So much for me being inspired to be creative yesterday. There were good creative intentions but there were some tedious domestic tasks that also needed attention. Somehow they became the focus of my need to be creative. And when I say tedious they were really very dull. Stuff needed to go into the roof space. Other stuff needed to come down. Car detritus from the old car needed sorting and put in the new car or the camper van. Along with daily domestica. However all those dull things achieved gave me a power burst and I framed some pictures, which is not the creativity I aspired to but is actually creative in its own way.
Two paintings are the illustrations for today. Done on 26th March in years past when my muse did not direct me to domestica. The 27th has not bloomed either, maybe the muse was just teasing me.
You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?
The prompts that sometimes fuel these blogs are set by my blog host and are generated for International bloggers.
I am British and have lived almost exclusively in London and the Southern parts of England. A cross-country trip in the South of England has an enormous geographic problem . Every place in the South has roads that have prioritised getting to London. Public Transport follows that model. The only comfortable way to laterally cross-country would be in a camper van. Walking would also be possible using a combination of minor roads and footpaths. Walking would not be a safe prospect.
But what would motivate me to do such a journey? I suppose it would be the ability to visit towns and villages whose names are familiar because I drive past signposts that their names are on or stations that fast trains speed me through.
To get the longest possible lateral journey I would need to drive north to Bideford on the North Coast of Devon and then proceed eastwards to Margate.
I think I could get the line straighter by avoiding Motorways and A roads. It is not quite the longest lateral journey available in Britain but it is the longest involving one country.
Two facts that I was oblivious to until I wrote this blog.
Neither journey is ever likely to be made by me but I have pondered what would motivate me to do such a thing.
* Late Spring/ Early Summer.
* Independent Coffee Shops and Farm shops with Cafes in beautiful locations.
*If money were no object then the ability to book the most luxurious Air Bnb’s along the route to spend a little longer exploring areas I have never visited before.
The thought intrigues me, no such thing really exits. The only Lateral path that exists is the Coast to Coast path established in the North of England.
Yesterdays blog was written using an old stored prompt, because we were having a busy day doing really dull jobs on industrial estates. So I just needed a little help getting motivated.
More about yesterday’s blog later. Because the Industrial Estate jobs were not without their moments.
We have been having a rocky patch car and campervan wise. Both have required a lot of attention recently hence the all too familiar trips to Industrial Estates.
Yesterday’s industrial Estate trip took us to the inner edges of Dartmoor, where traffic problems almost immediately take on a different meaning.
Somnolent sheep and prancing ponies are the biggest hold-ups to hitting a mechanic’s deadlines.
Even when they clearly have deadlines of their own.
We all know the feeling on a Friday afternoon when the last client/patient/customer does not arrive on time.
3pm said the man with a workshop on the edges of Dartmoor. We made it, but not without the anxiety of waiting for the sheep to shift, on their own somewhat slower schedule.
So that was why a slow day blog needed a bit of a prompt.
Anyway the daft idea that anyone could create a small list of things that were essential to life, must have irritated my sleep because I had a vivid dream of absolute panic that I had not included Christmas Cake and Mince Pies on my list.
Why on earth would my sleeping head think these two items would need to go on a list of just three things?
Having had a disturbed night of sleep, I can confidently say that the list of 3 would be unaltered.
Daffodils
Books
The Sea
However were I to compile the list of 300, I would certainly include Christmas Cake and Mince Pies.
P.s I used to commute diagonally across the whole of Dartmoor for work. The traffic jams were unimaginable…
The old mortuary ponders. I am one of life’s great ponderers. Not a Great ponderer. A ponderer who does a lot of pondering.
1400 ponders is a moment. Before this collection of ponders there were the Pandemic Ponderings, when the world skipped a beat and my daily ponderings started.
Yesterday’s ponder was about 2016. A year when a Global Pandemic was a historic fact. In 1918 a third of the world was infected with The Great Influenza ( Spanish Flu). Maybe as many as 100 million people died.
Global pandemics were things of the past or theoretical predictions. We were blissfully unaware in 2016 quite what was just over the horizon. In 2026 we are all too well aware that enormous scientific and medical progress did not protect us from another one.
I wonder if I would have started a daily diary about mundane and ordinary life in 1916, inspired by that earlier pandemic.
I think I would have considered it and maybe even started one. But writing a daily diary has never worked for me until blogging came along. Inexplicably a daily writing habit is now second nature. I love it. But I doubt I would have gained the habit without those long pandemic days when life took on a whole new level of mundanity.
Always one for irrelevant details, blogging has only increased my thirst for the minutiae of daily life and a bit of positivity. I suspect every aspect of my life has altered for the better.
#1401 and beyond . More sunflowers and more Silver linings.
A pearly Christmas Tree at Teal’s, South Cadbury, Somerset
What skills or lessons have you learned recently?
Rather a dry question for today’s Christmas Tree. But subvert it a little and ask.
“What new pearls of wisdom have you gained recently?”
My more romantic version of the question brings forth so much more inspiration for a well honed answer.
