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Bill’s Locality Stories

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.

2115 – Astronomy

Tonight’s header picture is relevant in the sense that it was taken at the Hampshire Astronomy Group’s observation site.

Tonights session was all about telescopes, from the early days, to today, and tomorrows devices, the largest currently under construction have a 39 metre mirror.

But the part that I was most interested in was the sedction that dealt with telescopes for amateurs. I think the group went out of its way to not promote or push a particular type, of which there a limited number of basic models including, but by no means limited to Reflectors, Refractors and smart scopes.

Whilst it is not 100% certain, it is very likely that I am in the market for a telescope. But what type?

Oh Wow! I have just realised that it is 00:30. I sat here at about 2230 to start and I have wasted two hours, and have caused the counter to reset, all without realising.

Time for bed.

2114 – Letter to Steve XXIX – Conkers & Beech nuts

Dear Steve,

The first thing that I noticed about Letter XXIX was its date. May. Given that it is now October, there’s a bit of difference in the context. The beginning and the end of the summer (kind of). I don’t think that is too much of a problem. When I first started looking at Gilbert’s letters and considered doing the Letters to Steve, I was aware that the first real letter was dated August and I would be writing a responding letter dated February, so I would be out of sync.

I didn’t know if I would be able to keep up with my intention to publish the Letters to Steve, but here we are, twenty-nine letters on, and even with a four-week break, it seems that the habit has not been broken.

Letter XXIX has two main areas of focus: birds, mainly those migrating, and cats (yes, the domestic type). I am slightly ashamed that even though we have been back two weeks, I haven’t yet got the bird feeders set up. Apart from some very persistent pigeons, we have been visited by very few birds. I’m intending to correct that over the week.

The lack of birds means that I’m not really able to parallel Gilbert’s letter. Instead, I can write about conkers and Beech Nuts.

During the week, we went with our granddaughter to one of the parks in town, where we knew there were several horsechestnut trees. After lunch, at the Rugby Club (which was most acceptable), we embarked upon a hunt for conkers. We were not entirely successful. Actually, it was a dismal failure; I think we found three. Aurora, though, had an excellent session on the play area.

Yet another thing that I have never considered: I discovered that beech trees produce nuts. I was walking alongside Walpole Park this morning when I walked over an area of path that was covered in brown husks. With a little investigation, I made the discovery about beech trees. Today’s picture shows an open pod, luckily with the nuts in place.

As regards Cats, Gilbert commented on their appreciation of fish, contrasted with their rather intense dislike of water. I am sure that there will be more on these beasties in future letters.

All The Very Best

Bill

Link to Letter XXVIII – The Big Holiday & an Elk

Link to Index of Letters to Steve

2113 – Crossing the Atlantic

I asked my assistant what would be the next major geological feature that The Queen Mary 2 would sail over after the Georges Bank. Her response varied between the Sohm Abyssal Plain which is 4 – 5. KM beneath the ship, and The New England Seamounts, apparently extinct volcanoes that are 2,500mm above the plain.

That figure, 5KM, is almost quite frightening. Sixteen thousand feet. I know that the ocean is deep, but there is a difference between knowing, and actually being above it.

It’s strange how the ocean was calm on the surface as we sailed above tis plain, and to think of the what the ocean floor might look like.

Obviously, thoughts of the Titanic were in my mind and I know that we were hundreds of miles away from her resting place, but I also couldn’t help wondering about what ships that may have been sunk during the world wars may lay beneath us.

It was a moment of sobering thought during a period of intense, delightful relaxation.

2112 – Friday

As it was Friday, this afternoon I would be working in the Charity shop where I volunteer. It’s only the afternoon, 1300-1630, 3.5 hours so it’s not overly onerous, indeed, I really enjoy interacting with the customers. The problem today was there weren’t many of them. Strangely though, it didn’t seem like that. Perhaps next week, I’ll take my counter in to see how many people come into the shop – really though, I should have two; those who come in and those who make a purchase. I might try and do a check sheet for that number.

A big frustration for me in the shop is the books. I had an ambition to turn the shop’s book section into one comparable to the one which used to be in the British Heart Foundation shop – that was definitely my role model. Unfortunately, i found that I wouldn’t be able to do that because I couldn’t manage the books, only going into the shop once a week, and not controlling which books were put out when. Even it if it was only an example. Could I arrange to go in every day? Probably not. How about spending thirty minutes every time I’m in town? That’s a bit more random, and perhaps do-able, I’ll have to ask my assistant if she thinks it’s reasonable.

