#1534 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Serendipity1 Comment
Putting my feet up.

We are doing some extra grandchild care while my daughter recovers from a broken shoulder. The yard has gained a new facility. A paddling pool, after a day of frenetic activity the pool is a warm and peaceful spot to write a blog. The early morning dog walk is done and my next commitment is two hours away.  One of my early morning habits, a new one to go along with Wordle*, is to read my old blogs written on this day. I have enjoyed revisiting the last few years. They are all like old friends. I am a bit critical of some and wonder if they quite hit the right tone. But I remind myself that they are all about preserving the details of a day. In the spirit of putting my feet up I thought I would share the 7th of July with you all.

My Place-Brixton East

Pandemic Pondering #469

#261 theoldmortuary ponders

#654 theoldmortuary ponders

#971 theoldmortuary ponders

#1353 theoldmortuary ponders.

July 7th 2026 has some predictable shape. Not thrilling, I will admit, but life is not all about the big ticket items.

A robotic lawn mower demonstration.

Some tennis club admin.

A quick dip in the sea.

Some art.

Of all of the 7ths of July, the one I most enjoyed revisiting was the 2017 one. Brixton East, a fantastic gallery space in London. 9 years later it has disappeared and is now a very swanky venue for weddings, celebrations, photo shoots and product launches.  I mourned the loss of the space for artists and easy accessibility to a beautiful space. Sadly in these 9 years it is not the only exhibition space to be reimagined as something different. Beautiful spaces to show art are becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Onwards to my day, I have a robot waiting for me.

#1533 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Concatenation, SerendipityLeave a comment
©theoldmortuary

Is a little chaos actually good for us?

Absolutely , chaos is a challenge to rigid thinking and over-planning. Too much chaos is a disaster but leaving space in life for a little chaos can be refreshing and educating.

I particularly like creating order out of chaos. It feels exhilarating, like riding a wild white horse through a swamp and arriving at your destination perfectly clean and tidy, not a hair out of place and perfect lipstick

In my professional life we avoided chaos at all costs with protocols and procedures. But chaos still found us,  and pulling victory out of a disaster felt so sweet.

In my artistic life I like to allow chaos to have a space. When chaos produces good results I call it serendipity or concatenation but when chaos does not a thing of beauty make  the bin becomes the winner.

I am neither a biker nor a pipe smoker but in my head I like to think that I view chaos with his calm contemplative aura.

Something tricksy to be tamed or something creative to be harnessed.

#1532 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Devils Point, SerendipityLeave a comment

Sunday Serendipity in Stonehouse. The only plans for the day were an early swim.  Demonstrating the things  I really missed during the skinny dip of last week.

#1529 theoldmortuary ponders. Part 1

My gloves! I dislike getting crampy hands and forearms when swimming so red palmed , cocktail length swim gloves are the essential essential for a swim. But skinny dipping is an all or nothing activity so for one night only the gloves were off.

But after the swim we fancied a walk and there was a Food and Craft market close by, where our favourite London coffee is served and where sausage and bacon baps might have caught our attention.

Then it was just a short walk to watch some more Gig racing.

With the perfect viewpoint to see the finish line and see some early victories.

How often is it this easy to watch an International event?

Our eyes were particularly peeled for one team.We  used to both row for Rame.

Our bums have been in these seats at the World Championships a while ago. The blisters are epic, and unforgetable.

Soon enough we had to turn for home, even more dull yardening jobs to be done before the weekend was done with us. And more Gig racing on TV when the sun was just too much for us.

#1531 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Cornwall, Devils Point, Devon, Firestone Bay, Gardens and gardening, Plymouth, Stonehouse Lawn Tennis Club, Yardening1 Comment
Stonehouse Lawn Tennis Club Gardens

Gardening, Gig Rowing, Yardening, Gig Rowing. Saturday was the second day of the European Gig Racing Championships in Plymouth Sound. It was also Gardening Saturday at the Tennis Club I help to run. We could look up from our garden chores and watch gigs racing past our club.

While listening to classical guitar, from Walter who had swapped out his secateurs for something more beautiful.

The afternoon was Yardening time. Not by any stretch as exciting or colourful as the morning session. Some white wall painting and repotting of plants. But the entertainment was the same. This time watching the Gig racing on TV as we sought refuge from the sun.

The drone shots showing us what we know already.

That our tiny corner of Devon/Cornwall is rather lovely.

For regular readers and Bobbers, our normal bobbing area was one of the regular spots where race progression was filmed

Tranquility Bay.
Bobbers Steps behind the gigs.

I never managed to catch the tennis club on TV. That would have been a great drone shot especially as the gardens were freshly primped. A project for tomorrow. 

Link to small reel about the races.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17goonYrSw/

#1530 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hybrid Printmaking, Paintings, workLeave a comment
Friday Work Desk

Friday was always going to be a full day of creating images.  There was a fair amount of digital manipulation to create some images of the previous evenings skinny dip and an afternoon of watercolour and ink work, to depict the wind which is always, to  my frustration, the hidden element in all art work. Painting wind is a little project I return to now and again.

©theoldmortuary Smeaton’s Tower

In the future I would quite like to add a wind cherub to my wind paintings, those fat cheeked toddlers who appear on the sides of old maps.

