Category: dog walks

#370 theoldmortuary ponders

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Good morning Arundel. Up and out with the dogs before the coffee shops were open.

The boards being out was a tease,the shop windows just basking in the sunrise was as uplifting as things got, home coffee it will have to be.

It is the castle that brought us here. Visible for miles we had often driven past on the A27, and I had lived nearby many years ago. What we are undecided about is if this is geographically where we are meant to be. For our little escape I chose the county and Hannah the location. She suggested our location should be Arundel, but in her mind was probably thinking of somewhere closer to Brighton.Either way it is a great spot to have landed for a couple of days. Youth truly is wasted on the young. When I was young and living in West Sussex I was busy building a career and a busy life with new friends, beautiful places like this were the backdrop and not the main event. This morning my ageing, autumn loving heart is just bursting with these views. Arrowed is the local Post Office where I will post a gift for our Hong Kong granddaughter. Could there be a bigger difference between the architecture of the departure location and the destination?

#364 theoldmortuary ponders

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I love the buttery grubbiness of a London Clay brick. I could bore you all with my love of these things. Of course, this beautiful autumn weather makes everything look glorious.

My second week of new baby care has slightly wider horizons. Not that Wimbledon Common has exactly been restrictive. Yesterday there were many firsts.

A trip to Gails on Northcote Rd for daytime snacking to do a first breastfeeding in public session and the inevitable first nappy change in a cafe toilet. Then it was off to Battersea for Miss B and her mum to visit work colleagues. I had a few moments alone to enjoy Battersea Art Centre. Link below for you to do the same. The many pleasures of Battersea were all basking in the sharp, warm sunlight.

https://app.cloudpano.com/tours/tCEK0wHX_6

There were also some repeated experiences. Cannazaro Park with the curvaceous, hospitable, sculptured, water fountain turned on.

This autumn appears to be a vintage acorn season, there are hundreds of them littering pavements and parks. Lola is mostly on squirrel tracking duties. We have tried letting her run free but she almost seems overwhelmed by the richness of nature in her London walks out. She is torn by her hunting urge and her need to be very near us. She almost looks grateful when her lead goes back on. Not so for a whippet called Tommy, whose owner we met yesterday. We never actually met Tommy. He was just the flash of an accelerating dark shape in the autumn undergrowth. His owners plaintiff calling getting more and more desperate as fifteen minutes passed and we and Tommy got further and further away.

#362 theoldmortuary ponders

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Bright sunshine illuminating a water bottle on the morning dog walk. Fascinating round shapes are the common theme of this blog. Walking the dogs on Wimbledon Common in October is such a pleasure on these sunny days. I am keeping them on their leads as it is acorn season and the squirrels are very busy packing away their winter stores. Lola is the tracker dog of our family and really cannot be trusted when there is a lot of squirrel activity. Apart from squirrels Wimbledon Common has some famous creatures, that have featured in books, films and TV series. They even had a chart hit once. It also has some creatures I have no desire to meet.

As yet we have not tracked down a Womble, but we found the home of someone who is probably best left to the imagination.

The bright red sawdust made me notice this hole in a tree but closer inspection revealed an interior design that made me not want to meet the designer.

Monday mornings !

#199 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, Bobbing, dog walksLeave a comment

Sometimes it is hard to know quite how to tie everything together for a blog. Today is one of those days and thank goodness I have this gorgeous rope, found at Delamore Arts earlier in the week, to tie things together.

Today was a huge red letter day for a good friend of ours who went to Buckingham Palace to collect an MBE from the Princess Royal.

On a far less significant scale we got a lovely Whatsapp message saying how much a family member has enjoyed yesterdays blog about St Just in Roseland.

Such a lovely thing to say.

