Category: Birthdays

#1383 theoldmortuary pomders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, Food ( but this is not a food blog), London1 Comment

The city was busy putting a party face on yesterday. Everywhere Christmas decorations and lights were going up to welcome in the Festive Season. We chose a cosy harbour pub for a birthday lunch.

Decorations of a different sort had been released into the sea by our swimming zone so there was no birthday bob to celebrate the passing of another year.

One birthday gift came with some intriguing facts. When we first lived in London we lived in Dulwich Village.

A rather lovely spot that has had a soap fragrance created with the same name.

Named in 967 AD for the Dill Fields that scented the area.

Not a Dill plant in sight when we lived there. The overall fragrance was Affluence and Privilege, it was a fabulous place to people watch and enjoy baked goods from a Gails Bakery. ( Gails Bakery is a very contentious subject in the world of Baked Goods) Hated by independent bakeries all over London.

Now I love an Independent business, one of the many reasons we chose to buy a flat in Crystal Palace. But living in London requires almost everyone to work very long hours. I often caught the first train out in the morning a full two hours before any independent bakery opened. I would return 12 or more hours later when any self respecting independent would have sold out and closed up. My independent loving heart would have been starved of baked goods were it not for Gails. A freshish sourdough loaf at 7pm is better than a sold out and closed for the day independent. And infinitely better than anything a supermarket could serve up.

Giving this blog a rather rags to riches theme. Although in my case, Effluence to Affluance. Sewage in the sea to middle-class  bakery angst by way of a birthday natter. Rather a classic ponder in my humble opinion

#1382 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays1 Comment

Happy Birthday to me. 68 circles around the Sun. It seems like only yesterday since I was celebrating 5 circuits around the big yellow thing in all our skies.  In 68 years I have gained a wonderful set of family and friends. Some have left me along the way, but they trail my circumnavigations  within the firmament represented as  bold and twinkling stars. Let’s do this and see what the next 365 days brings.

Happy Birthday too to Beth.

wild turkey.

#1177 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, Tamar Valley3 Comments

There has been a touch of tulip mania in our house over the last three days. Bunches of birthday flowers arrived and filled our available vases.

And then a new vase was gifted. A plump pair of buttocks just screaming to take on the overload from our existing tulip supply. Tulips are my favourite thing to photograph in late January. Normally they take over from daffodils  but this year, despite us living in the corner of the country where daffodils first grow we have yet to buy a bunch. 80% of cut flower daffodils sold around the world come from Cornwall.

It was only in late December that I realised that in all my yard care of last year I had failed to replant our bulbs in the autumn. My mind taken up with climbing plants and trellis.

With a house full of tulips my weather wish for today is sharp shafts of sunlight to show them off in photographs. The ones illustrating this blog were all taken with artificial light and then tweaked. Let’s hope for better light today.

#718 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays3 Comments

A not so funny thing happened and then I had a birthday when two funny things happened. A few weeks ago, as a diligent clothes recycler, I had created a pile of clothes to go to the Charity/Op shop. All good stuff that I no longer needed. An improptu trip to a small local town gave me the chance to drop the bag of clothes and household items. There was a warm glow of a job well done as I skipped into the shop.

The warm feeling ebbed away over the ensuing weeks as my beloved Levi’s failed to put in an appearance from any clean washing piles. Somehow they had gone with other, much less loved garments to make money for charity. I shouldn’t feel bitter but I do.

Today I am 66 and guess what? A new pair of Levi 501’s popped out of birthday wrapping paper. This is the second time in my life that this has happened. Exactly 50 years ago the same thing was my 16th birthday gift. Those 501’s on that occasion came from a small shop called Len Smith in Sandpit Lane, Braintree. Those jeans lasted so long I know that these ones will outlive me if I can keep a hold of them. Another less traumatic thing this morning was some birthday money from my former mother-in-law. I wrote and phoned her to thank her after I had researched rambling roses to put on our yard wall. Her name is Brenda and I found a rose called Brenda which I will buy along with another called Rambling Rector to discourage our neighbours cats and chickens from taunting the dogs from a six foot high wall.

Brenda

Not everyone can encourage their mother-in-law to scramble on a wall with a vicar to deter pests.

#464 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, BirthdaysLeave a comment

Yesterday was a Bobbers birthday. Bobber Birthdays have evolved over the more than two years that we have been swimming as a group year round.

Inexplicably, the Bobber whose birthday it was, opted for a spa day rather than joining us at Tranquility Bay. Maybe the message above informed that decision. She missed out on a lot. A warship arrived to give her a sail past and there were the usual cakes and hot drinks. Because she was missing out on her birthday dip we called her and sang happy birthday down the phone. That mellifluous sound must have torn through the tranquility of the spa like a wax strip on lady parts

At Tranquility Bay though it was sung with enthusiasm and affection for an absent friend. The singing took our minds off chilly fingers and toes and inadequately dried crevices. What even is a Spa Day?

#240 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, BobbingLeave a comment

The was a touch of the Mediterranean and some mythology to last nights’ swim.

Mythology because it was a bobbers birthday and the cake was so soft and gorgeous that it required cake forks. Definately styled on Neptunes Trident if Neptune would ever have considered a collaboration with Laura Ashley.

Mediterranean because the beach looked like this at 6:30 pm.

