Category: walking

#1108 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, walking4 Comments

Quite by accident my birthday became a bit of a Royal event.

To start with I celebrated by having a bath, I am not sure I remember when I last had a bath . I was reminded by a friend that Queen Victoria only bathed once a year, regardless of whether she needed it or not.

Then my breakfast destination of Marias Cafe in Borough Market had a picture of King Charles having a cup of tea with Camilla at Marias. The cheek of it, I already share my birthday with the King , our breakfast destination was always a little more exclusive and a little rougher round the edges than normal Royal destonations.

We hit Borough market early and enjoyed it without huge numbers of people. If offered the opportunity to do anything in London I doubt many people would choose to replicate their morning and evening commute from their last job. However, my commute was so interesting, but like all commuters, I couldn’t give it the time it deserved. Praising myself when I completed the journey in record time.

We took four hours and 10,000 steps to cover the same route that I habitually did in about twenty minutes especially on the inward journey to work. We were curious wanderers, and our curious wander will fill two blogs not one.

For starters please read this link for the market history.

https://boroughmarket.org.uk/market-blog/borough-market-began-with-a-bridge/

1000, years of history written by a much more competent narrator than me.

My relationship with Borough Market began as it rose like a Phoenix from a sad decline in the 1970’s and 80’s.

In the eighties I was living in Brighton on the South Coast and my commute into London by train,for courses, delivered me to London Bridge Station. I was used to passing a wholesale fruit and veg market as I walked to and from nearby London Teaching Hospitals.

In the late 90’s I started to study Fine Art and noticed that the previously down-at-heel market had a bright new buzz about it as I walked past on my trips to galleries and art institutions. And so began my tourist years. Joyful weekend visits to a bustling market filled with food and humans. My relationship with the market may have stayed at the frantic weekend tourist level were it not for an unplanned career change while I was living in London and the market was just a twenty minute train ride away.

I would happily have worked until retirement at University College, London, but fate had other ideas. My department was moved to a huge Cardiac Department at Barts Hospital in the City of London. My commute swapped from Central London, not far from Oxford Street and Marylebone, to the City. London Bridge once again became my station of choice, and I experienced the market’s quieter moments from six in the morning until midnight as I commuted for changing shift patterns and on-call commitments. The reason we decided to go early yesterday, we had the dogs with us and the crowds at busier times would not be good for them.

It is only in writing this blog that I have created a chronological understanding of my 40 year relationship with this   fabulous place. I will be back at Christmas at full on tourist season, either way it is a very special place.

#705 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn walking, weather1 Comment

November blows in on a storm. Yesterday was dog grooming day. A very recent storm had damaged the road that would normally take me to Wembury beach after I dropped them off for a couple of hours of pampering. The weather was already pretty unpredictable so I had packed a raincoat, a large beach towel and a tin containing greetings cards. I was determined that my dog-free hours were going to be well spent. Weather and the tide, not fate was going to be the deciding factor on how I spent my morning. At the point that the beach access road was closed I took off, up steep valley lanes that were covered in slippery, damp fallen leaves. After two hair raising reversing events I found a car park at a place called Wembury Point.

As I arrived the heavens opened which negated any value my raincoat had, the beach towel was already useless as I was now very many metres up from sea level. The tin of greetings cards it would have to be. So here we have it, confession time.

I am dreadful at sending out Christmas cards in a timely fashion. I have made all the excuses in the world and often opt for the donating to charity option. None of that helps my guilt as the cards from more diligent people drop through our letterbox in December. This year I made a plan. I have bought Charity Christmas cards and some note cards. The note cards can be written at any time, no pressure no deadlines and no excuses. Inside I have popped a small Christmas card bearing the words ‘This may be your 1st Christmas card of 2023’

Creating a specific tin with everything that I need has transformed my task. If I know I am going to be hanging around doing nothing more than scrolling through my phone, I grab the tin and write notes to friends and family. Yesterday 12 cards were written and posted in the time it took for a storm to pass.

I even had one of those moments when a forgotten address just floated into my head when I wasn’t actually thinking about it.

With an hour or so left the rain had cleared enough for me to do a clifftop walk. The area where I was walking was formerly a naval establishment called H.M.S Cambridge. Only a small radar station remains and the land around is being gently returned to nature. The groundworkers making the transformation are not human.

Dartmoor ponies have been moved to Wembury point to gently graze the area back to a more natural state. When I set off on my walk they were all hard at it. But on my return a lunchtime rest had prevailed.

Not only ponies, when I returned to the car park two large refuse collecting lorries had parked up for their crews to enjoy a break with beautiful views. This was absolutely in my favour. As they started their engines to leave I decided to follow them down the narrow lanes. No awkward reversing stand-offs with oncoming drivers on slippery lanes. Nobody expected two refuse lorries to reverse and so, as a convoy of three, we returned to civilisation easily with other people backing up.

Two groomed dogs, 12 notes with cards written and a good walk. Time to get on with real life.

