#1451 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, SerendipityLeave a comment

This day in history. I have been blogging for 9 years. Here are some posts from 28 th May for the last 9 years. Only 7 because blogging wasn’t always a daily habit.

The prettiest site for a music festival

Pandemic Pondering #71

Pandemic Pondering #429

#624 theoldmortuary ponders

#930 theoldmortuary ponders

#931 theoldmortuary ponders

#1303 theoldmortuary ponders

Listed for me just as much as anyone else. This blog is illustrated by the communal yurt at the campsite. I suppose communality is the link word. I write these blogs for my personal pleasure, as a record for my family and to record a normal life in the 21st century. I have chosen to throw them out into the world and a small community has gathered around them.

28th May, not much happened and yet so much happened.

#1451 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Van Life1 Comment
Lola considering Conleau.

A day at the beach. Not Lola’s chosen way of beach life but with 35 degrees temp out of the shade, what is a furry woman to do but seek out shade and a breeze. Meanwhile her humans enjoyed the spectacular sea pool that Conleau is famous for.

The Conleau Peninsula – Gulf of Morbihan Vannes Tourism https://share.google/aaK1nSZZM4Yc5sTwU

Our last two days in France have been planned with Lola’s needs at the fore. She needs a health check and worm tablet before she can return home. Lola was always Pro- Europe and takes a dim view of the restrictions that those humans who voted for Brexit have imposed upon her travel arrangements. 18 pages of documents and many stamps have replaced a simple pet passport.

Ears and whiskers checked yesterday and she has the final stamp of approval to travel home.

#1450 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Van LifeLeave a comment
Farewell to Vannes Life

And back to van life. We are heading  back to Finisterre for Lola to have a health check and worm tablet to allow her back into the U.K.We had hoped that the temperatures would have dropped the further North we travelled but that has been rather over optimistic.So hard to imagine that two weeks ago we were in cashmere jumpers and chenille socks.

Now I have just washed our   summeryist clothes  to wear again tomorrow and we will be sat in our swimmers all evening while things dry, which they certainly will.

Van life it is then  for the next two days. No Wi-fi so simple blogs with one picture.

#1449 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn artLeave a comment
Vannes

Word play, the heatwave has made us swap Van Life for Vannes Life. Our two night airbnb just pops its head above the brightly coloured building.

Early morning and late evening walks in this lovely city keep a dog’s paws cooler and her owners very happy. The multi coloured building is a contemporary creative space. Surrounded by arty farty stuff that is right up our rue.

Not that all has gone to plan. Why ever would it.

The early morning walk was supposed to culminate in a visit to an Art Gallery.

To say that we have missed this exhibition because the ambient temperature of the gallery is not working is a huge disappointment. The Gallery is closed until the weekend. For those of you also in the grip of a heatwave I can only offer you this really cool image from outside the gallery

#1448 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Van Life1 Comment

What to do in a heatwave?

Find a beach?

Actually we found a beach with an old Oak tree. The Oak tree became the saviour of the day.

The perfect filter of heat and sunshine. We had never imagined we could be out in 35 degrees and enjoy a couple of hours of swimming and chilling. Chilling might be an exaggeration but neither us nor Lola overheated. The tree magnified whatever small amount of wind nature was providing and the  dappled shade was fabulous.

The only time we were over warm was when we were swimming . Lola chose not to on this occasion. She preferred the wind in her ears.

The heatwave has changed our immediate plans. Another blog incoming.

#1447 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Van Life1 Comment
Old hotel, soon to be apartments, Quiberon

I love a dilapidated building and one with such a charming ghost sign is always going to be a winner.

A Sunday with just one plan. To be out and about before most tourists and at the supermarket before a noon closing time. Both achieved but with unplanned complexities,not of our own making. There was a fundraising  race throughout the centre of the town between 11 and 5 closing many streets and footpaths.

Meanwhile there was also a Classic Car event  on roads that circled the town.

A complexity of our own making was the purchase of a heavy set of boules for  family games in the summer.

Gaudy and heavy boules.

In 30 degrees this was quite a shopping undertaking. But we managed to escape the route of the charity event to leave me, Lola and the boule by the roadside to be picked up on our way out of town. But Serendipity was having a laugh at our expense. Moments after I was picked up,we pulled out into a stream of classic vehicles. And so without ever registering as a Classic Vehicle we paraded through the streets of a town high on road racing and Classic cars. There were many places where both events could be viewed almost simultaneously.

