Pandemic Pondering #467

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s blog. Facebook memories gave me four images that I can use for the Monday Blog.

This first one is from the birthday some years ago of the friend who we always, apart from the last two years spend together. The rainbow cake rather nicely leads into a watercolour I did about three years ago. I was taking some watercolour classes. The subject of the week was human figures. I chose to paint a cruising site near Crystal Palace in London. It is called Beaulieu Heights and men go there day or night for casual sexual encounters. I suppose this is about a missed encounter. A man on his phone is oblivious to another man watching him from a park bench.

The word bench leads me rather fortuitously to a stool at Coffee Acadmics in Hong Kong.

Life is often a beautiful journey searching for something but this last picture is me just setting out on life’s journey.

This picture was almost certainly taken at the height of summer on the East Anglican coast. A brisk wind or sea mist often makes a cardigan essential beach wear even in July and August. Not such a problem on the Atlantic Coast which is my current location, although I could do without all the rain.

I have my fingers crossed for the successful instalation of a broadband service later today, that will make blogging and everything else a lot easier.

Pandemic Pondering #466

Better late than never. A Sunday morning blog written on Sunday evening. Standards are dropping here. Today is the second year we have missed a friends birthday. The grand Black Labrador Officer is a quirky gift that has still not been delivered. He was unpacked this morning in a box of both random and essential items. Today has completely been about curtains and torrential rain, neither subject particularly blogworthy.

We took the dogs out when the rain, briefly, cleared. The hedge in the middle of this picture is made up of roses that grow wildly on this cliff. Their fragrance is exactly that of Turkish Delight.

The break in the rain was all too brief. Just one look at this sky made us head for home and another few hours up ladders wrestling heavy fabrics onto curtain polls.

Just one more day of tardy blogging. Tomorrow we should have our broadband service connected and a normal service will resume!

Pandemic Pondering #465

Bobbing with bubbles is not a regular piece of behaviour at all but this had not been a normal bobbing week. Even more unusually we managed to use a Winston Churchill quote in the after swim nattering session. Friday bobbing is the most regular session and happens at about 10:30 each Friday morning.

This was our first Friday swim since moving house. Apparently we need to hurry up because the water is lovely once you get in!

Our first Wednesday day swim after moving featured a pod of Dolphins. Friday featured Pol Roger Champagne!

Bobbers getting giddy before noon is definitely not normal. New house owners getting giddy before more unpacking is surprisingly effective. Although not in all corners of a room.

A tidy sofa is essential for a little post-bob, post Pol Roger siesta. It is almost certain that Winston Churchill would not have needed a siesta after drinking Pol Roger in the morning. It was his favourite champagne and he drank it with a traditional Full-English breakfast often. Thankfully we don’t have his responsibilities or the budget for such a lifestyle. But just once with the lovely Bobbers after a sparkling swim was just perfect. Our bobbing friend Helen provided the Champagne. She also gave us the chance to hear her sharing her voice in a graffiti- decorated disused grain store not far from our Bobbing Zone.

Follow the link below to hear her voice paired with great acoustics and gorgeous Street Art.

Jenny of Oldstones performed by Helen Bobber.

A remarkable day in the Tamar Valley.

Pandemic Pondering #464

The sun setting on another day of unboxing and unbagging. When packing pre-move we tried to be as logical as possible, room by room, but the new house has very different aesthetic requirements and unpacking is not quite as simple as we had planned. A lovely bonus is that the new house lies on an East/West axis with the front of the house facing east. Hugo and Lola are taking huge pleasure in chasing pools of sunlight through the day.

Chasing is clearly not exactly the right word but languishing has no sense of action. They have brief periods of action and longer ones of languishing. I’m unsure exactly what the human project for today is but there will be no human languishing. More boxes, more bags for certain. Meanwhile there is always flowers!

Happy Friday

Pandemic Pondering #463

The unexpected events blog.

Just four days in a west facing garden and our Black Elder has bloomed for the first time ever. Despite being moved into a pot last autumn.

