#1506 theoldmortuary ponders.

On Jun 12, 2026Jun 12, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Social MediaLeave a comment

The algorithms of my social media have had a bit of a hiccough/hiccup this week.

As a 60+ woman with a head of exuberant curls, marketing flat caps at me is going to land exactly no on-line sales. But relentlessly, this week, the cookies and the algorithms would really like me to buy a flat cap.

Writing this blog may well make the situation worse.

Flat caps do live large in my memory bank because my paternal Grandad was almost never seen outside without one. Indoors the cap, his gas filled cigarette lighter, Rizla cigarette papers and Old Holborn tobacco tin were never far from his side.

When I see a flat cap there is a vestigia of the fragrance of tobacco and lighter gas that flashes through my brain. When I went to London at 18 he had already been dead for 6 years . This building, the one on the tin, was on my bus route to Barts Hospital, when I first saw it the same little flash of fragrance zipped through my head, and I wished I could tell him that the building really existed.

Flat caps are a bit of a granddad thing. My maternal Great Grandfather makes an appearance on my family tree with a fine flat cap and moustache.

So I must admit to having a fondness for flat caps but not a need to buy one.

Once again my photo archive has come up with evidence that I have quite an archive of flat cap images. They do frame a face and set a tone which is significantly different to that of the rather over-popular baseball cap/hat.

Clearly I do love a flat cap, but am never going to buy one.

Below another flat cap blog.

#399 theoldmortuary ponders

And just like that a great flat cap wearer dies on the same day as I wrote about flat caps.

David Hockney has died, we were lucky enough to catch this exhibition twice. Once at the Royal Academy London and also at The Guggenheim Bilbao. Two reviews below.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jun/27/david-hockney-royal-academy-review-jonathan-jones?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

David Hockney. 82 portraits and 1 Still-Life | Guggenheim Museum Bilbao https://share.google/U8SFEeetVAQMIEGLA

R.I.P David Hockney . Flat caps and swimming pools. My kind of artist.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck77rg88gd9o?app-referrer=webview

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/jun/12/artist-david-hockney-dies?fbclid=IwVERDUASY7A9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR5VI-G2ikP9r9tKeRKDppICugMDKSsoIDOoUHQWnEkHfy0WZAm09Jhtc8j0ag_aem_EnqkW50FMq_d4fNkWBkJHw

#1505 theoldmortuary ponders.

On Jun 11, 2026Jun 12, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, Serendipity3 Comments

I have been pondering the bonds of friendship recently having just reconnected with a friend, more than 30 years after we last met.

The picture above is a friend I have not seen for exactly 5 years.

Now I can easily track my blogs I have a degree of certainty about these things.

Pandemic Pondering #444

I have been collecting friends since just before Infant school.

The friendship longevity record is held by my pre-school friend Juliet. I was named after her and always felt slightly in awe. Probably because she was older and wiser. Our friendship was forged by our mothers who had been friends from birth. In turn their mothers had forged their friendship simply by the serendipity of meeting on the post-natal ward of a small cottage hospital in Essex. The grandmother’s friendship was the most unlikely one of all. Juliet’s grandmother ran a shop and was warm, a fabulous cook and religious. My grandmother at the time, was a nurse, very irreligious and ultimately ran a pub. She was warm too, maybe too warm if you were a handsome man. I was never aware of her cooking. Three generations of friendship grown from a most unlikely pairing.

I have been collecting friends ever since. School. Work. Neighbours. Clubs. Some have been lost along the way.

I have always thought that finding a true friend is like finding love. A little bit of research this morning has proved that to be correct.

But here is the surprise !

Which is why Marc is the poster boy of this blog. Beyond his radiant smile, he always smells delicious. I can only dream of being consistently as fragrant as he is. Sometimes we worked 24 hours straight together and he always smiled and was always perfectly acceptable to be up close and personal with even in our worst of moments. Presumably I was in the thrawl of his invisible accelerator for platonic attraction. Who knew!

The reason this particular retirement gathering stands out is that it was the first of any such gathering after Covid.

By one of life’s great coincidences my very last social gathering before Covid, was with the exact same group of friends and colleagues in London. The last outing before Covid hit the world and almost certainly me and my first exposure to the Covid Virus, which has taken away forever a fully functioning sense of smell. And yet still I manage to make friends.

