Tag: dailyprompt

#1317 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

What’s the one luxury you can’t live without?

Time.

I would like to squeeze a little more out of every day.  The candle is burned at either end, and most days have a little more content than capacity.

Life swirls and dips like murmurating starlings at dawn and dusk. But my murmurations are not confined to either end of the day. Any unfilled gap in a day can be easily filled with some mental, domestic or creative murmuration.

Murmurating is not always the most economic use of time. For the economy of time there are lists and routines. Dull but essential.

The missed meeting.

I’ve had a busy extended week and in an attempt to squeeze more out of a day I started on some routine tasks at 11:30 pm. I worked through my lists and hopped off to bed. Smug that I had achieved.

A quick note to a friend to plan a meeting ‘ tomorrow’ was my last point on the to-do list. But I had failed to realise that when I wrote it tomorrow had already become today and thus my meeting ended up as a coffee and a hot chocolate for 1!

I spent an hour happily waiting, murmurating creatively.

All sorts of odd jobs were done on my phone. But the planned meeting did not take place and has been bounced into an as yet unspecified gap in both our schedules.

Would the luxury of more time helped? Maybe not.

I fear I will always fill all of my moments rather too full for comfort. Until I don’t.

*

Clock with Murmurating Starlings.

#1310 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
Quiet Corner at Cotehele

How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

Interesting that this prompt uses an electrical metaphor for a state of mind. In the 14th or 15th century, when this set of buildings was built the humans who lived and worked here would also have needed to unplug from their busy lives. They would have used a different metaphor.

An over-busy head is not a 21st Century phenomenon.

I originally skimmed past this blog prompt as being a bit superficial, but I recently took a quiet 10 minute refuge in this spot on the Cotehele estate in Cornwall. It is not even a very quiet spot. But at the time it was just the place to have a reset. Absolutely a minor one but how lovely to do this in a place that almost invites you to sit down and take a few minutes,and that has done so for 500 years, and barring an apocalypse will probably do so for another 500 years.

To answer the question. I know that I need to unplug many times a day. My pondering head and my real-life head are always far too busy. Just like a cranky or highly sophisticated electrical device, I just need to switch off, unplug and reset, luckily I can usually disconnect anywhere. Sometimes it is automatic and sometimes deliberate. Cold water swimming  is a good trick, but that takes a little planning. But seeking out a quiet corner also always works.

Quiet corners can be found anywhere, I just have to find them. Sometimes they are in the nooks and crannies of my own imagination

#1309 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment
A VW at Epidavros

Do you remember life before the internet?

I do remember life before the internet. If I were to live to age 80 my life would be roughly 50/50 pre and post domestic internet use. Because the change is within my adult lived experience I feel comfortable with and understand the differences. Information and services as a commodity are delivered to me without having to leave my bed. In the pre internet era I would have needed to move a bit to turn on a radio or television. Before that I would have needed, at the very least to go to the door and pick up a newspaper that had been delivered to my door.

I have always been a nerdy person with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and information, not in a focused kind of way. Random knowledge of no particular use is one of my specialist subjects.

I used to spend a lot of time in Reference Libraries, looking things up and following trails of information that may or may not have been of any practical use to me. Not something I could do every day. I was an early ‘ Rabbit Holer’ before rabbit holing became a thing. I don’t recall the last time I went into a reference library outside of University studies.

For most things I believe I could easily manage back in an analogue world, but quenching a random need to know more about something, quickly, would be something I would really miss. Back to the Reference Library for me, but maybe I am so hooked on rabbit holes now I would be in there every day.

A VW at Epidavros for no particular reason.

#1305 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Plymouth, Serendipity1 Comment
Morning in Devonport Park

What quality do you value most in a friend?

Friends are like flowers in a late Spring flowerbed. They are all unique and are perfect in their own ways and in their own time. Some are fleeting and others are perennial. I would find it hard to pick out a single quality that they have in common, but as an ensemble they are a fabulous bunch. Friendships, like these flowers all change over time but as long as we can all still get along does that even matter?

Evening in Devonport Park

#1301 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?

I was a working mother in the 80′,90’s and the noughties. I was also doing on-call, studying and caring at a distance for ailing parents.  If the traditional media of the time was to be believed I was actually,  ” having it all”.

Obviously it was attainable but only with the support of a husband, two wonderful child-minders. Brenda and Bev, and the most fabulous children.

A Glass ceiling.

” Having it all” was exhausting and, at the time, essential. It is what women had/have to do just to get to the glass ceiling, never mind crack the effing thing.

A cracked glass ceiling.

Life was all about spinning plates, lists and always having a plan B.

” Having it all” was actually just a phase and an informal training scheme for extreme multitasking. A hugely valuable skill that I treasure, but do I ever need to ” Have it all” again.