Yesterday was spent mostly playing solitaire with boxes. The joy at actually owning a garage to put stuff in cannot be over estimated but if anything has been learned in the last few months it is that we must aim to own less stuff! In the garage must not mean out of mind.

Our evening swim was fabulous, only five minutes from home on foot. Many lovely Bobbers and a huge pod of dolphins. The entertained us for nearly an hour in Tranquility Bay.

There was a lot to be grateful for yesterday and having an espresso martini just before 10pm gave me many awake hours overnight to mull over our good fortune.

A daft idea at 10pm!

Today may be the day for a scheduled nap. I may crawl into a box when no-one is watching.

Pandemic Pondering #462

This is an image from our evening walk, coming out from the tunnel was the nighttime sound of a Jazz Saxophonist. Rather lovely.

The day preceeding the evening walk was rather less lovely. Several trips to the tip and the house moving favourite, cleaning the oven! We’ve been in the physical part of this house move for 5 days now, cardboard boxes are the most prominent feature of our current lives.

Since we have no usable sofas currently, walking is the best way to stretch our hard-working backs. We stopped a while to watch the sun disappear.

Until tomorrow…

Pandemic Pondering#461

Late in the day blog. I’m blaming massive domestic admin again. @theoldmortuary has relocated to the other side of the Tamar. Often with this view it could be predicted that this is a blog about bobbing but today this was our early morning walk. So brief and sometimes late blogs this week while we find ourselves in our new home and also find our stuff in the many boxes that crossed the Tamar yesterday.

©www.paintel.co.uk

Pamdemic Pondering #460

Monday has dawned after drenching storm last night. Yesterdays domestic admin got half the container plants moved between deluge.

But the twelve left have had a proper soaking overnight and will be twice as heavy this morning.The snails in our corner of the world are positively psychedelic with the tasty treats delivered to them.

Beyond getting wet and moving plants Monday for us will be a busy day of logistics. Facebook brought up some interesting memories for the 28th June. This one with appropriate Pride month filter was me heading off to Mansion House in London to a Ball to commemorate the staff and work of The Heart Hospital London. A Cardio/Thoracic specialist unit that was merged with Barts Hospital in the City.

After a day being wet and muddy it was nice to be reminded that I can scrub up for ‘a bit of a do’ even if such things are currently just a memory. Just as hugging for a photo is.

This was our last on call trio at the same hospital 24 hours each in turn. Happy Days, good to have dressed- up memories when the day ahead will feature a lot of psychedelic snails and not any dressing up.

The snails are by our granddaughter, in truth ours are not quite so vivid.

Pandemic Pondering #459

This is a weekend that is heavy on domestic admin. Yesterday was house stuff and today will be gardens. Before we buried ourselves in the nitty gritty of it all we had a swim and were joined, in the water,on this occasion by a pilot gig. The domestic admin goes on at a pace, we are moving ‘stuff’, finding ‘stuff’ and repositioning ‘stuff’.

This is the 178th day of the year. It would be an understatement to say that this has been an odd year. Is it odder than 2020? Maybe that can be my project for Sunday while I’m re organising garden plants. Have a good Sunday whatever you are doing with it. Plants and weather permitting tomorrow’s blog will be full of colour.

Pandemic Pondering #458

Summer Saturdays are an early morning swim.

Although at low tide the first bit is a bit of a wade through seaweed beds and rough stones. The ferries to France have become more regular swimming neighbours.

Saturdays are also about loving a friends picture of Fanny the Gipsy Hill cat completely owning the Oyster/Card reader, no fare dodgers on Fanny’s shift.

©Keith Hide

Saturdays are about enjoying new poppies in a friends garden, grown from seed from our own poppies @theoldmortuary

©Kim Cole
@theoldmortuary

And currently Saturdays are about loads of domestic admin, represented here by Peonies and the dining table which looks calm in this picture but has been a dumping ground for all sorts of stuff in the last few hours.

All clear and ready to be filled with even more stuff in a few hours. Summer Saturdays are currently about being busy!