Personal blog
Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
Me and my occasional posts, mostly about the town of Gosport and occasionally my thoughts. So stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
I call it u3a Monday, because I have a morning and an afternoon session, which always happens on the 4th Monday of the month.
The morning session is stargazing. At this group, we gather to talk about what we have all done over the last month, what events are scheduled in the month ahead, and whether we, individually, have any planned activity or projects.
Already written about at https://localitystories.com/2026/04/23/1973-the-lyrids/, last month I set myself the goal of staying up past 0200 on the night of the 22nd/23rd for the meteor shower that has as its radiant (the point from which meteors appear to radiate) the constellation Lyra, which I would have an excellent view of at the right time. Read the blog entry, let’s just say it wasn’t very successful. I gave a detailed explanation to the group (there were six of us this month, it doesn’t sound like many, but we all agree that it is a good size and that we all get a chance to talk.
I am becoming slightly more familiar with the sky, and feel sufficiently confident to start looking for things other than the main constellations. I’ve set myself 2 goals this coming month, to go out and observe on at least one night each week, and on those nights to look for asterisms.
An asterism is an informal grouping of stars, that are recognised in their own right. Common examples are Orions Belt, the greater and lesser ploughs (each part of their respective bears) and the Keystone, which is a group of four stars in the heart of Hercules. It is this Asterism that Antony, the group leader has asked me to try and find this month.
We left the morning session all feeling very satisfied with how it went. I did have a follow-on chat with one of the group, Liz, who is keen to start an Earth Mysteries group to ask her how that is progressing. She is about to submit the request to start the group. This has prompted me to think about the group that I want to start; Creative Writing. I really must get on with that. I think I do enough writing over the course of the month that I can contribute to that.
I walked into town, passing the Cockle Ponds. The Jellyfish were out in force today, not quite the numbers that I have seen in the past, but perhaps that is growing.
There wasn’t much going on along the waterfront, although I did stop for a chat with a friend whom I see there occasionally. I carried on walking onto the high street, ending up at the Craft Cafe, where I had a snack and a cup of tea, before moving on to the museum for the afternoon u3a session – History.
This is a popular and very well-attended group; today, there were thirty people. The group is organised so that if you wish to say something, a presentation, for example, then when you sign in, you put a comment on the sheet as I did.
The topic for today’s talks was resistance groups. I have to admit that I didn’t count how many people stood up and spoke, but there were more than enough to fill the session, and every talk was very interesting. I’m pleased to say that my talk appeared to be well-received. Whilst not talking about individual groups in great detail I talked about three uprisings and their impact; Boudicca, The Judea uprising and the 1916 Easter Rising.
Frustratingly, we were given the topic for the next session, but I didn’t write it down, and now I can’t remember what it was. In the meantime, I will have to get on with my Exploring Art project, as instructed by the group leader who quietly whispered in my ear as she left the session – obviously, my talk went down well with her!
Gilbert starts his letter X by expressing his frustration that he has no local like-minded people with whom he can share his interests. Writing his letters to his two friends is as close as he gets to conversing with anybody who shares his interests. I found myself asking how long a normal exchange of letters might take.
I asked an Artificial Intelligence, and a reasonable example might be 2 weeks in each direction, so a complete exchange could take up to 4 weeks. Compare that with today, where exchanges are done by email. It is only as long as it takes for each respondent to write the email. The exchange/transmission time is effectively zero. A conversation becomes much more achievable. Organisations such as the university of the 3rd age (u3a) also make it so much more enjoyable. I joined just after Christmas, and am loving it. I feel that I am building a circle of new friends. It is really nice to have what Gilbert did not. Good, regular and easy connections to people of a like mind.
There was a chap up at the Shed on Monday who had a copy of the 2025 Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society. I had a chat with him about it. Turns out that there are signs of Iron Age activity on the outskirts of Gosport, which is covered in the proceedings. He has a copy because he lives right next to the findings. I’ve applied to join the society.
I can tell you about a small period of watching the birds in our garden. I have a small bird table (I did have a bigger table, but the small one was bought for me by my wife as a birthday present. I drop subtle hints that I’d like to put the big table back, but the hints seem to bounce off whatever forcefield she has).
