Category: Hugo and Lola

#1267 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola1 Comment
Accidental Colour matching.

In lots of ways our weekend away was all about Lola. In the dog picture she is being Queenly in the van.

In the brick picture I just caught the delicious colour combination whilst she was having a determinedly slow sniff in a sunny corner of a National Trust property.

Our weekend away was about swimming at dog-friendly beaches and using our National Trust Card. Dog friendly beaches in summer months are a rarity and we don’t tend to use our National Trust card so much in peak tourist season.

We concentrated on beaches at the bottom of lush green  valleys. It was way too hot for anything else.

There was a delightful irony at one dog friendly beach. Dogs had free access to the beach, there was a coffee shop and shade. All sounding rather perfect but the beach was primarily a water sport location and for safety swimmers were corralled into a triangle of the sea, that was about the size of a swimming pool.

I did manage the usual splashy pose but it was hardly an open sea swimming experience. Although I did have the pleasure of swimming really close to a Cornish Pilot Gig.

All in all a successful experiment of finding exactly what Lola likes, exactly what we like and for the most part still avoiding hoardes of tourists.

I am not a tourist hater at all, they bring essential revenue to the Devon and Cornwall region. It is lovely to talk to people from all over the world who find this corner of England fascinating. I love touring our own visitors around in the summer months , I just prefer avoiding big crowds of people anywhere.

Just to prove my tourist loving heart I thought I would share one of my favourite sounds. The sound of the small wheels of hand luggage cases on the cobbled streets near our house. I realise the people pulling those suitcases may feel less romantic about the historic surface but it is a happy quirk of mine.

Less of a happy quirk recently when I was touring my old history teacher around our historic area. He had, what can only be described as a hand luggage mobility scooter. I think he felt every cobble on my extensive history tour. Two forms of suffering for him, an aching bottom and spine and my haphazard history tour with random facts flitting in as I recalled them.

A history tour not too dissimilar to a blog really. Random ponderings stitched together with slightly iffy threads at times.

#1348 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and LolaLeave a comment

On this day a year ago I was nattering on about the habit of doing the washing on a Monday.

#1347 theoldmortuary ponders.

With such good weather our washing just gets done when there is a load waiting.  Today is a day of low level domestica , a bit of Tennis Club stuff and a tiny bit of art material consumerism. And a bit of washing.

Lola and I  did our early morning dog walk on the river bank adjacent to our local municipal tip. After a weekend of prepping for and hosting a garden party at the  tennis club there was a fair amount of general waste to get rid of. Hardly exciting but definitely improved by being forced to drive past a store with easy parking and an excellent art department.

All entirely achievable before 9 am which became the start of a delivery window for an important parcel. I nearly threw my plans into disarray when the keys of the tennis club went missing. In a rare moment of good luck they had fallen into the first bag of rubbish that I had loaded into the car. Delightfully clean rubbish it was also the first bag I checked. How often would that happen?

Lola takes a dim view of low level domestica. She can never predict how long I will stay in one place. As a protest she took to my bed, stopping  me in my tracks. But also stopping me adding the decorative pillows. I sense she may have made this a deliberate move she is not a fan of decorative pillows. 

Is this a smart move?

#1391 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and LolaLeave a comment
Spring arrives for a cafe hound.

One of our favourite walks is around the Mount Batten Peninsula. Although the humans love a cafe stop, Lola is obsessed by them.  Our walks at Mount Batten are timed to fit in with life, chores and the weather. In winter the cafe that Lola favours operates on restricted opening hours. But Easter has come and gone and they have increased their opening hours. For the first time in months our walk and the cafe being open coincided. In this photo Lola has taken full possession of a dog blanket and has the look of a woman who will not be leaving any time soon. She appears to have forgotten that the title of the event is actually a dog walk.

Purely for vanity I am sharing one of last summers hybrid photographs from Mount Batten. A sailing ship moored up just beyond  the camper van.

View from Mount Batten

Lola may think she is hard done by if the cafe is closed but she is never without some degree of comfort on her trips to Mount Batten.

#1387 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, Hugo and Lola, Plymouth1 Comment

The tale (tail) of Janners and Argyle.

