Bobbers Bob away sometimes. In our dreams our away bobbing bay looks like this but the weather had other ideas.
Which in truth was a mixed blessing. This camping field remained empty. We chilled as the rain came down. We hunkered down and talked rubbish in the biggest camper van and in the morning the sun came out and we were the first on the beach. But the sea was very, very cold. But we will remember it like this because for a wet weekend it was perfect.
Lonesome Bobbing is not my normal way of sea swimming, but it is not unheard of. Bobbing with the Bobbers is the normal way of things for safety and sociability. Is it even bobbing if you are alone?
I wasn’t even truly alone on my lonesome bob. Two neighbours and a dog, were there before me. And thank goodness they were because in an attempt to capture a pet portrait I dumped my keys in the sea.
I was so busy doing the constricted-undressing- in -public towel wrestle I didn’t even notice their loss. When Tim noticed the brightly coloured key cutters bands and rushed in to rescue them. The photo is a fake, post-processing tweakery. They dried out quickly on a warm step,retrieving them I noticed the vivid colours ,created by bright, morning- sun and my sunglasses at a really low angle, close to the incoming tide. I popped my sunglasses over the lens of my phone camera.
Blurry but interesting, this impromptu image needed a little tweakery, but I might make a little polaroid filter for my phone camera for these brightly sunshiny days.
Lonesome bobbing, thankfully not truly lonesome.
Creatively, I am embedded in a pre-1820s Plymouth. Trying to imagine life in my local neighbourhood as JMW Turner would have seen it, but also wanting to include contemporary aspects that would have been unimaginable and crazily futuristic to him. My normal life goes on around my creative thinking. When working in the studio radio and the dogs are my constant companions. The Work in Progress above is a concatenation of yesterday’s studio time. Apparently, mid-May is when semi-sea swimmers return to the cool waters around the British coast. Yesterday was named by the BBC as Dippers Day.This information was a news infill on the radio station I was listening to. A semi-sea swimmer only partakes May to September.
As a year-round swimmer I suppose I have noticed an increased number of swimmers in the last couple of weeks.
Yesterday was glorious, my lunchtime dog walk was fabulous and there were many joyful Dippers Day Dippers. The whole concept set me off on a great procrastination when I returned to the studio. Sea swimmers in the 1820s in the style of Turner. Not on my schedule at all.
But it will be today, after I have joined the Bobbers for a post-dippers day bob.
The last winter bob of the 24/25 bobbing season.
A super sunshine day to blow away February and Meteorological Winter. It was a low-tide swim and swim shoes were needed.
I did not do quite so well on that.
But cold feet and a rocky walk into the water is not a combination I could tolerate so two left feet it was.
We still have two months of very cold water to swim in. Yesterday was 9.4. It could have been worse.
My two left feet were absolutely fine, when you can’t feel your feet they don’t care who they are.
The refreshments of the day were a glorious lemon cake and salted caramel chocolate bites. Worth every moment of our chilly swimming.
Picture yourself in a boat on an Ocean.
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
My apologies to The Beatles for lyric altering.
Mid-February and a Friday Bob brings the gift of Marmalade.
Gill’s marmalade is fabulous and we have been given a pot, or two every year since Covid lockdowns.
A chilly bob warmed up by the thought of marmalade and butter on hot toast.
And for me the challenge of creating a marmalade sky to accompany this blog.
You can just about see the tangerine trees on the end of the island.
Here is Gill the Marmalade Goddess and Lola as you have never seen her before; as a doggy hot water bottle for intrepid February Bobbers.
Let’s get the weekend started.
Storm Éowyn drove the bobbers indoors. Two intrepid bobbers, bobbed briefly and then joined other bobbers in a warm kitchen for a fabled ‘ dry bob’. Always a joyful gathering full of giddy chattering, crumpets and coffee.
Not that Éowyn caused a huge amount of upset to life on our peninsular. The sea was much too rough for regular bobbing so a dry bob in a kitchen was the very best of plans.
Éowyn may not have caused much local upset but she sent a pre-storm which really kicked a punch.
While not exactly in the eye of the hurricane we spent ten minutes unable to drive or do anything until the hail/thunder and lightening moved on. The pre-storm may also have driven us into a lovely warm café and interiors store. Those particular storm clouds had a gorgeous rustic interior rather than the traditional silver lining.
Storms on the horizon have not been a bad thing at all.
Monday morning with more murmuration. Really couldn’t help myself there. Although of course that was actually Sunday night. Here is a bright morning photo from Sunday too.
Bright dawn sunshine lights up a rust stained wall at our swimming zone.
We chose an area very similar to our home zone, with ladders and handrails to ease our way in and out.
Looks can be deceiving. This was not an easy location to get in, but it is the choice of local dippers.
Yesterday was a day of wrapping up warm and enjoying the smug sensation of a sea swim achieved early and a whole day left to warm up in the sunshine.
A pub roast dinner and a day of basking and walking in winter sunshine completed Sunday.
Let’s see how Monday shapes up.
Sometimes it feels as if this is true. William Shakespeare wrote the quote which is the title of this painting and the nearly true statement in Twelth Night. One of my favourite W.S plays.
A rainy day in Penzance. What to do?
A lot of enjoyable faffing about and dog walking in damp conditions and an afternoon trip to Penlee Gallery and Museum. Which was a wonderful welcoming place.
And here is the serendipity of live blogging.
The sun is out this morning, the Bobbers are up and the sea is exceptionally chilly.
No more arty faff. Just me and sunrise and my post swim plunge pool.
In my dreams the pool was a hot Jacuzzi.
My favourite physical activity is sea swimming. I do it year round and the sea temperature today is 12 degrees.
What are your favorite physical activities or exercises?
I do not consider myself a ‘hardened’ sort of person. 12 degrees is about the mid-point of swimming in Plymouth.
The Bobbers, my swimming group have dipped in water at 7.8 but I don’t think the water has ever gone above 16 degrees in the three years we have been swimming regularly. If I were to ask the internet about swimming in 16 degree water the advice would still be that it is not advised. We do just fine doing something many people would recoil from.
It’s been a while since there was a bobbing blog, or should I say Bobbing Blogue.
This morning October pulled out a fabulous combination of sunshine, good sea temperature and excellent biscuits. 8 bobbers, 3 dogs and a non-bobbing bobber caught an early high tide and filled the bay with chatter and some swimming, before we all departed for almost a whole day of doing stuff elsewhere. There was a bit of bounce to add to the experience, not as much as I created in the picture below but we never look this cheery when the sea is actually this rough. Grim determination is the facial expression on those days , this morning the smiles were genuinely generated. It really sets you up for the day.