No Thank You

Not, ” having it all” is far better than ” having it all” but I would not have missed ” having it all” however hard it was at the time.

#1300 theoldmortuary ponders. Part 2

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Family, Serendipity3 Comments
Fishing in Tranquility Bay

Who would you like to talk to soon?

Part 2 the blog I would have written if I hadn’t written Part 1.

#1299 theoldmortuary ponders. Part 1.

It would be great to have a natter with my Dad. But as he has been in another realm for 30 years, I would have to say that if I can postpone that natter for as long as possible, I would be very grateful . Especially as we would then be in a position of having an eternity of nattering, perhaps.

I have been having a bit of survivor guilt recently,having outlived both my parents by 4 years. I am probably unrecognisable from the 36 year old they left behind so that would be quite the big subject. I feel guilty because they were never able to be the grandparents they could have been due to ill health and caring responsibilities.. I am lucky enough to be a Nana to 3 delightful granddaughters.It is such a life enhancing role. I am sad that both my parents and children missed out on knowing each other well. My own grandparents born in 1888 and 1898, part of the ‘lost’ generation who had survived two world wars, were never as thrilled to be with me as I am with my small people. As long as I was quiet and with my head in a book they were content to let me be. My other female grandparent was born in the First World War and was a busy businesswoman by the time she was my grandparent. She dropped into my life as an infrequent but glamorous visitor exuding American-style glamour and smelling of perfume, cigarettes and gin and tonic evenings. A heady mix in rural Essex. Also hardly the sort of grandparent required in the 2020’s.. I don’t think bonding  and building a relationship with me was a priority  for them.

But their children, my parents, would have been fabulous grandparents if they had had the chance.

So like much of my adult life I have to make ‘grandparenting’ up as I go along. I must say I find it all rather lovely, hence the survivors guilt and the desire for that conversation, but not any time soon.

Fishing in Tranquility Bay

#1299 theoldmortuary ponders. Part 1.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity3 Comments
Fishing in Tranquility Bay. Early morning.

Who would you like to talk to soon?

As I was about to write this blog I had a call from friends in Australia. So much fun and laughter in a phone call. They were driving home from an author talk at The Hellenic Cultural Museum.

We had been out last night listening to an author talk too.

What is the glue of a friendship that has at its roots two awkward 11 year olds meeting under an Oak tree in an Essex village 55 years ago. And which is currently 4 people who love to holiday together despite living half a world apart and on opposite time zones. Coffee, silliness, that can be tracked to those awkward 11 year olds. A love of Greece and life in general. The seas around us in those 55 years have been rough at times, but calmer waters and laughter is the balm of an old/refurbished, friendship.

Maybe Fishing in Tranquility Bay is the glue. Just happy to share whatever loveliness we pull out of the great sea of life. That we can share and laugh about over a real world cup of coffee or a group call at opposite ends of our day.

Fishing in Tranquility Bay. Early Evening.

#1297 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Colour, Colour Squares, Paintings, Serendipity5 Comments

Do you have any collections?

This morning I scrolled past the question above. Posed by my blog hosts. I am not by nature a collector of anything, but maybe my stock of watercolours could possibly be considered a collection.

About 50% of my watercolours.

One of the reasons I believe these paints might be considered a collection are the lengths I go to to acquire new colours.

In Athens last September we took a long walk to an untouristy suburb to find an art shop that hand made oil pastels. Now I don’t use oil pastels but being able to visit someone who creates art materials in a centuries-old traditional and artisinal way was too enticing to be missed. He also sold very lovely Greek manufactured water-colours. I bought an Olive Green which is memorably authentically Greek every time I use it.

The picture above is a pigment shop close to the Vatican in Rome. It remained resolutely closed for the whole of our visit. But this picture is almost enough  for me. Almost.

I think if I seek out colours deliberately, in foreign cities, that possibly I might be considered a collector.

I also always make colour charts of my new purchases. Obsessive, hmmm. The jury is out. Am I just an artist or am I a collector?

#1293 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Stonehouse1 Comment
2025 sea swimmers in the style of 1825 JMW Turner. ©theoldmortuary

How do you balance work and home life?

Since I transitioned from a career in Medical Imaging that could never have been a balanced work/life experience to the life of a work from home artist, a state of equilibrium exists most of the time. Our move to a seaside suburb of a city was a deliberate attempt at making life more balanced.To throw a little spice into the mix I also do admin for a tennis club. Prior to that I did admin for a large group of Artists. That involved far too much driving  and artists can be very slippery fish to manage. The tennis club is just a short walk away and the view of the office is enchanting.

©Liz Vass

As it happens some slippery fish also play tennis but not in quite the same proportions as the art group. Beyond the unpredictable admin of a tennis club my work/ life balance pivots on a fulcrum of domestic admin v creativity. The balance changes on a daily basis.

Halfpenny Bridge Stonehouse. ©theoldmortuary