Tag: Firestone Bay

#1263 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Hybrid Printmaking, Photographs, Plymouth, Plymouth Sound, Serendipity, Stonehouse, WordsLeave 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.

#1260 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, Devils Point, Family, Firestone Bay, Serendipity1 Comment

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye.

Gathered together for a week in our house our granddaughters have gone to Austria. There is a plan for them to dance and pose on the Sound of Music Field, where the hills will be alive with an assortment of music. Chinese traditional tunes about mothers and the tunes from Frozen and Moana are more likely than The Hills being Alive.

With their departure there was, of course, increased domestic admin and a crack on with some postponed domestic paperwork. Domestic admin started early and was all on the washing line early. Grown up domestic admin of the paperwork variety had been allotted an hour but took nearer 3! We rewarded ourselves with a post high tide swim.

It occurred to me today that I never photograph our most used sea entry steps from the sea direction. Today the rocks were still wet and glistening from the lowering tide. Many shades of red, yellow and orange rock which beautifully demonstrate how Firestone Bay got its name.

Despite it being the first week of August the bay was quiet and we got a small sloping beach to ourselves for a half hour of sun worship. Then a quick swim back to these steps to dry off before walking home.

When I didn’t live by the coast there was always a poignant last visit to a favourite beach on any holiday.

This small bay is on my daily dog walk rota and I swim here most days in the summer and at least every week all year. I never have to think of any visit that it will be my last. Inevitably one visit, some time in the future a last visit will come

But after a week of small people in my bed the only last of the day is this.

No more small feet in my bed, until the next time.

#1256 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

Last night the bobbers celebrated their first Full Moonie. A naked swim at high-tide under a full moon, from a favourite, more secluded bay between two very busy bays.

Full Moonie

I had to shift the moon a bit, in the picture above, to line it up with the bobbers  but it was magnificent.

And just like that one women’s bucket list tick for her 60th birthday becomes a regular monthly habit for the intrepid bobbers.

#1350 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering, Words1 Comment
A marvellous place to muse or mull. Or even ponder

Yesterday was a musing or mulling kind of day. Nothing serious, just a delicate or sensitive situation, tennis club based that needed good handling. I was extremely lucky to get a favourite swimming spot to myself so I could mull or muse uninterrupted.

A good overnight brought me some clarity for that problem. But then trivial ponderings made me wonder why I had not called my blog ‘theoldmortuary muses’ or ‘theoldmortuary mulls’

theoldmortuary ponders follows on from Pandemic Pondering. That title obviously had a time limit but on a writing course I was advised to leave the pandemic behind, before it left me behind. It was also suggested that I make my blog more personal. theoldmortuary is my creative space and although a pseudonym that feels pretty personal, not for a moment did I consider dropping the word pondering. Mull would never have been chosen but muses might have done.

I do wonder if I have rather devalued the essence of a ponder by pondering such trivial, benign, repetitive or quite frankly flimsy thoughts on a daily basis.

Muse does seem slightly more appropriate but for now, pondering will be the thought process. Leaving musing and mulling for more serious thought processes.

Back to to the swim where I mulled or mused a tricksy tennis problem. From my ridiculously elite swimming spot I swam to the very popular beach.

And then I swam back. This is a truly trivial,benign,repetitive and flimsy ponder.

But musing and mulling also occured.

#1343 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Devils Point, Firestone Bay, Hybrid PrintmakingLeave a comment

My day was hijacked , first by a sound then an image and then later again by another image that just nagged away at me until I had sketched,painted and photographed it into existence. Until I was done.

Lola and I were out walking early this morning , almost from the start we were followed by the slightly worrisome and slightly exciting sound of someone hurrying with a suitcase on wheels. At one point we were overtaken by a woman who had laden herself with everything she would need for a day on the beach. She was a woman on a mission. As she sped past me I grabbed a quick photo which I have altered to anonymise . There was no beach, we were both walking at exactly high tide. She was way ahead of us and as I looked over the wall she was patiently waiting for some beach to appear. By the time we passed again, on our way back, she had claimed her spot on a tiny ribbon of wet pebbles.

She had unloaded and set up a one woman encampment. Sun lounger, parasols, cooler box and books. She was oiled up like a sausage on a barbeque . She was not alone, the thin strip of pebbles had grown and she had neighbours, but none who had hauled quite so much stuff.  When I got home I decided to donate her my empty beach of yesterday.

