Tag: Harlyn Bay.

#702 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Van Life1 Comment

This birthday invite gave us a big shock yesterday. Despite living in London at the time we were there at the beginning of Strong Adolfos. We went to their soft opening. The shock was that they have only been open 10 years. This is definitely a case of the years of Covid-19 restrictions causing a concertina effect on our mid-term memory.

How can it be only 10 years. I would be much more comfortable with 15 years. So much has happened in this last 10 years and we have been to Strong Adolphos with so many different people it seems a little crazy to have squeezed all those happy memories into just 10 years. Especially when we factor in that for almost 2 years we were unable to visit.

https://www.strongadolfos.com/

Strong Adolfos is on the Atlantic Highway on the North coast and roughly the mid point of the county. It has always been a convenient place to meet friends and family who were holidaying or living in Cornwall. For us, as dog walkers, it is close to the Seven Bays. Large sandy beaches where we can walk the dogs and have a swim.

https://freemapsofcornwall.co.uk/our-directory/business-place/the-seven-bays-guide/

There was no swimming yesterday but a couple of hours of dog walking and sun catching in a miraculous break between rain storms. The wind direction and tide was absolutely ripe for surfers.

Swimming would have been a bit bonkers but away from the surf zone we paddled knee deep in the incoming tide and the dogs had two hours of free running and socialising on the beach.

We had two hours of pondering the 10 year conundrum. Hannahs mum has been dead for nearly 8 years and she loved the vibe at Strong Adolphos. She very much loved independent cafe culture and the people watching that goes with it. She used to like perching on the high bar stools at the window bar.

Crazy that she can only have done it for 2 years max. I know my mid term memory is now utterly unreliable how did 10 years feel like 15. There will be pondering beyond this blog today.

#439 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn The Box, Van Life5 Comments

This was the view from the van at Harlyn yesterday. We have been waiting for the whole festive season for the weather to improve enough for us to spend a day by the beach. One of our regular winter treats, usually on Christmas or Boxing Day. Harlyn has been much on my mind since my work at The Box last week. My poor insomniac head was pondering the inclusion of a human skeleton, from about 2000 BC, in an exhibition at the museum.The skeleton and it’s Cist style slate coffin had been exhumed from an Iron Age cemetery just beyond the beach at Harlyn. In the circular and always inconclusive thinking of an occasional insomniac I felt so sorry for those bones, that ex human, that loved one ,who had been moved from somewhere so beautiful to be gawped at in a museum, even a very splendid museum. I would so prefer my own bones or those of the people I love to lie close to where the waves break over a beach. Left alone where they had been interred in the place where they lived and died.

I realise far more learned heads than mine have debated the rights and wrongs of showing skeletons in museums. But the curious workings of my night-time brain are never restricted by my lack of qualifications or experience in any subject. Now I’ve got my nighttime pondering off my chest I can waffle on about what a gorgeous day it was today. This is not as random as it seems, when my childhood home was built a terracotta pot and some bones were found and put on a show in Colchester Castle. I always felt sad that that person had been moved too. My parents always thought I had an overactive imagination.

Strong Adolfo’s

Our real world day started with coffee at Strong Adolfo’s and one of my favourite complicated images created by sharp bright sunlight. Soon enough we were on the beach, scampering in the waves.

Since we were last at Harlyn a sauna has been built in the sand dunes.

The sea provides the cold plunge for scarlet and over-heated Sauna lovers. Hugo and Lola liked to join them for the plunge once they realised it was a leisure activity that involved squealing.

Two long beach walks and an hour or so of van time, enjoying tea and magazines that had been gifted to us, as subscriptions for Christmas gifts, was as arduous as our day got. The temperature dropped once the sun started to set so, putting coats on for the first time of the day, we took a final walk on a much quieter beach.

The last of our festive season traditions completed.

#129 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, SerendipityLeave a comment

Our second Sunday in a row when the weather determined our location. Without dogs there is often the option of spending a stormy, wet Sunday, hunkered down in front of a fire with a good book or a jigsaw puzzle. With dogs that option is not available. Another option is to just put on the right clothes and get on with the day. We took a different option and headed for the North Coast of Cornwall. Weather forecasts suggested, correctly as it turned out, that there would be an improvement of the weather on the north coast for a couple of hours after lunch. Let’s not pretend swapping coasts gave us a balmy carefree walk in sunshine. It gave us blustery, stormy weather with a side serving of weak sunshine but most importantly there was no icy, horizontal rain capable of penetrating any tiny failing of our waterproof garments.

Hugo and Lola had a blast finding friends and seaweed. The humans skimmed stones and took in the vast expanse of crashing waves as their mental and physical cobwebs were blown out into spume of the incoming tide. We also did our bit and collected waste plastics and other man made detritus from the beach. The odd shell might also have been collected.

Mussel shells were vivid as they were tossed around on the edge of the crashing waves, inviting us to pick them up, but the minute they dried out they lost their glossy intensity. Flipping them over gives a whole spectrum of softer but long lasting colour. Every bit as lovely but different. Just like swapping coasts can be.

Pandemic Pondering #283

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Cornwall, Devon, SerendipityLeave a comment

Christmas 2020 it wasn’t Christmas but it was Christmas because that’s what it was.

The day started early with some ‘Bobbing’ admin.

Tranquility Bay

Mulled cider and mince pies were the actual admin that was required today.

Then it was a swift drive home and festive sandwiches made ready for beach #2 Harlyn Bay.

Harlyn Bay

Don’t be fooled by golden sands, if Tranquility Bay looked like madness, Harlyn was madness+. A great walk in freezing temperatures followed by a convivial two van picnic observing all current regulations for Covid-19 control.

