Tag: Firestone Bay

#984 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn dog walks, Yardening1 Comment

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.

#983 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Colour, Serendipity2 Comments

Another day of painting white walls white or waiting for white paint to dry. I was painting a stairwell in the yard that drops from yard level down to a rear service lane and our garage. Not in the original painting schedule for June. But part of the extended, aspirational plans now the yard looks so fabulous in bright white. If a two graves were dug end to end that would describe my working space.  Hugo helpfully rested on the top level, inspecting and encouraging.

The biggest challenge was not brushing any part of me against the freshly painted walls in such a confined space. Hugo had no such qualms and is now a white dog tipped with bright white  enhancements.

Our lunchtime walk took us past very similar walls with a much more naturalistic appeal.

All of the stone used in this area would have been quarried extremely locally. The original Quarry boundary is 20 yards from our front door. I have qualms of guilt about painting such an ancient natural building material but previous owners made that decision a long time ago. The grubby white I am painting over covers a very strange colour choice. A sort of pinky orange. Texas Adobe walls is my closest colour reference. One external yard wall remains in this dubious shade.  Another addition to the extended, aspirational wall painting schedule.

Adobe is a fabulous colour choice in Texas and other places with extremely harsh sunlight and where the colour is naturally occurring. Not so great in South-West England.

Sharp Shadows in Stonehouse.

Whilst not exactly a ponder, here is an unrelated fact.

Adobe Walls is the site of a historic battle in Texas!

My relationship with the colour of Adobe walls is much less blood-soaked. Two of my favourite women artists had studios in Mexico and New Mexico and used the colour often in their later works. I always rather fancied being an artist in that environment.  Not that I will be rushing out any time soon to replace my newly pristine white walls with Farrow and Ball, Red Earth.

That particular fantasy cannot be lived comfortably in Devon.

Meanwhile a quick romp through my colour theory books gives me a whole family for Adobe walls to live with.

So much blooming nonsense to fill my mind whilst painting walls white.

#975 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing1 Comment

The bobbers are late getting to our regular Wednesday evening swimming habit. Maybe only a few weeks late. Most years we tend to start in early June. The tide was set well for an 8pm dip. And with no forethought at all I had called the bob for the exact time the England football team were playing a televised semi-final match. A good result for England as they won and a very good result for the bobbers who got a whole glorious seascape to themselves. Moments like this are a real privilege, we could swim out a bit and catch the evening sun. Hugo and Lola could sniff the incoming tide and fish for seaweed without irritating anyone. They do not usually come to a bob. Bobbers who drove could use nearly empty roads . It was a win-win kind of evening. If there was a chink of gloom it is that the water has not really warmed up to normal July levels and there were less bobbers than normal,but everything else was perfect.

#968 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Stonehouse1 Comment

Up early this morning to vote, and hopefully change the political colour in this country. I am 66 years old. If this election goes the way it is predicted then for the first time in my voting life I will actually have voted for the party that goes on to form the government.  This is for geographical reasons, I have moved about a bit. I have often had to vote tactically and have on occasions voted for a successful  and effective local M.P. But it shows the weakness of our first past the post system that for nearly 50 years my votes have felt impotent and pointless beyond local results.

Being up with the lark was surprisingly social for me and the dogs.

But, being greeted, on the harbourside by this enthusiastic, swimming-sheepdog slightly dampened my early morning joie de vivre. In her defence she was spooked by a drone powered camera. Presumably getting picturesque shots for news bulletins.

I hope that is the only dampening of my political spirits that occurs over the next 24 hours.

#967 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, dog walks, Royal William Yard2 Comments
©ATM

During my morning dog walk I popped into an exhibition at Royal William Yard (RWY). It is Shark Month at Ocean Studios. There are loads of lovely Sharky images, but on a bright morning this one was the only one not glazed and not suffering from loads of reflections. The website of the artist is below.

https://atmstreetart.com/

In the cafe there was also a really cute collection of bits and pieces left at low tide near to RWY.

I particularly liked these little bits with text on.

As I regularly poke about at low tide I was quite jealous, I never find anything with words on. 

But then on my walk home I had a moment!

The tide had delivered me a cracked and grubby plectrum. With words on it.

A freebie advertising gears for Mountain bikes.

Here’s the moral dilemma of the day. Do I donate to the communal exhibition of tidal finds? Or does a grubby plectrum start my own collection of mudlarking treasures with text on.?

© ATM

Me and a shark with beady eyes. One more hazardous than the other.

