Tag: Plymouth

Pandemic Pondering #168

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

I don’t know quite how to describe pleasures enjoyed when alone. This morning, in England and Wales, pupils returned to school after five months away . Twice, on my 8am drive through urban areas, the fragrance of multiple , simultaneous makings of toast and butter were transfixing . I only had dogs for company so was unable to share conversation about the unusual pleasure of smelling toast. Created, I’m sure, by many houses being on the same schedule for the first time in ages and the continuing lower levels of traffic and pollution. The dogs , of course, experienced the smell of toasted bread far more vividly than me but didn’t feel the need to talk to me about it or even amongst themselves.

I also had some ‘alone’ time in the the park at Devils Point. Once again it was me wondering at the surprising absence of other humans and canines while they just took it in their stride, reading the messages left by other dogs but never once looking up and exclaiming ” Wow we are such lucky dogs to have this beautiful place to ourselves”

The smell of toast and these beautiful views this morning were lovely pleasures that I was unable to share with another human and made me think about another ‘alone’ pleasure I had recently . A swimming pool that just had no-one else in it at the time I went swimming.

Am I odd to enjoy these moments of serendipitous alone pleasures? It’s easy enough to isolate myself from other humans but somehow a chance encounter with aloneness plus a pleasure is one of life’s joys.

However I also love to share things and of these three things the one I most wish to share is the intangible one. The smell of many toasty breakfasts wafting from homes eager to return to some form of normality. If only I could copy and paste a link for you to share the buttery, toasty, smell of normality this morning.

Pandemic Pondering #123

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100 WordPress readers for the blog. I know it’s nothing compared to hugely popular blogs, but 100 people who are happy to read along on the pondering journey of someone insignificant, who just enjoys writing and connecting, is thrilling!
I was pondering the longevity of Pandemic Ponderings when I remembered one of my favourite books, ‘The Long Weekend’ by Robert Graves. It is a social history of the interwar years.

I wonder if we are entering a Pandemic ‘Long Weekend’ in Britain. Restrictions of the draconian type are being lifted and bits of life are returning to some form of normal. @theoldmortuary lives a more resticted life than the government suggests whilst still connecting with family and friends. We are mindful of the Second Wave of the pandemic which could start anytime between August or October depending on who you talk to.
So I will ponder on through the Pandemic ‘long weekend’ and into the second wave taking at least 100 of you with me.

On with the Sunday blog.
Two quotes landed in my social media feed today. They are properly robust pieces of secular writing with not a hint of whimsy, new agedness or religion.

I love them both. They need no explanation, but I would say they represent quite accurately my attitude to life.

Time to catch up on 3 regular topics in the blog.

The first dahlia of Pandemic Pondering #120 is the only Dahlia still. This morning he was looking gorgeous but as you can see from the photo, protecting him from slugs and bugs comes at a cost. He cannot live out in the green areas of the garden but has to live on the decking area where domestic life happens. Here he is this morning amongst the drying washing.

This evening he is still wide awake at sunset.

Our fitness regime, at home with Joe Wicks on YouTube continues, and has often had a mention blogwise but after more than 18 weeks of exercising at home we are addicted to having a velvet cushion for our aching knees. Surely all gyms could provide such comfort.

And finally we did our regular walk around Sutton harbour and the Barbican in Plymouth. Our regular haunt of Jacka Bakery was enhanced today by having some of our lovely family in it.

Sunday pondering, a little bit deep, a little bit superficial. Thanks for being 1 in 100 xxx

Pandemic Pondering #116

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog), SerendipityLeave a comment

Reflections on the first beer and other unplanned activities post lockdown.

Today’s walk was a familiar one to us, and to regular blog readers.

At weekends parking is free, in places, on Commercial Street. Giving the perfect opportunity for a circular walk. We do it so many times , and in particular in lockdown that it often gets a blog mention. Today, beyond the walk, we had no plans, we had VV with us so it was pretty much serendipity predicated by the whims of a 20 month old.

As usual, with a weekend visit to Plymouth, the first good coffee of the weekend was purchased at Hutong Cafe. Currently based at The Lord High Admiral.
https://www.facebook.com/TheHutongCafe/
https://m.facebook.com/thelhaplymouth/

Energised by a smooth Oat Milk Flat White we set off from Commercial Street.

Normally it is a two coffee walk with a call in at Jacka Bakery for coffee number two.
https://m.facebook.com/JackaBakery/

Today though we walked closer to the harbour of the Barbican.

Serendipity showed us an empty table outside the Maritime Inn. Time for the first beer since Christmas.
https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Pub/Barbican-Maritime-Inn-1375656692678932/

It was all the better for being unplanned. We carried on our walk, essential dog walking training is taking place.

Then serendipity struck again, Suphas, a Street Food Cafe also had a seat available out in the sun. Suphas has been on our radar for a while but time and a pandemic have made this our first chance for a visit.

Our drinks, snacks and the environment were vivid in every way.

One of life’s coincidences. Juice of the Day, Watermelon, exactly matched VV’s drinking bottle.

http://www.suphas.co.uk/

In addition to these visually vivid comestibles we also ordered Spicy Fruit Salad . As vivid in flavour as these pictures are vivid.

