Category: dog walks

#877 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks3 Comments

This is the face of a dog who has had too much of a good thing. For the second time in a week, a really popular beach was empty at the end of our morning walk. Hugo has a dogged obsession with clearing the sea margin of seaweed. He can contentedly do that for hours. I can also contently read a book for a similar time. Lola has just taken up sea swimming but does not have the dedication to it that Hugo and I have to books and seaweed.

She tried feigning interest but by the time I took this photo she was done.

Thankfully we can all appreciate a sofa in a coffee shop for a similar amount of time.

Which was our next destination. No rain in a coffee shop. Rain was what added to the walk, in both time and expense. We are halfway through April approaching my favourite month of May. But my morning dog walks still have unpredictable aspects of winter. Thermal underwear, a sudden need to seek shelter and a very good chance of being drenched. But lighter mornings encourage me to go further and sit on beaches. I do not think I can ever recall such a soggy approach to May, by now the thermals should remain in the drawer, and Birkenstock blisters should be done for the season. Coffee shop stops should be a choice not a refuge.

#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.

#803 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, dog walks, SerendipityLeave a comment
Thursday February 1st 2024 9:15am.

No more Bloganuary prompts. A reason to be cheerful. Signing up to respond to a daily prompt was very against my serendipitous pondering style. 31 days of responding/conforming to writing about a subject generated by an external source. I knew it would go against the grain. Predictably for the first few days I slightly dreaded reading the prompt, but just digging in and accepting whatever came my way, became a brief and limited new way to think about blogging. The prompts took me to different things to ponder. I absolutely missed my freestyle approach. I also missed the repetitive nature of pondering and blogging about the normality of daily life. But Bloganuary has given me more to think about and I may mix up my blogging offering as a result of my January/Bloganuary experience.

But for February 1st I am straight back onto the daily repetition of the morning dog walk.

Embellished this morning by bright sunshine.

And the continued luminosity of the cows.

Happy St Brigid Day, patron saint of cattle, among her many other accomplishments.

Please disregard the prompt below. I am conducting a small algorithm experiment.

Write about your first computer.

My brain, nobody needs to read about that

#746 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, dog walksLeave a comment

Just as I was beginning to despair of the ever shortening days made shorter by bad weather, the sun came up. Not only that, my long dog walk of the day took in quite a bit of rust.

So sunshine and rust immediately altered my frame of mind.

My absolute favourite colour combination occurred on a resting gig.

Rust and the colours of Greece

Unfortunately the public toilets were not open on my arrival. A little disappointing if I am honest.

But as luck would have it I still have a thirty year old Radar key which gives access to disability toilets so I never quite got to the rather desperate tone of this message. So I was able to deploy another message on a block.

I have no idea what the point of these boulder messages are, quick research has garnered no explanation. But here is one that expresses my need to get out of the car and actually walk the dogs.

Using all the ones bathed in sunlight is a small blogging victory.

And finally a question.

And an answer.

#717 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walksLeave a comment
Checking the morning weather.

What is good about having a pet?

I have had pets all my life so I have no way to judge the merits of pet owning versus not. For me the game changer was becoming a dog owner. No longer able to allow my pets to just be. Dogs required more of me than any cat/ guinea pig/ rabbit or mouse. Dogs do not passively love in return for good food, a clean environment and affection. Dogs actively love. This was a shock to me 10 years ago when I became a first time dog owner. But the biggest benefit of dog owning is the regular and at times tedious walks that they require. I had 42 years of a career in medical imaging. A working life spent often in basements with blackout screens on windows. As a non dog owner I believed that I loved walking. Walking on weekends or days off is not the same as walking three times a day, often on more or less the same routes. I am very very lucky with my dog walking. For a long while the dogs were walked in the epic landscape of London, then for a while on a Cornish nature reserve and now on a peninsula of land surrounded on three sides by the sea. For the first time in my life, dog walking connected me to the changes of the seasons on my daily walks. I am acutely tuned in to the minor changes of my outdoor environment.

I still go for different walks on weekends as a treat, but the daily walks are the foundations of my life. They punctuate the day, make me weather and daylight aware. Sometimes they are the inspiration for this blog. I talk to strangers. I notice things…

#694 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, ponderingLeave a comment
Incoming tide lapping at a back gate.

My dad was occasionally moved to say  ” I can read you like an open book, and some of the pages don’t read too well”  In life he was far from my harshest critic, and I think that statement could be  about right.

The question below was posed by the hosts of this blog. I really have a love hate relationship with these daily prompts and probably respond to one a week. This however is right up my pondering street because I can rant against it .

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

How can I possibly know what most people don’t know about me.

Is there anything to be gained by releasing my unknown nuggets of information to the world. At my level almost certainly not.

Thank goddess, I have largely moved on from the world of formal interviews and these sorts of daft bloody questions.

Where would you like to be in five years time?

Tell us about a difficult situation you handled well?

What is your worst characteristic?