Thank goodness there are other pathways.

Before this mornings research I would say my particular friendship recipe would be.

A positive outlook.

A creative and enquiring mind

A little bit of non-clinical madness.

Vibing on a similar wavelenth

Good sense of humour

Loyalty and Kindness

My excuse for not giving access to the friend zone is usually.

” Not exactly my cup of tea”

Even with today’s research I am going to stick with that because it is a gentle rejection. Iron fist in a velvet glove perhaps but gentle on the outside

Saying someone just doesn’t smell right takes the rejection to all sorts of different places. But goodness me the smell theory really fascinates me because I have always thought there was something intangible involved. I thought it was my limbic system.

But then with a little more research I discovered something that I had forgotten. The Olfactory bulb lives within the limbic system.

So I was right all along.

Five years ago this bunch of friends were my cup of tea and they all smell just wonderful.

Rather a ponderous ponder. They happen.

#1504 theoldmortuary ponders.

On Jun 10, 2026Jun 10, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn art, France, SerendipityLeave a comment

There was never a plan to paint yesterday.

#1503 theoldmortuary ponders

Tennis Club admin, rat eradication and emails were my target for the day.

Pest control took a little longer than planned and a Summer rain storm soaked me through. For reasons that I can’t quite put a finger on I decided that a rain storm was exactly the moment to paint a sea pool in a heatwave.

I am physically painting a lot less this year, and yesterday was an absolute joy. This painting is a mixture of traditional water colour and water colour pencils.

Water colour pencils are my quick/ holiday/travel medium of choice. A pencil case and a sketch book take virtually no space in a bag and water is always easy to find.

The other travel tool is my smart phone. Digital manipulation can sometimes rescue a failing painting. The Sea Pool at Conleau did not need rescuing but I did have a little half hour of tweaking.

To be honest I dont think these digitally tweaked images have a huge amount of value. They give me the slight AI ‘ick’. But looking at them gave me some ideas on how to improve my painting. They offer a different perspective. Just one digital manipulation pleases me.

A much simpler less vivid image. Not at all Conleau in a heatwave. But certainly a nod to the 1930’s history of the emergence of Conleau as a tourist destination.

Digital dabbling is a great learning experience and I can do it on my phone whenever there are a few spare minutes in a day

But nothing beats creating art using my hands and art materials. Who could possibly pass up sharpening pencils. Such a satisfying task.

#1503 theoldmortuary ponders

On Jun 9, 2026Jun 10, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn art, FranceLeave a comment

Today I am whisking you all back to France in a heatwave.

The thing about heatwaves is that they are relentlessly hot. A campervan holiday in 35 degrees is an exercise in trying really hard to keep cool when stationary. Humans are one consideration but a curly haired dog is quite another. For her sake we booked into a cool Airbnb for three days.

A heatwave is not great for art or photography. The sun makes photographs really pretty dull as deep shadows and bright sunlight drown out detail

And the baking heat dries out paints far too quickly for anything useful to be achieved. I tried. All attempts are in the bin.

Oh my arty bones were very frustrated I really wanted to show some of the beautiful places we visited.

Our day at Conleau was just one of those days.

A really fascinating scene but the magic and vibrancy is lost in bright sunlight and deep shadow.

For some inexplicable reason, after being drenched by heavy summer rain I decided today was the day to paint Conleau.

The things you could never see on any of my photographs were the children having a school lesson on the beach.

The beautiful 1930’s changing rooms and cafe. With wrestling teenagers in the foreground.

And the yachts moored up beyond the sea pool.

I really wanted the whole scene to vibrate for the viewer. Funny that I have achieved it during a rainy day in Devon.

My aim was for vibrant and languid all in one picture.

I think I am done.

#1502 theoldmortuary ponders.

On Jun 9, 2026Jun 9, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

In the last week or so I have added a new morning ritual.

My morning rituals occur, in no particular order . The earliest they start is at 2:30 am, if insomnia kicks in, the latest start time would be about 6:30.

The first one is always the Wordle of the day. Today was a good one.

After that in no particular order:-

Tea

Coffee

Plan but not always write the blog

The new ritual is reading blogs written on this day since 2017.

I have loved reading my ponderings presented as a historic daily timeline.