Three hours well spent wandering familiar paths .A Sunday walk in the sunshine.

Pandemic Pondering # 89

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Coffee Hunters, Home TownsLeave a comment

What do you do on the day non- essential shops open in England.

For once I agree wholeheartedly with the government. They are non- essential shops. Obviously we avoided them. Three months without a non-essential shop has become a self fulfilling prophecy.

Actually what I do miss is mooching in a charity shop. The day they open will be something to celebrate.

The morning was all about dog walking and coffee. Inadvertantly a doughnut and a croissant also slipped onto the counter while I was ordering coffee. Some anonymous steps near The Mayflower Steps was our suntrap location of choice.

A great location to see swans flying under the lift- up bridge and out into Plymouth Sound.

But a moment’s inattention to photograph swans was almost the end of my doughnut breakfast.

This gorgeous orb of bakery loveliness and its accompanying coffee came from Jacka. Britain’s oldest working bakery.

Oat milk flat white , a doughnut and sunshine on these steps was everything that a visit to non- essential shops would not have been.

There was even time to bask before post breakfast exercise.

A morning well spent.

Pandemic Pondering #77

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You might think after all the orange of yesterday , Pandemic Pondering #76, that today was going to be all a bit pink. The picture above is definitely significant and the vibrancy of this plant is significant but this is not a pink blog.

Yesterday we parked up in Looe Street , Plymouth.

Even though Lockdown has been eased in England the historic streets of this part of Plymouth were pretty quiet. This is a part of town we know well as The Minerva Inn is a favourite pub to visit.

The Minerva has been here since the Age of Discovery.

https://sites.google.com/site/theminervaplymouth//home

It is entirely possible today to walk to the Barbican, harbour, of Plymouth using streets that would be familiar with sailors, merchants and townspeople of that period. Like huge areas of Plymouth , Hitler and town planners have left their mark but we only used cobbled streets to make our journey.

The quietness of the streets made it much easier to feel the history of the streets that we were walking on, until we were stopped in our tracks by this vivid beauty.

Growing in a nondescript flowerbed adjacent to a 20th Century block of flats. Stopping was the best thing we could have done. It sparked our own Age of Discovery!

On one external wall of a building we have walked past , but never stopped at, was a ceramic-tile history lesson about the location.

We had been seduced by a bright pink plant, forced to linger and in doing so learnt a thing or two.

I’m sure these historic streets have seen a lot of seduction and lingering in the past but our seduction and lingering was entirely chaste .

The somewhat dull block of flats was built on the site of The Old Mayoralty House.

There is only so much you can learn from ceramic tiles.

Wool Dyeing in what is now Vauxhall Street

Plymouth at the time of Henry VIII

Lovers and Assassin’s 1591, elderly husband killed by wife and her lover. It didn’t end well.

The moral of this blog is this, you might think you are doing something you’ve done many times before, but just one little thing might catch your eye and a whole different journey happens . Then Covid-19 sneaks in and spoils the trip.

My journey took me to The Plymouth History Association website.

But currently no further.


http://www.ha-plymouth.org.uk/

Pandemic Pondering #74

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog), Home Towns, SerendipityLeave a comment

Saturday at Elvira’s

Saturdays in Lockdown got a whole lot better once we could get our favourite coffee fix at The Lord High Admiral provided by the lovely Hutong Crew.
https://m.facebook.com/thelhaplymouth/
https://m.facebook.com/TheHutongCafe/

Either before or after good coffee we go for breakfast at Elvira’s.
https://m.facebook.com/ElvirasCafePlymouth/

We’ve developed an unusual socially distance friendship with people we met on the first day in the Hutong queue. We meet for coffee and breakfast.

Breakfast at Elvira’s is immense, normally I go for a bacon buttie. For some unknown reason after four weeks on a super healthy diet I opted for the Farmhouse Breakfast.

As an aside this cafe in normal times is the favoured haunt of Commandos based at Stonehouse Barracks.

The Farmhouse Breakfast is exactly what a commando would deserve after a hard nights soldiering on night exercises

This breakfast was a thing of beauty and despite only doing a Joe Wicks work out I was determined to enjoy every mouthful. It was wonderful .

Elvira’s is very close to the Plymouth side of the Cremyll ferry. A boat ferry has crossed the Hamoaze, a stretch of the River Tamar, here, since the 11th Century.
https://www.plymouthboattrips.co.uk/ferries/cremyll-ferry/

Whilst waiting for my take away breakfast I discovered a combination of two of my favourite things . Rust and a Ghost Sign.
http://www.ghostsigns.co.uk/

A ghost sign is a faded sign, often seen on the walls of city buildings.

This one was set into the ground where passenger alight from the Cremyll foot ferry.

There wasn’t an easy way to capture the words in the bright sunlight.

The text reads.

WELCOME to Plymouth, now wipe your feet.

It is a matter of great pride that salmon have come back to the Tamar . A gentlemen was fly fishing on the slipway near where the ferry comes in. He was not a picturesque fisherman but he was standing in a picturesque place. I was anxious that he leave so I could get a nice photograph. I was very happy when his breakfast was delivered and he moved out of shot.