It must be at least two months since we had fish and chips from our favourite chippy. So, that is what we had tonight. As usual, it was lovely. Because it has been a few weeks since we had Cod, I was surprised at how “fishy” it tasted. I know you’ll say; “Well, it is fish after all”. The fish was just a stronger flavour that what I remembered.

We had the fish and chips down at Stokes Bay. It was later than usual, so if there were any cruise ships in, we’d missed them. What we didn’t miss though, was the really rather nice sunset.

2111 – Out for a Walk

On Monday and Tuesday this week, I managed to get out for some normal walks around the twon centre. I even managed to do Face Book entries for both the days. It’s good to keep in touch with family and friends.

I couldn’t go out on Wednesday, well that’s not strictly accurate. I suppose I could have gone out first thing in the morning, before Aurora arrived. We had a lovely day, and I think we wore her out.

There’s not much else that I’m going to say about yesterday & today.

2110 – The First point of Aries

Once again, the photo bears no relevance to the title of tonight’s post. I am convinced that around this cone in the cockle pond, thrown in a while ago by some scholar, there is a good picture. I haven’t found it yet. Hopefully, Streetscene will remove the cone before too long.

The title of tonight’s post is an astronomical term and is crucial to something that I am trying to get to grips with. The more I learn about the subject, it helps make it just that little bit clearer. How to find a star or other stellar object, and I have to confess, it takes a bit of getting used to. But learning about it (and the term First Point of Aries was new to me at the astronomy course on Monday.

I mentioned Right Ascension and Declination in https://localitystories.com/2026/09/21/2101-hampshire-astronomy-group/
For some reason, WordPress isn’t working properly tonight. In order to RA & Dec to work you have to imagine that the sky is mapped out in a way that resemble longitude and lattitude on Earth. as The Greenwich Meridian is the zero point for measurements west and east, so The First Point of Aries is the zero point for RA & Dec.

Right Ascension is measured in hours and minutes, and is the is the equivalent of latitude, how far are objects east or west of the zero point, and longitude is the height above the celestial equator.

My apologies if I got even slightly technical here, but it helps me think things out.

2109 – Creative Writing & Stargazing

I wrote briefly about the Stargazing Group at u3a a little bit yesterday. What I had to do today was produce just a couple of short paragraphs about the group for the monthly newsletter.

It seems to me that I should write about what we are doing. So Creative Writing was about settings, and to make it a bit more interesting, I mentioned that we will be covering characters. What would be nice would be if that were to spark a level of interest in U3A members to encourage them to come to the group. Stargazing is about what is coming up next month.

Here is an opportunity to practice what I am preaching, and that is by using some creative writing to make more interesting. Yes., I’m still thinking about learning how to do that,

2108 – 4th Monday at u3a

The 4th Monday of every month is a busy day for me at the moment. In the morning, I go to the Stargazing session. Now, we use a couple of books to look at what has been happening in the sky that can be seen with the naked eye. I had to confess that apart from Saturday night, when I went out just to see if the moon was visible from my proposed observing area (it was, in the Eastern sky), I had done no observing at all in the previous four weeks – my excuse being that we were on holiday mostly in areas of very high light pollution. That excuse falls apart when the transatlantic crossing is mentioned, and I resort to I just didn’t do it.

The stargazing session ran from 10:00 to 11:30. I went home to deliver the anti-bite pen to Elayne and to remove some of the weight from my bag. That done, I went on my first walk since returning to the UK. The Cockleponds were still there, and the swans were very attentive, but slightly confused about the lack of food.

The afternoon session solution was History, and the subject was “Prisons”. There were quite a few speakers, and the focus was on UK prisons frm 1700’s to today, with many mentioning the prison hulks, of which there were several in Portsmouth harbour. One of the speakers (actually, a member of the Stargazing Group) did a talk on an American Civil War prison, which was a good diversion.

Next month’s topic is Medicinal Remedies. I have a thought on that, but photos will be difficult.

Monday evenings at the moment are filled with the Hampshire Astronomy Group. Only the second week, and already I am engrossed. This week continued the history of astronomy line, which was fascinating. Next week is telescopes, which is particularly relevant at the moment.

