Category: Firestone Bay

#686 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone BayLeave a comment

I’m English so talking about the, weather is a cultural necessity. My regular dog walks show me some pretty bizarre colours as storms arrive or leave in the bay. Yesterday was quite the day in the bay and the Tamar Valley. An expensive hair cut and style lasted about 10 minutes and all the curl taming products that had been lavished on my head became gorgeous rivulets down my neck and throat. The rain gave curl control in a much more basic way.

I should have known that an early hair appointment was a silly idea. It just allowed me to fill the day with a series of events in many locations. Each transition involved a downpour.  The last one,  involved flooded streets with inappropriate footwear and dogs who refused to walk.

Being in a constant state of dampness may have been inspirational. I did finally manage to depict the mist of a storm arriving in the bay. My hair however, is crazy. No pictures of that here.

#639 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay3 Comments

Yesterday ended as it had begun. With a swim at the end of the longest day. People have been swimming at our Tranquility Bay location for at least 180 years, when the steps walkways and changing rooms were built for the Earl of Mount Edgecumbe,below his Winter residence.

Our evening swimmers look timeless if I turn the image into black and white.

Just a tiny blog today.

#615 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Firestone Bay, Serendipity1 Comment

Returning from holidays means that normal routines need to be re-established. The dogs have been away at their second home. A rural idyll with more than an acre of beautiful landscape to scamper in.

This morning it was very much back to work for them. Hugo hunting seaweed and Lola wrestling sticks. Yesterday I was back bobbing in 12 degrees of Atlantic sea after 42 degrees in Bangkok. Yesterday was a birthday bob for a friend and ex colleague.

It was a significant birthday, marked as they sometimes are with hair growth in all the wrong places.

It was a fun time with catching up on all sides with old friends and making new ones. Bobbing is a very social activity. There has been a massive development, involving our favoured area to swim, Firestone Bay. It has been incorporated as an Official Swimming Zone. Which means the water has to be tested for quality and safety and that certain amenities must always be available close by.

My morning dog walk started at Firestone Bay this morning and it was as beautiful as normal. A film crew from the BBC were there to report on the successful bid to become a designated swim zone. Below is a video of the news clip that will be on National TV for most of today, unless a big news story bounces it into oblivion. The dogs were unable to keep quiet for the whole 6 minutes. And I fidgeted a bit as I didn’t expect the segment to be quite so long.

Have a good day.

#613 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, flowers, Gardens and gardening5 Comments

The after-glow of a successful Open Garden event greeted me yesterday evening. Whilst on holiday in Thailand and Hong Kong I still ran the Social Media posts for a National Garden Scheme, Open Gardens event in Stonehouse. Trusty photographers sent me photos of the plants, visitors, cakes and musicians taking part in the two day event. My Social Media posting was both one step removed and half a world away. On my return last night I took a few minutes,and a cup of mint tea, to enjoy the calm of the space in post-party mood. The space was also gearing up to host a social evening of croquet and nattering in the evening sun.

The events of the weekend were a success and there has been praise and thanks to everyone who contributed their time and skills to making the event a success.

This gardener did not get an email or Whatsapp message of thanks, but they were confidently enjoying the warm afterglow of success on the tarmac path.

This rose, that clambers near the public toilet block, was full of perfume for everyone to enjoy. While the Arum lily enjoyed some evening shade.

Part of the charm of these gardens and Tennis Club is the amazing location.

Even the wild flowers put out a good effort over the weekend and yesterday evening.

As did the daisies in the club itself. Skilful mowing had allowed islands of daisies to play a part in the weekend of horticultural show-offery.

An English garden on a May evening is hard to beat. I wish I could look this good after a weekend of partying.

#524 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, Firestone Bay, SerendipityLeave a comment

Bobbing has not had many mentions in March. Today was my third dip of the month and the most photogenic by a very long way. The sea temperature has risen a bit to 9.4 after last week’s 8 degrees. Just a brisk there and back in the bay this morning followed by some excellent quality chatting and a Tim Hortons coffee to warm me up. I think I have cracked swimming year-round without a wet suit. Last year I gave up my wetsuit in April and made myself feel very poorly. I then went back to wearing the wet suit and didn’t get out of it until late May. Anxious not to go down a similar path again, I have cut down on my time in the water but stayed just in a swimsuit since last May. There have been two dippings without the swimsuit and I decided a skinny dip a month is the new target for 2023. These events may not make it into the blog.

The sunshine today is gorgeous, as demonstrated by the plant convalescence corner in our dining room.