After a couple of long dog walks and no Hutong coffee, I had declined earlier, I was pretty sleepy after all that breakfast. An afternoon of reading turned into something much more relaxing.

Zzzzzzzzzzz

Pandemic Pondering #71

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)1 Comment

Lockdown and a new diet regime has had a funny effect on our store cupboards. We are cooking everything from scratch and also learning new things to cook with ingredients we’ve not used before. We’ve always cooked a lot of Asian food . Today it was time to incorporate the local Asian Supermarket into the morning dog walk. KW Brothers of Durnford Street is a great shop. We stocked up on sauces for a third of the price of non specialist supermarkets.

Other things may have slipped into the bag too. KW Brothers has an amazing smell, I’m never sure if it makes me homesick for the Asian Stores of South London or Asia itself.

Either way I love it. Random fact of the day . KW Brothers stands on the site of a doctor’s surgery where Arthur Conan Doyle worked. Durnford Street has quotes from Sherlock Holmes inset into the pavement between the Asian Supermarket and Firestone Bay.

Durnford Street is pretty.

Firestone Bay is beautiful.

We were planning a Fusion evening meal , it was a coincidence really that we went to the supermarket as we had everything we needed for tonight’s supper without a visit.

https://schoolofwok.co.uk/our-story/heritage

This is our favourite Asian cookery book.

Fusion supper, Fragrant Aubergine with minced pork.

➕

Elderflower and raspberry gin and tonic.

Happy Thursday

Pandemic Pondering #66

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Pandemic ponderings1 Comment

Lockdown Saturdays have become so much more exciting since Hutong started selling take out coffee in a pub .

I think we are better humans after a properly made Flat White. If this is the case , today we will be even more improved because we had two . One either end of the walk. Definitely more caffeine than I’ve had in three months.Giddy with excitement I’ve settled to writing a blog on one of the more mundane subjects of Lockdown.Soap bars, I think caffeine induced excitement might drag this blog into something vaguely interesting.I’m inspired to write this today because the first of our lockdown soaps has lathered it’s last.Bar soap is not something we ever really had @theoldmotuary. Hannah has traditional dry skin and I have non traditional. Either way the harshness of soap in a bar was something to avoid. Pump soaps disappeared off the shelves early on in Lockdown and bars it had to be. We have really enjoyed them and the extra time that there is in Lockdown allows for plenty of hand moisturising.The stand out bar soap in our house comes from Niagara in Canada. Not somewhere anyone outside of Niagara can nip to right now but it lasts and lasts doesn’t dry out skin and smells amazing. We bought a few bars two years ago and had forgotten we had them. More than two months on and there is still loads left.Soap Opera on-the-lake
15 Queen St, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0, Canada
+1 905-468-7627https://g.co/kgs/3jwBYVNext favourite and the one that needed to be replaced today is Waitrose own.This little bar has lasted the whole of lockdown only needing replacement today.Least popular is this blue bar from Pears. Proof of any was needed that the enemy of good is better.

Despite being one of my favourite brands, this one dries out our skin and is really disappointing fragrance wise. I wish I had picked up the traditional version, which I know is ok for our skin.So…Soap and Caffeine not normally a traditional pairing but if you have enough of one you can Witter on about the other.The great thing about writing blogs is the need to research my own image archive. While checking the name and any photos of the soap shop in Niagara-on-the-lake I found one of my favourite pictures which was also taken in the town.kingstgallery.comThis tiny Private entrance enchants me.The Gallery has some lovely quotes . This one says it all.King Street GalleryNiagara-on-the-lake

Pandemic Pondering #58

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home TownsLeave a comment

Deja vu.

©Wikipedia

Hours, days, weeks and now months have blurred boundaries. Just about everything we’ve done this week has been done several times in the last couple of months.

Saturdays have a new shape, for three weeks we have been able to get our favourite Hutong Coffee. Following that we do a favourite dog walk but we’ve done todays so many times I won’t bore you with the details. But everything on our walk looks a little bit brighter. Lockdown has given people the chance to get all sorts of jobs done and everywhere looks a little bit twinklier.

The best example of twinkle was this motorbike which had been ridden into town and was still so pretty. Presumably it has had a lot of attention in the last few weeks.

Plymouth has also gained some new street art and not a moment too soon.

We also found this picturesque wasteland.

And finally our used compostable coffee cups crossed the Tamar to our compost heap.

Not a bad Saturday.

Pandemic Pondering #57

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home TownsLeave a comment

All dressed up and nowhere to go.

Smeatons Tower on Plymouth Hoe has shrugged off its ungainly scaffolding and has emerged into the bright sunlight with a beautiful paint job ready for the Mayflower 400 Celebrations. COVID – 19 will have disrupted the events that this bright new livery was created for. Just like humans, Smeatons Tower is not going to be at the centre of of a party any time soon. Luckily a few more people can visit the Hoe now, to enjoy the view and the lighthouse with its crisply painted stripes.

Smeatons Tower even made the clouds smile today.