Tag: Storms

#1343 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Storms1 Comment

Here is my first portrait of the storm season. Storm Amy.

Storm Amy gave great calm before the storm vibes. Which is when I started sketching her out. The calm patch lasted so long I inadvertently finished the quick sketch. She looked nothing like a storm*.

When Storm Amy crashed to our shores she was wild and gusty but ultimately much kinder to our coastline and river front than we anticipated.

When she coincided with high tide overnight  there was an hour or two of the sounds of a disaster movie. Gusts and booms, crashing waves and a frightened fox screaming in the back lane.

But Amy had already identified herself in these parts as a benign storm, troubling only dustbins  and foxes.

Digitally I double exposed calm Amy with my reference image of a woman in thoughtful repose.

It gave Amy enough grit to make me comfortable with her.  I needed to create a soundscape of the back lane to add some unexpected crash and bang.

The soundscape of our back lane is a weaved collage of an old watercolour sketch. Assembled before having a touch of fox added at the last minute.

Storm Amy, a little underwhelming in these parts

#1117 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Stonehouse1 Comment
Storm Bert messing with festive lights.

Storm Bert, is not living up to his rather jovial name. His 24 hours of big seas, gusting winds, heavy rain and some structural damage have been more dispiriting than disruptive.

Dick Van Dyke as Bert in Mary Poppins 1964 © Disney

The Bert Gold Standard,  including his cockney accent which never bothered the British says the actor.

“I still get kidded about it. But it didn’t seem to harm anybody’s enjoyment of the movie. But I do get kidded about it. The people who don’t kid me are the British. They never mentioned it — and they’re the ones who should be making fun of me and don’t.”

Anyway Dismal Bert, has inspired a painting/drawing I will crack on with him later next week.

I feel the urge to drench this blog with colour, we filled our day with it by going to a local craft festival and nattering with vivid, colourful artists.

The Studio walls were painted with an Oat colour.

And I carried on with my Autumn challenge, set by a friend when I was disparaging about another artist. I still stand by my comments, the challenge has become curiously enjoyable.

Not the bigger picture.

And finally Bert doing his worst yesterday at Tranquility Bay. Not so tranquil.

Pandemic Pondering #226

On By theoldmortuary.designIn HomeLeave a comment

Yesterday was wet and grey. A day for sorting paperwork and avoiding storms. The trouble with sorting paperwork is that it is rarely exciting, on the other hand, magazines that have inadvertantly got caught up in the paperwork become fascinating. This is how I discovered our cheese plant is an interior design cliché.

Even when writing little blogs I like to share some evidence that I’m not talking utter nonsense, but such was the success of the paperwork sorting I can no longer find the magazine that made such a sweeping statement. Googling has not helped one bit. Cheese plant cliché shaming is overwhelming on the Internet. To make matters worse our cheese plant has a name ‘Freddy’.

I am aware this small blog is fairly dull. It could have been way racier. Among the paperwork store was my mother’s collection of ‘Adult’ text books. A fine collection of 1960’s and 70’s sexual health and information books previously on- loan in the Family Planning clinics that she ran in Essex. Weaving a blog around those may take a little time. So today you just get Freddy. Twice.

Pandemic Pondering #42

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Pandemic ponderingsLeave a comment

I’m not normally a lover of alliterative phrases linked to days of the week or names of the month, although I do quite like cleverer, less trite, alliteration. Today though #ThrowbackThursday, works for me, as the glasses featured are very retro.

Today the weather in Cornwall is strange. It’s been windy and stormy overnight and the heavy rain of the early morning, interspersed with bright glorious sunshine, was at one point replaced by icy hail. I realise that this scenario is just local to us and it set me thinking.

It is said about Covid- 19, Coronovirus that we are all in the same boat in the storm.

But we are not all in the same boat , we are not even all in the same storm.

We all share a storm in common, but we also all have our own storms and boats that determine how we cope with the shared storm.

In common with many, we are cooking a lot more, remembering dreams more vividly and are craving coffee and curiously bright colours.

Which brings me to the point of this pondering. I got caught in the Hail storm this morning whilst walking the dogs, it’s not what I expected in late April, but I also didn’t expect a sharp bright shaft of sunlight to give me such pleasure this morning.

We’ve been using some 1960’s or 70’s glasses to brighten up our water drinking during the lock-down. They were a gift from our friend Steph who gave them to us as a keepsake from her parents house.

They go in the dishwasher just like any other glasses. When I got in from the hailstone walk, sunlight was pouring through the window and then onto these freshly clean glasses. The Abstract patterns that illustrate this blog were created on the work surface for about five minutes between showers and absolutely illustrate why a slightly quixotic decision was a good one.

We are not all in the same boat

Or even the exact same storm

Surprising things will happen

Sometimes fresh out of the dishwasher.

Meteorological Spring/St David’s Day/ March 1st/ Inadequate footwear.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns

What to do on the first day of a new month having lived through the wettest February on record, in England and Wales.

The sun is shining and my feet scamper past both the wellies and converse and look optimistically at my twinkly golden Birkenstocks.

Let me just say the ladies (my feet) have not prepared for this. They are blue white and toenails have not been painted. The last time they were truly out was Christmas Day when waterproof Birkenstocks facilitate our traditional paddle.

I allow my feet their moment in the March sun and wearing wholly inadequate footwear we set off for the twin coastal villages of Kingsand and Cawsand .In honesty this past month of wellie wearing has inflamed my big toe joints, this horrible sensation also encourages wilful and inappropriate nakedness of the foot.

The poor choice of footwear immediately identifies itself when I want to take photos of fields of Daffodils on the way. Each field is surrounded by slithery red mud.

With my trusty wellies on I would have easily gathered arty shots of budding daffodils, stretching towards the horizon for this blog . Luckily sunshine and geology will give us a pop of colour that inspires as much as daffodils.

The sea wall at Kingsand is a thing of vibrant beauty on a spring morning. This whole area of the Tamar estuary is alive with geological colour.

March 1st had other plans for my poor feet , by coincidence a friend of ours was on a cliff watching the weather from inside a cosy bar. Moments before we were hit with a soaking deluge she sent us this picture not knowing we were less than a mile away.

Whitesand Bay ©Melinda Waugh

Luckily we were very close to The Devonport Inn.

Good chips, beer and seats indoors solved the problem of inadequate footwear.