Does anyone ever answer these questions honestly. Imagine a world in which such futile questions were answered honestly by people more significant than me.

And so Mr/ Madam World Leader. What is your worst characteristic? Where would you like to be in five years time? Tell us about a difficult situation you handled well? What’s something most people don’t know about you?

Suddenly with the addition of absolute truth futile questions could become the secret to world peace and effective life management.

As luck would have it my dog walking gives me an actual answer to present. It’s not going to affect world peace

My favourite book is Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. Most people don’t know that. For the last two years my daily dog wanderings have taken me past an insignificant looking coastal cottage called Toad Hall. It is a daily little heart warming moment. Yesterday my heart got a lot warmer. Look what a talented Street Artist has done.

©@streetsaint

Happy Saturday blog friends

#677 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, Serendipity1 Comment

My little corner of the southwest of England has emerged from a few days of low cloud. Not exactly our familiar greige but just very low cloud, making life a bit damp. Another unwelcome side effect is that all the brightly coloured autumn leaves become a rather dull shade of brown as soon as they spend any time on the ground.

Autumn is a tricksy time for dog owners, hunting a poo, even one done at the end of a lead can be so difficult even in brightly coloured leaves.

This beautiful leaf was in Dulwich Picture Gallery Park. Somewhere I have hunted autumnal poos often. There is a wonderful sculpture by Peter Randall-Page that celebrates doggy defecation in the same park.

Walking the Dog I, II, III by Peter Randall-Page

No chance of missing those doggy dollops. But real life is not like that,so my autumn will be spent peering into piles of leaves. I don’t always find my target, so by way of reparation I pick up a less diligent dog owner’s abandoned poo. There is something slightly uncomfortable about picking up a cold anonymous poo. Community spirit is not always comfy.

#684 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walksLeave a comment

Our morning walk,yesterday, took an unexpected turn, the sun put in a sudden welcome appearance and we jumped on a ferry to Mount Edgecumbe with no planning or forethought.

We arrived before almost everyone else and quickly made our way out of the more popular areas. How lovely to wander through beautiful countryside with no other humans about. Not that there is anything wrong with other humans in the general sense. Despite wearing inappropriate footwear for country hiking we made it to the folly.

The reward for such an intrepid adventure in flip flops was not, as you could easily imagine, blisters but coconut ice cream and a pasty.

This was such an abnormal piece of behaviour for the morning dog walk.

This morning, autumn had properly set in with wind and rain. Making yesterday’s impromptu adventure seem like the most inspired decision ever.

#675 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, dog walks, Serendipity, Van LifeLeave a comment

We went in search of an offshore breeze yesterday and found ourselves at Godrevy at Gwithian Towans on the north coast of Cornwall. The September Heatwave made a large rockpool the perfect spot for a skinny dip.

Our evening location was very acceptable in every way.

The evening dog walk was very slow and in places the sun was setting in just the right spot.

Ponies are used to keep the sand dunes healthy,but in true pony style my photo is dreadful.

A long time ago I used to photograph Jazz musicians as an occasional money making hobby. I did a lot of Jazz photography , I only occasionally made any money. It is extraordinarily difficult to take a flattering photograph of Jazz musicians, but that was a huge part of the pleasure. Sometimes hobbies are meant to be difficult. I was moderately successful and musicians can be fascinating people. Ponies on the other hand are equally difficult to take a flattering photograph, not particularly entertaining on a conversational level and would never put a hoof in their pockets no matter how good the photograph was. I’m not really certain why I pondered off to my photography past. Maybe while pondering off, I should ponder off on this skinny dipping habit. I’ve been doing it all my life. The Swimmer, a Burt Lancaster film, was the inspiration and yet at no time was Burt naked. I think he just inspired me to swim when the moment presents itself. Unlike Bert, my random acts of swimming never confront me with reflections of poor choices or relationship failures. If a black and white film on a Sunday is your thing I can recommend it.

The Swimmer https://g.co/kgs/PBZYyR

My parents thought my obsession with the film and the act of skinny dipping was a little odd but as true people of the 70’s did nothing to stop me.

And so it continues unchecked and so far I have never been caught out in any way.

Meanwhile back to Godrevy and the lighthouse.

#689 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, SerendipityLeave a comment

For the first time this morning I did one of my regular winter walks in summer sunshine. Richmond Walk was built in 1790 by the Duke of Richmond to give the public access to the coast path between Stonehouse and Mount Wise. Richmond Walk is a winter walk because it is slightly less exposed to the winds of winter, is tarmac or concrete for the whole walk and has small patches of grass for the dogs to enjoy sniffing and exchanging messages.

There are two outdoor pools which are open throughout the summer at no charge. On my winter walks they are rather desolate unused spaces. But today they were a riot of abstract blue water reflections and the noises of happy swimmers.

There have been pools and even public baths and spa facilities with bathing machines in this area for a couple of centuries. All that is left of The Royal Clarence Baths is a small beach and some stone arches.

But for me the joy of the day was the turquoise waters of the current pools.