There is a flock of starlings that visits us regularly. It doesn’t take long for the first one to arrive after I’ve put food out. It’s obviously a scout looking ahead of the main body. If there is food, it doesn’t take long for the rest of what can only be called a ravening horde to descend on the food. They squabble, and if there are young ones, a single one will take over the bird table and fight others off.
Starlings are beautiful little birds; the colouring on their coat of feathers is wonderful, and they have an amazing range of noises.
Next to visit are the pigeons. Elayne doesn’t like them, but I feel sorry for them. We used them so much for carrying messages during earlier conflicts, and then as communication technology developed, we no longer needed them and so abandoned them. They are like the homeless rough sleepers of the bird world to me.
Over the last four years, we have had a grey wagtail visit us. I thought it was a yellow wagtail because its colouring is very striking, but no, apparently it is grey. I can’t imagine that it is the same one each year, but they behave in the same way. It’s wonderful to see them bobbing along as they run to get a seed. They could get on the table and stuff themselves, but they don’t.
We love to see the birds. I know we can’t feed all of them, but we do what we can.
All The Best
Bill
If I’m not in a rush in the morning, I like to laze a little while and read. I am trying to wean myself off picking up the iPad or phone and going straight to the news or my emails, or even X or TikTok. I just want to relax in my own little universe of books or magazines. But eventually, it’s time to get up.
Breakfast is usually cereals, but I had managed to run out, and it is my own fault that I hadn’t picked any up from the shops yesterday. So, it was toast, Marmite and a cup of tea. Even the jam had gone off, so it was straight in the bin.
Elayne’s plan for the day was to potter in the garden. Not really my scene, so I retired to the office.
I am quite ashamed of my office; it has an inherent untidiness, so much so that I am definitely not going to share a photo of it with you.
I’m trying to work out what the root cause is. I think there are three.
I have too many books for the space I have to store them.
I have too many bits and pieces, most of which are borderline rubbish, lying around, and nowhere to store them
And the third? Well, I did have it at the beginning of the paragraph, but the thought took fright at being exposed and has flown off somewhere.
Oh, and the shredding, I haven’t managed that well recently, so there is a fair amount waiting to be done.
The books kind of fall into different categories, those that I am actively using as reference sources for a minor project I have going for the u3a, books like my stargazing books, which get looked at several times a month to remind me what is going on. Reference books, that I’d really like to read and will get round to, and a similar category, but if I am honest with myself, the prospect of reading them is remote to the point of being highly unlikely.
It’s that last category that I need to be harsh with, and accept that they have to go, but some of them are birthday or Christmas presents, which just adds to the agony of indecision.
The bits and pieces kind of fall into the category of “wouldn’t it be nice to have” or, once acquired, become “Well, I’m not using it now, but it might be useful in the future, and for that reason I’m kind of reluctant to get rid of it.
The third reason hasn’t come back; it was definitely there, but it’s let me down.
The shredding, then, I have a tub. Things for shredding just get dropped into it, and then every so often, I have a splurge. I think it would be reasonable to ask, if I have something to shred, why don’t I just do it, and avoid the pile up? I can’t really answer that. Sometimes, I just feel too busy, or I can’t be bothered. I had a bit of a shredding session today, and I must say I find it quite cathartic.
Beyond that I’m spending too much time on the computer, but I do enjoy it.
The fourth Friday of the Month means a Gosport Shed Breakfast. For £8, I get a nice Full English, toast and 2 cups of tea. Once everybody has finished, there’s usually a speaker who will give a 5-10 minute talk. Usually, if it is a member of the club, the talk will be about some aspect of their life.
Today, for example, the talk was by a member of the Shed, Dave. He talked about his time as an apprentice in the motor industry and told us about a couple of funny incidents, being sent to stores for a long weight is always a good one, and how he learned to do a handbrake turn in an automatic whilst he was extending his learning on a visit to Detroit. Very entertaining.
