Category: Bobbing

#898 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity4 Comments

Not exactly a sunset picture but silky waters and a large cloud. The water was very enticing, on our evening walk, but we knew that it was all a lie by nature. Two hours earlier we had had one of our chillier swims of the winter/spring season. 5 bobbers bobbed at 5 pm, and for some reason it was unexpectedly cold. We have low expectations, which were exceeded. The coldest month in the water in Plymouth is March but I suspect our lack of any sustained good weather has kept the sea temperature low and there was a very brisk wind as we swam and chatted.

Hot tea and chocolate biscuits sorted us out as we dressed and caught up with each other’s news.  I don’t expect any of us to have achieved much on our Friday evening after our swim, but not achieving much could be considered an excellent way to end the working week.

#theoldmortuary ponders- just a little extra.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing1 Comment

How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?

Unbelievably pre- COVID-19, I would never, ever, have considered plunging into the sea here at least once a week.  Plunging into the sea in all weather and conditions would never have crossed my pre-Covid mind. It has become almost a ritual and one that has more benefits than I could ever have imagined. For some inexplicable reason swimming in cold water has made me braver in other awkward or challenging situations. Rather a positive change that I am very grateful for.

#840 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Stonehouse1 Comment

Yesterday was for the greatest part both busy and effective but my painting and printing were off -the- scale awful. Nature showed me how to be creative with beauty and subtlety. For about ten minutes I was treated to an ever changing milky sunset.

Meanwhile one of our occasional bobbers, and other Plymouth singers were in London making a noise

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/07/no-drilling-climate-choir-sings-truth-power-parliament?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

It must have been a fabulous time experience to sing in that massive, Gothic space even for just ten minutes. If you read the article the intent is massively important but was achieved in a very eccentrically English way, with Architecture as the code word.

A quirky achievement  to  preserve evenings like this, when life is better than art.

#838 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment
Firestone Bay in the sun at 5 pm.

No late blogging today. Obviously for regular readers there is a clue to the repetitive nature of today’s blog. But as so often happens a ponder has emerged from the repetition that takes me off in an unexpected direction. There was a small pod of dolphins sleeping in the bay, roughly where the sea changes colour. Every now and then a dolphin broke the surface of the water. Sunshine and water, why wouldn’t I share the news with all my swimming friends. I put this image on our Bobbers Whatsapp group. A bobber then replied with this image, of where she is currently dipping her toes.

© Angela Bobber

What an uplifting pair of pictures. A visual call and response.

The minute I typed, call and response I thought I should check my thinking.

This kind of visual call and response happens a lot on the Bobbers WhatsApp group. Tranquility Bay is our ‘home’ but if a bobber dips into other waters and gets a great photo then a picture pops up for everyone to enjoy. Nearly always with a comment that a swim at Tranquillity Bay will be much appreciated when the bobber returns from their glossy holiday bobbing.

Funny that I would use a shanty term to describe photographs of the sea. It must be the ebb and flow, the rhythm of  flisvos*

Meanwhile the sun is rising and I must be up and about and printing.

*

#834 theoldmortuary

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

March the Ist rewarded the Bobbers with a great swim yesterday morning. The sun came up. The water was at 10 degrees and the air temperature was 5 degrees. Nothing significantly different from January and February. But swimming on the first day of meteorological Spring felt buzzy. We were buzzy. As a group we have completed our third winter of regular sea swimming. When we started a photo like this was unthinkable. Each separate household kept themselves about two meters apart and our swim was our half hour of permissible outdoor exercise during a Covid lockdown.  Our group of 12 to 14 swimmers stretched out on the promenade for almost 20 metres depending on who lived with whom. Even sticking to the rules there was always a small element of anxiety about our early bobbing sessions. That anxiety was heightened when we were approached by the police.  We shouldn’t have worried, the police were concerned for our safety.  There was a voyeur on the loose. Hidden in clear sight, or in his case enhanced clear sight. A man was taking his half hour exercise by cycling along the promenade in fluorescent clothing. Fitness was not his goal however. He sought stimulation of an entirely different sort. His gimlet eyes searched for the hidden curves of damp bottoms or boobs as swimmers struggled in or out of their clothes.

Another winter was marked by an Atlantic Seal called Spearmint who joined the swimmers of Firestone Bay rather too enthusiastically for her own good.

She swam with us so often she almost needed her own Bobbers sweatshirt.

Maybe that’s the reason this year’s winter swimming has felt, at times, like a chore.  The only memorable thinge is how much storms have negatively affected our Bobbing plans.

Winter 21/22 Year of the Perv

Winter 22/23 Year of the Seal

Winter 23/24 Year of the Storms

I painted Storm Agnes, the first one of the season. She really whipped into Firestone Bay with a malign fury. The others didn’t inspire me quite so much. No paintings.

Storm Agnes in Tranquility Bay. Private Collection © theoldmirtuary

No more winter swims for 9 months, how fabulous.