It was the least I could do. I had an interesting afternoon sketching her arriving on an empty beach then watercoloured and did a pen and ink sketch before sticking them all together digitally.

The Early Firestoner ©theoldmortuary

Sometimes I just have to get an image out of my system. I hope she had a great day, she really deserved it.

#1342 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, StonehouseLeave a comment
©theoldmortuary

Wednesday is hump day. I have the hump, or the grumps with a side order of entitlement. This week has not been kind. What I needed was an early morning walk with Lola and a swim at high tide from any one of the three beaches near my home. Tough weeks require some head clearance and swimming is my place to do that. That is my entitlement in a nutshell.

All three beaches had large black dogs off their leads with no direct supervision from their swimming owners. Not to my taste or Lola’s. Both Lola and Hugo were attacked by the same large black dog on two different occasions. Lola has a long but not specific memory. She takes a very dim view of  all large black dogs, on her behalf I exercise caution around large black dogs off leads. To find one on each of the swimming areas was dispiriting to say the least.

I settled into the arches above the middle swimming spot and tried to enjoy a three day old Pain au Chocolat from Lidl. While they are delightful fresh from the Lidl oven they are like old boots 3 days later. The hump/grumps were not resolved.

Even worse the two women using the middle swim spot took forever to get in the water and their dog was all over the place. There is only a narrow entry way to the sea.

Me in happier, more privileged swim times

So I took my humpy grumpy self off to Tranquilty bay where the large, free- running dog had disappeared. I had a fabulous swim and Lola basked in the sun on my towel. Afterwards, as I walked past the middle swim zone the two women and their dog were just climbing the steps to leave. Without a backward glance Lola and I were down the steps and swim/ basking #2 happened.

Can you believe this? The last beach, as I walked past was completely empty. #3 swim/ bask occured.

The hump/grumps are not completely rinsed out of my system and nothing can rejuvenate a three day old Lidl Pain au Chocolat.

But with patience the black dogs will leave the area both metaphorically and in real life. I just have to give these things some time.

The black dogs were real. It is only as I wrote this that I realised that sadness can also be described as ‘ the black dog’

#1341 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing1 Comment
July Heatwave 2026

Sad news from our iddylic swimming/ bobbing spot. Over the weekend a local woman died from a heat related medical event at Tranquility Bay. Flowers from the swimming community absolutely reflect the vibrancy of the people who regularly swim here and who will be feeling her loss.

#1340 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment
Welcome to the Weekend Heatwave

Firestone Bay was popping this weekend. Early dog walks to avoid the heat. High tide swims to mitigate the heat. Evening dog walks to avoid the heat again. + A piece of outstanding good luck.

Early dog walks
Cooling off at High tide
An industrial style mirror.

On one of our walks we found this mirror in a yard give away. It was very hot to carry such a heavy thing home  so we hid it in a bobbing friends garden and drove around to collect it in the cool of the early morning. It is going to live on a wall in our yard.

For now it is propped at ground level but it will be mounted so that it reflects the Olive Tree.

The Olive tree is also planted in a pot that a neighbour gave away. Serendipitous finds.

Alongside the heat of the day a feisty wind sprung up this afternoon . My afternoon swim or dip was spent in a large rockpool. I only ever bother with it in the winter months usually . But today with the heat and waves pouring on it was like a salty jacuzzi.

#1532 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Devils Point, SerendipityLeave a comment

Sunday Serendipity in Stonehouse. The only plans for the day were an early swim.  Demonstrating the things  I really missed during the skinny dip of last week.

#1529 theoldmortuary ponders. Part 1

My gloves! I dislike getting crampy hands and forearms when swimming so red palmed , cocktail length swim gloves are the essential essential for a swim. But skinny dipping is an all or nothing activity so for one night only the gloves were off.

But after the swim we fancied a walk and there was a Food and Craft market close by, where our favourite London coffee is served and where sausage and bacon baps might have caught our attention.

Then it was just a short walk to watch some more Gig racing.

With the perfect viewpoint to see the finish line and see some early victories.

How often is it this easy to watch an International event?

Our eyes were particularly peeled for one team.We  used to both row for Rame.

Our bums have been in these seats at the World Championships a while ago. The blisters are epic, and unforgetable.

Soon enough we had to turn for home, even more dull yardening jobs to be done before the weekend was done with us. And more Gig racing on TV when the sun was just too much for us.