After breakfast, I had a choice as to what to do. It was a lovely day, so a walk seemed appropriate. I headed for the Cockle Ponds.
Because the sun was out, I knew that the bottom of the pond would be visible, and therefore everything in between. What I was really looking for were the Jellyfish, to see how they were growing, and if there was anything else there.
The model yachters were out in a bit of force, at least 12 of them. When they race, they have an audio countdown of a minute to the start of each race, with a final 10-second countdown. The racers always impress me. They have to get lined up, as close as they can to an imaginary start line. It was quite a gusty day, so you can imagine trying to get a model Laser Class to the start line and keeping it there.
The Jellyfish were not out in force. Very few, from about a centimetre up to, I think I saw one that was between two to three inches across.
Some were almost motionless, whilst others seemed to be on a mission. Fascinating to watch.
I moved on to the waterfront. Not much happening in the water, some small craft, and the Gosport Ferry was about it. The People’s Park was a slightly different story.
Not many people were working, and for once, the header picture is related to this; one chap was working on what I am fairly confident will be the bandstand, getting the surface he was working on flat and level, and it certainly looked like he was doing a good job.
I walked up the high street, and people seemed to be out enjoying the sun. I bought some Coconut Mushrooms in the sweet shop. I hope the story that the shopkeeper told me about the factory that produces coconut mushrooms is not correct. He said that the factory was closing down, and once it was done, one of my all-time favourite sweets will disappear forever from the jars on the shelves of sweetshops. In fact, stand by – I’m just going to Google that to see what I can find out.
Sadly, yes, it is correct. I am devastated, these have been a staple of my sweet selection all my life. There is only one factory that produces them, and apparently, due to rising costs and changing tastes, the factory is closing. Very, very sad about that.
The Gosport u3a. group on stargazing meets once a month in The Vine, a local pub that has been converted into a cafe. There’s usually 5 or 6 of us. It’s a casual get together, and a good opportunity for like minded people to have a good chat.
Whilst it won’t always work, I try to walk away from each session with a task. The previous one had been to compile an observing diary, which involved my checking each night to see whether I could observe the sky. Whilst I didn’t observe at every opportunity, there were several times when I did. For no other reason than to get a bit familiar with the night sky.
For most of my life, I’ve known some of the obvious sights, Orion, The ploughs, the Pole Star, things like that. The nights i observed were a real education. I enjoyed them, a lot.
Last month’s meeting was my opportunity to present the diary and talk about some of the interesting moments in it.
We use three books to get some information about what is happening in the night sky each month;
Nigel Henbest Stargazing
The Collins Guide to the Night Sky
The Ladybird book of the Stars and their Legends (the edition I have is dated 1973)
When we read through events due to happen in April, the main one that leapt out of us was the Lyrid Meteor Shower. Called the Lyrids because most of the meteors appear to come out of the constellation Lyrae. Peak activity would occur at around 0200 on the night of 22 – 23. I said to the leader of the group, Antony, that I would try to stay up and watch the sky at that time. Obviously, dependent upon the weatther.
As it happens, the sky was clear, and I had a very good view of Vega, the main star in Lyrae. I didn’t have as much of a problem staying up as I thought I would. Indeed, when I did finally go to bed at 0245, I really didn’t feel tired, and thought I would have problems getting to sleep. No chance, I was out after a couple of minutes.
So, how did the nights observing go? Well, I had intended to take one of those counting devices out with me to count the many tens of meteors that I hoped to see. It turns out that I didn’t need it. How many meteors did I see? None, not one. I did see one very faint satellite.
Interestingly, tonight on the Thursday Night Net, I was talking to a friend of mine M0XPJ, Julian. As the crow flies, he lives about 15 miles from us. He told us that he had been out observing at the same time, and he had also reported seeing no meteors. So it wasn’t just me.
Julian also introduced me to a new device. Constellationo Binoculars. They are 2.1×50, that doesn’t sound right does it? why have low magnification? But the exit pupil is huge (that means a lot of light is getting to your eyes, from a wide field of view. Weird, but I’ve been reading and watching good things about them. I’ve bought a pair. They’ll take a couple of weeks to turn up, which is a bit frustrating as the next stargazing get-together is next Monday. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Let me explain something; u3a’s bread and butter are the interest groups. There is not specific size, but I think u3a like there to be at least four members for a viable group. I’m member of five groups; Local History, Exploring. Art, Stargazing and History.