I’ve always been envious of summer birthdays, especially now I am a year round sea swimmer. Winter bobbing birthdays have their own vibe but a summer, bobbing, birthday has a far more relaxed feel.   Less scrabbling into clothes more relaxed chattering.

Last night had perfect conditions but even without perfection the sea has been filling up with swimmers, this month, as the water slowly warms up. An average June temperature of 14 degrees was boosted a little, last night to 15 degrees. Suddenly the sea has the intimacy of a swimming pool, we are close enough to other swimmers to converse with people other than our little band of bobbers. Even the proper out to the third buoy swimmers had a little more competition for sea space. Now we have done a full second winter of sea swimming there is a familiarity to the circling of the sun. The topic of conversation in early June is how many of us can fit in two swims on the summer solstice and achieve the real life commitments of families and work. Sea swimming became so popular during the Covid lockdowns; now they can, cafes are opening early to offer early morning breakfast to the swimmers who are up for a 4:45 swim. What fabulous luxury, no more wrestling with baps, bacon and tinfoil before the early morning dip. Just the regular bap wrestling that is an integral part of getting dressed in the public domaine after a sea swim. One last watery image to clear your minds of the bap wrestling. Maybe the first day of summer in Stonehouse.

And a psychedelic birthday cake.

This slightly crazy image exactly replicates the lemony gorgeousness of last nights cake.

#127 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment

A birthday bob yesterday with some of the usual surprise guests. A warship sailing past as we are waiting to get in. We love a busy swim. However it may appear, we were not lined up to wave to homecoming sailors but were waiting for Spearmint the seal to swim away from our bay so we could start our swim. We love her but she is not invited to our Gatherings because there are restrictions and responsibilities that protect her. There was far more action in the next bay and attracted by the noise she swam off. We jumped in but probably had only ten minutes in the water before she returned. Current advice is to get out of the water and give her 100 metres space.

Clearly she was going nowhere this time, so we retreated to eat birthday cake. Some of us had hardly got our shoulders wet. There was great disappointment but copious amounts of cake cheered everyone up and nature provided the perfect birthday card.

©Debs Bobber

#34 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, Bobbing, Friends3 Comments

Goodness me, another late blog for the best of reasons!

November is my birthday month so I always get a boost of love and gifts in one of the darkest months.

November 2019 was pretty stormy and in November most normal human beings knew little of what the next 4 months would do to the whole of the worlds population. At a more granular level we certainly thought life would evolve and change at a fairly normal pace. In November 2019 we got our kicks on my birthday walking on stormy beaches Then a pandemic happened and strange and unsettling things changed our lives forever. Wind on two years and we get our kicks swimming in stormy seas in November and any other month. What started as an alternative to swimming in swimming pools during lockdown has become at least a twice a week habit. Winter swimming in particular is addictive and hugely rewarding, the buzz after a winter swim is hard to explain.

Todays swim was pretty rough and bouncy but enormously energising.

And then the bobbers had a surprise in store, and this is the reason for the late blog. After our 9:30 swim we had an 11:00 birthday party. The sugar and carb rush of party food on top of the post swimming high is an extraordinary feeling. We may never give this sea swimming malarkey up and with 14 of us in our group now there will always be the occasional party!

Pandemic Pondering #566

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, SerendipityLeave a comment

You might think that a day spent pondering the interior decoration of two rooms would be a day without incident.

The new house is a few minutes walk from a street filled with repair garages, workshops and Trade Counters for various essential items to the marine and building trades.

Armed with a fair idea of what we needed we went to one of the Trade shops for decorators needs. There was an instant, underlying hum of manliness as we walked in. There were few other customers in the store, all men. Their fleeces told the stories of their masculinity. ‘Babcock’ only needs a small wrinkle of fabric before it looks like Bob cock. Some men wore t-shirts bearing the name Princess Yachts. The word Princess stretched across impossibly toned trapezius, deltoid and pectoral muscles. A sure warning that calling the owner ‘Princess’ might be ill advised.

We were left to our own devices and without too much trouble made our decisions and gathered up our purchases. We waited some time at the counter. Tea was being made for all the customers, not quite all of course. Tea was made for the fleece and t-shirt wearing men! We did not register on anyone’s tea radar. Tea arrived in bright mugs bearing the names of English football clubs. The talk was of standing at football matches and the exact opposite of standing, clearing slime off slipways.

The conversations ranged around and over me. Then one of the men asked my opinion on a product I was buying.

Did I think it was any good, and could he use it to paint body parts. What was I planning to use it for?

Horror flooded my mind, the idea of painting any body part with noxious paint seemed like madness. I suggested that it would be a bad idea. He looked at me as if I was a little crazy, a look that only intensified when I told him I was painting crochet. His mind fixed firmly on the industrial and mine on the creative.

We returned home, made our own tea and started using our various purchases. Then a text message came through for a last minute ‘ bob’ in the sea. A birthday bob for a visiting bobber. Even this simple activity took a turn!

So far so good, a birthday bob achieved.

How to make a birthday bob memorable?

For the moment access to our beach is blocked by essential works. The only access is via the grounds of a rest home and convent. Unknown to us there is a curfew on using this route. Our birthday bob was ended by us being seen off the premises. Being thrown out of a convent is a pretty unusual way to mark a birthday.

This birthday photo was taken with the photographer using a normal word to make us all smile.
This photo was taken with the photographer using a word that would make a nun blush.

A day of unexpected outcomes!