Wind cherubs are quite a niche interest, I suspect our local library will not rise to that particular subject in their reference section.

So currently my wind paintings are sans windy cherubs.

Firestone Bay with a South West Wind, no cherub

The day of working in the studio was missing something else too.

A chocolate digestive at work

The chocolate digestive did not work. What my creative juices required was a piece of fruit cake. Not a rich winter version but a pale sort of fruitcake. Often sold by the slice in plastic wrappers at the lower end of the cafe industry. There should always be a cherry in every slice.

Not expecting to appear in public I was wearing an old sundress, no bra and my gardening crocs. A quick trip to Lidl might just provide me with the cake I desired  without meeting anyone I know.

This is where the day took a lovely and awkward turn. I blame the blog

Lidl had no cheap fruit cake. I did not meet anyone I know. But I did meet someone I don’t know who reads the blog. A friend of a friend etc. We could have talked about the blog but she really kindly, said that she saw me about often and admired my style. She didn’t mean my writing style. How thoughtful and delightful. We chatted briefly and I did not move from the back of my car. Not a single part of the day’s outfit was visible to her. No illusions shattered and no fruit cake.

Friday completed

#1529 theoldmortuary ponders. Part 1

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, Bobbing1 Comment
Sarah’s Bucket List Bob

Bobbing and bobbers are a regular feature of this blog. Less than 10% of the blogs get a mention because they follow more or less the same structure every time. This is a blog that celebrates the everyday mundanity of life by finding nuggets to ponder. But even I know the detrimental effect of pondering the same nugget too often.

However last night’s bob was special we were all naked.

Sarah, in the middle of this group wanted to walk naked into the sea for her 60th Birthday. It would have been  unbobber-like to let her do it alone. Tide and time were perfect yesterday evening.

What a fabulous experience, more laughs and a birthday wish completed.

9 brazen bobbers, 2 had already left before this photo.
©theoldmortuary

#1528 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn YardeningLeave a comment

The Buddha was not in great shape. But if we rely on TK Maxx (TJMaxx in some countries) for providing our garden/yarden statuary then centuries of gently, ageing use, is not an option. Buddha was in a much worse state than the headless, armless,legless woman.

Buddha has a serious insect infestation. Most obvious in the hairline but essentially Buddha is a statue of multiple insect occupancy.

The armless, headless, legless woman really responded to her glow up. Buddha on the other hand took more work and my initial feelings were not as positive. I felt that the old paint and glitter combo made Buddha look a little podgy.

Thankfully it was just the bright sunshine. Returned to the normal position Buddha looked quite perky by the end of the day.

In other news , I used google lens on the headless, armless, legless woman.

She has a name …

Design Toscano Torso of Aphrodite of Melos Venus Statue

Or in fact the Venus de Milo, but without her head. Must be why I didn’t recognise her!

#1527 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Summer1 Comment
Soft Summer ©theoldmortuary.

July 1st 2026. May and June have rushed by in a way that January and February never do. Every aspect of the early part of the first day of July in 2026 is soft, the colours are soft, the sea is soft, and there was a soft but nippy breeze.

Soft Steps ©theoldmortuary

Even the tide, gently falling, made soft sounds on the rocks. A gentle farewell as the sea pulls away from coastline. Like the soft hug of a temporary parting. I wonder how the rest of July will progress.

#1526 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Scrag End of Summer, SerendipityLeave a comment

Yardening and painting, a pondering.

Grasshopper in our yard.

My blog diary entries remind me that we moved here exactly 5 years ago.

Pandemic Pondering#461

The grasshopper on our mint plants is a lovely sign of what we have achieved in the yard in 5 years. We bought a home with a sterile, stone-walled yard with any flat surface covered in artificial turf that was used as a toilet by the two dogs that had previously lived here.

We moved plants from a rural cottage garden and an urban city garden. Some survived and thrived others failed.

The Yard in Summer

We increased our vertical growing area by increasing a north facing wall with a lateral slatted fence and planted climbing plants in pots. If there was an actual plan beyond attracting pollinators, we have forgotten it. The yard dances to its own tune. There is a well established jungle area in a south east facing corner, and anything else that does well are plants found in the Mediterranean.

The Yard in Summer

Our insect companions are very diverse. Yesterday was the first sighting of a grasshopper. But for two years now we have had our own colony of  Unarmed Stick Insects.

They live on a hugely successful climbing rose and apparently live a peaceful and non combative, sedentary life.

The pollinators love the jungle area.

When we moved into the house we were plagued by small black flies that came into the house during good weather. Making the yard more hygienic didn’t seem to make a huge improvement but this year, now the yard is more verdant there seems to be an improvement. But maybe at the scrag end of June I am talking too soon.

Five years on we are not the only creatures to have moved in.

I took these two photos within a couple of minutes in the yard yesterday.

Hot pink and bright green is one of my favourite colour combinations. When I was under 16 it was a favourite colour pairing to doodle with.Since then not so much. Last December I was thrilled to see the colour combination used for the Sugar Plum Fairies in a production of the Nutcracker in Hong Kong.

Their inspiration is easy to see in any Asian market.

At the time I remember thinking I should experiment a little with these colours at home. I had completely forgotten this until exactly this moment.

Maybe July will become a month for dabbling in hot colours and vibrant greens.