I recently found out that there is a whole other tier of u3a groups; IGO’s or Interest Groups Online. As the name suggests, the main means of communications for an IGO is either Zoom or WhatsApp. I’m a member of five IGO’s; Armchair Archaeology, Geology, Astronomy, Modern Art and Photography. The last two are WhatsApp based. Whether it is the normal face to face, the online (Zoom) or online (WhatsApp), they all work very well.
Today, for example, was the turn of IGO Astronomy. We had a presentation by a member of the group who used to be an astronomer. I’d note here that in my view, the idea of a “former astronomer” is a bit of a misnomer. Astronomy is one of those careers that even in retirement, you can’t escape from (should you even want to).
The speaker wanted to introduce to us a new model of the universe that is signifcantly different to that of the Big Bang, namely that of Tired Light. The basis of this theory is that the universe is static, not expanding, and that light as it moves across the universe does so with less energy, it becoomes “tired”. It is the tiredness that causes the light to red-shift, not the recession of the galaxies.
It appears that this version of the universe was put forward at the same time as Hubble was observing and developing what became the Big Bang Theory.
I have to say that it was a very interesting session, but I am not convinced.
Ah! Now, this post should have gone out last night (22 Apr). I’ve just realised that it hasn’t been published. That’s frustrating. That it wasn’t published, and that my count has reset to zero. Tonights post (No. 1973 The Lyrids – possibly, not decided yet (that last bit isn’t part of title (neither is this – oh look, you know what I mean)).
Today’s u3a session was Exploring Art. The subject we were talking about was “Family in Art”. This group is structured like most others, each member can prepare a small presentation or discussion point, or bring in an object to talk about, wach lasting say ten minutes on average.
Today, there were enould people who prepared a discussion paper and power point on various topics one which occurred a couple of times (that doesn’t matter, it’s not repetition, its individuals perspectives) is the Jan Van Eyck picture, The Arnolfini Portrait.
I first encountered this fascinating portrait when I was reading The History of Art by E.H. Gombrich, during the COVID lockdowns. The National Gallery has a superb web page that allows you to explore this amazing picture in depth to see the detail that Eyck put into it. There are many interpretations of the story the picture tells. Look at this web page:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jan-van-eyck-the-arnolfini-portrait
use the slider to zoom in on the mirror between Arnolfini and his wife. It clearly shows at least one person, who may be the artist himself.
I was a bit frustrated because I hadn’t prepared anything. I did have one idea in mind, but I never got around to doing it. I’m hoping that the group leader will issue a follow-up email. It was decided that the next topic for members would be The Everyday Family, which could be described as domesticity. Now, I do have an idea for this. Can I really do it?
The Camera club evening was the PDI competition that should have happened last week. It got delayed because our club was involved in a three-way competition with local clubs.
The header picture is one of my entries for tonights. When I took the picture I was quite pleased with it, but I felt embarrassed when it was projected. Focus was poor, and it just didn’t look right. Bit dissappointing really, but I totally agreed with the judges summary – he wasn’t impressed, and neither was I.
The u3a operates on a four weekly calendar. I got a bit confused about thinking which day was the first or fourth day. I ended up having to write it down and consult ChatGPT – It all makes me sound a bit stupid, but there you go. Luckily, it is all resolved now. I think.
Elayne’s dance group have remained firm friends, even though the dancing ended a couple of years ago, more to the loss of the venue than any other reason. One tradition became very quickly established; The Dance Group Lunch. Sometimes it’s eating out, but most of the time it is a simple buffet meal at the home of one the group, which is mostly couples, but as I was working and unable to attend unless it became Elaynes turn to host, as it was today. Except this time (and the last couple of time) as I am retired I can therefore attend guilt free. Wherever it is held, a very nice lunch is to be had along with lovely company and pleasant conversation.
