#motion

One of the art groups I’m part of put a prompt of #motion on their Facebook page today. I thought of this painting. Acrylic on canvas called Georges from a few years ago. A painting from memory of when I jumped in the sea fully clothed and swam out to a wild dolphin at Challaborough? In Devon. There were people on the beach and people in wetsuits further out. Georges kept swimming past me because I was somewhere in the middle. He’d got lots of scars along his body. I found out from a poster the next day telling people not to swim with him as he was too friendly and had been cut by boat propellers. You can also catch illnesses like pneumonia from breathing the air from their blowhole.

Picnic

Memory of a picnic on the beach this summer. The tide was out. There was soft sand to sit on. We had a simple meal of salad and melon for dessert. What makes it memorable was that it was a beach we visited a few years before and I didn’t think we would be able to go back. It didn’t matter that it was overcast, or that the beach was quite crowded, it made me feel happy. That’s why it’s good to go back to this memory. Nothing bad happened and it was really enjoyable. I need good memories.

Bovisand cafe

Cafe and shop at Bovisand Bay, sitting next to the car park above the two parts of the bay. The cafe and shop used to be separate but have been joined together so you can explore a range of beach wear, body boards, sun lotion, crafts, etc, etc on one side and the cafe on the other. It seems like a nice set up. The people there were friendly. I think we will go again if we can.

I hope that they get good custom now that covid, which is still on the increase in the UK, is at least milder. One day we must get over it? I hope so.

Cornwall in the distance

Across from Plymouth Sound in Devon sits the County of Cornwall. This is the view from Bovisand Bay. I love the South West of England. I would live there if I could afford it instead of the occasional visits we make every few years. I think it’s the attraction of the sea. We stayed in a caravan site near this bay on summer and saw a massive thunderstorm. The lightning was striking the surface of the water and we could look across the bay and see it hitting the Cornish side. It was like a spectacular light show.

Talking about thunder and lightning, we might be getting thundery showers on Wednesday or Thursday if the weather forecast is correct. I hope we get a decent amount of rain. Not the thing for a beach holiday, but we certainly need some water on the land.

Floating in the sea or sky?

It was a grey, overcast day at Bovisand yesterday. The port of Plymouth off to the right of this photo was busy. There is a breakwater to protect the harbour and make the inlet safe as ships and boats travel up to the Tamar and Plym Rivers among others that flow into the sea here. But because of the grey light and indistinct sea surface, some of the ships seemed to be floating in the sky! In the distance is the coast of Cornwall. The Tamar river is on the boundary between England’s two most westerly counties. Warm and welcoming in the summer. It can be cold and wet, blustery and stormy at all times of the year. But a very beautiful place to visit.

Three hectic days!

Three day trip to Falmouth in Cornwall and back with ivans_uk_tours.com . We stayed at a lovely hotel. Travelling through the West of England on the way down, through Ludlow and stopng off for a picnic at Tintern Abbey. We went over one of the bridges over the river Severn. We arrived at the hotel in the evening and went off to find food at a pub called the Red lion. After that we walked back to the hotel over stone stiles through farm fields.

Day two was up at the Penryn Campus at Falmouth University. I was graduating so we joined in the celebrations with other students who were graduating in different aspects of the creative arts. The actress and comedian Dawn French is the Chancellor of the University and handed out a chocolate coin covered in gold foil out to each student. Later, I got to throw my cap and gown in the air with my fellow students. We left in the early afternoon to go in search of a cream tea. Instead we found a shop that would post out cream teas all over Britain. The ships figurehead was down a sloping alleyway that led down to the sea. We sat by the harbour and ate our scones with jam and cream (jam first!). A lovely meal at the hotel and then a hot and sleepless night as the temperature continued to soar.

On the final day it had cooled down, but even though I would have stayed an extra day it was not possible because of the cost. We decided to call at Bovisand Bay near Plymouth in Devon on the way home. We had a picnic there and a paddle (hubby swam). Then a steady drive back up the motoein increasing heat. We stopped off a few times. I’m sunburnt but happy. Very tired. I couldn’t really post much here as I didn’t have much Internet connection.

Storm Eunice

The storm hit today. We were on the northern edge and although its been windy with heavy rain I don’t think it was as bad as storm Desmond earlier in the week.

I’m staying at home as I have a sore throat and aches. I guess it might be the weather. It seems like you get different bugs depending on the temperature?

While I sit and watch the trees blowing about I believe that Britain generally gets a few named storms a year. Eunice is a bad one. It mainly hit down in the South of the country. A wind speed of 122 miles an hour was measured at the Needles, a series of cliffs on the Isle of Wight. Part of the canvas covering of the Millennium Dome was ripped off. Trains were cancelled throughout Wales. Major bridges were closed. Rooves were torn off and a church steeple blew down. I know Cornwall, Devon and Somerset have been affected and London Fire Brigade was inundated with calls.

There may be snow blizzards tonight in the North of England and in Scotland and Northern Ireland. They were saying 10 to 30 centimeters of snow may fall.

Meanwhile here… Its been a bit breezy. My city is about as far away from the coast as you can get, in the centre of the country. Our river is quite small here. It doesn’t create massive flooding, hopefully things will be OK. We may lose a few tiles, a chimney pot or two.

Memory of devon

I once swam with a wild dolphin, we’d been driving round Devon and came back to the seaside to find a crowd of people on the beach and a group in wetsuits about fifty yards out. They were all excited and we saw a pod of dolphins swimming away. But one stayed in the bay. I decided I would swim out a bit and got in the sea fully clothed minus my shoes and glasses. My hubby stayed on the beach. The dolphin swam backwards and forwards between the two groups of people. Because I was in the middle he ket swimming close to me. It was fascinating. He kept coming past me and I noticed large wounds on his sides. It was after half an hour of being near him that I saw he was male! I can only say that it was quite alarming and not at all spiritual!. The next day there was a sign up about him at the camp site. He was called Georges and he was an adolescent male. His scars were because he would get too close to boat propelers. It also said not to breathe near them as they can transmit airborne diseases from their blowholes.

When I got home I did an imagined portrait of him but unfortunately the painting is at my sisters otherwise I would share a photo of him leaping through the waves. X