#963 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing1 Comment
©Gill Bobber

Funny things happen at our bobbing sessions. Yesterday we took part in some smelling research. Luckily for me and my ailing/failing sense of smell it was an early morning swim when my sense of taste and smell are at their patchy best. I wasn’t able to identify any of the smells but they did still evoke memories of place and time which is exactly what the research was about.

©Debs Bobber

What they actually were is a complete mystery.

My very early swims in Greece last week, 5:30 am, gave us the absolute best of Basil, Oregano, Geranium and Rose from the gardens of our temporary home. There wasn’t really a sea smell but the Flisvos ( sound of lapping waves) added to the early morning pleasures. If I were ever to run a sanctuary for burnt out humans it would be by the sea on a Greek Island and early morning swimming and walking through herb gardens would be essential therapy.

Happy Saturday.

#908 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

Early morning twinkle, I was almost tempted to go home and get my swimmers on. Skinny dipping is only for dusk not broad daylight.

A full day of sun followed on from my early morning dog walk. Coffee and a bite sized Portuguese Custard Tart. Beer traps that had actually protected my precious herbs and vegetable plants from slugs. All before 11 am made for a very satisfying morning. A  bit of work through to 4pm and then a walk on the Hoe and an ice-cream with a small person completed my Tuesday in a most satisfactory way. 

Sunshine really is a most marvelous thing. I’m slightly lost for words. I’m all out of pondering except of course that I am not. Sunshine makes everything feel in a better place. Especially the not particularly hot sunshine of May. Unless you happen to be working hard in a white painted yard at midday when churlish as it seems even the May Sunshine can be a little over-warm. Some people are just never happy!

#868 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Family1 Comment

Yesterday we attempted a big Hollywood style welcome for our granddaughter who was arriving home from France.

Everything was set up, we knew which window to wave at. We had tracked the ferry.

Everything was set.

And then we missed the moment by a moment.

You might think that a docked ferry suggests more than a moment, but from regular ferry watching I can assure you that sometimes it takes me longer to reverse my car into a parking space than for these ferries to nip backwards into the port. I am confident that we will be easily forgiven by an 18-month-old. But next year we really do have to get our ‘A’ game on. It is always the people who live closest that are late.

#834 theoldmortuary

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Serendipity1 Comment

March the Ist rewarded the Bobbers with a great swim yesterday morning. The sun came up. The water was at 10 degrees and the air temperature was 5 degrees. Nothing significantly different from January and February. But swimming on the first day of meteorological Spring felt buzzy. We were buzzy. As a group we have completed our third winter of regular sea swimming. When we started a photo like this was unthinkable. Each separate household kept themselves about two meters apart and our swim was our half hour of permissible outdoor exercise during a Covid lockdown.  Our group of 12 to 14 swimmers stretched out on the promenade for almost 20 metres depending on who lived with whom. Even sticking to the rules there was always a small element of anxiety about our early bobbing sessions. That anxiety was heightened when we were approached by the police.  We shouldn’t have worried, the police were concerned for our safety.  There was a voyeur on the loose. Hidden in clear sight, or in his case enhanced clear sight. A man was taking his half hour exercise by cycling along the promenade in fluorescent clothing. Fitness was not his goal however. He sought stimulation of an entirely different sort. His gimlet eyes searched for the hidden curves of damp bottoms or boobs as swimmers struggled in or out of their clothes.

Another winter was marked by an Atlantic Seal called Spearmint who joined the swimmers of Firestone Bay rather too enthusiastically for her own good.

She swam with us so often she almost needed her own Bobbers sweatshirt.

Maybe that’s the reason this year’s winter swimming has felt, at times, like a chore.  The only memorable thinge is how much storms have negatively affected our Bobbing plans.

Winter 21/22 Year of the Perv

Winter 22/23 Year of the Seal

Winter 23/24 Year of the Storms

I painted Storm Agnes, the first one of the season. She really whipped into Firestone Bay with a malign fury. The others didn’t inspire me quite so much. No paintings.

Storm Agnes in Tranquility Bay. Private Collection © theoldmirtuary

No more winter swims for 9 months, how fabulous.

#830 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, Serendipity2 Comments

After days of rain we discovered this furry blockade in the hallway. The sun was up and no one would be leaving the house without the dogs. We needed bread and the dogs needed daylight without getting wet.

Lola had a route planned, appropriate provisions were bought.

And some comfy rocks were found for some winter basking.

A good start to the day and so far very minimal pondering. Just dogs, coffee and a view.