Pandemic Pondering #469

On Jul 7, 2021Jul 7, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

Screaming man rock. Not on our usual beach this evening. The tide was high and the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, so we moved to the more popular beach near the tidal pool for a safer swim.

We were a split pack this evening with some Bobbers swimming an hour after the larger group set off. Lucky that they did because they caught sight of the seal swimming just behind the earlier group. Not realising such a special swim was occuring would have made the evening a whole lot more dull. Although, as usual, time spent with the Bobbers is far from dull even in the worst conditions.

Dogs were also enjoying a swim. Not ours of course because they get left at home during swimming.

The popular beach even has facilities.

Very useful for hanging Bobbers jumpers.

After a warming shower we returned for the evening dog walk just to keep them happy. Which it did, until the rain returned.

Pandemic Pondering #467

On Jul 4, 2021Jul 5, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s blog. Facebook memories gave me four images that I can use for the Monday Blog.

This first one is from the birthday some years ago of the friend who we always, apart from the last two years spend together. The rainbow cake rather nicely leads into a watercolour I did about three years ago. I was taking some watercolour classes. The subject of the week was human figures. I chose to paint a cruising site near Crystal Palace in London. It is called Beaulieu Heights and men go there day or night for casual sexual encounters. I suppose this is about a missed encounter. A man on his phone is oblivious to another man watching him from a park bench.

The word bench leads me rather fortuitously to a stool at Coffee Acadmics in Hong Kong.

Life is often a beautiful journey searching for something but this last picture is me just setting out on life’s journey.

This picture was almost certainly taken at the height of summer on the East Anglican coast. A brisk wind or sea mist often makes a cardigan essential beach wear even in July and August. Not such a problem on the Atlantic Coast which is my current location, although I could do without all the rain.

I have my fingers crossed for the successful instalation of a broadband service later today, that will make blogging and everything else a lot easier.

Pandemic Pondering #465

On Jul 3, 2021Jul 3, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Friends, Serendipity, Street Art3 Comments

Bobbing with bubbles is not a regular piece of behaviour at all but this had not been a normal bobbing week. Even more unusually we managed to use a Winston Churchill quote in the after swim nattering session. Friday bobbing is the most regular session and happens at about 10:30 each Friday morning.

This was our first Friday swim since moving house. Apparently we need to hurry up because the water is lovely once you get in!

Our first Wednesday day swim after moving featured a pod of Dolphins. Friday featured Pol Roger Champagne!

Bobbers getting giddy before noon is definitely not normal. New house owners getting giddy before more unpacking is surprisingly effective. Although not in all corners of a room.

A tidy sofa is essential for a little post-bob, post Pol Roger siesta. It is almost certain that Winston Churchill would not have needed a siesta after drinking Pol Roger in the morning. It was his favourite champagne and he drank it with a traditional Full-English breakfast often. Thankfully we don’t have his responsibilities or the budget for such a lifestyle. But just once with the lovely Bobbers after a sparkling swim was just perfect. Our bobbing friend Helen provided the Champagne. She also gave us the chance to hear her sharing her voice in a graffiti- decorated disused grain store not far from our Bobbing Zone.

Follow the link below to hear her voice paired with great acoustics and gorgeous Street Art.

Jenny of Oldstones performed by Helen Bobber.

A remarkable day in the Tamar Valley.

Pandemic Pondering #464

On Jul 2, 2021Jul 2, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn Home, Serendipity1 Comment

The sun setting on another day of unboxing and unbagging. When packing pre-move we tried to be as logical as possible, room by room, but the new house has very different aesthetic requirements and unpacking is not quite as simple as we had planned. A lovely bonus is that the new house lies on an East/West axis with the front of the house facing east. Hugo and Lola are taking huge pleasure in chasing pools of sunlight through the day.

Chasing is clearly not exactly the right word but languishing has no sense of action. They have brief periods of action and longer ones of languishing. I’m unsure exactly what the human project for today is but there will be no human languishing. More boxes, more bags for certain. Meanwhile there is always flowers!