I’m not sure these plants will ever move to other places in the house. They exude happiness from every leaf and frond.

Happiness also exuded from the dogs when their afternoon adventure took them to just the other side of the water from home, for a walk, and they got Mount Wise park to themselves and could do chasing and wild running on a grassy hillside, unbothered or interrupted by any other dogs or humans.

Their human companions were not so lively. Our morning swim was fabulous but sometimes swimming in these cold temperatures produces severe lethargy a few hours later. Even caffeine in the afternoon didn’t give us the required fizz to do anything more than a circuit of the park with a few stops to admire the view. It was important to make the most of the day though, the weather forecast for the rest of the week is dire.These blue skies and blue seas are unlikely to be back until April.

©Debs Bobber

#510 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, SerendipityLeave a comment

What a difference a day makes. Below the Mewstone at Wembury from Firestone Bay this morning, and below the Mewstone from Wembury Beach Car Park yesterday.

When I woke up this morning an unexpected shaft of sunlight pricked at my left thigh. A few more moments of sleep was not an option. A quick check on a WeatherApp suggested that this was going to be short lived. Eschewing breakfast me and the box-fresh, recently groomed dogs set off on a quick circumnavigation of the Stonehouse Peninsular. The sun was fabulous but I really appreciated my very warm fishermans sweater. The wind was piercing, icy needles pricked at my naked ankles. The wind was blowing in a north-easterly direction making the second half of the walk much less pleasurable but it also takes me nearer more trees. The shafts of sunlight had also woken up the sleeping birds and they were doing their very best to assemble a Dawn Chorus, not perhaps as fabulous as those heard at the end of Spring, but certainly those birds that were trilling this morning were putting in a good early season shift, a fine reason to get out early.

#489 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone BayLeave a comment

I have been having a bit of a fiddle superimposing photographs with watercolour washes. This is not the look I was aiming for, even in digital art happy accidents happen. I love the coppery tones that a splash of watercolour brings to this sunrise. Suddenly a real photograph becomes fantastical. More like a stormy sunset but facing in the wrong direction. This is absolute serendipity, I could never have planned this but accidents happen.

#462 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, Serendipity, The BoxLeave a comment

8:15 am on a January morning in Firestone Bay. I know I share this sort of image often but yesterday I did a little research on the area as it was in 1895. Because the tide is high the tidal pool is invisible apart from the three swimmers walking out on the slipway that forms one of the pool walls. In 1895 the pool did not exist. Next week’s research will be to find out the pools history.

I was able to spend a few minutes looking at old planning maps while I was working at The Box yesterday.

The orange arrow points out the place the Bobbers nearly always swim. We know our bay as Tranquility Bay but on this map it is marked as Ladies Bathing Place.

Here it is this morning. 5 minutes with an old map makes more questions than answers. When were the steps and walkways built that make this such a gorgeous and practical swimming location. Sadly the map also shows the more than thirty houses and a school that were lost in my own area during German bombing raids during World War II. Just looking out on my street I can roughly outline how many homes were lost. How many people and their beloved pets lost their lives?

5 minutes with an old map, so thought provoking, where will this Pondering end? Sunshine+ An old map= gratitude and the need to know more.

#460 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, FitnessLeave a comment

What are early mornings about?

1- Cold walks towards a sunrise.

2- Early morning chattering to swimmers, some known some not.

3- Waiting for paint to dry.

4- Going to the Gym.

5- Reward for all of the above.

6- Write the blog.

Which is exactly where we are now. The paint is still drying. Ready, I hope, for the Winter sun to make an appearance in the studio in an hour or so. I suppose the gym is the unusual topic for a blog. My last foray into the world of a gym was in late February 2020. COVID lockdown made the experience very brief. I did not expect to love it as much as I did. Three years later the cold weather has driven me into a different gym. Neither the dogs or my knees love walking distances in this very cold weather. The gym is in an old military building, I’ve been going for a week. I may never mention it again in a blog but I just wanted to share this lovely old notice, which I look at while abducting and adducting.

Rust, old printing and human notes. My favourite kind of stuff.

‘Keep your head and use it’ What a fabulous instruction.

#455 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Firestone BayLeave a comment
Three Forms- 1970- Dame Barbara Hepworth

The sunlight has high jacked another days blog. Imagine walking upstairs at your place of work and seeing this. Just spellbinding in every sense of the word. Then the evening dog walk, for five beautiful minutes gives this clear and crisp sunset. Not all guns blazing just quietly contemplative and comforting. The Northern Hemisphere is slowly grabbing the light back.