Category: Home Towns

Pandemic Pondering #463

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The unexpected events blog.

Just four days in a west facing garden and our Black Elder has bloomed for the first time ever. Despite being moved into a pot last autumn.

Yesterday was spent mostly playing solitaire with boxes. The joy at actually owning a garage to put stuff in cannot be over estimated but if anything has been learned in the last few months it is that we must aim to own less stuff! In the garage must not mean out of mind.

Our evening swim was fabulous, only five minutes from home on foot. Many lovely Bobbers and a huge pod of dolphins. The entertained us for nearly an hour in Tranquility Bay.

There was a lot to be grateful for yesterday and having an espresso martini just before 10pm gave me many awake hours overnight to mull over our good fortune.

A daft idea at 10pm!

Today may be the day for a scheduled nap. I may crawl into a box when no-one is watching.

Pandemic Pondering #462

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This is an image from our evening walk, coming out from the tunnel was the nighttime sound of a Jazz Saxophonist. Rather lovely.

The day preceeding the evening walk was rather less lovely. Several trips to the tip and the house moving favourite, cleaning the oven! We’ve been in the physical part of this house move for 5 days now, cardboard boxes are the most prominent feature of our current lives.

Since we have no usable sofas currently, walking is the best way to stretch our hard-working backs. We stopped a while to watch the sun disappear.

Until tomorrow…

Pandemic Pondering#461

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

Late in the day blog. I’m blaming massive domestic admin again. @theoldmortuary has relocated to the other side of the Tamar. Often with this view it could be predicted that this is a blog about bobbing but today this was our early morning walk. So brief and sometimes late blogs this week while we find ourselves in our new home and also find our stuff in the many boxes that crossed the Tamar yesterday.

©www.paintel.co.uk

Pandemic Pondering #458

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Summer Saturdays are an early morning swim.

Although at low tide the first bit is a bit of a wade through seaweed beds and rough stones. The ferries to France have become more regular swimming neighbours.

Saturdays are also about loving a friends picture of Fanny the Gipsy Hill cat completely owning the Oyster/Card reader, no fare dodgers on Fanny’s shift.

©Keith Hide

Saturdays are about enjoying new poppies in a friends garden, grown from seed from our own poppies @theoldmortuary

©Kim Cole
@theoldmortuary

And currently Saturdays are about loads of domestic admin, represented here by Peonies and the dining table which looks calm in this picture but has been a dumping ground for all sorts of stuff in the last few hours.

All clear and ready to be filled with even more stuff in a few hours. Summer Saturdays are currently about being busy!

Pandemic Pondering #455

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Chalets on the cliff at Whitsand and Bay

The Rame Peninsular in South East Cornwall is often called the forgotten corner of Cornwall. As it is on our doorstep it is not forgotten by us, but it managed to surprise us a few years ago. At the time we were living in Gipsy Hill in London and a neighbour rented a chalet on the Whitsand Bay cliffs for the New Year and excitedly told us about the breakfasts he had enjoyed at the Cliff Top Cafe expecting us to know it. With his recommendation it became a family favourite until one of our family members was killed in a road accident and we couldn’t quite face the cafe without her. Time has passed and this weekend we got up early and headed off for breakfast without any misgivings.

Hugo took posing for a photograph very seriously.

http://www.clifftopcafe.co.uk/index.html

Whitsand Cliff chalets have had a bit of a metamorphosis in the last 20 years or so and many are rented out as Airbnb. The cafe sell this lovely postcard which sums up the general vibe very well.

http://www.tidelineart.com/ © Nicola White

I used a postcard image of the cafe because the necessary outdoor structures to comply with current Covid-19 restrictions and regulations don’t let the cafe look as pretty as normal.

The postcard, though, took me on another little circle of research about the artist and she too lives a London/Cornish life the link below takes you to a magazine article if you are interested.

Meet The Beachcombing Artist Nicola White

What intrigues me, reading this article, is the similarity in our London experience. Living in South London the Kent coast and the River Thames become substitute Cornwall. There is nothing similar about them but the call to water can forgive the differences and nourish a coastal seeking soul. The Cornwall/London circle turns for many of us. The sea also allows memories to return more comfortably after a while.

Tregonhawk Cliff, Whitsand Bay

Pandemic Pondering #448

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns1 Comment

Foggy/Sea Mist morning is my excuse for late blogging, that and extreme domestic admin.

The sea mist is not the scenic kind. Thankfully blooms and bee bottoms have saved me from an empty space where a blog should be.

Actually as I write this the sun has burnt off most of the non-scenic mist but the bee bottoms have fully engaged me now. I even managed to gather a half decent bee in-flight picture.

Bees in the bright pink flowers are fidgety creatures. Resting only for a second or so it is hard to get a good bee bottom shot.

I’m unsure why this should be the pollen supplies look lush and plentiful.

Hugo and Lola required more dog biscuits today. The pet shop is attatched to a garden centre and more busy bees posed, this time no bottom shots!