Yesterday’s blog slipped off my schedule almost as my fingers hovered over the keyboard.

Lola had been let into the yard, the sun was out, and my neighbour  was clambering up a ladder in the sunshine. In that wrinkle in time the blog was lost.

He, my neighbour, asked me to unlock our back gate as one of his chickens was in my yard.  At that moment, out of sight, but not sound, Lola and the chicken met. Lola had the chicken under a citizens arrest with a very firm grip on its feathered armpit.  There was no catching them , the chicken broke free , scuttled into the house and I decided to leave them to their own devices whilst letting our neighbour in the back gate. Another human gave me a better chance of conflict resolution.

Armpit feathers

There was no sight or sound of them. 

We searched rooms. Lola appeared calmly on the stairs but no chicken.

A chicken bottom feather.

Just one chicken bottom feather laying on the stairs.

I thought I could hear a fluttery feather settling sound coming from the kitchen. Janner the chicken had escaped the jaws of Lola and returned downstairs and was roosting inside a dark bag that had been left on the floor.

Both chicken and dog had a winning look in their different locations. The chicken, victorious, by settling in enemy territory. Lola,perhaps, because she had driven the chicken downstairs and plucked a feather out of  Janners* enormous bottom.

Chicken and neighbour went home. Lola went into overdrive. Every moment of the chickens journey through our house  relived by sniffing and tracking every glorious moment of her hunting frenzy.

*I have no idea where a Janners apostrophe goes.

Two chickens, one named Argyle to honour the local football team. The other called Janner or Janners the collective name of Plymouth Argyle supporters. Or indeed Plymothians in general.

And that my friends is how the day started and I was given my earworm for the day.

Which leads nicely into the intended blog of the day.

To be continued… Link below for ease.

#1388 theoldmortuary ponders

#1408 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and LolaLeave a comment

Wandering the cobbled backstreets of Plymouth hunting down my hair stylist who has swapped salons. Successfully as it happens, and I have had my winter haircut. I feel like a Spring lamb or perhaps more like its mother who has had a woolly winter coat sheared off. Co-incidentally the sun came out as I skipped up this lane with considerably less curls than an hour earlier.

Talking of curls, we have had Miss Lola in our lives for 10 years this week.

A bit like me with a new hair cut she looks a little different this week compared to her first week with us.

She is paler and curlier. Her pale is just paler, mine is greyer. But that is what ten years looks like.

#1367 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola, Serendipity2 Comments

I took this photo last week. I was intrigued by the twist on the normal message of  Merry Christmas. Taking Christ out of the salutation and replacing him with love. Millions of people with no Christian faith at all celebrate Christmas, and for them Christmas is all about being with the people you love, sharing food and gifts and most importantly sharing oodles of love widely. I never expected to use this photo, but the sudden death of a much loved dog has plunged us into a Love-mas. Not merry but a Love-mas never the less.

#1366 theoldmortuary ponders

Messages of sympathy and love have flooded in from all over the world. Along with photos of Hugo that we have never seen before and stories of his antics that have made us smile.

Hugo was an Interventionist Flâneur, from the day he arrived.

Having observed, he intervened, fixing people with his eyes, limpid, black pools of love and interest. He looked into souls, searching for a reason to give one of his specialist dominating cuddles.

One hour after a friends Dad and Pops had died.

A dog who knew all about the human need for comfort. He felt the pain of bereavement, heartbreak, hangovers, period pains and sorted things out with long moments of eye to eye contact.

Before collapsing into the cuddle position which was always his unstated intention. If he had been a human therapist he would have been struck off every list that exists.

The therapist struck off for inappropriate behaviour.

For the first time in 13 years he is not around to resolve my sorrow and sadness. But because he was so good at what he did, our family has been flooded with love from all corners of the world. We have loved getting the photographs and anecdotes. They make us smile and they make our eyes leak, but we find ourselves in a Lovemas all of his making.

#1366 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola, Serendipity4 Comments




From time to time, people tell me, “lighten up, it’s just a dog,”
or “that’s a lot of money for just a dog.”

They don’t understand the distance travelled, the time spent,
or the costs involved for “just a dog.”

