Rewind to the weekend. We had a bit of a blue Sunday.
A silent disco at The Box in Plymouth under the figureheads. Having circled the globe many times these restored figureheads have witnessed all sorts of shenanigans but rarely, I imagine, cast so gorgeously in blue lights. I won’t shock your eyes with the moves of a small group of bobbers who attended but * did find some blue flowers in my photo archive that might give a flavour of our shapes.
rbsh
You might think that taking off the headphones would give a zen-like silence. Perhaps suggested by the name of the event. Silent Disco
But no, the silence does not exist, the overwhelming sound when the headsets are removed is laughter. We were also treated to an informal gathering of Rock Choir singers who belted out the lyrics of three different tracks with more accuracy than the rest of us. Sartorially the attendees were all fabulously attired , some of the figureheads were overdressed for the occasion.
3 hours slipped by, bones and joints groaned a little but a Blue Sunday was a fun experience.
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.
It’s dog grooming day, normally after getting chores done I return here for a coastal walk or a swim without doggy distractions but the view from the car tells you why I would rather catch-up on on ‘stuff’ on my phone.
Before we left I rescued the garden daffodils from the swirling winds and icy rain of the day
And rescued some figs from a fate of becoming over-ripe.
But the most Important task of the morning was to respond to a Government Consultation Document about the quality of sea water that we swim in at Firestone Bay. The bay has been used for swimming for more than a century but post-Covid the popularity of the area has hugely increased. If the area becomes a designated swimming area the water quality will be closely monitored during the official swimming season of mid-May to mid-September.
As regular readers know we swim year-round and none of our regular bobbers have ever become ill in the two years we have been bobbing. But becoming a Designated Swimming Zone will also ensure that our waterside environment remains safe and with adequate life saving equipment available. The link to the document is below if any bobbers are reading this. It only takes a few minutes to fill in.
Two visits to Ocean Studios this week. The first on Thursday for a Drawn to the Valley artists meet up, and the second to catch up with the watercolours of a recently deceased artist David Muddyman. David was a composer, but returned to visual arts in 2016. This style of colour block water colour is not unique to him but his work is a reflection of the environment in which he lived. Both of my visits this week have been when the gallery was super busy. Saturday the gallery was hosting a children’s art club, so a third visit will be needed to enjoy his calm, meditative work but I was thrilled to find such an easy comparison to show his affinity with local colours. The picture below is a flagstone in one of the toilets. I know that is hardly the most kindly pairing to a piece of art but the flagstone is pretty impressive to someone who loves colour. These are the naturally occurring colours in the stone, not the result of a major toilet crime.
I just stuck the two images together to show how accurate the colour matches are.
When the gallery is less busy I can more accurately find out which area the painting was inspired by, it is very unlikely to actually be a toilet floor.
In another snatched glimpse, over the heads of crayon wielding children, I saw the perfect representation of greige. My least favourite weather manifestation of the Tamar Valley.
A perfect 2D facsimile of many days, including today when everything is a little bit meh!
Homework before I go back for a third time is to explore the music of David Muddyman. There is a link below for that too.
For those not able to visit the gallery at the Royal William Yard I have put a link below to a website where his work can be viewed. The collection is entitled Composed.
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
Here is another Jetpack ( My blogging platform) suggestion, that did actually spark a ponder. My middle name is Anne. To the best of my knowledge it has no special significance. However coupled with a first name of Juliet it creates a spelling minefield, perhaps less so in the digital age, but certainly as child and young adult I would say that at least 75% of the time I would have to correct peoples spelling of my names. Constantly removing an additional T and E from my first name and donating the E back to my middle name. Juliette Ann felt as alien as being called Geoffrey or indeed Jeffery.
A proper first world problem that I have only ever discussed with my friend Marianne ( Marion) until this week when I met a fellow artist called Norah (Nora) who expressed the problem in a different way to me. Marianne and I would agree that the wrong spelling feels uncomfortable, itchy even, just not right. Marianne has lived her life with a curious sentence. ” Marianne with any” meaning with N and E.
Norah went further , she said without her H she felt lopsided, and again the word, uncomfortable. Without her H, she said she cannot function effectively.
What’s in a name?
If I were an actor or musician I would likely have to have a stage name and that would be just fine, I could be comfortable with that. A completely different personna who did glamorous things in exotic places. While Juliet Anne returned home to do the prosaic things of Normal Life. I do not have an imagined stage name to hand.
Had I been a boy I was to have been named Noel after a much loved uncle who killed himself during my mothers pregnancy. Thank goodness that didn’t happen. If I had been a boy I would like to have been called Barzilian after my paternal great grandfather, with a middle name of Zebediah. I would be known as Zeb. Heaping bad name spelling on my male self by the bucket load. The idea of introducing myself as Zeb is actually quite thrilling. Oh to actually be part of the boy gang with all the privilege that brings.
Names are prescient this week. We welcomed our third granddaughter into our tiny family on Wednesday.
Cecily Bea is one of a trio of small girls who make up our next generation. Surely some spelling confusions there, especially as Bea is pronounced Be-ah.
She already has a small confusion she was born quickly on Tuesday evening, no time for any worries or concerns, but she was actually born in the early morning of Thursday in Hong Kong. The time difference making a date difference. Whenever, wherever and whoever she is most welcome.
