Author: theoldmortuary.design

theoldmortuary has been a blog for about five years. It has evolved into an almost daily event. Pondering on the things that are inspired by my daily life. Often mundane, sometimes repetitive I swerve from hyperlocal activity to big and small thoughts without blinking an eye. I am an artist and writer. My hometown is Plymouth in South West England, part of me will always be connected to London and another part loves to travel.

Pandemic Pondering #485

On By theoldmortuary.designIn BoxLeave a comment

Friday follows Thursday. In Pandemic terms yesterday was my first working day at The Box ( Plymouths Museum, gallery and general cultural space) since the government announced Freedom Day when all legal restrictions were lifted on the English public and organisations and individuals are free to decide the level of restriction they wish to self impose.

©The Box

Suddenly a huddle of strangers is considered to be a safe option. The Box as an organisation decided not to go into full on super spreader event and restrictions remained much as they have been for many months, so the only obvious crowd were these Mayflower passengers. The museum visitors were still booked in and limited in numbers but they were, I felt more willing to engage and interact with the gallery guides and yesterday felt like the museum had a much more normal buzz about it. It helps, of course that the museum has wonderful air conditioning and we are in the midst of a heatwave.

Heatwaves are a summer thing and this morning a heatwave picture popped up on my Facebook Memories page. I wish I had remembered this image earlier in the pandemic because it is a pretty good image to demonstrate looking after yourself in a pandemic.

Better late than never.

Pandemic Pondering #484

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Plymouth Sound, SerendipityLeave a comment

A classic ponder involving two subjects that are largely unrelated.

This morning I am wearing a playsuit. Really a preposterously named garment for anyone over 10. This one is left over from my brief days as a hands-on grandparent. Obviously when fulfilling the role of grandparent I felt the need to dress like a tropical forest. This may be the exact reason her parents decided to whisk her half way across the world. Who could possibly need a grandparent dressed as tropical forest when Asia can provide the real thing, the forest that is. The photos above are the tenuous link to this mornings blog. In case you haven’t spotted it, the mug swaggeringly hanging on my playsuit belt depicts a harbour. Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. Our recent move has taken us to live among harbours, although not a Asian ones swanky enough to have thermal mugs depicting the skyline!

I love a harbour, all the glamour and thrills of travel with none of the faff. Today turned out to be a cornucopia of glamour. A cruise ship with 5 masts.

Shyly peeping into Plymouth Sound. Before hiding behind Drakes Island.

https://www.cruiseline.co.uk/cruise-lines/tradewind-voyages/golden-horizon/

If only I could briefly roll back time to when hundreds of ships like this were jostling to dock in Plymouth. On an olfactory note the area where I took this last photo was very reminiscent of times past. I stood on an area of concrete frequented by solitary fishermen and others in the twilight hours, they really do like to build up a historic fragrance, which was still resonating at 7 am this morning. Beer, tobacco, fish, piss and marijuana. Not perhaps the historic experience passengers on this luxury cruise liner are searching for!

Golden Horizon

Pandemic Pondering #483

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

When does Bobbing become swimming? Probably when we stop chattering. At its least active bobbing is just about being submerged in the sea and chattering. Any bobbing session contains a variety of distances and topics covered by Bobbers. Last night 4 Bobbers bobbed away from our usual bay, just to the left of the iconic Tinside Lido, pictured above. It wasn’t a traditional Bob because the target activity was actually getting a fish and chip supper, but when we are this close to the water it would be rude not to, and there is nothing tastier than fish and chips after exercise.

The sea swimming portion alongside the Lido is in the process of being refurbished so it wasn’t most scenic location to bob but it was a lovely place to get an easy bob without the tricksy currents that are a feature of our usual location. The Fish and Chip Bob was in fact the second of the day.

Earlier,in our usual location, the nearby tidal pool was getting a wash and brush up. Making our swimming water a little murky further down the coast.

The empty pool was an almost exact colour match for the sails of a sailing school.

©Melinda Waugh

Very little wind and the tricksy currents mentioned earlier led to these novice seafarers being rescued moments later by their instructor in a motorised rib. Vivid green was also a feature of this lovely window on our walk away from the beach.

©Debs Bobber

Pandemic Pondering #482

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and LolaLeave a comment

A shameless dogblog. Low tide this morning and an empty beach gave the dogs a rare chance to scamper on the beach. Lola is perfectly camouflaged on her new local beach.

Hugo, of course, would only be camouflaged at pure white tropical beaches, which are not local to us.

It’s not only our swimming hobby that stops them visiting the beach often. They have very low respect for other people’s activities. The peaceful activities of strangers are their main interest, book reading or yoga are activities to step away from the hurly burly of regular life. Neither experience is enhanced by a furry nose and whiskers snuffling extremities, however unthreatening the intention.

They also snuffle limpets who do not react.