Happy Friday

Pandemic Pondering #462

On Jun 29, 2021Jun 30, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

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 Jun 29, 2021Jun 29, 2021 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.

Pamdemic Pondering #460

On Jun 28, 2021Jun 28, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn Home, SerendipityLeave a comment

Monday has dawned after drenching storm last night. Yesterdays domestic admin got half the container plants moved between deluge.

But the twelve left have had a proper soaking overnight and will be twice as heavy this morning.The snails in our corner of the world are positively psychedelic with the tasty treats delivered to them.

Beyond getting wet and moving plants Monday for us will be a busy day of logistics. Facebook brought up some interesting memories for the 28th June. This one with appropriate Pride month filter was me heading off to Mansion House in London to a Ball to commemorate the staff and work of The Heart Hospital London. A Cardio/Thoracic specialist unit that was merged with Barts Hospital in the City.

After a day being wet and muddy it was nice to be reminded that I can scrub up for ‘a bit of a do’ even if such things are currently just a memory. Just as hugging for a photo is.

This was our last on call trio at the same hospital 24 hours each in turn. Happy Days, good to have dressed- up memories when the day ahead will feature a lot of psychedelic snails and not any dressing up.

The snails are by our granddaughter, in truth ours are not quite so vivid.

Pandemic Pondering #459

On Jun 27, 2021Jun 27, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn Home, Serendipity1 Comment

This is a weekend that is heavy on domestic admin. Yesterday was house stuff and today will be gardens. Before we buried ourselves in the nitty gritty of it all we had a swim and were joined, in the water,on this occasion by a pilot gig. The domestic admin goes on at a pace, we are moving ‘stuff’, finding ‘stuff’ and repositioning ‘stuff’.

This is the 178th day of the year. It would be an understatement to say that this has been an odd year. Is it odder than 2020? Maybe that can be my project for Sunday while I’m re organising garden plants. Have a good Sunday whatever you are doing with it. Plants and weather permitting tomorrow’s blog will be full of colour.

Pandemic Pondering #451

On Jun 18, 2021Jun 21, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment

This reused headstone gave me all the excuse I needed to repurpose the same outing into another blog. The gravestone forms part of a beach footpath that is regularly damaged by winter storms and high tides. Another reason for recycling is that bobbing at Wembury is far more gentle than our usual locations and I could take the camera into the sea using my dry bag/float without worry of mishap.

The South West Coastal Path heading to Heybrook Bay from the sea.

We met another Bobber this morning, she lives just round the corner from here but chooses to swim the rougher waters of Plymouth Sound because the company of other bobbers on a regular basis is an experience not to be missed.

Sea weed and sea water from the sea were also small excitements of the morning.

Back on dry land we found a coastal lily and a pretty piece of driftwood.

Then after a quick peek at the view from the car park…

… we set off to visit some friends who are in the middle of a big building project. Having lived through the big rebuilding project that was @theoldmortuary a few years ago there is something nostalgic but not necessarily in a good way about seeing people trying to live their best life in an atmosphere of disruption and concrete dust. The thing that is great about visiting people in the middle of a big build is their expertise in making ‘ builders tea’ which is the perfect way to drink tea after a swim.

A quickly recycled blog for a Saturday. The original one will follow this, as these things do in a newest on top way. Have a great weekend.

Pandemic Pondering #445

On Jun 13, 2021Jun 15, 2021 By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity2 Comments

A funny thing has happened as we ease out of lockdown. The sight of ferries in and out of Plymouth is a normal every day event, but of course nothing has been normal for a while.

So when a ferry emerged out of the mist all the bobbers went a little bit silly and took loads of photos of the ferry . Which I thought I would share this morning. Even Coach took time out to capture the entirely normal event of a ferry docking.

I suppose it is a sign of some normality returning, and something else to share our water with.

While it might seem odd to swim near such big boats,the warmer seas have bought us another more colourful neighbour.

The ferry is the better option. Happy Sunday.

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