy a coffee in a back street.

And no reason not to enjoy a Greek sunset in December.

With the possibility of meeting some mythical angry, hairy creatures. Winter solstice goals all in the one small, Greek city.

#749 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Books, SerendipityLeave a comment

Yesterday started in a monotone way.

Although this image uses a black and white filter the one below is untouched.

I thought my morning photos would be more pleasing. In addition to all the grey there were red buoys in the water and a red-hulled tanker. It took an awful lot of digital tweaking to reveal the red photographically.

Fortunately my day was not monchrome but the colour did come from an unexpected source.

This was the November book for the bookclub I belong to. It was not my cup of tea.

©theoldmortuary

My bookclub meetings are a monthly highlight. The chance to talk about a particular book, as chosen, and all the other books the group have read is wonderful. November’s book was devisive. I think it would be fair to say no-one enjoyed it in a pleasure sense. But that sometimes reading a book that is a hard and at times uncomfortable read is an experience to be treasured for different reasons. I have included a review of the book if anyone is interested.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-blind-side-of-the-heart-by-julia-franck-trans-anthea-bell-1758335.html

A book that the book club struggles with creates the most fascinating conversations. A roomful of women with vivid and different life experiences makes for the most wide ranging and thought provoking discussions. We trust one another and share intimate and personal reminiscences that inform and influence how we feel about the books we read. Despite the book being a bit of a hard graft and not particularly my thing the benefits of reading it with a group were huge and our two hour meeting bought colour and texture to my day that the weather was clearly not going to do. I was a little over-caffeinated but I think I kept a lid on my gabbling. Others may disagree.

The caffeine continued to rule my day, and half of the night. I arrived 24 hours and four minutes early for a performance with a choir I have joined. So in answer to todays prompt for bloggers…

Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?

Yes , of course, but not last night. In other news the target object of yesterdays blog is up in the bathroom.

#748 theoldmortuary ponders

One last word from the book club. I mentioned that I had been gifted an early Christmas treat.

” Gifted” said a group member “Where did that come from?”

I corrected myself and said I had been given an early gift.

Book clubs, they make you think.

And finally a visual joke for the festive season.

#747 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Travels1 Comment

What is something others do that sparks your admiration?

I spend my entire life in admiration for the skills of others. Even skills that  I would never wish to have. This picture is a case in point. How do people become App designers and what skills does it require. My life is enriched massively by Apps and yet I know nothing about that career choice.

App design could not be further from my skillset and yet with the use of Apps on my phone I have managed to create a ponder out of this one picture. Just by googling and exploring my google picture file more fully than I usually do.

We came upon this ornate back gate, in Venice on one of our meanderings. I wasn’t sure how to weave it into a blog or if I would ever use it. But it enchants me so I googled the name over the gate and a blog emerged. This blog is all delicious serendipity.

In a gorgeous twist of serendipity Claude Monet had been here before us, in 1908.

The front entrance of Ramo De Ca Dario

Like me Claude was a little reluctant to visit Venice.

Monet’s Venice https://artsandculture.google.com/story/TQUhwOmSAhkOLA

I don’t know what Claude’s reluctance was, mine was caused by a particularly smelly visit many years ago. The visit had shattered my illusions but I am so glad I returned and just like Claude I am already planning another visit. Which takes me back to App appreciation. My phone can tell me exactly where and when I took this photo.

It can also show me all the photos that I took nearby.

This just blows me away, I can be incredibly lazy. My phone tells me there is an App update. I usually diligently do a download and think no more about it but App uploads are not just about better functionality. Sometimes really useful new features appear. The little black dots mark out the photos I took on one particular day and the route of my 20,000 steps. This is such a useful tool for planning future visits. So much more to see…

Until the next time.

#742 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Books, SerendipityLeave a comment

Do you have a favorite place you have visited? Where is it?

My favourite places are Libraries. Libraries are magic portals to other worlds. The first magic portal I entered is no longer a library.

© Charles Watson

Braintree Library was a short walk from my mothers workplace. From a very young age the building became my childcare facility. My mum’s best friend was a Librarian here so that sentence is not as neglectful as it may seem. How I wish I had followed her career path or something similar and had a working life amongst books and words.

Starfield Library, Gangnam, Seoul.

Somewhere there must be a couple of theses that I wrote. Gathering dust, written and bound, skulking in a university library. Created before the digital age, they contain my thoughts on medical imaging . There is also a more recent one called Finding the Erotic in Nature, but on the whole my words are unpublished. My anonymous boobs appeared in a medical textbook and a published Fine Art Photography book. Normal boobs, not the glamorous variety. The only book in a library that has me as a named contributor is this one.

And in a way it links back to my early days in Braintree Library. My mothers workplace, close to the library was, a radical at the time, sexual health clinic. When the call out for pillows to commemorate and celebrate women whose work made a difference to society I submitted a design that was accepted for a travelling exhibition and book.

The exhibition went to some fabulous places. Maybe 10 prestigious institutions.

So in one way or another, in a very minor way I will forever be in a library. But in the real world way, whenever my path takes me close to a library and time permits, I am likely to pop in.

Trinity Library, Dublin

For the love of books.

#739 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

Are you more of a night or morning person?

Serendipity comes in all shapes and forms. This question landed just as I had done the morning dog walk.

A beautiful creamy morning in December. Such a fab illustration for a blog with this question at its heart.

I am neither a night or a morning person. Greedily I love both. Once I passed the age of 30 it was obvious that I could no longer have both with the ease of youth but I can still happily enjoy the night until it bleeds into the morning. 2 or 3 am can be vivid in a way rarely found in their pm counterparts. The jolting, head nods of the early afternoon are one of my worst pieces of behaviour. They have plagued me all my life. How dreadful is that?