There was a planned blog for today, but then gorgeous sunshine, on our early morning dog walk, and this descriptive sign, knocked the other blog off the page. The sign is actually a pub sign but describes exactly the route of our walk.
Today was a chore day, random jobs etc. But we knew the weather was going to be fab, so an early morning dog walk was planned for the start of the day.
Plymouth Sound has recently been designated the first British Marine Park.
After a year or so of no obvious changes we are beginning to see things happening. A fair bit of building work, scaffolding and construction paraphernalia obstructs some views.
No perfect view of the 1930’s Lido currently.
But the sunshine gave us lots of visual treats.
And so after lovely views we achieved the away from home chores. Then some Olympic excitements. Mountain Biking and Hockey. Soon to be followed by yardening in full sun. Sunny day Sunday
Another swim spot called 9 bobbers to the water yesterday. After a few days of grim weather our usual dipping zone was packed with swimmers eager to put the rainy days behind them. Tranquility Bay was anything but tranquil.
This nearby swimming area can easily accommodate 9 or 10 swimmers and all our paraphernalia. It is a picturesque spot with arches and seats cut into the rocks.
Trippy editing
It is a favourite place for people to enjoy just taking in the views and sometimes enjoying some weed.
Trippy photo editing for today.
We were lucky the whole area was available to us at just the moment we needed it. A few realistic images follow.
But why let reality get in the way of a good blog.
As you can see from the altered image below this area is just a few steps further west from Tranquility Bay.
Curiously the current was very strong yesterday and tried to sweep us all back to our usual bobbing area . Mother Earth wooshing us back to where we should be.
It’s been a week of damp,grey days and yesterday was the dampest greyest. I found a two year old photograph of a watercolour depicting mussels to illustrate a greyish post.
The problem of the week has been the admin of a club I belong to. The problems are not matters of life or death but goodness they do take up some time. Much of the admin of clubs is constructive leading to a useful outcome.
Quite a lot is ‘ Niffnaff’ and some is people management, not always in a good way.
Real mussels hiding on a painting of mussels.
Sometimes problems are hiding in plain sight. This week the big problem of the week was caused by Testosterone and Ego. A clever script writer could write a drama or comedy set in committees in Britain, maybe elsewhere too. Where the best efforts of many are thwarted by an abrasive and/or disruptive individual, sometimes individuals. Although this week’s problem was male derived, women can also be egostic and disruptive in the same setting.
But with enough effort resolutions can be found and using the same mussel analogy. People working well together can move clubs, organisations and indeed whole countries forward.
For someone who celebrates serendipty and embraces the unexpected, I also love predictive Apps on my phone. Mostly weather related and yet predictions cannot always mitigate outcomes.
Despite this gloomy image from my new favourite weather app. Each morning I wake up and go to the Norwegian Meteorological Institutes Weather App just to see how my day might go. Even on gloomy days their predictions are more visually pleasing than other weather apps.
I have had to leave the house and walk, in rain, 3 times before 10:30 in the morning. So predictions can only inform but not always alter how the day will go.
Weather is one thing but actual life is quite another. If only there was an accurate Crystal Ball App. Yesterday’s predictions would have suggested an intimate tête-à-tête with a horse. See top image. But as no such App exists this was a complete surprise to me.
Me and horses are not a thing and yet somehow, even without a Crystal Ball App, I suspect horse encounters are going to be more frequent events.
Yesterday, I managed to tackle all admin work while Hugo enjoyed a longer walk without him needing pain relief. It was a productive day with a refreshing sea breeze as I balanced work and caring for Hugo. This was my working-from-home location during one of his rest periods.
I suspect Hugo is loving the attention of the last week since he hurt his back. My route yesterday around the harbours of Plymouth is one of his favourites because there are many cafes that he approves of. Yesterday we chose a cafe themed towards bikers with engines.
Predictably their dog biscuit offering is fairly butch. Far too challenging for fluffs with small mouths, but the industrial concrete floor soon turned a bulldog style biscuit into something a poodle could nibble at.
The slower pace of this week’s walks gave me a moment of contradiction yesterday. Despite walking past and walking into this old building on the edge of Sutton Harbour, many times, I had never read the blue plaque.
The Custom House was built in 1586 or round about. The time when Plymouth was at its zenith as a Pirate port.
Usually when I see old doors I like to romanticise about the people who have passed through them but certainly I cannot imagine too many pirates saying,
” Have you seen the new Customs House, we must pop in there on our way to the bars and whore houses, when we dock”
” I just cannot enjoy myself and really let go until my Import Tax is up to date”
That must have been quite the job to have in Elizabethan Plymouth. Everyone strolling right past pretending they haven’t seen your open door and welcoming toothless smile.
No playing Wordle in a quiet moment.
Just lots of quiet moments.
It is somewhat ironic that these two information boards are just a few paces from the old custom house.
The things I get to ponder on restorative, slow, dog walk days.
I was reacquainted with this painting that I sold 5 years ago. It was called ‘Return of the Native’ because it is a close-up of Cookworthy Knapp. A hilltop cluster of trees, close to the border of Devon and Cornwall, on the A30 travelling West. The trees are known as ‘Nearly Home Trees’
I say reacquainted because I never really knew it well. It was delivered to the gallery as soon as it was dry. It is about a metre square. It was unsold half an hour before the exhibition closed, but at the very last minute a woman rushed in to buy it. I always forget about this painting because I knew it for such a short time, and I have another one of the same subject that resolutely fails to sell whenever I put it out in the public domain.
