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.
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.
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.
The last three weeks have been frustrating. When we told our network at the old house that we had a moving date the company switched us off immediately. Installation at the new house has not been a smooth operation. Coupled with a very poor 3/4g signal at the new house we’ve been out of the loop. All news and entertainment was provided by a radio. We blagged our way into a friends house to watch the Euro 21 final on TV. Curry, football and a discussion about African Wax cloth was a great experience.
Emails and WhatsApp arrived in a bunch whenever we left home. It has been a great leveller, we are as out of touch with people a mile away as we are with friends and family all over the world. Face to distant face chat outdoors has been our most reliable form of contact.
Yesterday more than 6 book group readers met in a garden to talk about a specific book. This is going to hurt by Adam Kay. ( mixed reviews) Then we shared our good reads of the past month.
All the lovely pictures in this blog were provided by Debs, a Bobber. Bobbing has probably kept us in the loop more reliably than anything else over the last few weeks. Three days a week, at least, regardless of the weather we all meet up at Tranquility Bay and swim and natter. Last night the bay reflected its name.
It’s been quite a red and white weekend in England. There was a significant football match brewing. Sadly the result didn’t go the way England would have wanted and we are not Champions of Europe in Football. On the other hand strawberries and cream nourished and consoled us through penalties and ultimate disappointment. A different red and white army, an English summer served in a bowl. Reliably successful every time.
Christmas In July! Not exactly of course but certainly a flavour of the festive season. The last of our furniture and ‘stuff’ arrived yesterday, out of storage. A large old chest arrived ready to be stacked with Christmas decorations. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen our Christmas trinkets in the summer before. Yesterday was probably the last hard day of furniture positioning and curtain hanging. We rewarded ourselves with a Caribbean platter. Nothing rewards hard physical labour in quite the same way as a takeaway.
The work of the day was doubly rewarded with a trip to a comedy club at The Leadworks in the evening. This really was a milestone in the Pandemic, our first night out in a club environment. Normality with just some changes. It felt so good to laugh in public, in unison with strangers.
Chuckling, chortling, giggling, just fabulous. The room was puffed up with happiness and we ordered a cup of tea via WhatsApp at 11Pm because we could. I’m fairly certain I’ve never juggled a cup and saucer in a club environment before. It’s probably not the last time. High on laughter and a warm tummy is a good feeling.
Hard on the heels of the Friday blog is the Saturday blog. The waters between Drakes Island and the tidal pool is a very busy stretch of water. Some of the most regular users are the Dockyard Tugs. This one is Faithful and is a Twin Tractor Unit Tug, built in 1985.
All the Bobbers love it when a Tug chugs past on a swimming session, there is a delicious thrum that goes through the water and resonates in our bones.
The name Faithful also gives me the chance to share a rare Celebrity anecdote. Sharing is the rarity. Having worked in Harley Street and in proper London Hospitals we’ve many an amusing tale filed away but confidentiality is a hurdle to witty celebrity nattering.
We were at a festival a few years ago when we saw some kitten heeled feet sticking out of a bush, closer inspection found them to be attached to a woman, still holding a glass, we grabbed her arms and pulled her out and she carried on walking without comment. Coincidentally a similar thing had happened to us at a different event about a year before. The women’s surnames were Faithful and Pallenburg. It’s not everyday you find someone in an awkward situation but finding two Rolling Stones muses in separate bushes is quite a story. Of course both the women in question were substantial people in their own right, but it can be argued that their fame and friendship began when they were associated with the Rolling Stones which is why I’ve allowed myself to use the word ‘ muse’.
This late blog writing will not become a regular habit. The two things I thought I might write about are so far apart I can’t begin to sew them together but I will try. Coupled with no WiFi and no broadband and patchy signal there is an awful lot of hanging around waiting for deliveries that all the wonderful tracking apps are meant to stop. But currently tracking is not for me and neither, reliably, is a quick call from the driver to say he is close. So we hang around all day waiting for things to arrive. The bonus to this is that there is ample time for unpacking and reorganising, to this end we have sorted out the two large fireplaces that are monumental features in the new house. Not sorted out in a way that will ever see the use of fossil fuels but sorted out in an aesthetic and houseplant kind of way.
The pale gold sofa in the top picture was pulled out of a skip nearly 30 years ago. It lived for years in a conservatory and was the slightly uncomfortable chair of choice for teenagers desperate to think big thoughts away from their parents. Hardly the kindest treatment for a sofa, clearly designed for the finer things in life. A bit of reupholstery brought it back to life and it used to live in the upstairs part of @theoldmortuary. Even that, an undertakers home and workplace was possibly a bit beneath the dignity of such an elegant piece of furniture. Maybe this recent move has brought it more into the surroundings it was designed for.
The houseplants in the bottom picture are gathered together in an old fender found at the house. They need something to control them, it seems not a week goes past without a new one joining our commune. In between titivating and embellishing fireplaces while waiting for deliveries the dogs still need walking and that is how the heart on a lamppost almost inexplicably joins in with this blog.
I spend a lot of time looking at lampposts while Hugo and Lola sniff out the messages left by other dogs and then leave coded notes of their own. Most lamposts are dull for humans but this one kept me occupied for as long as it took my dogs to read the urine news further down. What is going on here? The texture in the heart is keeping me thinking long after our ten legs carried us back to home to more unpacking. Hope your Friday was worthy of the expectation.
P. S I did some digital tweaking on the heart for the header image of this blog. I suspect the heart covers a message that someone no longer wants to be legible…
We are broadband less, WiFi less and with a poor signal for 5 more days. 5 more days of constrained blogging. Gardening however is unaffected. The pot grown garden plants have perhaps done the best out of our recent move, they communicate in ancient ways, unaffected by the whimsy of telecom companies. A North and East facing corner plot swapped for South and West Facing yard suits them very well so far.
The move has not been without its casualties. One Acer struggled a bit with being potted then rallied but was beaten by bad weather and a trip in a van. The numbers of plants has not diminished as some new ones have arrived in the arms of precious friends.
Who needs broadband when you have views like this on the evening dog walk.
The sad truth is that in this techno age it is very difficult to navigate many things without a computer or smart phone or a decent signal. The challenge of going through the preliminary stages of a call centre 5 times or dropping out of an on-line ‘ chat’ is one that I am learning to accept with every day that passes. 5 more days will not be so bad.
In other news one of the Bobbers has escaped to London to visit the Hampton Court Flower Show. Seals and dolphins forgotten she is in Green Park with the Elephants.
Screaming man rock. Not on our usual beach this evening. The tide was high and the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, so we moved to the more popular beach near the tidal pool for a safer swim.
We were a split pack this evening with some Bobbers swimming an hour after the larger group set off. Lucky that they did because they caught sight of the seal swimming just behind the earlier group. Not realising such a special swim was occuring would have made the evening a whole lot more dull. Although, as usual, time spent with the Bobbers is far from dull even in the worst conditions.
Another day with a late blog, no broadband, no WiFi and a very poor signal. Also after two days waiting in vain for engineers we now have to wait 48 hours before we can get another appointment. Instead of scrolling through our phones we continue to unpack. Here is a tidy corner featuring tinned products that Have printed tin rather than paper wrappings. We are not avid collectors of anything but we do love some printed tin. We don’t collect fridge magnets either but the tiny collection below is evidence of how far down the unpacking pecking order we have got.
We are off for a swim soon, so with luck tomorrow’s blog will not be a reflection of cupboard curating. Who could begin to guess when a normal service will resume.
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