Fiona, the Gosport u3a Group Leader had asked if I would go to the Climate Change group presentation this morning, and let me know what I thought of it.

I didn’t count the number of people there, but I’d say 10-15. Guests had been invited as the group had a lady in from Gosport StreetScene who was going to be talking to us about new services that were going to be introduced next year.

This is around the disposal of food waste. All households will be getting two new bins; a small caddy where daily food waste is deposited in the house (or flat) which in turn are emptied daily in to a larger food caddy, which is collected weekly, alongside whichever (normal or recycling) bin is being emptied, the important thing is that the bins will be emptied weekly.

The audience asked a lot of questions, and it very quickly became clear that Gosport Borough Council’s recycling policy is not clear. Frustratingly so. I have that piece to write up.

This evening, I was on Week 8 of the astronomy course, this week it was about stellar evolution, and to really understand it and get benefit from it, you really need to have a little unnderstanding of how stars work. That was one aspect, where Steve, the tutor could very easily have lost the audience, but he was very good, and held it all together.

The weather was another bit ofa let down – cloudy skies, so this week was ruled out as a potential observing session. Looks like we will be going into week 11.

I wanted to get into the garden, just to have a bit of a look around, to see what was going on. I even had my magnifying glass with me, to have a look at nature. It shouldn’t be the wrong time of year, nature is there all year round, it’s just that this time of year, it’s a bit more hidden.

I did see a few things, but I didn’t really go rooting around a lot.

I cleaned off the bird table and put a few worms out in the hanging feeder. I’ll see tomorrow if the birds have been at it.

I was in the shop for 1PM. It was a busy afternoon. There were very few moments whhen I had the shop to myself. I’m not sure if I like it like that. Also, I have to confess, I’m not 100% convinced I will still be there after christmas. That would be a pity.

In Post 265, quite a while back, in fact, May 2021, I joined Queket, the Microscope Club. What surprised me was that I was my timelines had got mixed up again, and that i was a member, a lot further back than I thought. This Stereo Microscope is the one that has been taken out of storage and put, once again, in to use.

Like a lot of things, i became so interested in a subject, that bought a a couple of a microscopes, one a condenser scope, the other a stereo microscope. Now, some years before even that, I had purchased a Brunel microscope for beginners. It has been languishing in a cupboard for a very long time. Out of curiosity, I got it out, and OK, yes it is a beginners device, but it is most definitely not a toy, it really is quite useable. So, I’m going to have another go with it.

When I bought it, I also bought a box of pre-made slides, beyond just looking at them I’ve never done anything with them. That’s going to change. The results of that may appear occasionally in the Letters to Steve.

First though, I have to give it a good clean.

It’s the first wednesday of the month. That means it’s the monthly u3a meeting at Thorngate halls, when as many members are crammed into one of the halls, given a quick review of recent and upcoming activities, followed by a speaker.

There isn’t anything really noteworthy for Gosport u3a itself. This month’s speaker was Stephen Hoadley. The title of this month’s talk was “We had one of those”. As you might have expected, it looked at the first and early versions of things like; vacuum clearners, washing machines, fridges, the Kenwood Chef, and a few others. As you can imagine, there were several shouts of “We had one of those.” And lots of laughter. Mr. Hoadley is an excellent presenter.

After the main meeting, va number of us retired to the bar area for a cup of tea (or coffee) or, in the case of David, whom I seem to sit next to every time we do on e of these, a glass of cider.

We had a good chat, covering of course u3a topics, and what we are doing in the various groups.. All very interesting and enjoyable.

The only conceivable linkk that this picture has with Astronomy, is that the fungi remind me of the first time Captain Scarlet saw the Mysteron’s Martian base. Yes, I agree, tenuous in the extreme, but there you go.

Tonight’s two and a bit hours, were as usual very interesting and informative. Steve, the course insztructor was desperately trying to get us some actual observing time, unfortunately, the sky wasn’t playing and stayed cloudy for the duration. Not a lot we can do about that although, he did say there was the possibility of tacking an extrta week on at the end, if it looked like the skies were going to be clear.

I am coming to a bit of a conclusion; I having been talking in terms of spending a fair hbit of money on getting a set up to use at home, with no guarantee as to how good it will be, and setting up before, and breaking down after an observing session both being a potential nightmare, So…

I raised the topic of membership, saying that I had tried about 10 years ago, but had received a very polite “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” Apparently, membership at that time had been locked, because there was estimated to be a four year waiting list.

It seems that things are a bit more flexible now, and for a little over £50 a year, I get access to some really quite amazing kit, with no set up fears or pproblems. I think I might give this a go.

Dear Steve,

Reading Gilbert’s letter XXXIII about the migration of birds and how UK birds can be found in places like Gibraltar. That led me to ask; “what should I do if I find a ringed bird”? My thinking being that if I were to find a dead bird with a ring on its leg, to whom should I report it? I now know that it is the British Trust for Ornithology and that they have lots of projects in which I could become involved if I so wished. 

Meaning that unless I happen upon something that may be worth reporting, I am unlikely to become involved in any. 

I had made my mind up, during the week that I wasn’t going to wait any longer for a passion fruit to drop of its own accord.  I was going to take samples. I found one fruit that looked in reasonable health, and one that looked a lot less healthy, and cut them off the bush.

I didn’t squeeze them, but for both, the outer skin was almost loose, feeling like there was nothing underneath it.  Very difficult to describe.  At my desk, as gently as I could, I cut into the healthier of the two. I was surprised to find the seed pod inside looked intact, and to be honest,little different to the first time I cut open a more mature fruit.  The only conclusion I can come to is that it looks like the development of the seeds had reached a point and then stopped. The seeds in the pod were grouped together, and were very moist.  I’d say that individually, they were not ready to be dispersed naturally. I don’t have enough knowledge about the plant’s life cycle to say what the seeds would look like when they were at that point. 

The second, less healthy looking pod had what, through my inexperience, I can only describe as a lesion on the skin.  My expectations before I cut it open, was that the seeds I side would be in a state of severe deterioration. You can probably imagine my surprise then, when I found the seeds to relatively intact, and in a similar state to the first pod.  

Before I tried to cut into the lesion I noticed that it was surface only it hadn’t gone through the skin to the inside, that surprised me. I only made one small attempt to cut in, and then left it.  

The one thing I forgot to do, was look at anything under the microscope.  The stupid thing is, I’d brought the microscope out of storage for that purpose.

I did a bit of a round trip yesterday.  On the way, I picked up a couple of acorns, I haven’t looked them yet, but I will do for the next letter.

All the very best 

Bill

Link to Previous Letter, XXXII – Latin & The New Forest

Link to Index of Letters to Steve

Link to Letter XXXIV – Lots of Natural History