The sun sets on a tumultuous day in British Politics. The slow grind of public disquiet and political shenanigans has removed a duplicitous Prime Minister from his post.
Blogging luck gave me this old blue grinder to illustrate the complexity of the Conservative party doing the deed.
Not before time the man has been shown the hopper.
Storm Evert and Covid are shaping this festival. Safety checks following the battering of overnight winds and the continuing winds determine when and if certain things can go ahead
The failure of lateral flow tests and family members with covid affect which bands and entertainers are able to put in an actual performance.
Festivals are not just about the planned events they are also about creating a fertile and fecund space for serendipity to capture the imagination. The next two pictures occured at a Bowie DJ set. The first is a piece of transient floor art. Twinkle from someones festival outfit landed on the floor near a crushed beer can. Momentarily looking like an embelished spume of excressence. Only to be kicked apart moments later.
The second is a moment of musical joy when a bloke on a windbag sofa lost himself in a moment of Bowie nostalgia.
A day of seeing and appreciating the unexpected because Covid still disrupts our lives and expectations.
Our second Mayday weekend of the Pandemic has passed. In many ways that seems more something to reflect on than Easter weekend. Mayday is associated with joyous events in our corner of the world. @theoldmortuary there is no particular pattern or traditional behaviours. Locally we have a May Fair, a rare event in our locality to wander the main street and bump into people that we know. In comparison to other May Day events it is no great shakes so we are not always faithful to it. The picture above is of a local gentleman who is always there and always dresses up in a meticulous costume to bring a smile to peoples faces.
One Mayday we hired Mr Blue Sky as a belated birthday gift, we all have birthday s around Christmas so belated gifts are not unusual. Mr Blue Sky took us to the Gower Peninsular, for happy, but chilly, camping.
Last May Day the world was reeling from the realised impact of the Pandemic and @theoldmortuary we were reeling from various life changing events that were landing on us to add to the burden of Pandemic angst. Life felt a bit like this safety sign for the quiet lanes nearby, where horse riding and cars share the space.
The sadness and difficulty of this time last year have given us all a push in new and unexpected directions. We have to see the world through the lens of our communal and personal losses and experiences of the last year.
In my experience all things tend to follow Newtons 3rd Law of Physics.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
The things that made last May Day and the surrounding period of life quite shitty have altered the world and each persons perception and lived experience of this May Day, and all days.
A year ago @theoldmortuary would not have considered sea swimming to be a natural part of life and yet this year it couldn’t be more natural than to take a dip in the sea and feel utterly captivated and joyous about it.
We’ve bonded with some lovely people over the last 6 months in chill sea and the socially distanced warm up after.
Also last year or any previous year a trip to Ikea would not have been on our acceptable activities list. But yesterday we made a small list and joined a Disney length queue to get into our local, Exeter, store.
Because of Covid restrictions the store was not packed with people but it was packed with texture and colours and smells. The stand out smell was the carpet department, just delicious!
Sadly no meatball lunch as indoor eating is still not permitted. But looking through our altered lens the trip to Ikea on a Bank Holiday weekend was an absolute pleasure not a chore.
It unexpectedly lit up our life.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Sometimes you just have to look for it.
A vision of the Mewstone means that @theoldmortuary it is dog grooming day. Now we are addicted to sea swimming it no longer means coastal path walks and coffee. It means 2 hours of swimming without dogs waiting not so patiently for us on the beach. Serendipity is a funny thing, when I was doing training at The Box, mentioned in Pandemic Pondering #220 I met a woman who had lived close to us in London, we discovered this when she commented on my tote bag.
In London we lived 2 miles apart, in Devon/ Cornwall 13 miles divides us.
We met for the first time last Thursday and today by complete co incidence we sat next to each other on the beach at Wembury. Tomorrow despite neither of us wishing to work at The Box on a Tuesday we find ourselves both rota’d to do our first days work, in the new museum and art gallery, as you read this blog. It seems we were destined to meet somehow. Luckily neither of us were hiding behind the ubiquitous British windbreak. Less about protecting from the wind and more about defining territory I often think.
