Tag: Firestone Bay

#1283 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, YardeningLeave a comment

The outside fireplace/barbque in our yard has only ever been used with an electric grill plate. I have often thought about using a fire log in it, but until this weekend have not put that thought into action.

The fireplace is an impressive erection ,  smoke should rise up a reasonable sized gap at the back and exit via the chimney. The fireplace may be a case of style over substance. Form and function are not quite aligned.

Artistic Impression © theoldmortuary

The reality did not quite match my imagination, my five year old flame log was quite impressive.

But the flames were lively and the smoke did not get drawn up the chimney,  there were some concerns from our yard visitors regarding the use of railway sleepers in the construction.

All was well, but today I took the precaution of lowering the shelving and moving things around to make the whole experience more relaxing.

The whole yard had a bit of a reorganisation at the same time. Definitely a sign that we are well and truly back in a normal British August. I dodged rain showers which was easier than dodging the blistering heat of our heatwaves. But now I really want to see how my changes look in sunshine. A normal British August will keep me guessing on when that will next happen.

#1279 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, Stonehouse, Summer, WordsLeave a comment
Firestone Bay

Heatwave 5/2026 has left Firestone Bay. Leaving the Bay and surrounding area with normal, unpredictable  August Summer Weather. This was the scene yesterday and the day before. The crowds of swimmers anxious to cool down have left the area. I had the water to myself for twenty minutes or so. Other bathers had just left and a few arrived as I left.

In a normal English Summer the bay would still be buzzing on a day like this. But 5 Heatwaves have made normal seem mediocre, lacklustre even.

More mediocrity.

Mediocre is not a word that is used often. It is one of those words that my synaesthetic brain loves.

Meaning neither good nor bad. It feels judgmental and not in a good way.

There are many things that I am pretty poor at doing. Doing them to a mediocre standard would be a considerable improvement. But if I were judged to have become mediocre that would not seem like a positive.

Good Enough is a phrase that feels similarly down beat when actually, for a lot of things , good enough is good enough.

Yesterday was  a little lacklustre, mediocre even, but good enough in its own way.

Who wouldn’t want a bay to themselves for a lunchtime swim.

#1278 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Firestone Bay, Hybrid Printmaking, SerendipityLeave a comment
Partial Eclipse 2026, work in progress.© theoldmortuary

It is just over a week since I bobbed during the partial eclipse with 9 other bobbers. At the time the experience was both peculiar and beautiful.  Peculiar because we swam for virtually the whole of the eclipse experience. Quite often with special Eclipse glasses which gave us a completely safe experience to view the eclipse in real time, but our vision  was limited to black and red vision of the black moon obscuring most of an orange sun . While our bodies were experiencing the sensations of the sea and our ears were hearing the happiness and exclamations of a bay, full of happy swimmers.

When we didn’t have the glasses on we were experiencing ever changing highly saturated colours that slowly darkened and changed as the moon crossed the sun. One of my Eclipse glasses visions was of sparks of light like golden diamond twinkles firing off the perimeter of the sun. I think caused by drops of sea water on my eyelashes or on the plastic lens of the eclipse glasses.

I knew I wanted to create an image of the experience, but which one?

Until I decided to throw caution to the wind and put all my recollections into one image. Not as mad as you might think for someone who worked in medical imaging. For example a CT scan image is made of many amalgamated pictures taken from lots of different angles at slightly different times.

My hybrid printmaking technique with photography and painted or mono printed images uses exactly that technique, modified a little.

Yesterday I had to get a bit of a wiggle on to get this image off to a printer for a test run Giclee print. It is still not the finished article but I will need to see how a print looks.

So that’s where the image is currently but what about my personal recollection?

Really one of the loveliest things I have done in a really familiar home environment. I still haven’t quite found the words to describe the experience. But I have found the many layers of a half decent picture.

#1275 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Devon, Serendipity, Stonehouse, Words1 Comment
Breakfast of figs, fresh from the tree. Strawberries were from a supermarket.

We seem to be on the backside of the fifth heatwave of 2026. We woke up to an entirely different feel this morning. More normal for an English summer, some overnight rain and cooler. Dull.

Since May my days have been planned around heat avoidance. Today there is no need to take Lola out for an early morning walk to avoid her getting over hot and her paws getting sore from baking pavements. Today all thoughts of sun drenched and over-saturated colours have faded to greige.

I walk past this sign almost every day of my Stonehouse life. It protects a car park of 11 spaces overlooking  one of the most interesting sea views in England.

Joy Sucking Car Park Sign

Every day I look at this sign and think. Surely this could be achieved in less dispiriting language and still deliver respectful and appropriate parking.

You can hear and feel the joy and colour being sucked out of peoples souls as they are confronted with this message in such a beautiful spot.

The Cafe itself does not suck joy. Drinks are served in ceramic mugs, the cheesy chips go down very well. Especially with fresh figs during a heatwave.

Their bacon butties ignite warmth in winter swimmers.

But that sign! Every day my heart slumps a little bit as I feel joy being extracted excruciatingly by words, harshly used, in a beautiful place.

#1271 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

It has been an exciting two nights in the sky for Plymouth. The British Firework Championships were over head. All enjoyed at one step removed from the comfort of our own backyard.