The dogs, of course, moved vans due to the superior picnic being served next door.

To be honest the idea of returning home and then cooking a traditional turkey roast began to feel less desirable the colder we got. A cup of hot tea was about as far as we could stretch when we got home.

Much later a mushroom Wellington made an appearance.

In between walking and talking we zoomed and whatsapped with people near and far.

Christmas Day in a Nutshell with not a cracker in sight.

Our last day with the relative freedoms of Tier 1. Today Cornwall is downgraded , that’s a whole new set of rules to remember! In

Pandemic Pondering#241

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Beach Life, Van LifeLeave a comment

A Post- Pandemic Birthday Pondering.

I’m late to the party, or not, of having something to celebrate during a Pandemic. There were two things we should have done yesterday and didn’t. One was a ‘Dining Experience’ which sounded fabulous .A banquet held in The National Marine Aquarium, a Night at the Museum event that would have been mostly wonderful . I worried a little about ordering Skate Wings or Calamari but beyond that it was a great idea. The other thing we didnt do was meet other people. Two women , two dogs and a campervan was the order of the day. You would think a beach in Cornwall would be a peaceful place in mid- November , our regular beach, Harlyn was heaving with Humans mostly wearing the semi- effective PPE of full body wetsuits anxious to immerse themselves in saline. Despite having plans to swim we could see it was not the place for us to find calm contemplative peace. We set off for another beach, Trevone, and it was empty.

The dogs particularly like Trevone for scampering . We managed more than an hour’s scampering before the tide chased us back into the van. No birthday haute cuisine in 2020 or awkward decisions about Skate Wings . Chicken Noodle soup and the last two portions of Connie the Caterpillar were consumed before we flipped open the back of the van and watched the tide come in.

The dogs took the watching part very seriously. Another hour or so was lost watching the bay fill up with water, it was the perfect way to spend a birthday. Coupled with copious cups of tea and a newspaper.

Our plan was to walk along the coastal path back to Harlyn to enable the dogs to ‘ make themselves comfortable’ before we drove home . It was a great decision but we didn’t get to Harlyn.

Nature decided to throw a foam party just around the corner.

The day was pretty much perfect with the added bonus of finding another naturally occuring 💓

Thanks to everyone for the birthday love in whatever form it took. Many, many hugs are owed.

Pandemic Pondering#152

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Nature, SerendipityLeave a comment

The Art Group prompt word takes @theoldmortuary to some interesting places. Who doesn’t love a landscape?

My thing for years has been abstract landscapes. For this blog I plunged into my ideas and inspiration file.

I am intrigued and galvanized by nature’s ability to always overwhelm the constructs that man creates or just change the way things look. In doing so there is often unexpected beauty.

The dunes suffocating a beach hut at Wells-next-the-sea, Norfolk.

Here is an urban reclamation. Tarmac in Dulwich Park being broken up by tree roots and covered by autumn leaves and other natural detritus.

@theoldmortuary. The Smith Family Collection.

Nature is not exactly reclaiming this wall, but the Landscape Street Art is so famous as a site for Instagrammers that it is being worn away by sweaty hands and carefully posed leaning. This picture was taken some time after it was painted but before it became insanely popular as an Instagram background.

Alex Croft painted this as a commission for Goods of Desire. Countless Instagram photos feature this slowly fading wall.

©Instagram

Closer to home our century plus garden wall looked like a hedge as ivy took control.

It took quite a bit of effort to bring it back to wall status.

Next up 2 beaches slowly consuming man made structures.

And finally some box fresh images taken on Monday evenings combined swim and dog walk adventure.

A landscape shaped by the sea. Even if you visit this beach every day it will always be different.

Harlyn Bay, Cornwall

Pandemic Ponderings #68

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Pandemic ponderingsLeave a comment

Some days are harder than others to distil down into a blog , on those days I often dig out a topic or theme and ponder on. But today deserves its moment in the sun.its just a struggle to find the right words.

We, like many others have been deprived of seeing our families . Today and tomorrow we have arranged to meet a small part of our small family, respecting government guidelines.

Obviously meeting loved ones has been looked forward to and anticipated with pleasure .

Lockdown is known to mess with most people’s heads . There are the obvious things like worry, insomnia, depression, grief . The serious proper head messes. I’ve had some of those but a few times I’ve had a curious little head mess that puzzles rather than worries me, and although you might think it is sad it doesn’t sadden me. It occurs in the Limnal spaces of my thoughts or when I’m waking or dropping off to sleep.

Sometimes imagining meeting with my actual living family after so many days of lockdown and self isolation gets complicated.

In these moments there are other people at these family gatherings. People like my parents or father-in- law who have been dead a very long while or Hannah’s parents who have crossed into the other realm more recently. I don’t put them in my thoughts they just appear and seeing them,after a gap of more than 30 years in some cases, feels as natural and normal as seeing the living people after only 3 months. The closest thing I can use to describe the sensation is Magical Realism.

https://bookriot.com/2018/02/08/what-is-magical-realism/

My entirely normal family is not going to be a powerful tool against political regimes any time soon, but my head, albeit briefly, sees nothing incongruous about me meeting my granddaughter in the presence of many dead relations. It seems to be entirely normal and quite unworrisome.

I’m really not sure where these thoughts are coming from.

Today , far away from Limnal spaces none of the deceased put in an appearance. The beach at Harlyn bay just held the live family members that I’ve missed so greatly. There was plenty of room for the others, they just didn’t put in an appearance.

Minds and thoughts are complex at the best of times, how much other strange and intriguing stuff will this curious period of our lives give us to ponder over.