Actually it was Friday sun and the image has been manipulated to make everything a bit more golden. Dreamlike perhaps.
There is a reason for this. Todays blog is about dreamscapes. I’ve noticed over the last week or so that my dreams that are close to reality have started to take place in pandemic world. Nothing dramatic, not nightmares. There are times when my dreams are so dull and humdrum waking up is a relief. It is these non interesting dreams that have shifted into Pandemic World. I’m not really sure why I’ve shared this, but as an observation of the progress of the pandemic I suppose it has some value.
Waking up today was a tiny shock to the system. We planned an early morning swim. Ooh it was chilly.
It may be somewhat late into our International pastime of Lockdowns to give you a new hobby for your daily exercise. But better late than never, I can give you a new micro hobby of looking for Urine deflectors on buildings during your permitted exercise. Once you know the function of a urine deflector they are easy to spot out in the open . Positioned to discourage multiple men from urinating, repeatedly, in the same outdoor location they are designed to return the flow of amber fluid squarely back onto the urinating chaps own feet. I’m sure all cultures have them. Urine deflectors are built onto historic buildings and contemporary ones. Technology might just be removing the need for this almost annonymous feature. A specialist paint or coating has been developed that bounces wee off perpendicular surfaces. I know this not because I have an unnatural interest but because my flat in London was located on a small unlit lane very close to a railway station and @theoldmortuary is opposite a pub ! In either location I have shouted, used a hose and chased the pisser off on those rare occasions when I have caught them in the act. They are rarely apologetic and mostly indignant. Paint would be the answer in both cases , an architectural feature not really possible.
This urine deflector is on the corner of an old pub called The Butchers Arms. Now known as The Hutong Cafe in Stonehouse Plymouth.
Old pubs and public buildings are great locations to find them. We have a big one in Saltash, positioned between an old pub wall and one of the supporting brick legs of I.K. Brunels Royal Albert Rail Bridge that spans the Tamar River.
Mighty EngineeringPractical Engineering.
Happy hunting!
As soon as there is good light there will be a PS ( how appropriate!) to this blog …
P.S. Last night I noticed these 3 additions to the bottom of our church tower. Are they Urine deflectors? These slopes are only added to one side of the church tower base. Historically this church had its own brewery and Public House. This side of the tower would have been on the way home to the town from the pub.
Bobbers the Whatsapp group was formed to give a group of friends some safety in their first year of year -round sea swimming. No one ever swims alone and we nearly always have an on-land observer who keeps an eye on the ‘ bobbers’ who have decided a time to swim together. Some of us have known each other more than thirty years, some others just a few months and today a new bobber joined us.
The safety aspect was underlined today when we heard of the sad death, yesterday, of a fellow open water swimmer, in the next bay to our own.
Bobbing has given us all a fresh new friendship group and the topics of conversation post swim are wide ranging.
The startled look on my face on the header image is the effect of two bobbing sessions.
Yesterday Bobbers hit the beach early to avoid too many people. Overnight the beach had been used for outdoor drinking and it was a dreadful mess. One organised ‘ Bobber’ cleared all the rubbish from the beach and stacked it by the rubbish bins.
On the way back to the cars the same bobber saved a dogs life as she swooped him out from under the wheels of a car as he ran away from his owner. She was declared a Saint for the day. Witty chat suggested that we break off her fingers in order to have a valuable saintly relic.
This morning she arrived with a gift.
We swim very close to a convent , it took very little effort to store the finger within its own protected reliquary within the convent wall.
But as things do, in post swimming conversations, one thing led to another and the finger found an amazing spiders trap.
Which pretty much demonstrates a post bobbing conversation. Loudly covering a million topics and sometimes getting lost down a complex and convoluted hole.
David Partner, a world renowned photographer was collecting images for a project he is working on. Here we are swimming off, oblivious to man in small speedos. Also oblivious to man with large Hasellblad. Just oblivious really!
On returning to land David Partner asked our permission to take photographs of us for his project. Obviously we stripped off to reveal our gorgeously honed bodies and our thong bikinis. Just a slick of lippy and we were camera ready. You will be relieved to know the last two sentences are pure fabrication.
Just a regular ‘ bob’ at Firestone Bay.
Links to David Partner and Plymouth Open Water Swimming below.
The Nearly There Trees get a second outing this month simply because ‘Nearly There’ is my bonus point on my game of Boris Bingo . A game played by matching words used by the Prime Minister during a press conference.
As it happens ‘ Nearly There’ didnt come up! I don’t have a painting called ‘Some Way to go still’ Not as prepared as I thought I was!
By contrast our sea swim was a huge success . Blue, twinkly with plenty of sunshine.
Our Vitamin D harvest took very little effort today. The water was still a bit grubby from the weekend storms but calm enough that we were joined by paddle boarders and Kayakers.
Not too bad for the middle of February.