Pearls of Wisdom come in all shapes and sizes and in many different colours.
The pearls of wisdom I learned yesterday were all on the darker end of the spectrum. But they overlayed the pearls of the last few weeks that were much lighter and brighter colours, more joyful in every way.
“It’s all a part of Life’s Rich Pattern/Tapestry”
Never a truer quote and one that rings true every day. Gathering pearls of wisdom and adding them to life’s rich pattern is a skilled and valuable lesson. However uncomfortable those lessons may be at times
Good morning November. Time, I think to accept that Autumn is fully established and in fact 2/3 done. Winter beckons with an icy finger and cold gaze.
I went full flamingo yesterday when I bought a bright bra that exactly matched a bright but old thermal layer.
Long after I retired myself, my trusty on-call bras just kept on going.
Named and chosen because they could be worn continuously for up to 36 hours and not be in any way uncomfortable. Originally I had a stable of 5, which has dwindled down to 1. Bras with that level of stoicism are only really required for travel these days. And travel is on our November itinerary hence the purchase of the Flamingo bra. Serendipity offered me a Pigeon coloured blue/grey/deep lilac bra in the right size.
The trusty old bra went off across the underwear rainbow bridge yesterday . So on days when stoic underwear is required I will be either a Flamingo or a Pigeon.
I already know that in the winter months the Flamingo bra will get more use. I suspect I am more inherently Flamingo than Pigeon, but in the darker months something vivid regardlese of where it is worn is a real boost for the soul.
Another day and another squeezed in swim to the days activities. My real handbag has to double up as a swim bag. The dogs had to take a small break in their actual walk.
And I was on a time constraint to get my habitual swim done. Barely time to pose for an action shot.
My neighbours and the Bobbers were all planning dips at 10 but I needed to be out of the water and on the way at that point.
Bobbers at 10. Firestone Bay
Our dogs needed to be groomed and we needed to be on the road.
Yesterday a friend published a Substack about the phenomenal rise in sea swimming at Firestone Bay. I love the way he writes so thought I would share his musings with you.
After reading this I shared this photo of our Bobbers with him.
Summer and Winter Bobbers.
I would urge you to read his Substack.
While everything he says is true he certainly understates the significance of The Hutong Cafe.
I believe is is the beating heart of the Stonehouse Peninsular. A place where heart, passion and good vibes flood out to touch every swimmer, tourist, business person and their dogs who pass by the door. You don’t,even have to go in to feel the magic of Hutong.
Bottom right our dogs at Hutong.
We have taken our friends and family to Hutong. We even made Covid Friends in the Hutong Queue in Pandemic times. Bobbers pop in for warm ups. Does Jack even mention they offer a free hot water bottle service?
A ponder with someone elses ponderings at its heart. What is not to love.
Our Autumn Equinox performed pretty well yesterday. Our 12 hours of daylight were sun-filled with just a hint of chill.
And if natural sun were not enough we popped along to Devonport Market Hall to see Helios an installation by Luke Jerram.Featuring a giant orb, representing the sun and an ambient soundtrack that represents many of the cultural, social and science impacts that the sun has on humanity around the world.
Bean bags and chairs are provided for static appreciation and the architecture of the Market Hall encourages 360 degree viewpoints.
I managed to get one of my complicated images. Which has half of my body balanced on a table and plugged into the mains via a socket extension. A dangerous position to be in, if it wasn’t just a trick of many lights.
12 hours filled with sunlight of different sorts. My final moment of sun worship was a little on the chilly side but worth the cold to spend time swimming towards the setting sun.
Helios is free to visit at the Market Hall, Devonport. Open daily until Sunday 28th September.
We did a regular dog walk around Sutton Harbour and The Barbican yesterday. A one hour dog walk, with time for sniffs etc
Both are hugely busy harbours with a constantly changing cast of seafarers and tourists on any day of the year. This weekend is a massive Sea Festival and everywhere is heaving with people having a good day out.
Live music fills every corner and spills across the harbours at high tide. Merging and blending. Drunken choruses of Robbie Williams tracks, merging with the rhythms of sea shanties and Church bells.. Hen parties with high heels on cobbles and men observing, holding pints and opinions that are not worth repeating.
These harbours have been bustling hubs for centuries and I would say these photos , taken in the midst of the happy hubbub could have been taken any time in the last 700 years. Dogs would have pee’d on the lobster pots as Hugo did. People would have been reflected in puddles. People would have made tracks.
Birds would have swooped over water.
So these calm pictures do lie, because they were tiny calm and unlikely moments, taken in the midst of happy people, crowded together intent on having a good time.But by excluding nearly all human detail, they are timeless.
Day 1 of being back to 1 girl. The fizz summer that is 3 grandchildren has dropped to the more normal level of 1.
Still fizzy, just less so.
So two fizzy girls are returning home and I have photographic memories to be processed and forwarded on. One fizzy girl invited us to a car boot picnic last night. Car boot picnics are all well and good when you are two, but adult heads need a little more headroom when eating chips and drinking ginger beer.
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