Serendipity is a wonderful thing.
Motivation is a funny word to think about. It’s August so pondering is roughly following my art groups prompt system.
It might well be August but as I write this, it is also a Sunday and we are all living in the grips of World Wide Pandemic. Not the most fertile of scenarios to feel motivated in the truest sense of the word. I took to the dictionary for inspiration , not my smartest move.
Maybe Google and Wikipedia were feeling all a bit August/Sunday/Pandemic-like, but quite frankly the explanation of Motivate was not motivating.
Obviously I pondered the word motivation before starting this.
The word is not on my scale of liked words and probably appears on the disliked list but not so close to the bottom that it affects me.
I dislike, with a passion motivational shite, on Social Media. New Age, Bible ( other books are available) Flower Fairy, quotes. Motivational Speakers!!! What’s their motivation?£E
I am motivated by People, Words and Serendipity and, like every living thing, Survival.
My second statement often cancels out the first.
I love an appropriate quote from whatever source, thoughtfully sourced and reused by a person. I just don’t think you can throw them around like wet confetti hoping they will stick.
I am regularly motivated by people speaking or writing . Normal people, family and friends speaking from a place of love or loving anger. Strangers with a wisdom or experience I don’t have. People whose interesting conversations I overhear. Not one of them wearing the preposterous title of ‘ Motivational Speaker’
Serendipity is my most delicious motivation.
I actively court serendipity, it is my ‘ thrill-ride’ of choice. Allowing the time and space for the unexpected to occur is one of my favourite things to do.
Serendipity is my favourite motivation.
Some blogs just write themselves. I warned that blogs written this week would probably be composed sitting, in comfort, on a sofa whilst watching recordings of Glastonbury Festivals of the past.
Three pieces of serendipity have mapped this blog.
1. It is being written on a Wednesday, which as you can see from an old poem suggests that “Wednesdays child is full of woe” ( I am not a Wednesdays child)
2. It follows PP#104 which is about the word desolate which is officially inclined towards woeful.
3. Mark Radcliffe, the DJ presenter of the BBC’s archival coverage for Glastonbury 2020 introduced me to a new word.
Kenopsia- The forlorn atmosphere of a place that is normally bustling with people but is now abandoned.
One word that completely describes Worthy Farm in June 2020.
https://glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/
Researching Kenopsia took me to this article from the Independent Newspaper.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-top-ten-obscure-sorrows-10506971.html
Follow the link for the full ten. I’ve cherry- picked the ones that resonate with @theoldmortuary.
The Independent took their ten from the early workings of a book that is soon to be published.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.
https://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/
I’ve delved into the same material and come up with some words that slip perfectly into future Ponders. For now I present my current woeful favourites.
Anticipointment. The realisation that the excitement and expectation of an event are greater than the reality.
This word is a true slap-down for an optomist, she wrote, pessimistically.
Monachopsis. Subtle maladaption. The sense that you are not quite in the right place.
Like a seal mum who lumbers onto land to endure the discomfort of birth and its after-effects in an environment that makes her clumsy and not quite in control.
Knowing that she will become graceful and confident again when she and her pup can glide back into the sea.
Zenosine. The sense that time keeps going faster.
I can only add Zenosine+P
Where exactly did Pandemic Ponderings #1 to #105 go.
July 1st already, utter madness.
Thanks to the BBC and Mark Radcliffe for fueling this blog with a new word used in their Glastonbury coverage.
The research for the blog has taken me to some intriguing places and gave me the perfect ending to blog PP#105.
Diligence and the internet led me to someone called the ‘ Disappointed Optimist’. Fact checking for accuracy got me this far.
theoldmortuary website and blog is a little over a month old. This was the first person to want to follow us but he has only just got here. Follow us to see all the cool stuff that thrills a snail and a few other people who love the stuff we love.
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.
As I walked past a work bench at Plymouth College of Art, this evening, this amazing image appeared. A discarded acetate of the Egyptian figure was laying on a zinc bench , rather crumpled it reflected the pattern of a vibrant print that was pinned on the wall behind it.
theoldmortuary.design 