I know that paintings can take their own sweet time to find their forever homes but I was a bit shocked at how easy it is to forget one that sells immediately.
The strange thing is that cards of this design sell really well. Art is a funny world. The link below is about the trees.
We’ve just had the most amazing weekend filled with gatherings and joy. Four of our beloved family members arrived safely from the airport, despite the chaos of an I.T. outage. It is the beginning of a golden phase for our family, with everyone finally in the same time zone. We were hoping to spend some quality social time in our yard, but the weather had other plans – nonstop rain filled the weekend. Nevertheless, we made the most of it and created fun and laughter together.
But cousins who normally spend their time half a word apart are united waiting for the rain to stop.
Or share their lunch offerings.
Friends gathered at our house this weekend too and I was madly British and insisted on cooking in the yard because that has been the plan. The outdoor grill perched on a table in the yard, but near a kitchen window. The food, both grilling and steaming in the rain.
There were also moments when we weren’t in gathering mode and I could read a weekend newspaper, when I discovered that my obsession with weather forecasts and weather Apps is widely shared. A quick look at my home screen on my phone shows that I have 3 apps and I follow two local weather forecasting Facebook pages not so much for the actual weather as neither cover where I live but for their knowledgeable chit chat.
KernowKent
One day I might get a weather station of my own to chit-chat about. I could call it ‘Pondering Precipitation’
We also had a hybrid friends/family gathering. Four grandparents gathered in the same space and not a single small person in sight.
Not the sun-baked July weekend we anticipated but joyous in many different ways.
The trouble with bowls of cherries is currently my pondering mind. If I could content myself with just eating the things rather than pondering them. Why is searching for the best ‘Cherry Picking’, or losing virginity to lose your cherry.
Why cherries?
After a fruitful google search I would say that sometimes metaphors and symbolism can all get a bit twisted and inexplicable. Far far easier on Sunday to say…
Blog 982 might have suggested that I am not completely a cat lover. Historically I was very much a cat-lover but I feel that it is perhaps not in my community’s best interest to have pets that defaecate and pee in other people’s gardens. My cats have also been far better at catching birds than mice which is also not good for the environment.
My first ever cat was a Siamese an intense learning experience in cat owning. Were I ever to own a cat again, my first choice would be a Siamese and it would have to be a house/flat cat.
The cat above is Harry, my second choice of cat style, a ginger moggy. He looks exactly like Henry who was his forerunner and nothing like Muppet who is an extremely long haired ginger cat who at 20 still lives with my ex-husband on a cliff in Cornwall.
Then of course there is my pun cat from Brixton who crops up in blogs.
There have been many other much-loved, non-ginger and non-Siamese cats in my life. So why after just two concurrent dogs in my life I am team dog these days.
Love is the thing, I am a needy human. The love I share out is generously given but I need it reliably returned and cats just don’t have that capacity. Their love is entirely self centered. No cat has ever looked at me as if I am the centre of their universe.
Hugo is on limited walking for a few days. He got over excited at a friend’s house and has tweaked his back. Just like a human with a bad back he needs rest, pain relief and moderate exercise.
I know which walk takes half an hour and because this blog prides itself on the repetition of normal life, I took some sunny photos on my circuit yesterday.
It is bin day and this is a fine example of how camouflage works.
Our morning walk often has military men, carrying weapons doing training runs. This is so normal that the dogs pay no attention. We are fortunate that we live near the barracks and the men running past are fragrant adverts for mens grooming products. Not so much if I catch them on the way back.
Low tide at the beach is not the most scenic shot.
But the next shot also shows how well camouflage works.
With my back to the sea we head down Hutong Lane towards the Royal William Yard and a series of harbours.
Then a quick left onto some grass and to the first harbour.
Then we follow a boardwalk on the edge of a second harbour back towards the entrance of the Royal William Yard.
Maybe at this point I should do a little catch up on my pondering.
Ponder #1The efficacy of Camouflage.
#2 is more complex. Some babies are born with a rare condition where their heart is not fully enclosed by their ribs.
The Hutong Cafe is outside the Royal William Yard which is a thriving mixed use commercial hub with many cafes and restaurants.
The Hutong used to be closed on Tuesdays which is when this ponder first took hold. On Tuesdays this regular walk felt incomplete. The small cafe outside the yard sets the tone for the entrance and experience of the very grand, Royal William Yard, RWY. Recently the Hutong opened on Tuesdays, making everything feel right 7 days a week. Which gave me a spontaneous moment of clarity. The beating heart of the Royal William Yard is actually just outside. Aha, my useless information brain kicked out.
Ectopia Cordis!
Which is what I think every time the cafe has loads of customers. Many fresh from sea swimming, some mamils/mammals (Middle-aged men in Lycra). People who still go into the office within the RWY. People having work meetings in the sun.
Ponder #2. Ectopia Cordis.
Ponder #3 came from my earlier work on our little yard and the guns carried by the men in camouflage. Guns are a very rare sight in England.
I have been following yard or container growing pages on Instagram. A contributor yesterday suggested improving security when there is a rear access point. I read the article with interest as the rear doors on our yard are definitely a project for the future. The simple plan was to increase the length of the screws holding the hinges of the door to the frame. All well and good I thought until the final sentence.
” A longer screw will give you additional time to arm yourself if someone tries to break in”
The contributor was from the U.S and, if I am honest, provided me with the most unusual yard/yardening advice I have ever read.
Ponder #3 I will stick with the shorter screws and offer a cup of tea , or run away.
And that concludes our very regular half an hour dog walk.
theoldmortuary.design 