#1339 theoldmortuary ponders.

Sometimes painting out a burning pondering is exactly the right thing to do.

During my long, lone swims of the last couple of weeks I have been pondering my personal moral compass and its origins, inspirations and foundations.

It will be no surprise that I am a habitual ponderer, questioner and re-evaluater. Add to that a procrastinator, although I procrastinate to re-evaluate and also to allow time and nature to rebalance.

In deciding to paint my moral compass I realised that every day my moral compass is slightly recalibrated by the previous days experience.

To match the 32 points of a compass I wrote 32 words that inform my moral compass. Today I know that I will edit those words a little after more pondering or experience. I wanted to show some core values and the flood of information that we all process on a daily basis. This is very much a work in progress but the compass looks like this currently.

Work in progress

In other news my 50 year old compass is defunct.

I have lost a whole family of watercolours. They were in a really slim, discrete hinged tin. Pale silver in colour. I know I took them out on an adventure but I suspect they were so discrete I completely missed them on my clear up and pack away.

Thankfully I am a watercolour magpie so no real harm. Irritation massive though.

#1338 theoldmortuary ponders.

And just like that September slips out of our grasp. The transition from Summer into Autumn accomplished almost effortlessly. Apart from some dreadful rainy days I have been swimming most days, sometimes twice. Swimming with the bobbers has been less common as  September is a busy time for busy women. But the swimming community is friendly here so most lone swims have an element of aquatic conversation.

I actually do more swimming and more pondering when I venture out alone.

Yesterday’s big think was how individuals form their unique moral compass. Which made me consider my own. From a practical point that is 32 compass points to fill.

Now that, my friend, is a lot of pondering. I have a mind to visualise and paint my way into this project. I shall ponder at sea and paint in the snugness of an autumnal studio.

Somewhere in a box of memorabilia is my Girl Guide Uniform and tucked in a pocket should be my pocket compass. Unused and unthought about, for 50 years.

Until now…

#1103 theoldmortuary ponders.

These two sentences sum me up exactly, my face is the antithesis of ‘Poker Face’.

My moral compass has been a busy old thing these last few days on a scale of this:-

Versus the more manageable and mental, pocket sized version, that one should always carry.

I have been lost in thought and at times my face has given that fact away. No more, the path through my personal moral maze has been cleared until the next time. Which makes for rather a short blog so moving on may I introduce Gorgeous Garlic.

We are in the midst of a rather strange autumn. Warm temperatures and high level greige, or anticyclonic gloom as weather people describe the situation.

Everything in the yard continues to grow and in some cases bloom.

In the kitchen three Garlic bulbs thought they would get in on the growing action. I attempted to chop one but the texture had changed. He went in the bin,but what to do with his two friends. As always Dr. Google has a plan. I popped them in milk bottles and they are growing roots, ready to be planted when the weather does actually get chillier.

Rather like a lamb that escapes the slaughter house they have won a reprieve. Not for them the unctuous warmth and comfort of an autumn casserole. These guys will live another whole growing season. Although rather like the odd escaping slaughter house lamb these two have become rather like pets, will they ever go for the chop.