Month: Feb 2021

Pandemic Pondering #322

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)Leave a comment

This blog is not going the way I planned. But it can start with Brunch which is not a bad way to start the week.

Brunch featured egg islands. Fried bread with a fried egg served in a hole in the middle of a slice of bread and the remaining circle of bread also served fried, to dip in the egg. Fried bread for both of us is something our Dads did well.

Both our fathers also loved blood oranges which was the planned route this blog was going. We could have pondered on over tea and cake about our fathers and their domestic skills. My domestic skills, however blew a hole in that comforting scenario.

© Clare Law

So successful was the whole orange cake I made last week, I planned to make another one today using blood oranges for extra flavour. The boiled oranges were good subjects for photography.

The ripe red orange colours of the days cooking stop right here.

There was an error in the making of the cake. Instead of adding Baking Powder I used Baking Soda ( Bicarbonate of Soda) Any other cake would have just looked beautiful but tasted nasty with this error. An Orange cake containing three whole oranges was a completely diiferent matter. Bicarbonate of Soda reacts crazily when combined with acid. The acid of three oranges combined with Baking Soda was a thing not dissimilar to an erupting volcano. Not realising the extreme cause of the problem I trimmed off the extra crust and binned the volcanic run off caused by effluvial action and had something resembling a cake, passable only to a desperate woman who wanted to serve gorgeous slices of cake to prove the afternoons efforts were not in vain. Eating the slice was worse than looking at it. Bitter and cloying are not words that are ever said between mouthfuls of comestible pleasure.

There is no sumptuously moist photo of domestic triumph to neatly end this blog. Instead all I can offer is some flowers that match rather well with the now extinct, in this house, Blood Orange Cake. The flowers are anonymous, I found them in a supermarket.

Pandemic Pondering #321

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Pandemic ponderings, Serendipity1 Comment

Summer in February. The sun put in an appearance today and the Stonehouse beaches looked like socially distanced summer.

We enjoyed coffee in the sun and witnessed a charming rescue by Plymouths Plastic Patrol.

Pictured below before the current pandemic.

© Plastic Patrol/Planet Patrol

A toddler dropped a much loved Zebra in the water near the Royal William Yard. The tide was high and, sadly, Zebra had to be left to his watery fate. Some time later members of Plastic Patrol paddled past.

They swiftly recovered the Zebra and, as luck would have it, Archie and his parents were waiting for a take out-coffee.

Zebra and toddler reunited.

A good end to a brilliant morning.

Pandemic Pondering #320

On By theoldmortuary.designIn BobbingLeave a comment

The sea swimming community in Plymouth is very welcoming.

When you drive along Durnford Street at 10am and see a woman walking along wearing a Tiara, it is a fair assumption, and in this case correct, that she is a sea swimmer celebrating something.

A double celebration as it turns out, a birthday and retirement.

The beauty of this lovely community is that everyone looks out for each other, in or out of the water. It is entirely normal to ask a complete stranger why they are wearing a tiara. Talking to this particular stranger gave me the heart image at the top of this blog. Her husband had made this heart on their gate to celebrate her birthday.

The smiles are not just reserved for Tiara wearing. Just doing a sea swim makes us smile inside and out.

Some other facial expressions!

But mostly smiles.

People are always willing to share their expertise. On this occasion, not swimming related, how to use drainage holes to frame photographs.

Two of our images.

And someone using their newly acquired knowledge.

As it happens within our ‘Bobbers’ group we have had two recent birthdays. Unaware of the informal Tiara rule, we just exchanged cards. (In future, tiaras will be involved!) ‘Bobbers’ also do original art.

Hugo and Lola by Debs Bobber

Sea swimming is an amazing activity. We plan ours using Tide times and weather forecasts.

For local and constantly updated information, we often refer to Plymouth Open Water Swimmers. Link below.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/214153495854310/?ref=share

Some of us have had swimming lessons from Jason at Ace Swimming

https://www.aceswimming.co.uk/

Cold water swimming, it makes us smile. We Love It.

Pandemic Pondering #319

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and LolaLeave a comment

Today we need to talk about Fox.

Our dogs spent their formative years living in South London. We quickly became aware of dogs ernest desire to always roll in Fox Poo. Urban foxes are everywhere and dog owners have a sixth sense about the moment their dogs bend one shoulder down towards the earth prior to a squirm of ecstacy as they rub fox excrement over their backs and onto their faces. Once we returned to Cornwall we lost that sixth sense. Rural foxes are far more discrete and many small town or country people have never seen a live fox.

In London Foxes were a part of our everyday lives. We often woke up with one.

They used our garage roof as a relaxation area and for a memorable and stinky period our garden became their larder. If foxes have a really rich harvesting and hunting period they will store excess food in a particular place to retrieve it later. Our garden, for a while became a dead rat larder. We could smell them as soon as we walked into the garden. We disposed of the stinky carcasses into an area of rough ground that was near the foxes den, only to have the exact same bodies returned to the garden a few hours later. Apparently no self respecting Fox wants such things close to its front door!

Pandemic Pondering #319 mentions the mud festival that was yesterdays walk. Hugo and Lola had made some small attempt to clean themselves up so they were spared a bath yesterday. Today though a trip to the Rugby Club for a run about revealed how much I have lost my London Fox awareness training. First Hugo and then Lola took the dive of shame into a copious pile of Fox poo. I could hope for a moment that it was just random high spirits but as they ran excitedly back to me the joy on their faces told me all I needed to know. I bent down for a sniff but it was unnecessary really.

An afternoon bath became essential, as you can see from these photos it was not universally popular.

