Category: Tamar Valley

#1177 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, Tamar Valley3 Comments

There has been a touch of tulip mania in our house over the last three days. Bunches of birthday flowers arrived and filled our available vases.

And then a new vase was gifted. A plump pair of buttocks just screaming to take on the overload from our existing tulip supply. Tulips are my favourite thing to photograph in late January. Normally they take over from daffodils  but this year, despite us living in the corner of the country where daffodils first grow we have yet to buy a bunch. 80% of cut flower daffodils sold around the world come from Cornwall.

It was only in late December that I realised that in all my yard care of last year I had failed to replant our bulbs in the autumn. My mind taken up with climbing plants and trellis.

With a house full of tulips my weather wish for today is sharp shafts of sunlight to show them off in photographs. The ones illustrating this blog were all taken with artificial light and then tweaked. Let’s hope for better light today.

#29 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Tamar ValleyLeave a comment

Another tale of the riverbank from Tuesday. This is the rail bridge linking the Bere Peninsular with a suburb of Plymouth. On this occasion it is viewed from a boat, for 20 or so years I could see this view just a few steps from my home. A long time ago I painted it during my Fine Art Foundation course, it is impossible to tell from this old photo but it is on a super chunky frame that I built myself.

Once again this week this is a late blog. We had a morning filled with friends and family and an afternoon filled with wallpapering.

A Sunday well filled but not with blogging!

#28 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn abstract photography, Tamar ValleyLeave a comment

Waking up on a clear November morning prompted me to share three boats from the Tuesday river trip. The acidic yellow of this one almost makes me want to blink against its brightness. A proper wake up and take notice colour.

Not that we needed anything to wake us up this morning, a pocket call from Hong Kong woke us for a brief conversation about trampolines and needing a wee with our granddaughter. Urgency, and necessity, made the call short and sweet and left us awake enough to enjoy a cup of tea and the sound of a winter dawn chorus. The call was a video call and another boat on the river fairly accurately depicts what our side of the call looked like.

Last night was firework night, when most of Britain ‘celebrates’ the attempt in 1605 to blow up the House of Lords as part of a plan by Catholics to overthrow Protestant James the First and replace him with a Catholic head of state. Normally I love fireworks but post supper ennui and a genuine wish to just quietly sit this one out, won over. The first year in a new house made us slightly hesitant to leave the dogs at home while we headed out to watch fireworks, not knowing how much flashing and banging was happening at home. The answer was loads of banging and no flashes, the dogs were untroubled by any of it. Leaving this calm blog untroubled by pictures of flashy pyrotechnics. Just calm boats snoozing in bright autumnal sunshine.

#26 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Tamar ValleyLeave a comment

The better late than never blog. This morning I got lost in a world of responding to complaints letters, to an organisation I do some work for and ordering wallpaper. One distinctly more pleasurable than the other, then the sun came out and it would have been rude not to have been out in it. So here we are…

More tales of the river banks from my Tamar cruise of Tuesday. It seems to me that regular readers of this blog will have seen the locations in these pictures many times but always from the perspective of me having my feet firmly planted on one bank of the Tamar or the other. Tuesday, unusually found me sailing up and down the Tamar. The top picture is of course the Tamar Road Bridge and the Albert Rail Bridge two structures that link Cornwall with Devon and by extension the rest of the world. As best I can these pictures are in order as we sailed past them, some locations photographed better on the way up and others in the setting sun on the way back. First up is Smeatons Tower on the Hoe.

The picture below is our swimming beach, 5 mins away at cruising speed. Tranquility Bay at just after midday at  high tide.

Last night we were swimming there while Miss Spearmint a,newly resident seal, was having a supper of very fat fish just off the steps. I’m not sure any of us were aware that very fat fish swam anywhere near us! Below is the Royal William Yard where at least one of our daily dog walks takes place.

The next picture is of part of the waterfront of Devonport Royal Naval Dockyard. Not somewhere anyone can casually walk a dog. Some of these buildings are High Security, Ministry of Defence areas.

Maybe that is enough for one blog. Allowing even more tales of the River Banks later.