Some of my proudest moments have come about with “just a dog.”

Many hours have passed and my only company was “just a dog,”
but I did not once feel slighted.

Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by
“just a dog,” and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch
of “just a dog” gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day.

If you, too, think it’s “just a dog,” then you probably understand
phrases like “just a friend,” “just a sunrise,” or “just a promise.”

“Just a dog” brings into my life the very essence of friendship,
trust, and pure unbridled joy.

“Just a dog” brings out the compassion and patience
that make me a better person.

Because of “just a dog” I will rise early, take long walks and look
longingly to the future.

So for me and folks like me, it’s not “just a dog”
but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future,
the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment.

“Just a dog” brings out what’s good in me and diverts my thoughts
away from myself and the worries of the day.

I hope that someday they can understand that its’ not “just a dog”
but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being
“just a man” or “just a woman.”

So the next time you hear the phrase “just a dog,”
just smile, because they “just don’t understand.”

~Unknown Author~

     © 2016 PROFESSOR NOEL FITZPATRICK All rights reserved  – Built by Lightflows Digital Agency

Hugo 2012-2025.

Hugo died suddenly, one day after we returned from our holiday. His last enthusiastic greeting had broken his heart. Heart Failure caused by a sudden rush of love to his heart.

Our world will not be the same without him.

#1308 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola2 Comments

Lola is celebrating a full recovery from her cruciate ligament injury in the Spring. She has been on a regime of very limited exercise and plenty of rest. A lifestyle that suited her life goals perfectly. We have avoided beautiful,  wide-open beaches all summer because the temptation to be too giddy was  annoying for Hugo and Lola who took a very dim view of walking on the lead in places where extravagant dog behaviour is the norm. The only time Lola engages in joyful exercise willingly.

Talk to the paws because the ears are not listening.

Hugo set about recovering stray seaweed at the tides edge, while Lola allowed us some very rare moments of being photogenic and compliant.

Just twelve hours later their playground was the location of our Basking Shark, breakfast experience. Almost unbelievable really.

Once home and with a reliable signal Dr Google tells me that Trevone is a ‘hotspot’ for seeing basking sharks.

#1345 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola1 Comment
Trevone

Friday evening ended unexpectedly. We had an early morning visit to Truro Cathedral planned, on Saturday to see a friend become part of the Laity of  the Church of England. The plan was to leave the dogs at home for a few hours.

An early start was needed to avoid the holiday traffic, but then we discovered that dogs are welcome in the Cathedral. That changed everything and we packed up the van and headed to a wild camping spot by a beach not too far from Truro for Friday night.

Trevone

We were set for a fine sunset, a cool beer and chips from a beach bar.

The sunset did not disappoint.

Trevone

Breakfast did not disappoint.

Trevone

And the dogs were good in the Cathedral.

Truro Cathedral

So much better than leaving them at home for a few hours while we did a quick dash to the Cathedral without them. And now we know a beautiful spot for some overnight camping. A marvellous change of plan on a Friday evening.

#1223 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola, Stonehouse4 Comments
Sunset on the favourite Beach.

Not my favourite beach and not Lola’s but definitely Hugo’s. A dog who was born in Bedford and raised in London is obsessed with collecting seaweed. He learnt this habit on the pebbles of Whitstable and the Thames Estuary.Perfected his art on the expansive beaches of Cornwall and currently operates on the city beaches near our home.

Wonder and Joy

This beach would win no prizes for human pleasures beyond exquisite sunsets over the Cornish bank of the Tamar. But for Hugo at mid-tide, it is a pleasure-dome of seaweed research and reconnaissance and, ultimately, rescue and retrieval. He is at his happiest when he can create a pile of seaweed. Obviously, he works along the water’s edge and creates his pile a little distance from the tide’s reach. All well and good on a lowering tide, the distance walked just gets greater, but on an incoming tide,he just rescues the same ten or so strands of seaweed as his pile is gently washed back into the sea as the tide  laps at the foundations and then destroys the evidence of his endeavours. On a good weather day he would choose to be there for hours. The only thing stopping him is me. I am not always his best friend.