Tag: Fowey

#1380 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering, Serendipity1 Comment
Winter Sunshine, Fowey.

One outing, two blogs. Sometimes a day can be experienced on several levels.

#1378 theoldmortuary ponders.

Blog #1378 wallowed in nostalgia and some dog extra sensory perception. I am comforted by nostalgia and a little sadness is easily softened by the reliving of many happy moments in the same place. But familiar places are never dull. Especially on a day when the sunshine quota was high.

Early visits to Fowey in the 70’s and 80’s, were to a seaside town still functioning as a place where normal people lived, and tourism and locals co-existed. Butchers, Bakers, a Fishmongers and Pharmacy all filled Fore Street  The physical buildings remain more or less the same but their form and function have changed to service the hoardes of wealthy Airbnbers and luxury hotel visitors who flock to Cornwall every year.

As a visitor myself I am as much a part of the problem as anyone who has travelled further to enjoy the beauty and texture of the place.

In this old Fishing and Pirating Port , tourists have become the catch of the day and buccaneers treasure chest all rolled into one.

Shops and businesses change hands and function almost overnight. We have become loyal customers to specific buildings not so much the business operating within it.

Hot Chocolate @SaltSociety
Fowey.

Three generations of family and friends have shared the joy of Fowey on day trips and weekend breaks. The Boom years of tourism. But what comes next.

The tin merchants of 4,000 years ago could not have imagined the Piracy of 400 years ago. Just as I struggle with the changes of 40 years of tourism. Casting forward 40, 400 or even 4,000 years what will be the niche business of Fowey?

Pondering the future during Twixtmas.  Round and round , mind meandering at its best.

P.S  A glorious shop window viewed from inside. Giant Quality Street Sweets.

This picture is a good representation of how my mind feels pondering all that future Fowey…

#1378 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment
Outside seating at Bufala, Fowey.

I always think the portal between worlds feels a little more open at Christmas time. Occluded only by a gossamer thin pellicule that love passes through and is more tangible . I don’t just mean between those we loved who have passed over but also with those who cannot be with us in person. Divided by miles or circumstance.

I was reminded of this yesterday during our visit to Fowey.

The Tamar Valley has been my practically placed home base for 37 years. Fowey has been where my fantasy heart resides for far longer.

Everyone we hold dear has been with us to Fowey. I went with my parents when we were on Cornish Holidays and it was the first place I drove to when I moved to the Tamar Valley in 1988.

I always think the outdoor seating area at Bufala, and as it was previously known Toll Bar is like a location for some personal Magical Realism. It would need to be much bigger because I have probably sat out there with 40 to fifty friends and family at different times in my life. Sunburn and windchill being seasonal risks. And now mass tourism has squeezed us out to visits only in the quieter months. My apologies to all F&F who have not been there. Your time will come.

I could go on about Fowey but as this is about people and love here are 3❤️ snippets from the day.

Kylie and Dan 2016. Fowey.U.K
Me and Kylie 3 weeks ago. Mount Eliza Australia

Sometimes if we are very lucky work friends become heart-fit-to-burst friends.

The same goes for neighbours.

Seagull perches on Crow, yesterday
Keith, our London neighbour in Fowey Dec 2016. A crow perched on his shoulder.

The last little heart snippet is very hard to explain.

Lola

Regular readers will know that our much loved dog Hugo crossed to another realm two weeks ago. We are navigating the experience of canine mourning. Lola has become a very sleepy and restful woman until we take her to places filled with humans and dogs. Fowey is such a place.  Yesterday she was in full love-a-stranger mode. In particular she overwhelmed two men who absolutely gave her the best tickles and hugs and then sadly told us they were mourning dog loss of their own.  We had not nentioned our loss until after they did.

Then the same happened with a woman in an interiors shop. Visibly upset from the moment of Lolas love bombing she explained that her heart was so broken from losing her dog she could never consider getting another. We were fine with her tears but her adult children, not so much. They ushered her out of the shop. Thankfully Fowey is a confined ribbon of a main street. Lola caught up with her in another shop and created smiles with her new stranger friend.

Lola seems to have developed some sort of doggy empathy. The Season of goodwill in canine form.

#769 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

The one that got away. This house was in a fund raising Lottery recently. We didn’t win it, but we could have made ourselves very comfortable overlooking our favourite riverside town of Fowey.

https://omaze.co.uk/blogs/news/take-a-tour-of-the-cornwall-house

We had a wedding party in Fowey 7 years ago. Such fun was had with a dressing up box.

It gives us an excuse to visit Fowey every Twixtmas. Not that excuses are needed for a favourite place.

Oh the serendipity of creating a picture grid when I can follow it with one of my favourite windows in all of the world. Crumpled by age it reflects the small world around it in many different angles. A picture grid created by the serendipity of time.

Other windows were also available.

And a hidden glimpse of daylight.

And a cute door with festive embellishments.

We have been visiting Fowey forever, 3 or 4 times a year, and always out of the busy tourist season. Each visit can be bittersweet as businesses that we love close or go on-line. This visit we mourned the loss of Pinky Murphy’s. A fabulous cafe, that was always our first stop on any visit. These pictures were easily taken more than ten years ago.

A truly eclectic former sail loft. A sail loft that holds so many happy friends and family memories, I could burst with happiness at recollecting moments from every visit. Even the one with a monumental hangover. Honestly it really was something I had eaten!

But change happens and yesterday we visited this new business, in a different location, and had a fabulous coffee.

A restaurant that was previously dog averse has changed their canine policy and we had a seafood lunch, with two sleeping dogs at our feet. Perfection, I would say.