Pandemic Pondering #481

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Moving House, SerendipityLeave a comment

Sun setting on an extraordinary weekend. But also a reminder to always keep our eyes open. Today I walked passed an ex-colleague who I would dearly have loved to have a natter with. Our weekend has been filled with meteorological sunshine. It’s pretty cool to walk from home to overlook the finish line of an International Sailing competition and your tea still be too hot to drink on arrival.

And then to watch the competitors sail back in to their temporary accommodation.

The sunshine also lit up our back yard.

And at night the back yard lit itself up.

All that lovely sunshine stored up in Solar panels to make the evening brighter. This weekend has also had some darker moments but life just like the weather can’t be constant sunshine, we just need to keep some reserves in hand to make these things more tolerable.

In other news, a very old bear was unpacked today. There was a serious problem with his stuffing which required immediate attention. The patient is seen here enjoying a post anaesthetic cup of tea. He will soon be back on his feet.

©Gill Bobber/ Marianne Bobber

Passionfruit and Mango Sundaes to mark the end of Sunday.

©Hannah Bobber

Pandemic Pondering #480

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Rust4 Comments

Sunday vibes, time to take in the sunshine and rust of our surroundings.

A lovely bit of rust.

Rust is not the first thing to think about in the summer but sunshine and rust do work rather well together. As these pictures show. All gathered on a dog walk on Saturday

There were very few casualties of our recent move but for some reason one mirror rusted up in storage so now he has found a new home in the garden where he can rust and reflect in equal measure.

An old industrial door near the sea.

And because this is just a Sunday Quickie blog I’ve cheated a bit with the final picture no rust at all but a very rusty sunset.

Pandemic Pondering #479

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

Early morning dog walk and time to confess that the flat packs are still flat packs and sit in our hallway like megaliths. They are too heavy for mortals to carry upstairs and Covid restrictions require Atlas-like deliverymen to drop them as close to the front door as possible. This adds a whole new level of flat pack angst to the process as they will have to be unpacked downstairs and then constructed upstairs.

Coincidentally other big things are causing problems in the bay. A Humpback whale has decided to have some fun times on the course for the Sailing Grand Prix so practicing was at a standstill.

The course was moved to accommodate the needs of the Humpback and close encounters occurred not in the race zone.

©SailGP

Mega Saturday feels.

Pandemic Pondering #478

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Coffee Hunters, Moving House, Serendipity1 Comment

The end of the week coffee. Coffeeer than any other coffee, not as desperate as some and maybe not as chilled as a Sunday morning coffee. But still a landmark coffee. Today happens to be Friday but in my previous NHS life the end of the week could be any day.

Always celebrated at Black Sheep. Coffee to power me through the last 12 hours at Barts Heart Centre. Obviously the doughnuts are not part of an approved Cardiac Health Diet.

©Black Sheep
©Black Sheep

Today’s coffee from Hutong, hopefully doesn’t have such a big task. Or does it?

Today is flat pack furniture day!

https://g.co/kgs/pYQUqg

Pandemic Pondering #477

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Plymouth Sound1 Comment

The wild flower meadows on our daily walk are tranquil spots for me to walk and the dogs to sniff. Not that the pollinators going about their business are particularly happy to be disturbed by snuffling dog noses. The tranquility of the flower fields took me to an extraordinary sight yesterday. Sailing boats cleaving through the sea faster than anything with an engine. How magical! Two huge catamarans chasing figures of eight in the bay at 50 or so miles per hour.

This was my first glimpse of Sail GP catermerans showing off in the water. So much more interesting and worthy of respect than the speed induced buzz of fossil fuel guzzling speed boats or worse their smaller relations the Jetski that normally whizz in the bay like flashy bored teenagers. Over the weekend I may bore you silly with pictures of these boats as there is a race meeting in Plymouth Sound this weekend. But there is nothing better than seeing something new for the first time.

Link to a description of the weekend event below.

©SailGP

Pandemic Pondering #476

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, HomeLeave a comment

At last we have WiFi. Back in the world of communicating via tech. It’s funny that my morning walk showed me benches and seats that are set up to allow non tech human to human conversation. The one above is set up high on a look out point accessed via one of two ‘secret’ Gardens close to home. The view from here is spectacular.

But two deck chairs set up for side to side nattering has huge potential for a satisfying conversation. The other`secret’ garden has a bench for four people to enjoy a lively chat.

During the various lock downs we have sat at each of these locations to have conversations and coffee. Much as we love a good natter for its own sake the benefit of talking and laughing or consoling with other people has been immense in the last 18 months.

My final great seat of nattering is a beauty.

Large enough to hold two bubbles of people and perfectly positioned outside, but under a stone canopy for inclement weather. This one has been a winter favourite with one negative point. It is made of metal and can be very cold on the bum.

A small celebration of the potential of conversation on the day @theoldmortuary is finally back in the loop.