And finally in this odd little blog the dogs had a red letter day because I had a contretemps with a bus on the way to work this morning. Minding my own business in a traffic queue a bus approached from behind and attempted to underpass me in the bus lane and ripped off my wing mirror with an enormous bang. The bus did not pull in or stop. No harm to me at all but I was so cross with myself because I had nothing to hand to take down the bus registration. I vowed to follow it but then a traffic light got between me and my target. This kind of stuff just requires so much admin to resolve and it put me in a grumpy mood. So grumpy that I couldn’t be bothered to pull on my wetsuit to go for the Wednesday evening bob. But that is where the dogs got their red letter day. I decided to take them to the sea for their evening walk while the bobbers were doing their thing. The dogs never usually come with us. I calmed my grumpy soul by sitting on the steps that lead into the sea and the dogs looked on as the bobbers bobbed.

The sea worked its magic, my grumpies left and the dogs had the excitement of welcoming the bobbers back in after a long and challenging swim.

Three very different stories all tied up with a beautiful knot.

#148 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, SerendipityLeave a comment

Morning mist cleared, yesterday, to reveal a very blue day, all fresh and twinkly. We had plans to catch a ferry to the local park which is just across the river in Cornwall.

A very low tide and being the first customer gave me the chance to take this photograph of the sweep of the slipway. Four of us had planned a combined dog walk, we gained an extra dog as another friend has succumbed to the dreadful non Covid virus. So Ralph joined us, very much dressed to have a blue day.

We were early enough to see the heat rise from a freshly manured flower bed. Surely a sign that Spring is here.

Also a sign that writing a daily blog can affect the way you respond to things. The fountain should be the star of this photo but I am more thrilled to have captured the steam rising from the flower bed behind.

A day out with dogs can have its moments and the dogs took off, unleashed, into the formal gardens where a gardener shouted at us for their bad behaviour. To be honest it could have been a recorded warning as we never saw the actual gardener at the time. So intent and camouflaged, was he, with his bush trimming that the only evidence of the man himself was his fury.

The whole incident must have un nerved me because after that I failed to take any further photographs for the blog and it is a spectacular location. Our walk was always going to be shorter than the location deserves as a trip to the dentist was planned and a friend was coming over for the afternoon. We have decorated three rooms since she last visited and she has undergone a few medical procedures so stairs are currently not her friend. So we employed technology to show her round the upstairs rooms.

Another friend was supposed to be presenting the interior design improvements but probably won’t get a call any time soon for real TV work, as waving and clambering in the bath does not make particularly slick viewing.

Still photography may have done the job more effectively but would not have caused quite the same levels of mirth and merriment.

A day well filled with people and moments.

#82 theoldmortuary ponders

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Raindrops keep falling on my blog/dog/seal.

Betwixt and between, hovering, damply between Christmas and the New Year. Hovering also in some marshy uncertainty of the Pandemic and the worlds route forward.

Traditionally this is a time of walking and enjoying fresh air and inspiring views. As spectacle wearers there has to be some expectation of reasonable weather. Today is not that day.

Todays walk was a blurry meander with the sole purpose of doggy elimination. Not the sort that has clearly annoyed a neighbour. We are very responsible dog owners.

Lovely use of a festive gift label, top marks for recycling. The specificity of this message is gorgeous, were I to have a large brown bear would his defaecation really be as welcome as this sign implies?

The high and turning point of todays walk is when both dogs have done a poo, texture and quality are discussed before it is cleared away swiftly and hygienically. ( Should you be interested we have passed through the days of over indulgence of turkey to the normalcy of regular eating and bran flakes)

Even Miss Spearmint feels a little disappointed in the weather. What is the point of hauling out on a dark background if there are not many photographers about.

#43 theoldmortuary ponders

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©Gilly Bobber

Sunbay morning walk. Meeting and natterings with morning swimmers whilst we were snug and warm in the many layers that are required for an early morning dog walk. Knowing full well that this bright and beautiful morning will progress to an equally bright and beautiful sunset which is when we will plunge into the chilly waters of Firestone Bay for our weekend swim.

I suspect there was a frost this morning, the autumn leaves on the pavements looked a bit ravaged and damp when we set off. They still held a myriad of messages for the dogs to sniff and respond to, which slowed us down a good bit. As did searching for an autumn coloured dog poo ( or two) in the pile of leaves that was chosen for the morning elimination.

There is a new character hanging around in our changing area, taking in the sun while straddling a nail and a limpet shell.

Just how every super hero should spend a Sunday.

