Category: Swimming

#1262 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity, Swimming1 Comment

My first swim this summer in the rain. Launching from the prettiest of steps. I’ve been swimming very regularly for five years and not once in those 5 years have I got  to the first week of August without swimming in a fair amount of summer rain.

By pure coincidence the July weather stats for Devon in 2026 were published this morning. July in Devon has been the driest for 190 years, when records began.

Rain of any sort complicates the dressing process after a sea swim. The combination of sea water,rain and any residual potions on skin make for an awkwardly sticky drying and dressing process. Even when you think you are adequately dry, clothes do not slip on easily. Skin becomes resistant, like trying to dress a velvet teddy with the nap running in the opposite direction . Vests and t-shirts get caught up. Trousers or leggings refuse to pull up with any speed.

Thank goodness there was no rain on our recent Full Moonie.

#1256 theoldmortuary ponders.

6 happily naked women swimming at dusk from the single file steps.

A random man decides to sit down where all our clothes were stored. He claimed to be looking for his girlfriend, pulled out alcohol and a cigarette and proceeded to just sit there. Completely failing to read the non room. We for the most part just grabbed our clothes or pulled them on quickly. Something we could not have done if it was raining. But then he may not have been quite so keen  to sit there looking for his missing girlfriend in a rainstorm.

If she had any sense whatsoever she should stay hidden for the foreseeable future.Not the behaviour of a gentleman.

#1325 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Firestone Bay, Swimming1 Comment

Lonesome Bobbing is not my normal way of sea swimming, but it is not unheard of. Bobbing with the Bobbers is the normal way of things for safety and sociability.  Is it even bobbing if you are alone?

I wasn’t even truly alone on my lonesome bob. Two neighbours and a dog,  were there before me. And thank goodness they were because in an attempt to capture a pet portrait I dumped my keys in the sea.

I was so busy doing the constricted-undressing- in -public towel wrestle I didn’t even notice their loss. When Tim noticed the brightly coloured key cutters bands and rushed in to rescue them. The photo is a fake, post-processing tweakery. They dried out quickly on a warm step,retrieving them I noticed the vivid colours ,created by bright, morning- sun and my sunglasses at a really low angle, close to the incoming tide. I popped my sunglasses over the lens of my phone camera.

Using my sunglasses as a filter.

Blurry but interesting, this impromptu image needed a little tweakery, but I might make a little polaroid filter for my phone camera for these brightly sunshiny days.

Lonesome bobbing, thankfully not truly lonesome.

#645 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, SwimmingLeave a comment
Chestnut Swim 2023

For the past 3 years Hannah and her friend Emily have taken part in a charity swim to raise money for the Chestnut Appeal.

Although anatomically completely incorrect, Prostate health is close to the heart.

This year was made a little bit special by two grandchildren, there to support their Nona in her swimming adventure.

Cousins meet for the first time.

All the more special as the cousins live half a world apart.

Nona gets a first hug from a little person who lives a long way away.

Family reunions apart, a big swim was the main event.

Less than an hour after they set off. They were back.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/hannah-cornell-1689512599868?checkoutMode=Headless&reference=whatsap

#644 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, SwimmingLeave a comment
English Summer observed through a pub window.

Saturday evening,Hannah and her friend Emily have arrived in Kingsand ready for their sea swim to raise money for the Chestnut Appeal.

They have done this for the last three years. This year they are doing the Cawsand Swim.

An early evening gathering in a pub was required to check out the course.

Not particularly obvious but there are buoys out there marking the course which is horizontal to the beaches of Kingsand and Cawsand.

It is all looking pretty good after a stormy few days.

Tomorrow’s blog will be all about the beach action but this evening our biggest concern was how to get our dogs across the carpark without burning a single kilojoule of energy.

#638 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Stonehouse, Summer, Swimming2 Comments

Happy Solstice, 4:30 AM and the beach was quiet. Half an hour later and this whole beach was full of people who had had a fabulous early morning swim. Many of us will be back at 9:30 pm for the sunset swim. This was the warmest swim I have done since last summer.

Yesterday I hit peak procrastination. I had a painting to finish for an August exhibition I had every intention of spending the day on it but somehow was sidetracked by a painting that has waited nearly 10 years to be finished. The painting was for a specific place in the actual Old Mortuary, It was painted to hang in the stairwell and was not quite finished when our lovely builders hung it before I had put the finishing touches. It was in such an awkward place I never bothered to take it down to finish. Then we moved house and it found a new home. All the time hanging quite happily in its non finished state. I have no idea why yesterday became the day it was finished. I just whipped it off the wall and set about finishing it. Procrastination at its finest.

#245 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Swimming, YardeningLeave a comment

This was a day with an unexpected ending. Today was a yardening day. Almost a year since we exchanged an exposed but fertile country garden for a coastal, white painted, stone yard.  Yardening has been a huge surprise. Today the plan was to weed and tame the jungle that the yard has become, unexpectedly fertile too.