2107 – Letter to Steve XXVIII – The Big Holiday & an Elk.

Letter XXVIII

Dear Steve,

I hesitated before starting this week’s letter, only to work out which direction to go. By that, I mean do I at least acknowledge Gilbert’s letter XXVIII, or do I explain the 5-week absence?

Not so much explain the absence, but talk about what I had wanted to do, but didn’t really achieve. It is quite difficult to go to a new location and become involved in its nature. Especially when that place is a bustling city, where the wildlife either is really in your face, or keeps it hidden.

Washington, D.C. is very much one of those cities; I am sure that there is plenty of wildlife, especially in the green areas. It didn’t take me long to focus on the cicadas in the National Mall. We walked from The Lincoln Memorial towards the Washington Monument. The cicadas were very noisy, but of course, I couldn’t see one. As soon as I approached a tree, they went silent, and I just didn’t have time to stand and wait. It sounds like a bit of an excuse; I suppose it is really. But it does demonstrate the difference between being somewhere and observing somewhere.

In Montreal, we stayed with family in a 5th-floor condo, with access to an open area. On one of the days, I sat on the decking; I heard some geese squawking. In the distance, I could see a small flock in the air. When you see flying geese from underneath, they are very organised in their V formation. It felt like I was at the same height as them, so had a side-on view; what was fascinating was the appearance of complete disorganisation: birds were swapping levels, and all over the place. Very interesting to see. I also saw a squirrel, busy burying nuts in the pots.

The train trip from Montreal to New York City is worthy of a mention in its own right. We were on the train for 10 hours. At one point we were travelling along the side of Lake Champlain. The scenery was breathtaking. Not just the lake and hills, the residences, the flock of cormorants sunbathing on the lakeside, the leisure activities on the lake, all of it left me with a thought; I can entirely understand why people would want to live there. It was beautiful.

During our time in New York, I really didn’t even try to look for any signs of nature apart from our brief sojourn into Central Park. We didn’t spend long there, but it was very pleasant. We were amazed by the Steinway Tower, a pencil skyscraper, so called because it is a very slim building.

We also visited the Natural History Museum; of course, whilst there, we had to do the planetarium, which was very good, but not a patch on the presentations I attended in the 60s & 70s at the London Planetarium on Baker Street. I did find the universe timeline interesting, and very well presented. The part of the museum that deals with meteors is also well worth a visit.

The Transatlantic crossing started with a dead bug which I found on a table at the stern of the ship. Even my assistant can’t identify it.

I suppose I should at least acknowledge Gilbert’s letter XXVIII, the contents of which are very different in nature to mine.

In his letter, Gilbert had the chance to go to Goodwood, to look at the rotting corpse of an Elk; this is not something that I would do.

All the Best

Bill

Link to previous Letter

Index to Letters to Steve

2114 – Letter to Steve XXIX – Conkers & Beech nuts

2106 – A day in the Garden

The picture was taken this evening at 2154. I had gone out to see if the moon is visible to me. Well, it would be if it weren’t for the clouds. whad have a really interesting formation; as soon as I saw it I thought about streaky bacon laid out on a tray. The moon is visible between each rasher, but the clouds are moving at a fair rate, so I wouldn’t attempt to observe tonight. Let alone that it’s a full moon, so would be quite boring to view as all of the features would be flatly lit. give it a few days.

Before we went away on holiday, the garden was in a bit of a state. Nothing was growing, and the ground was parched. Things had changed a bit by the time we returned. Elayne’s words were: “The veg is useless, the weeds have gone berserk.”

With a brief interlude when we looked after Aurora, we spent a lot of the day in the garden. At the end of it all, we had a full brown bin, which is not due for collection for about 10 days, so that’s a bit frustrating (if Elayne keeps this up, I foresee a trip to the recycling centre), plus both compost bins are now full, so I don’t know where the cuttings are going after I’ve cut the grass tomorrow.

I asked Elayne if she was happy with the result, and she was. She then went and spent an hour at the Alverstoke Michaelmas fayre. I dropped her off just before three, and it finishes at four, so I expected it to be in full wind-down, and therefore not worth bothering with. Elayne walked home.

Overall, a successful day. We fell asleep in front of the TV.

Oh, one comment I wanted to add: when I went out to look for the moon, I was surprisingly quite impressed with how dark it was. Don’t know how they managed to achieve that.