#31 theoldmortuaryponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks1 Comment

It has been complicated. In truth not much has gone on in the last 36 hours apart from wallpapering or thinking about wallpapering. Almost no time to ponder really, especially in daytime hours when natural light was essential to our pattern matching. The new-to-us house is built almost at the top of a hill and runs down the hill northwards and westwards. Such was the diligence of Georgian builders, that to gain the appearance of symmetry and regular shaped rooms some very odd wall angles and floor levels disguise the almost 30 degree slopes in two directions. This does not make wallpapering easy. Dog walking has, of course, continued and, thank goodness for this blog, the night walk is illuminated and interesting. The window above overlooks the green where the dogs like to snuffle, overlooked by model cows and fairy lights..

The cows are a reminder that the whole of the Royal William Yard was a factory for stocking up Royal Navy ships for long voyages at sea. The green, where we walk the dogs, was used by livestock that had recently been delivered, live by sea,and would soon pass through the slaughtehouse to be processed and packed onto ships. The view below is the one taken from the tunnel that leads onto the green.

The green is also well stocked with deck chairs. A reminder of pre-Covid times when we could come here to watch Open Air Cinema, Live Theatre or live streamed sports events.

On the other side of the yard we walk along the side of the River Tamar and Stonehouse Creek. A business and industrial area that is always lit up at night.

The path we take runs along the length of the Royal William Yard. As luck would have it I took a photo of this side of the yard last week from the Tuesday river cruise.

There are many different routes for us to take each evening, although winter walks stick to the areas that are well lit and dry underfoot, most evenings on the route home we see the same message. Which works just as well for the end of todays blog.

#8 tholdmortuary ponders

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October days that are this bright need to be enjoyed to the max. Our weekend plans were slightly derailed by circumstance but with the weather still good we decided to carry on with our plans to visit Exmouth and Dart Farm. Both places are familiar to us but there has been a gap of more than ten years since our last visit.

Dart Farm is a farm shop selling lovely fresh produce, some of which they grow themselves, and home and beauty products. There is a massive outside area with picnic tables and walks and trails around the crops.

The pumpkin fields were beautiful and not just with brash show off pumpkins, the dark greens of this picture are just mesmerising.

Leeks, Chard and cabbage were gorgeous on our sunny walk and so unusual to be this close to fields of growing veg. After an hour or so we bought some picnic stuff and set off for the coast with two already exhausted dogs.

Exmouth has a huge length of beach and, thanks to Victorian Architects and Town planners, an equally long promenade that runs the length of the beach. We started as far away from the town as possible at Orcombe Point and made our way towards the town.

Miles of a view like this. Exmouth has so much sea and promenade and yesterday it was dotted with people harvesting vitamin D and a late tan from the comfort of chairs and blankets. After two summers of the British actually taking holidays in Britain, Exmouth looks very fine, jaunty even. Embellished by hard work and two years of holiday makers cash the whole area looks rejuvenated, dusted off and ready for anything. Ready for anything did not describe 4 human legs and 8 canine legs after our days walking in two locations. Time to jump in the car and head for home.

Not this car of course, a very proud owner would have almost certainly chased us off and we just didnt have the legs left to risk it.

Pandemic Pondering #564

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Back on the road to familiar places. First stopping at Strong Adolpho for a coffee. Pre-pandemic this was a regular drive to a regular destination. Mawgan Porth has always been a favourite beach, gone are the heady days of family meet-ups, things change but the geography and feel of the place remains. The weather is definitely at the scraggier end of Scrag End of summer. In truth we have had warmer Christmas mornings on this beach.

Once again we have the right clothes to make the weather just a minor irritation. Hugo got his dancing paws out.

Lola has a tiny bit of holiday ennui. She is in season and her freedom is slightly curtailed while there are other dogs on the beach. Like an artful teenager she has one eye on holiday romance while conforming to the family traditions of bracing walks in inclement weather.

Once there is no one else around she is free to be off the lead and scampering at our heels only stopping briefly to leave an alluring flavour of herself on unsuspecting cliff edge plants in the hope that some canine lothario can track her down.