P.S my failure at Boris Bingo can probably be explained by the Prime Minister taking on a new team of advisers. I had planned for the Cockwaffle Protocol. I was not prepared for the change!
A micro blog today, the storms hitting the Tamar Valley have made outdoor activities almost impossible for the last couple of days. Regular walks are taken with our heads bowed against 50 mile an hour winds coming up from the south. Bobbing has been abandoned for safety reasons.
Being focused on just keeping upright has had two bonuses. Firstly this tiny daffodil , who against the odds, is growing through tarmac, near a busy cut through. In normal times the views here are spectacular so no one looks at the ground. I cannot imagine he will be here long.
Close by on the outside wall of an old pub, that is now a coffee shop, there is some old carved graffito. The wall was offering precious shelter from the worst of the weather. Again under normal circumstances the landscape and architecture of this area would grab anyones attention. Just like the tiny daffodil the graffiti shouldn’t exist. The old pub is built of very tough stone but there is this one random stone that is soft enough to carve on.
Just a tiny search on Google brings this little nugget up.
An Ernest Deves was born in a house at the red marker position. The old pub is currently known as the Hutong Cafe.
A chance finding in the London Gazette shows us that Ernest Edward Deves was a skilled labourer in Royal Naval Dockyards.
Today did not go to plan. There is a fair old chunk of domestic admin to do currently, some of the admin filled nearly the whole morning and I had an afternoon Zoom scheduled. I planned a socially distanced take-out coffee and walk with a friend in the small gap between commitments. The walk had the same restrictions as yesterday, quiet and dog free. Low tide offered the chance to walk further along the riverbank than usual.
We basked in sunlight and enjoyed our drinks while the dogs snuffled around. We talked and talked and walked until we reached the most distant town slipway.
Slipways are areas of sloped concrete to launch or reclaim boats.
We discovered a whole new world of slipway. Unknown to us the dry looking green area was a slippery slope of doom. I was the first to go down. Six to eight feet of sliding down on my bottom took me beyond the dry looking area straight through the slippery looking stuff and into the seaweed coated riverbed. Meanwhile Steph had leaned forward to catch me and also lost grip joining me very swiftly on the riverbed.
This was our view, the dogs had also been dragged down the slope. They managed to stay on their paws. We checked that we were not too badly damaged and then laughed loudly for five minutes or so. The riverbed was impossible to stand up on. The only way out of our predicament was to scramble back up the slope on all fours. More mirth!
The view as we scrambled up!
We returned home to medicate and clean our wounds. Zooming came and went and it was time for another walk, the river was once again the destination but this time I kept myself out of it.
Just as well, as mud is the stand out feature of the afternoon walk.
My favourite patch of mud.
A blue sunset and as the sun goes down my bones are aching a bit. Tomorrow needs to be a bobbing day. The cold water is wonderful for sorting out aches and pains. I will avoid slipways!
I’m not sure what happened this morning. The tide was high and our usual beach was off limits for safety reasons. Our ‘bob’ was lumpy and choppy but exhilarating. Maybe all the negative ions in the air made us super positive.
Bobbing is absolutely a positive change for all the ‘bobbers’, not one of us have ever swum through the winter months before. This is not a habit that any of us would have anticipated this time last year. None of us plan to give it up when the Pandemic loosens its grip.
We ‘bob’ to the North of The Narrows a prominent sea channel used by bigger vessels crossing Plymouth Sound . This morning we were joined in the water by two cement mixers.
Despite us bobbing two or three times a week no bob is ever the same . Our bobs are planned around tides, weather and sunrise/sunset times but even being mindful of these there is no way to predict the success or pleasure of any individual session. This morning the bob was a brilliant experience. No buoys were reached but everyone left the water with a smile on their faces. Even the bobber who inadvertantly went into the sea in her trousers. We all thought she had bought a new long legged wetsuit.
A toddler dropped a much loved Zebra in the water near the Royal William Yard. The tide was high and, sadly, Zebra had to be left to his watery fate. Some time later members of Plastic Patrol paddled past.
They swiftly recovered the Zebra and, as luck would have it, Archie and his parents were waiting for a take out-coffee.
Thermal underwear can make you do crazy things. Yesterday was a day of sunshine with a side order of mud.
Everywhere here is pretty sodden with rain and winteriness. Some regular dog walks have been abandoned because they are just too muddy. The arrival of unexpected sunshine coupled with thermal underwear made walking without a warm coat entirely possible. My choice of walk has a semi-permeable surface that drains well, all should have been well but the dogs did not stick to the path. Beyond the confines of the path the parkland was a riot of quagmire and fascinating smells. Some of which the dogs felt obliged to roll in.
It was such a sunny day , two circuits of the park were completed. I was feeling toasty but the dogs were two muddy sponges, filled to capacity with moisture and mud. The ecstatic cuddles when we returned to the car were a mixed blessing.
The second walk of the day involved Tarmac and water contained in its proper place.
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