Tag: Dungeness

#1508 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Books1 Comment
Our Yard store in the style of Derek Jarman

Black timber and a bright yellow door is a small homage to the garden/yarden style of Derek Jarman, who created an other worldly garden at his home, Prospect Cottage on Dungeness Beach, off the Kent Coast.

I am not certain how I stumbled into the world of Derek Jarman it would have been in the early 1980s in Brighton.I love the way he writes and his aesthetic style.

Prospect Cottage

Modern Nature, his book about HIV and creating a garden is one of my favourite books to dip into, until I loaned it and it has failed to be returned. Or has simply been misplaced or left somewhere.

There are so many nuggets of wisdom  to take from his musings but this little quote always makes me happy.

How luxurious and fortunate is it, to wander aimlessly either mentally or physically within our own lives.

 

Yellow door. 2.0

Last year I painted this door yellow. Only at dawn did it look even close to the perfect egg yolk yellow. Any later sunlight and the bright white walls bleached the yellow to a horrible acidic shade that was very much not to our taste. Traffic Light by Zinzer is perfect.

#897 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, SerendipityLeave a comment

What topics do you like to discuss?

I love a discussion that takes me somewhere interesting. Either in real life or in an inner monologue journey.  There is a load of stuff that doesn’t interest me, but if someone speaks interestingly about something I have no interest in then it is the style of discussion that becomes the thing of interest.  Sometimes the route I take in discussions is almost inexplicable even to me. But that is a sign that I have not been bored. Boredom in conversation is the worst. Boredom comes in all shapes and sizes, all of them human. Oh, I wish I was better at handling it. I’m never bored in my head so I get no practice. I know it is good manners to listen and I am a very very happy listener but not to boring people. I am in absolute awe of people who can tolerate bores and continue to look and sound interested.

The pictures in this blog come from a frequent family discussion that I was aware of at the age of five and in some ways continues on 60 years later and illustrates the twists of an interesting topic that involves boredom at an early stage. My grandparents had a relation who they kept in good contact with but rarely met. He worked at the Dungeness Power Station and lived somewhere near. He sent post cards of his Kent home. My grandparents who lived in the rolling, beautiful, Essex country side thought his landscape was boring.

In the seventies I loved the work of a punk/ Gothic film maker and Artist Derek Jarman.

In the early 2000’s I moved to South London and my nearest coast was Kent.

Derek Jarman had a home on Dungeness.

Prospect Cottage

I was living a day trip away from somewhere my grandparents thought boring but that fascinated an artist I admired.

*Dungeness* https://g.co/kgs/Nh1bce3

I loved the place instantly and love talking about it.

My dogs love it too

And now some lovely friends are holidaying there and sharing their pictures.

©Marriane Bobber

And so a discussion that I have been part of for 60 years with huge gaps, different people and for a variety of reasons just keeps going and I never know where it is heading.

That is something worthy of discussion.

If only magic realism was a thing. Or Time Travel. I could take my grandparents to Dungeness and show them how fascinating other landscapes are. We could pop in to see Lionel, the relation or Derek the artist or even Marianne and Gill in their campervan.  Or maybe a Dungeness discussion of the future!

Pandemic Pondering #63

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

The world for now has become a little smaller and our garden a little more stony. The two are linked. The area in front of the garden studio is a muddy lawn during the winter months and for some time we’ve wanted to turn it into a Dungeness, Derek Jarman style garden.


https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/15/writers-join-campaign-to-save-derek-jarmans-cottage

It was my love of the poetry of Derek Jarman that first took me to his home on Dungeness and it is Dungeness that has stolen a big bit of my coast loving heart.

His poetry book, A finger in the Fishes Mouth, found its way into my life a long while ago. It took me to Dungeness.

I love the serendipity of following a poet to his special place and then finding one of my own. The flat blank mounds of pebbles inspire me to paint, and photograph


and now obviously to garden.

Who knows when we can next travel to Kent to recharge our batteries but Lockdown has given us the chance to start our stone garden .

Much laying of membrane and humping of pebbles, quaintly described as Raspberry Ripple, has turned the grotty lawn into a miniature space of pebbles , I can read a Sunday paper on it.

Today we are resting our aching muscles on it whilst basking in the sun.

Dreaming of endless pebbles.

Dungeness

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Photographs, SerendipityLeave a comment

Dungeness, I’ve loved this place for ever through the work of Derek Jarman. When I relocated to London it became my favourite place to visit when I needed a fix of sea air. The boardwalks are a gift to photographers and I can never resist them. This one makes it onto the website because the vapour trail mimics the direction of the distant boardwalk.

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