Starting sporadically in 2017 but developing into a daily habit. Reading them as a record of my life and the world around me is surprisingly enjoyable. And yet why would I not enjoy it. The published diaries of famous people have always fascinated me alongside the daily records of ordinary people,which are far less available, but almost more interesting because of their rarity.

I have promised not to share them too often here, but sometimes I will . Today I thought I might share the little pleasures I have taken in this last week.

We have three granddaughters, two live abroad and we do not see them often enough. For a long time a little pair of turquoise crocs were by our backdoor, we couldn’t bear to tidy them up because they belonged to a small person many thousands of miles away. These orange crocs belong to a small person just 10 miles away.

This dahlia bloomed on the day we attended our first Covid era video funeral. A dearly cherished friend had planned his own funeral. It was the most beautiful and haunting experience. A funeral with no hugs, no human touches of condolence and love. A funeral we didn’t walk away from. The live stream just stopped, and there we were in our own sitting room, a bit wrung out and wondering what on earth we had just witnessed.

Not all June blogs make me sad, thank goodness.

The Bobbers pop up pretty often in my blog of the repetitive nature of daily life.

June is also not spared my occasional strong opinions.

Fantasy South West Coastal path view. 2025

A year ago I went to see The Salt Path, a film of a book that I always thought was a work of fiction tethered loosely on truth and reality. Just weeks after this film was released, Raynor Winn the author and advisor on the film was exposed as being economical with the truth.

Oh my inner bitch rejoiced. I had so often disagreed with people ( the majority) who thought the book and the author were wonderful. The inner art bitch also got an outing for this blog in 2025. I stuck three of my own different coast path locations together to illustrate a fictional coast path location. Raynor Winn, of course has made millions from her falsehoods. Me nothing.

Which is why my blogs will always be from the perspective of an ordinary person. Who only occasionally lets the inner bitch out!

Here is a really old blog, very far from daily. From a time when I hoped to be a proper ‘Arts’ writer. Like so many things ,Brexit and Covid, put a stop to that aspiration. As one aspiration slams a door the draft forces another door open. Daily blogging slipped in quietly when the other door closed.

#1501 theoldmortuary ponders.

On Jun 8, 2026Jun 8, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

What’s the best way to build self-confidence?

I am not really the best person to give hints and tips on building self-confidence because as a character trait in others I find it can be built on pretty flimsy foundations. I would make a rather wild observation that often the most self-confident people build their confidence on the most unstable and unreliable foundations. So I view unquestioning or showy self-confidence with a fair degree of scepticism and distrust.

I constantly question myself and really believe that every day is a schoolday. Knowing that the foundations of my confidence are constantly under review might sometimes make me seem less than confident but actually I might just be reviewing and reflecting on new information or the shared wisdom of others. All waiting to be stored in my confidence foundations ready for future use.

So before building self-confidence always check that your foundations are sound, because self-confidence in the wrong hands is dangerous, unattractive and nothing to be proud of.

#1500 theoldmortuary ponders.

On Jun 7, 2026Jun 7, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity3 Comments

How do you build loyal subscribers?

How do I build loyal subscribers?

A big question for a big number #1500

1500 oldmortuary ponderings, before that the Pandemic Ponderings. Pandemic Ponderings started the accidental habit of a daily blog.

So perhaps the answer is that I turn up nearly every day and increasingly so do many of you. Not so long ago 20 readers logged by WordPress was one measure of my daily reach. Recently things have become a little giddy and 200 is not unusual.

Like all big questions in life I don’t have definitive answers but a few principles that work for me.

I never set out to have a quirky moral compass, it has just formed over the years. I know it is not perfect but I always distrust perfection. Wabi-Sabi is neat Japanese phrase that sums up my feeling.

Not being perfect has always seemed a good path to travel and I know that that is hugely controversial. And also not for everyone. But knowing when to stop is every bit as valuable as starting.

I can do perfect, but for personal perfection I aim a little lower.

Maybe that is the secret to building anything worthwhile.

Subscribers

A Family

Friendships

There is an interesting footnote to this. Although I am an avid manipulator of images. I build in deliberate error, using several different apps and hand drawn or painted elements.