Windy days have an energy about them. From the comfort of indoors the gusts and howls down the chimneys are as close as I get to the outdoor action. I was blown about a good bit yesterday. I wanted to paint wind coming up against something immovable. Smeaton’s Tower seemed like a fairly wind resistant structure.
Yesterday, was an artists meet-up. 25 or so of us met up to talk about important stuff like future exhibitions and just to get together to swap news and most importantly to share knowledge. We always take something to work on. I took my windy painting, others took knitting, sewing, jewellery making. Coffee and cake were also involved, of course. Without a single emblem of Spring, the whole event felt like our creative community was fecund and ready to burst out into the world after a winter of doing our thing, largely confined to our own homes and studios.
Talking is the biggest attraction of these monthly events and true to form I did a lot of that. Diligence was required to get this sketch finished before sunset.
I also had a little bit of fun overlaying the photograph with the painting. Possibly increasing the sense of a storm. What do you think?
A big day yesterday. After 5 years with my trusty smart phone it was time to move on. Just like me the phone was getting a little cranky. It had not had the best of starts. Almost on day one I had dropped it and the back had crazed like a windscreen. But as luck would have it the silicone cover I had ordered arrived on the same day and the injury was largely unseen and forgotten until recently, when things started to get a little loose. Charging became a bit hit and miss and sometimes the touch sensitivity was just a little off. Under normal circumstances I would have just upgraded, but Huawei no longer sell phones in Europe. So here I am, the first blog on a new phone. A lot to learn so only small pondering. The top picture was generated by Google Photos and shows the location of an International Womens Day gathering that I attended yesterday. There was a lot of cake.
There were also fabulous books, clothes and bric a brac to exchange.I returned home with less than I took, which is a positive, and full of good food and lovely anecdotes from everyone I met there. Donations were made to the Disasters Relief Fund and the total raised will be divided between the ongoing work in Turkey and Ukraine.
And so, first time to push the publish button on my new phone.
International Women’s Day. Pondering this is not hard, how dreadful is it that such a day is even needed. Time to reflect on what it is to be a woman in the 21st Century and time to wonder how things will change for everyone’s daughters and granddaughters who will live into the 22nd Century.
I had a quick digital rummage for any sketches of women in my portfolio. I think all of them are quite strong images, this matches my view of the women that I choose as my friends.
I’ve never been a fan of women who adopt subservience to men or who rely on a man for their place in society or those who give up their financial independence to just be an adjunct to a man or men. Strong, competent, effective women are much more my cup of tea.
International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate all the wonderful women who have supported and encouraged me with positive words and actions. A day to reflect on those who have been less than kind too, they also helped to form me. As did the many men who are enlightened enough to know that they are our equals.
The world will be a better place when men and women can work together from an equal position of strength. For 365 days of the year. No special days needed.
At 9am this beach was too warm to wear a coat. It was a completely perfect suntrap. A coffee and two happy dogs made for a lovely early morning start. This little beach collects light weight metal detritus. A tiny aluminium accessory could be posed as a tiny piece of land art.
There was also a small verdigris square of a light metal that had washed up.
Beech combing and coffee done it was time for a walk. The sunburst lichen was a very uplifting place to stop and bask in the real sun.
While watching seabirds fishing for breakfast in a fascinating pool of water in the sea.
If we had found all this on a holiday walk we would have been thrilled but as it was only 30 minutes walk from home it was good to share it with the dogs.
I also found a lovely old bench in bright sunshine for Pondering with a capital P.
On this one occasion where @theoldmortuary goes Time Out follows, albeit at the number 7 spot on their list of most overlooked places in the world. Who even knew @theoldmortuary was quite so on trend!
I’ve copied and pasted the Plymouth section so I can use my own illustrations and add my own small pearls of wisdom. Actually these Pearls are of wealth and not mine to share. There is every possibilty these Pearls passed through Plymouth in the 16th century. Elizabeth I favourite man with very dubious morals, Francis Drake, opperated almost exclusively out of Plymouth. She liked gifts and he supplied them.
The Armada Portrait, currently at The Box Plymouth.
Plymouth, England If the Devon city of Plymouth were any smaller, it’d be considered a jewel of a day-trip destination. If it were any bigger, it simply couldn’t be overlooked. Perhaps because of its middling size, it’s slipped under the radar, and that’s pretty unfair, if you ask us. I like a city that I can do most things by walking or using public transport, not always possiblebut defiantly achievable most days. Like art? The Box is a brilliant, recently opened gallery that celebrates local artists.
Local artist, not celebrating.
Like architecture? You’ll be dazzled by the newly done-up Market Hall, which also has its own ‘immersive art dome’.
@theoldmortuary goes there often, good coffee and cake, 360 degree films and a memorable lesson in Aerial Yoga.
Like swimming? Few pools are more spectacular than the Tinside Lido.
Tinside, fun swimming and fuels my obsession for abstract photography through glass bricks.
Like gin? England’s oldest distillery is smack bang in the historic city centre.
Cocktail from a glug jug.
Book a room at the Bistrot Pierre B&B, in the revamped Royal William Yard, and you’ve lined up pretty much the perfect weekend away.
No need for a room at Bistro Pierre but @theoldmortuary can easily bore the socks off you all with our daily dog walks here.
Thanks to Time Out for giving me an excuse for a quick dip into my photo archive. Congratulations for getting to Friday with me.
theoldmortuary.design 