It was only a brief visit to The Gosport Shed this morning, long enough for the weekly meeting and to pay for the next breakfast – Oh, and the auction of course. There was absolutely nothing that I was interested in, I’m sure that one day, there will be. I paid for breakfast.
Had a snooze this afternoon, actually, we both flaked out on the sofa. Not sure why we were so tired.
This evening has been spent, thinking about various u3a projects I have going on, and making sure I know what I am doing, and when.
All good fun.
No, the pigeon picture is not a metaphor for the chaos of the dance group in action.
Hi Steve,
In some respects, I don’t think Gilbert would recognize how today’s world works. At the beginning of his Letter IX, he talks of a nearby forest, Wolmer, which was held by a grant from the crown. He then lists a number of people of note who manage the forest on behalf of the crown.
The list represents a clear chain of authority tied directly to the land and to the monarchy.
Land ownership at scale looks very different today. With much land being owned not by individuals, and not on behalf of the crown, but rather by institutions, and that could include large businesses and universities such as Cambridge. This is not so easy to see, making land ownership today much less visible.
Gilbert’s letter made me do a little bit of digging around the current structure of aristocracy within Hampshire. Titles still exist. There is an active Lord Lieutenant and a list of his deputies, whilst not from the aristocracy themselves, they also represent a line to the monarchy. There is also a Duke of Wellington whose stately home is Stratfield Saye House, here in Hampshire.
The respect and deference that were given automatically to such people in Gilbert’s list are very different today. Democratic institutions have transferred it to people whom we tend to respect, such as doctors, teachers. Respect is earned, not given solely by virtue of rank or appointment.
Any such list today is as likely to include town councillors who are, generally, not of the aristocracy, but are part of our democratic structure.
The second part of Gilbert’s Letter IX talks about the issue of hunting. Again, his interpretation of the word is very different to ours, but for reasons that wouldn’t be obvious to him.
As in his day, there are two paths: a legal and an illegal path. The practice of explicitly hunting live animals such as foxes was banned in 2004. Hunts still happen, but it is now referred to as Trail hunting, where a scent is laid for the dogs to follow. For me, this raised questions such as what is used to create the scent and how it is produced.
The second path I refer to is the case that there is illegal hunting, but it is really for “sport” rather than getting food for the table.
All the best
Bill
Elayne has been away for a couple of days. Left to my own devices at home, I had some household jobs which I made sure were done today, before anything else. Then sat down to decide what I was going to do for the rest of the day.
I looked up the Gosport Discovery Centre to find that it was open until 1700. Sometime between 2 and 3 PM, I left the house to walk into town.
I walked past the Richard Martin Gallery. He had a pair of starcharts in the window, from the 1770s. I’d quite liked to have had them, but then noticed the price, just under £700, so I thought not. I’d have had nowhere to put them anyway.
I know that I walked around the Cockle Ponds yesterday and was delighted to see that there are Jellyfish in the pond, and to be honest, there is little point in checking on the jellyfish every day. But if I want to get out, I might as well go that way anyway. The sun was moving behind the clouds, and the surface of the ponds was quite rough, making it difficult to see into the depths. Just occasionally, I got a view of some small jellyfish, which was about it.
One of the main reasons I wanted to go into town was to go to The Discovery Centre. I was looking for a Pauline Rowson book. It didn’t matter which one. Pauline (I don’t know her, so I hope she doesn’t mind my informality) writes books based around the local area. I didn’t want to borrow it, I wanted to do a quick read-through to see how she uses place and business names in her books. She writes mostly murder mysteries involving Portsmouth Police, and her main character DI Andy Horton.
I decided that if there was a book in the library I would spend an hour looking at it. Luckily, there was a copy of the Suffocating Sea, which was published in 2008, and in that hour I looked through 200-plus pages. During that time, I identified 30+ locations, a church and several businesses. I was curious about one location Petit Port on Guernsey, so I looked it up, and confirmed that it does exist.
Why did I do that? I guess I haven’t completely given up on the idea that somewhere inside me is a work of fiction.
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