#805 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, dog walks, Interior Design1 Comment
©Jenna Bobber

The first bob of February was achieved yesterday morning. It was a somewhat monochromatic day. And for no particular reason quite a brutally cold swim at Tranquility Bay. There were only four bobbers, two bystanders and two dogs. A small highpoint was waving to the sailors on the deck deck and them waving back. An excellent way for us all to warm up.

Monochrome was the flavour of our outdoor life yesterday.

Two barrel hoops had dropped off a barrel near the Cooperage.

And much to the disappointment of Lola, one of her favourite cafes was shut.

Which leads me to today’s prompt rather nicely.

Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.

February sees us back in home DIY mood. We are fired up by a very arty weekend away in Penzance.

Every inch of our previous home. The actual old Mortuary was designed and created by us and two wonderful builders, Jason and Dave who humoured our maddest ideas while still rebuilding a mortuary and attached cottage into a wonderfully comfortable home.

But fate took a turn in good ways and bad. We became the family hub and our family, which had been shrinking for many years, started to grow.

To paraphrase Chief Martin Brody in Jaws. We were going to need a bigger house. Our current home is an old Townhouse that had been owned by the same family for 60 years. It had been ‘done up’ to sell but has many original features. Without ripping out perfectly good things we are slowly remodelling the house to better represent and accommodate us. The to-do list will never be done. And we are just fine with that.

#776 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, BobbingLeave a comment

The extra blog. Unusually for me I woke up this morning with my cup less than half empty. 3 days early for Blue Monday my mood was definitely on the blue side of the mental health spectrum. No particular reason, some very small clouds on my horizons but nothing of consequence. The grumpies had arrived overnight. I am never too saddened by feeling glum as the artist in me knows that life and art is a combination of darks and lights. Feast and famine. Good days and less good days.

Blogging absolutely helps me pick out the high spots of daily life. But I am a free spirit and conforming, as I am, to the prompts of Bloganuary is not really my thing. I slightly dread the revelation of the prompt of the day.

But how to perk myself up?

1 Agree to go for a bob with the life affirming bobbers.

2 Write a random blog.

3 Put on my new, warm, fluffy socks.

4 Eat chocolate biscuits after the bob. Notice my cup is already more than half full.

5. Take steps in the sunshine to banish the grumpies.

Swimming in water at 10 degrees with an outside temperature of 6 degrees, blogging, fluffy socks or eating a chocolate digestive might not work for everyone but it is working for me.

#765 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing1 Comment

Christmas Day was a bobbing day and unusually there were more observers than bobbers.

Bobbers 6-9 Non-Bobbers.

The Non-Bobbers managed a seasonal Victory despite two late attenders who failed to make the pre-match photographs. Coach is always a non-bobber but always takes the photographs. The Non-Bobbers had brought in International stars from Poland and Hong-Kong to bring strength to their team. Inane chatter at the end of the bob was kept to a minimum as bobbers and non-bobbers had post-bobbing commitments. This was the last bob of 2023.

©Jenny Tsang

#721 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing1 Comment

All week I have been dodging bad weather and a virus. The weather mostly dodged me, I did not dodge the virus and as a consequence despite the morning swim being in beautiful weather and with the extra excitement of it being a birthday bob. I also dodged the bob and had a dry bob. Basically a bob without the need to take my clothes off and get wet. Dry bobs also give the chance to have a good old natter with Coach Andy and drink coffee from a thermos. A dodged bob is never a wasted bob when you can do all of the components except the cold, wet one.

#679 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Stonehouse1 Comment

Bright October sun gave me this image yesterday. It was a day for walking and enjoying good weather. The rust coloured scratches on the paving slab caught my eye as the orange leaf briefly landed at my feet. I had no idea until later that the shadow had formed such a perfect leaf shape. Nature and sun accompanied me on my coastal meanderings.

The sea was in a very calm mood, so much so that I was tempted to go for a solo swim despite having a 6pm one booked with the bobbers. Waiting was the right idea. We were not alone in the bay, a small choir of women had gathered on the beach. As we swam they sang. Strange unknown sounds filled the cove. The incoming tide pushed them closer and closer to the small cliffs that surround our swimming area. If this had been a summer or winter solstice we might have anticipated such an unusual experience. Even the pragmatic bobbers crack out a candle or two for special swims. No merfolk were summoned while we were swimming. A fat seal snacked on a big fish. We probably stayed in the water a little too long, but unexplained singing to the sea is not our usual experience of the Wednesday evening bob. The moment was quite cinematic . The singing was not exactly joyful, New-age , part chant, part song; soaring notes with harmony and discordance woven together. There was a lot of hugging. We clambered out as their last notes filled the air. Hot drinks were needed by both groups of women. The magic , or moment, broken by the need to warm up, and for the bobbers to chatter about their mid-week lives. Chocolate may have been involved.

The evening dog walk fueled by a left over bobbing chocolate.

P.s This blog was deliberately written before I have had the chance to email one of the singers to ask what they were doing.

After the bob we learned that one of our Bobbers’ mothers had died the previous day, I wish she could have been with us last night, as a singer she would have appreciated what ever it was we experienced.

Pps Here is the email I sent and the answer.