There we are a late blog featuring a lot of bees, no non scenic sea mist and just because I can, a lovely baby fern leaf.

Pandemic Pondering #444

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Where to begin on Thursdays big day out! The beginning seems like a plan.

Dense sea mist as I left Cornwall, on the scenic railway.

I love the feeling of arriving at a London train terminus , the hubbub of people and anticipation is always a little intoxicating. Paddington, the station which serves the west of Britain, has all that and a much loved bear.

Farringdon was my tube station of choice, perfect timing as my friend Marc was just at the entrance as I arrived. Station to the first bar of the day about 30 seconds!

Next stop the Catheter Labs of St Bartholomews Hospital to hug my friends and colleagues. We really needed hugs!

Hugs and stories of the last 18 months, loads of emotion. The reason for the visit was that my lovely colleague Helen was working her last day in the NHS. Time for a limited numbers leaving party.

In the shadow of St Pauls.

We gathered for more hugs, stories, speeches and general happiness.

All the huggers in these pictures are tested regularly, physical health ✓ Hugging is amazing for mental health✓

When the night was over we did a circumnavigation of St Pauls because we love it.

Before heading once again for Farringdon Station via St Bartholomews for a photo or two.

This swanky bar is a holder of memories. The cardiac on call rooms overlook it and it used to be the location of classrooms where St Bartholomews students did their academic training.

A quick walk through Smithfield meat market, soon to be the new Museum of London.

and we were back at Farringdon. Time for a parting of the ways. Helen to the East and me to the West.

Time for me to jump on the GWR Night Riviera and head back to Cornwall. A Cheap Day Return train ticket very well used!

Pandemic Pondering#442

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Quite a red letter day @theoldmortuary . Nearly time to get on a train and take a trip to my old workplace. St Bartholomews Hospital in the City of London.

I’ve always loved the contrast of City and Country/Coastal life. Today is a fine day to leave Cornwall. A huge blanket of fog has settled on the peninsular over the last 24 hours. Somewhat perverse as the Worlds press has descended on the area to cover the G7 meeting. The famed beauty of Cornwall is wearing a murky mask just like rest of us. The slow trickle of VIP helicopters on Tuesday never got going yesterday and film crews search for scenic backdrops is going to be fruitless for a day or two. Yesterday was Ocean Day, our tiny corner of the Atlantic didn’t really make an appearance.

Luckily the ‘ bobbers’ brought some colour to the coast.

Picture not taken yesterday!

Last nights swim was really pleasant at 14 degrees and a high tide that we could just step straight into. Not a single photo opportunity that would lift anyone’s spirits though!

Luckily for tomorrows blog I’m briefly off to the bright lights.

A sign of a good night out in London has always been how late a return to home is. With the certainty of a train timetable I know I will be getting home at 5:30 am. Great night out guaranteed even under Pandemic restrictions and by 10:30 I will be back in the sea.

This is how dense the fog is, there is a house 10 yards from this wall.

Pandemic Pondering#433

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Friends and Family, Gardens and gardening, Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

Plenty of sunshine and a lovely bit of misogyny.

A sunny Bank Holiday weekend has brought many moments of mirth and pleasure. I took this comment from our towns community page on Facebook. I too think the mowing of the wildflowers is a dreadful shame. In the portion of the graveyard that we overlook, the graves  are so old that they are extremely rarely visited. The wild flowers make the area calm and contemplative. Pollenators love it. Never could the author of the comment have imagined she would get such a delicious example of misogyny as a response. Alan R is quite the man for going off at a tangent, in unexpected ways. In other churchyard news the poppies are  really showing off.

Planted to mark 100 years since the end of World War 1, this their third year is their most glorious.

Despite spending over a year walking every inch of our local area we discovered a new viewpoint yesterday. High up, ovelooking Plymouth Sound. There is a tarmac viewpoint just behind the old Marine Biology building on the Hoe.

The views are splendid.

On such a beautiful day it would have been impossible not to swim, or bob, in the sea. An evening bob with bobbers, friends and families was the perfect end to a gorgeous Monday.

Unexpectedly early, some of the bobbers took delivery of their new summer, post-bob, cover ups, this weekend.

All excitedly modelled on the Whatsapp group.

In other news my fabulous school friend Dai Pullen, an occasional contributor to Pandemic Ponderings has entered a short story competition. If you have the time please visit the facebook link below, read his entry and vote if his wordplay floats your boat.

Pandemic Pondering #432

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Along time ago @theoldmortuary used to row pilot gig boats competitively and have even rowed in World Championship competitions, but a busy working life in London stopped all that .

The clip below shows an on board perspective of the sport.

https://youtu.be/9PBHCm4l60o

Yesterday tentative steps were taken to return to the sport. Which has given me the chance to use some old photographs of an arty farty sort.


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Surprisingly good rowing was achieved , not perhaps worthy of a video and no wildlife joined in ( see video) but it was a happy and sunny return.

The weather remains wonderful for a Bank Holiday weekend.