#446 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn walkingLeave a comment

The sun was up yesterday and I was in Wembury. My feet must have sensed this and were reluctant to wear socks. It was a dog grooming day so I had the beach to myself while the fluffs were being pampered. The last time I was here was in the midst of a really cold snap of weather, the overnight frost had stayed well past noon. Socks were definitely needed. Yesterday walking the coastal path was a bit unpleasant with cold toes but wandering bare foot on the beach was not so bad at all.

Usually, at Wembury, there is a splendid cafe almost on the beach but January is the time small businesses take a break. There was nowhere to warm up, once my toes had decided that being liberated from shoes and socks, and paddling in a river and the sea was not the smartest move in the long term.

The actual plan for the morning was to finish my book club book which required all my concentration just to keep a grip on the characters. With my feet wrapped in a blanket I stepped into the warm but hazardous world of Cyprus in 1974.

With my reading mission accomplished, I collected two clean and fragrant dogs from the groomers and returned to the real world of January life. I am not a fan of January. Like the back end of the beach, it is strewn with unremarkable stuff that probably needs clearing up.

#204 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, walking, wild swimming3 Comments

Bluebell woods can be tricksy to photograph effectively. This was my best shot of the day in some new to me woods. New England Woods near Ivybridge. The river Yealm runs through the woods and will become a freshwater swimming location very soon. Alongside the bluebells the Ransomes, or Wild Garlic were bright and white and happy to pose for a phone camera.

Not that they would have been quite so happy to pose if they realised that a bit of wild garlic is a wonderful thing when added to roast potatoes.

Unlike bluebells the wild garlic were easy to capture.

And the birdsong was equally compliant.

Pandemic Pondering #323

On By theoldmortuary.designIn walking, wild swimmingLeave a comment

Storm Darcy brought windchill factors of -3 to -5 . Beyond that the weather was gorgeous and while doing two walks, that have been in many blogs, the bright winter sunshine gave Plymouth the look, if not the feel of Greece.

Leviathon

The Leviathon was looking pretty sparky this morning. While a doughnut from a 400 year old bakery fueled our 10,000 steps.

Just having my hands out for long enough to eat my share of the doughnut was enough to lose all feeling in my fingers but a huge positive was that the jam was so solid we didn’t end up wearing it.

The harbour looked Mediterranean.

And ultimately dogs and humans found a sheltered beach to bask and scamper.

Morning walk done, it was time to return home for a few hours of domestica before the next little dose of Mediterranean sunshine.

Hugo and Lola wait patiently for the return. No chance of a 10,000 step walk this evening after the ‘Bobbers’ have had a swim but warm snuggles in front of the fire is a great substitute in the middle of February.

They don’t have to wait too long for the ‘bobbers’ to return.

A day to lift the spirits!

Pandemic Pondering #304

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, walkingLeave a comment

Storm Christoph shaped our 10,000 step exercise hour today. We walked from Victoria Park to Mutton Cove via the 18th Century Richmond Walk. Ordinarily this walk is a heady mix of beautiful seascapes and a mix of marine and industrial landsapes. Today the greige of a wet and foggy pre-storm made scenic pictures a pointless exercise so we concentrated on Street Art and man-made embelishments to our route. Contrariwise the first picture is of King Billy our halfway point turnaround.

The reason for the slightly odd order of pictures is the unbelievably grim, greige weather. On the return walk it was easier to see and stand still with the weather at our backs. The next three picures show a man made structure being taken over by the sea and nature and then being recontrolled but not reclaimed by humans once again.

Next a lovely palimpsest of heavy iron doors, paint, rust and graffiti caught our attention next.

Followed by a lone tag on an old wooden gate.

Then a colourful flourish to the end of our walk in the tunnel beneath the Stonehouse Bridge.

Not a greige image in sight. A modern miracle on a day like today.

Pandemic Pondering #295

On By theoldmortuary.designIn walkingLeave a comment

#351!!!! #351!!! 14 days or 2 weeks to go to #365 which if Iwas a true daily blogger might mark a year of blogging about a pandemic. The truth of course is giddier than that. #1 was written on the 17th March 2020, somehow I am adrift by 52 days.

If I get time, and with another lockdown ongoing I might, I will try and find where those extra blogs slipped in. I suspect early enthusiasm may have thrown extra blogs in when I thought this was a short term thing. Regular readers will know that daily blogging was never a long term plan. Covid restrictions and complications have extended the end point of daily blogging, I may never stop now, I rather hope the title can change soon.

On with todays blog, based on a very regular walk. We left home in thick fog to do some essential shopping for some friends who have been shielding since March 2020. Our destination was an artisinal bakers and beyond getting our 10,000 steps I had no expectations of the walk but very briefly the fog lifted before the days greige descended and I got two shots with a lovely still tide.

This picure works whichever way you look at it. Which is just as well as there are no pictures of the baked goods from the artisinal bakery. I dont know how that happened ! Instead of a trio of Eccles cakes I can offer a red fishing boat. You cant eat fishing boats!

P.s I’ve checked my numbering . Its going to take a day or so to sort out. I am onto it. It was my old foe dysnumeracy, coupled with my dislike of prompts. The numbering is now going to seem a little idiosyncratic as some blogs relate to their numbers but beyond the slog of changing the numbers no harm is done. These blogs are hardly likely to see the light of day for anyones research beyond my own.