It would have been churlish not to wave and unlike many vehicles, in this extraordinary heat,we did not break down.

So on a Sunday, not without a little drama, but also some very cute ghost signs.

Just below the old hotel is a fish sculpture.

Tranquility in a very busy town.

#1446 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays, Serendipity, Van LifeLeave a comment

Quite the unplanned day today. Up early to use a beachside outdoor laundrette. Staggeringly high tech. We loaded our washing and were instructed that a text message would tell us when our washing was done. With a little over an hour to wait we walked to an empty beach, found a bench and read our books.

Not a bad way to get the laundry done and make a plan for the day, hundreds of tourists descended on Quiberon while the washing was doing its thing, we decided to find some calm. We chose the Mediaeval town of Auray for our first destination. High tech to Mediaeval in just over an hour. Auray was virtually empty. Unplanned Auray for tomorrow. Not one but two Saints, one freshly minted in 2025.

#1445 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends, Serendipity1 Comment
Lamore Plage

Where do old friendships go when life creates a wrinkle in time and place?

Old friendships just wait quietly in the head and heart until another wrinkle pulls the whole thing back together. 

Wrinkles, it seems,are quite the thing. We have both collected some along the way. 36 years since Angela and I met in person,and many years with little contact because life happens, but then the internet happened and reconnections and natterings can begin again.

We trained at the same time in London, lived our twenties in Brighton, a city that was as much fun as any city can be and then life washed us both into the port city of Plymouth. Being used to fun we sought it out, or more likely created it until the tides, or wrinkles, of life set us on the path of a 36 year gap.

Finding the fun in Plymouth.

You know nothing has changed when the same daft stuff makes you laugh.

This gorgeous little wooden boat was built by Angela’s Obstetrician. His hands crafted this boat, but she last saw them wielding a pair of forceps between her knees. Both activities with great outcomes and exactly the sort of thing we would find funny. 36 years apart blinked away by laughter.

#1444 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays, saints1 Comment

How do you plan the perfect road trip?

Writing this from a road trip seems the ideal location to ponder perfection.

In many respects this will be an anti-perfection ponder. A road trip needs just enough planning to provide a scaffold of ideas that serendipity can build upon. I realise that many people need certainty but we are not those people.

This was the sunset last night at a location we had not expected to visit this year. The Ice Saints brought inclement weather so we headed further south a little earlier than anticipated.

Before this road trip I was unaware of Ice Saints. More on them below.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/may/10/weatherwatch-cold-may-ice-saints?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

My rural childhood had a clothing/weather saying.

” Ne’re cast a clout, ’til May is out”

Don’t get rid of any clothing layers until June.

Last night in a moment of folklore defiance I gave up my socks for camping sleeping. Nothing bad happened.

And that is why perfection on a road trip is not about planning but a lot about Serendipity.

#1443 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn saints, SerendipityLeave a comment

A holiday with only small things to be achieved, in a timely way can be very liberating . Two catch ups with friends and a midpoint Airbnb are all we have. Except a trip to a fortified city that has featured in an enjoyed Netflix series. It was the anchor to our first week, Concarneau was our tick box. A little tricky as there was a sea mist making everything a little grey but exploring the fortified city was very atmospheric. Not quite as Netflix has depicted it, but hugely enjoyable. Cinematographers can do wonders with lighting and the hard work of scenery professionals. Except the hard work should actually have been done at home because the filming was actually done in  Saint Malo!

Google is a wonderful thing.

So Saint Malo goes on the list for another time and a location, Saint Cado, gets elevated to this current trip. Not only for the Netflix error but also to escape inclement weather.

So far it has worked, better weather and another Saint to ponder. Saint Cado allegedly fought with Satan over the rebuilding of a bridge between two fishing communities and then hoodwinked him by giving him the soul of a cat. The contractual price for the bridge rebuilding was the soul of the first living thing to cross the bridge. Anticipated to be a human it turned out to be a cat. Obviously St Cado’s saints tale has the tissue thin plausibility of many a saints origin story. The bridge however exists and we crossed it today. Nobody lost a soul.