All went to plan, but with the temperature at 23 degrees it was quite the labour of love. A sea swim was suggested but the tide was not our friend. Then we planned a swim in a local outdoor pool. The website was decidedly wonky and ultimately we couldn’t book a session.  The alternative, an ice cream and some sunbathing was a good enough plan. Until we got too hot. Retreat into the house was timely in two ways. We really were too hot, but the curious twist was an email from the cranky website that said we had managed to book a swimming session.

We were very certain we hadn’t , but a cooling swim was exactly what we needed. Arrival at the pool confirmed the crankiness of the website. Apparently everyone who visited the webpage had been given swim sessions without payment. The pool was far from full so we did that old fashioned thing of buying two tickets and prepared for a dip.

Tinside Lido

This pool is probably very familiar to anyone in Britain who watches the BBC. This image is one of the regular infills between TV programmes. As you can see it was not very busy at all and we had a wonderful swim in the historic pool.

There was another lovely bonus, bright sunshine and recently cleaned 1930’s glass bricks in the shower area gave the most wonderful distorted, abstracted views of the pool.

A fine end to a busy day.

Pandemic Pondering #515

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Summer, sunshine, Swimming1 Comment

Summer seemed to get out of bed at a reasonable time of day this morning. August often disappoints, the good days outnumbered by those that do not quite hit the spot.

As Bilbo Baggins says to Gandalph in Lord of the Rings.

 “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”

Sun and warmth are the butter of summer and they have been so thinly spread, recently, that summer feels very similar to Mr Baggins bread. Nothing like as tasty and comforting as summers should. I fear arriving early on the morning of 24th of August is too late. A little autumn chill is hiding in the long shadows of this morning.

I was grateful that this location was a dog walk this morning and that I could keep my clothes on. Early morning swimmers braved the same waters that I dipped in last night. There is a biting edge when you submerge, the water temperature is dropping, almost a whole degree in a day yesterday. Hot drinks are required again after a swim, shocking behaviour, August is the time for iced latte not hot chocolate!

So August, one week to go, time to show us some of the warm stuff …

Pandemic Pondering#454

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Rituals, SwimmingLeave a comment

Summer solstice, the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere has been rather a damp squib. ( A squib is a small firework, a damp one does not go off. Thus a damp squib of a day fails to live up to expectation.) The dawn swim occurred with a backdrop of gently changing greys and raindrops landing on our salty faces. The Bobbers, of course, were a brightly coloured pod of swimmers all there to be in the water at sunrise to support the three Bobbers who were in the water to swim a kilometre for a local charity. Dry land supporters were also there. Visible sunrise, or not, the elite Bobbers raised just over £800 for local charity Barefoot Project.

https://www.barefoot.org.uk/

The gap between sunrise and sunset continued to be a damp and grey day but a solstice is a solstice and Bobbers who could not make the early morning dip commited to swimming at sunset.

The sun turned up just in time to set, like a friend who makes it to an agreed meeting five minutes before everyone else has to leave. Not one to just slip in quietly the sun was spectacular.

Even blessing the Madonna with a large coffee cup with some rainbow bathing, what a difference 16 hours makes!

Eventually only two Bobbers made both a sunrise and sunset swim.

But it was a day well lived.

Pandemic Pondering #398

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, Hugo and Lola, Swimming, Van LifeLeave a comment

The bright sunlight of Sunday turned this blog into a riot of blue and green. Starting at 8 am with vivid seaweed.

From the exact same location I could turn around to show you the sillouettes of the trees that were trimmed last week.

Its not only the trees that got a trim this week. Hannah also got a haircut this week so we are 25% tidy @theoldmortuary as Hugo and Lola can look pretty shaggy after only 4 weeks away from their salon visits.

The post swim dash to breakfast took us past this Ceanothus and this gorgeous door.

After a morning spent on human pursuits the dogos waited patiently for their turn, with a bit of a blue background.

A dog walk on a slightly different part of the coast found one more blue and green image.

So here we are, its Monday again.

Lets start the week with a splash!

Pandemic Pondering #397

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Hugo and Lola, Serendipity, SwimmingLeave a comment
Normal blogging service will resume later this morning. Its a swim lesson day and I haven’t even made the sandwiches!

So a late start for the blog but with the added bonus of some dog pictures. The stand out feature of this weekend has been the wind. A very brisk Easterly blowing into Plymouth Sound affecting everything weve done. Al Fresco Dining, Bobbing, and dog walking. Nothing I’ve produced photographically has shown the severity of the wind. Anecdotally Miss Lola was blown off her legs yesterday. A situation only remedied by a very tight cuddle. The swimming lesson outing required the van to keep Miss Lola on board and in a good mood.

Hugo was also not averse to a bit of van comfort while swimming lessons were affecting the quality of his Sunday morning.

Some outdoor activity was permitted in the morning schedule. Lola agreed to a pose that demonstrated the wind direction.

Hugo also attempted a similar pose but just ended up looking messy.

The most important part of the day was guarding the beach awaiting the return of the swimmers.