Restaurant & Cocktail Bar
Restaurant & Cocktail Bar

Two seagulls were basking in the winter sun while we ate.

We spent a lot of time browsing and buying in some of our favourite shops. I found this gorgeous, but not for sale, arrangement of dried palm leaves in one.

A fine way to spend a Twixtmas day.

Time to drive off into the sunset.

#217 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Colour, Serendipity1 Comment

This should be the high flying version of a blog. Over this last weekend Zip Wire Flying should have happened at the Eden Project but Covid afflicted one of our friends and the group activity has been postponed. Instead a weekend in coastal towns and on the High Sea has filled our days and indeed led to this late blog, colour and not location is the flavour of this late blog. Sunday Cornwall thought it was in Greece. We stayed in the village of Golant just two miles up the river from our family favourite Fowey, more of that later in the week. Fowey River Class Dinghies created the first kick of colour.

We had over an hour to wait for the ferry to Mevagissy but being at the turning buoy kept us entertained and the sunshine was very welcome on our faces.

The slipway for the Fowey to Mevagissy Ferry couldn’t have been more Greek.

The ride was a little more lively than the average ferry.

We landed in yet more Hellenic vistas.

Meva harbour also joined in the colour project.

Two days with virtually no signal and no wifi does not a daily blog make. Normal service will resume tomorrow.

#216 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Van LifeLeave a comment

I expected a morning of birdsong and sunshine today. We are overlooking a valley not too far from home, with a very poor signal and no wifi. Somewhere, in this blanket of fog, there is the Fowey River.

Fog is funny stuff, often depicted as malevolent it alters the way we think. During the pandemic ‘brain fog’ was one of the long term negative symptoms that people described. We all understood that feeling, even if we had never experienced it. Fog is universally a weather phenomenon that no one has a good word for.  No positive spin exists for fog.

Photographers only love it as it is leaving the area. So far, today, we are not yet at the point of fog appreciation.

And then just like that, it happened.

#159 theoldmortuary ponders

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Mothers day weekend passed in glorious sunshine. There was an arrival of flowers and the promise of some books but no actual face to face mothering to be done. Our own mothers are long dead and beloved human children were busy elsewhere. So with a bit of magical realism in mind, we took ourselves and them off to a place we have all loved, and did some reminiscing.

We love Fowey so much we held our short notice wedding there.

When I first moved to Cornwall my parents were both unknowingly pretty poorly with terminal illnesses. It would have been easier to fall in love with any number of the beautiful locations surrounding us, especially ones with sensible Victorian promenades, so much easier to push a wheelchair and manage two small children. But as we all know no-one chooses who they fall in love with, the same is true of choosing favourite towns to visit.

Briefly empty, the streets of Fowey demonstrate the challenges I faced.

Building muscle and precious memories over the five years of their illnesses Fowey was always the go-to destination even when it took very precise planning to make a visit happen.

Despite being born in Hong Kong, Hannah has lived a big chunk of her life living near to Fowey and regularly rowed in the annual regatta. Her mum loved an excuse to visit the shops of Fowey, there was never a visit that didn’t produce an essential purchase.

So we have individual memories and blended memories, all of which make for a good day out. Never let it be said that you can’t join in with Mothers Day just because there is no actual mothering to be done.

We were up and out early which gave us the advantage of empty streets. The weather was beautiful and gave us sharply contrasting stolen views.

We hadn’t made a lunchtime reservation and were disappointed that our favourite cafe, Pinky Murphys was closed.

http://pinkymurphys.co.uk/

But that turned out to be an absolute bonus as we eventually got a perfect balcony table at a cafe bar that is one we have been to with all of our family over the many years of loving Fowey. Over 30+ years the bar has had many names and styles of food. But physically it remains pretty much the same

https://bufalafowey.co.uk/

The views are always amazing, the sunshine was out and we did not miss the current offering of “unmissable’ Tiramisu. Every family member got a good share of the conversation between mouthfulls of pizza and good red wine.

How do you finish such a perfectly unplanned and serendipitous day?

A trip to the car wash. It turns out that the seagulls of Fowey recognised us as regular visitors and dropped off their loyalty cards without us even asking!

Pandemic Pondering #418

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

A wet day out. Today we went to Fowey, a town we regularly visit but it is almost 2 years since we last were able to come. Many old favourite shops and cafes remain closed, maybe for ever, which is very sad. New kid on the block, North Street Cafe, looked very fine.

The weather was not kind to us but the occasional bursts of sunshine encouraged us to walk much further than usual and we found a secret garden on the site of an old Grammar School.

And watched sail boat racing. The day took on a dark turn , not only with the weather.A new sculpture has arrived in Fowey.

The sculpture celebrates the work of local author Daphne Du Maurier and in particular her book The Birds.

On a personal level the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name scared me silly when I was a young Human. I’ve  never really felt an affinity with birds since , particularly when they accidentally get trapped indoors. I’m not so daft that the sculpture bothered me but at the end of our walk we sat by the Boddinick Ferry slip way to eat ice-cream and enjoy a rare moment of vivid sunshine. We were opposite Daphne Du Mauriers house. As the sun burnt through the rain clouds a huge cacophany of Crows calling and squarking filled the air behind us in the Rookery near by. The valley was filled with the sound that Hitchcock so effectively used in his screenplay. Right opposite the authors house, it must have informed her original writing.  Anyway it unnerved me so much I failed to take a picture of her old home. It is easy enough to find it on the internet.

https://www.visitcornwall.com/about-cornwall/blogging-cornwall/daphne-du-mauriers-cornwall

Instead I took a picture of the cottages she would have seen from her home and made them look a little nostalgic.

Despite the weather and ‘The Birds’ a good day out.