Home comforts

The first night we had had such a long swim under the light effects of nature during the eclipse it seemed too much to pop out to see fireworks in the same sky. But sitting in our yard we heard every pop and bang of the fireworks which were let off on a pier less than half a mile away from our yard. We had also committed to having a small granddaughte sleep over for the second night. So her parents could see the fireworks Diligently we watched the previous nights event shown on YouTube with her. She was thrilled and we could turn down the volume.

That was followed by the three of us  competing to do the best interpretive Firework Dance with sound effects in the half an hour before bed time.  Then as the second evening of fireworks started overhead and bangs and booms  filled the air we fretted that she would be woken up.

A love of fireworks can be complicated.

#1270 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn artLeave a comment
Working lunch.

The 5th heatwave of the year has slightly driven me indoors to start some post summer art projects early. The research and thinking/tinkering process has been ongoing for some time but yesterday was the first paper and pencil/paint  action.

But the heatwave drove the day and my daughter and granddaughter wanted to do a cool dog walk and then an even cooler dip in the tidal pool. I suppose I have never taken the time to sit on the edge of the tidal pool in peak summer and just enjoy it as a safe play area and people watching zone. I love it best when it is empty or has just one lone figure. 6 people as in this picture are way too many. Imust have cropped out 30!

The heatwave drove us to have a very continental lunch. Cheesy chips from a cafe and fresh figs from the tree on the tennis club.

I have no idea when my current arty project can be shared. Contemporary Witches could be the working title.

Quite a lot of witchery work was achieved yesterday. The tidal pool came into its own while I was ckearing up after the creative phase of the day. I submerged one of my very simplified water witches under the waters of the tidal pool. Giving myself an accidental pool witch.

©theoldmortuary, The Firestone Water Witch

I love the struggle of creating art, the struggle is where lovely accidents happen. In setting out on an actual project it seems I have found myself a side project. Heatwaves have a lot to answer for.

#1269 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing1 Comment
The 95% Eclipse Bobbers

10 bobbers bobbed together for the whole of this evening’s dramatic eclipse.

Proper protective specs were worn on  land and at sea. The colander was not so useful in the wet phase of the bob. It was a really special evening, beautiful colours as the eclipse developed. Sobering that none of us will be alive when the West Country see’s the next eclipse of such significance, in more than 70 years time. But that is for the future,  for now we have the happiness, on repeat, of gathering together regularly and on special occasions, talking too much , swimming a bit, eating cake and enjoying life.

What we saw through our specs but couldn’t photograph.  © Plymouth Post.

Novelty picture of the night.

#1264 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, SerendipityLeave a comment

I went to a friend’s  house earlier this week to assist her with picture placement in her house. I did the same thing a couple of years ago but no progress has been made at all. She is a talented photographer and has a good eye for artwork but is framing and hanging averse. Not an unusual problem .

We have had a week of domestic admin due to the loss of important documents. All found now but I also found our own unframed gallery of shame. See above.

I think in total there are 6 pictures to be framed, a mind blowing amount . But not as mind blowing as my friend’s gallery of unhung images. No wonder there was no progress in 2 years!

I took myself off to one of those out of town mega shop warehouses/ to choose some frames. I am always overwhelmed by big superstores in England. Let me out and about in one abroad and I am stupidly happy.

Such a bad idea… Oh the progress of the merchandising year. Summer products all in the reduced area, and looking very depleted. Halloween and Christmas all stocked up and ready to go. Love and extreme dislike all in the one place. Halloween, my particular bête noir is rebranded in this house as an autumnal festival. Pumpkins all the way! Frames are not seasonal, thank goodness I put on blinkers, focussed on my task and got out. I do have to return next week for two more frames but I know which areas to avoid.

A restorative swim with calm companions eased my overstimulated mind.

Summer is most definitely still with us.

And now to procrastinate less and get on with the framing. Or the planning of a framing session…

#1263 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Photographs, art, Words, Plymouth Sound, Plymouth, Stonehouse, Hybrid PrintmakingLeave a comment

Does every picture tell a story?

I think most do.

This one tells of the late summer clear up. All family guests have moved on to different holiday destinations and our home has eased back from peak occupation. The crocs belonging to three small girls are gathered in a bucket by the back door while the girls themselves are away on different holiday adventures.

Using a similar colour scheme I am trying to tell the story of a set of swimming steps that are much quieter this week now the heatwave has moved on.

I am at heart a story teller either with words or pictures.

A regular blog reader, who is familiar with these steps, said yesterday that I had made them look very posh. That was not the intention, but I agree. They may have been posh once upon a time but shabby shic is a better description now. Most of the time they are entirely tolerable and are regularly washed by incoming very high tides.

At night they can be a gathering place for  smokers of weed and men who like to do a wee. Not so posh then. Not so great as a swim destination either. Not  so great a picture.

But I don’t need to tell that story about these steps.

Years ago a little pair of discarded crocs by the back door of the actual Old Mortuary used to break my heart.   A small person and her family  had left us to live abroad. That would not have made a great story or a great picture.

3 pairs of crocs in a bucket is a much better story.

However in the interests of story telling I also wanted to show the earlier set of steps at the peak of the August heatwave. I am not interested in the crowds of people who used these steps recently just the steps as a metaphor for extreme atmospheric and radiated heat. Just too much heat.

The heat blistered out of the rocks at night. And the sea languidly lapping the steps, warmer than we have ever known. Not quite cooling enough perhaps. Oleaginous even.

A different colour scheme. A completely different story.

#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.