The rewards for me are clean curls to cuddle and a slightly damp lap.

Pandemic Pondering #318

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola, SerendipityLeave a comment

Thermal underwear can make you do crazy things. Yesterday was a day of sunshine with a side order of mud.

Everywhere here is pretty sodden with rain and winteriness. Some regular dog walks have been abandoned because they are just too muddy. The arrival of unexpected sunshine coupled with thermal underwear made walking without a warm coat entirely possible. My choice of walk has a semi-permeable surface that drains well, all should have been well but the dogs did not stick to the path. Beyond the confines of the path the parkland was a riot of quagmire and fascinating smells. Some of which the dogs felt obliged to roll in.

It was such a sunny day , two circuits of the park were completed. I was feeling toasty but the dogs were two muddy sponges, filled to capacity with moisture and mud. The ecstatic cuddles when we returned to the car were a mixed blessing.

The second walk of the day involved Tarmac and water contained in its proper place.

Pandemic Pondering #317

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Pandemic ponderings2 Comments

Wednesday, ‘Hump’ Day. Definable for a week but when will England pass the ‘ hump’ day of the 3rd Pandemic Lockdown. Pedaling uphill with no summit in sight and no promise of a freewheel to the end is so much harder in these winter months.

I’ve always enjoyed February so it feels unfaithful to not be so keen this year. February is the month we make plans for the rest of the year.Meet ups and even, dare I say it, when holidays with family and friends are planned.

This time last year I was preparing to curate a Spring Exhibition , although  I had a sneaking feeling by the end of February that we might well be planning in vain. Working closely with other artists in any collaboration isn’t ever a waste of time and I gained 
a good friend, who has proved to be  a valuable pair of ears in this pandemic, while planning the exhibition that never was. We may never have cemented a friendship without the unique circumstances of the pandemic.

She is not the only friend @theoldmortuary has gained in this unusual year. Funny to think that we have friends that we now know really well who we have never hugged or even been closer to than a metre. All these new friendships come from a tiny geographical area close to home. Less than ten miles certainly. Meanwhile friends and family old and new  are out there locally and in the rest of the world also unhugged. For the forseable future they will remain unhugged.

I suppose the best I can hope for from this February is to just keep moving forward on a metaphorical bicycle, no plans but with a basket full of hugs, waiting to spill out on the downhill when my feet are off the pedals and the future is a little more certain.

Pandemic Pondering#317

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Plymouth Open Water Swimmers3 Comments

The first lockdown baking session since non- Christmas took place yesterday. Orange and Almond Cake , as above, and Onion Bhajis. Both cooked because they appeared in articles I was reading and because they sounded impossibly easy to make. In my reading/baking experiment they proved to be as easy as the narrator/author suggested. They were only easy because we are nearly a year into Pandemic Lockdowns. In a pre- pandemic life they would still have been easy but a trip to a supermarket would , almost certainly, have been needed. @theoldmortuary we have become much more confident cooks, driven by dietary and lifestyle changes that were needed when a health problem revealed itself early in Lockdown 1.

Now we have a multi cultural larder cupboard that facilitated yesterdays cook with the aid of the internet.

Onion Bhajis , always a thing of great expectation and sometimes soggy dissapointment. No dissapointment at our house yesterday. In the book excerpt I was reading , set in East London, an unexpected visitor was welcomed with hugs, a cup of tea and freshly cooked bhajis!

Hugs!!! How retro is that.

So good was this experiment of bhaji making there were none left for a photo shoot.

Not so the Orange and Almond Cake created because a food critic said eating it reminded him of his dear mum.

It seemed implausible because it contained four whole oranges.

Whole Orange Cake – rind and all!

Follow the link above to find the recipe I used.

The cake was fabulous. Thank goodness there are the lifestyle changes that were needed to go along with the dietary ones in Lockdown I. Increased exercise for good health and immune system boosting helps to burn off the calories created by the baking experiments.

Yesterday was a ‘ bobbing’ day. Cold water swimming is very good for boosting the immune system. With cake and coffee packed we set off for Firestone Bay. Seas around Plymouth had been rough and messy earlier in the day but all that was left when we arrived were some curious currents and water that wouldn’t have looked out of place in our post-baking washing up bowl.

The cake was consumed post ‘ bob’ with hot coffee on the way home. Once home we checked a local swimming site on Facebook to see how other swimmers had fared during the day. To our surprise ‘bobbers’ were featured in a photograph.

© Plymouth Open Water Swimmers

Featuring the post swim rush towards cake!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/214153495854310/?ref=share

The link above is to Plymouth Open Water Swimmers. A fabulous Facebook page that we always refer to before and after a ‘bob’ just in case there is anything that we need to know about swimming locally.

Pandemic Pondering #316

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Pandemic ponderingsLeave a comment

It’s not often that February gets quite such a welcome, but @theoldmortuary January seemed to drag its feet a little. Probably not the months fault. With Lockdown III starting moments after non- Christmas the normal January ennui started sooner than normal. Cold water swimming has pulled us through the month with twice weekly swimming.

Strange that in a month with more time to read, I had forgotten about this book until yesterday. When I was working and commuting in London the electronic version of this book was my daily read. I never felt moved to read it out loud on the bus or train as people who read the Bible or Koran were sometimes moved to do. Now I’ve refound it I may throw in the odd snippet or morsel of London history into the pondering mix.

February the first is not so interesting , and none of my favourite diarists bothered with it but in 2021 just getting to February 1st feels good enough.

January did not slip away unnoticed yesterday. An irregular swimming companion joined us for a lunchtime beach walk.