The rise of AI in image creation is unstoppable. Recently every organisation seems capable of producing posters to advertise events that are retro, homely or ( even worse) wholesome. The absolute perfection of these posters makes me feel queasy. A genuine physical response not too dissimilar from mild travel sickness. I can’t really explain it. Maybe my desire for slight imperfection is more significant than I realise.

#1459 theoldmortuary ponders.

On Jun 6, 2026Jun 6, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn Stonehouse Lawn Tennis ClubLeave a comment

For a woman who spent her working life in the gloomy, daylight starved, environments of Medical Imaging Departments, it is quite the turn of events to turn my transferable skills to the management of a Tennis Club by the sea.

Yesterday we were entertaining Tree Surgeons doing remedial work on trees damaged by winter storms. The first of two such days in June.

All of our trees have Tree Protection Orders on them so licences and permissions have taken some time to be obtained.

But two young men with some very fancy equipment soon trimmed our ailing Ash tree into something that may or may not survive a disease process. But at least now he no longer has any big boughs to drop over our neighbours wall.

But he is not a thing of beauty anymore.

Taking a jump from one world to another in semi-retirement is a fascinating process. Every day is a school day. Transferable skills flex and expand. My treasure trove of knowledge has some truly eccentric and unexpected nuggets of new information and I have some different or enhanced skills. I also have a much bigger and prettier office!

#1458 theoldmortuary ponders.

On Jun 4, 2026Jun 4, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity3 Comments

What’s something you’d love to see in the future, but know you probably won’t live to witness?

There are many reasons I write a daily blog. Witnessing is one of them. I have always been fascinated by the day to day lives of ‘normal’, run-of-the-mill, people , like myself. Not the famous, infamous,grand, important, iconic,good, bad and ugly( beautiful) people who habitually occupy the world’s media.

I just love the observation of people going about their daily lives.

As a British person with a peculiar interest in normality I would love to see how Britain between January 2020, when we left the European Union and May 2023 when the World COVID Pandemic was declared over, is viewed with the retrospective wisdom of 100 years.

British people are a blended island nation, who talk a lot about the weather. Sometimes about Wars. And unlike any other nation, have a couplet of 21st Century woes.

Businesses failed because of the joint enterprise of Brexit and Covid.

Relationships failed.

Communities broke up.

People took the fork in the road that they would never have considered were it not for Brexit/Covid.

It is not in the least unusual to hear

” Well, of course, there was Brexit and then Covid”

We are a nation whacked by a double whammy.

As an individual, Brexit/Covid galvanised me into daily blogging/ diarising. Something I had wanted to do all my life but life got in the way.

I used to dream of keeping a five year diary. I never achieved it, despite being nerdy, and at times, an insular child.

Jetpack, the app that supports my WordPress blog page has a new-to-me feature.

Suddenly I have my 6 year diary pages to look back on.

I promise not to share these here too often but I find them fascinating, of course I do.

The great ponder of the day is, will they survive 100 years, and what will my great-grandchildren make of them?

Pandemic Pondering #77

Pandemic Pondering #436

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#1457 theoldmortuary ponders

On Jun 4, 2026Jun 4, 2026 By theoldmortuary.designIn Stonehouse Lawn Tennis ClubLeave a comment

Marking time. A 100 year old tennis club gets an address. The 21st Century has arrived.

1966 was a big year in Great Britain. The men’s football team won the football World Cup and Postcodes were introduced.

Between 1966 and 1974 every address in Britain gained a postcode.

For reasons, lost in the mist of time, our Tennis Club missed out. I imagine other places must have done too.

For 60 years the club has managed. Firmly occupying a corner of land where the road bends and meets the sea. But the world has moved on and increasingly the digital age just cannot see something that does not have an alphanumeric code.

In fact the very act of applying for an official address and postcode without a postcode proved to be a challenge. A challenge that was ultimately successful. Although to achieve filling in a digital form correctly but inaccurately the club was declared a ‘new’ build.

Increasing companies and organisations have systems that simply cannot interact with our club because we had no postcode.

So yesterday really was a red letter day. Although as yet no actual letter of any colour has been delivered. That would require a postbox!

Small steps.

Yesterday turned out to be the last day stuff had to be delivered to a members address and then walked or driven to the club for redelivery. Nothing inconsequential, like an Amazon parcel that could be tucked into a coat pocket or bag.

Four park benches for the watching of tennis or just taking in the view.

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