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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.

What’s the opposite of writer’s block, where you freeze because you can’t think of anything to write about? Perhaps Writers Flood? You might think the opposite is, well…just write as normal. But, what if there is so much going through your brain that you can’t make up your mind what to write about?

In a way, having too much to write about can be a kind of good thing. Let’s just get to one side, sit down, with (in my case) a pen and notebook, and just start writing a list. With as much or as little detail as you want. What we are looking for is a kind of to-do list, I suppose.

At the moment, I am still fixated on measuring the beach at Stokes Bay. I am developing a strategy for doing the measuring and recording the measurements. I even have a name for the project – The Secret Life of Shingle. That really did get me excited. Then I can move on to the Compost Bins. I think we have a problem with both our bins, but I need to find out, so I’ve ordered a compost bin thermometer and moisture gauge so that I can keep an eye on what is happening deep inside. I don’t have a name for this, beyond “The Compost Bins.”

Then there is the project that I started as an archaeology project. I’m not sure that’s correct. Given the nature of the project, I suspect it’s more historic. I am working on a name for that. The best I’ve come up with are a couple; The Organised Ape (bearing in mind I’m going back to time before Homo Sapiens were a thing, or a slight variation on that; The Organised Ape and its invented society.

There are some sessions where i have a task within that session, for example, I did a small, 5-minute presentation to the Exploring Art group that raised a bit of a smile.

Then of course, there is what might be the piece-de-resistance might just turn out to be the inaugural meeting of the new Gosport u3a Creative Writing Group. Enough people have to turn up to make the group viable, so let’s not count our chickens – just yet.

et. With all of that, you can see that I would be so busy that I have no time for anything else. This is where the benefit of being retired; more time for study, more time for walking, and more time naps. I’m starting to feel

2001 Stokes Bay

I was thinking of a small trip out that we did to a small place not far from us called Warsash. I’ve just found the photos that I took there, and I’m slightly distressed to find that the trip was over 4 years ago. That came as a bit of a shock. But it wasn’t the trip, or the date that I wanted to mention – it was the beach. What was it about the beach that brought my mind back to it – I’ll answer that below.

But first, I want to briefly talk about the u3a project for Geology that I mentioned in this post: https://localitystories.com/2026/05/16/1994-substack/ I said I had thought of what I could do, and that is I wanted to have a little understanding of Stokes Bay Beach.

Here’s a link to the beach on Google Maps: https://bit.ly/Stokes_Bay. The beach is made up almost exclusively of Shingle, and it is a managed beach, which means that it plays a role in coastal erosion. Now the coastal erosion is not my primary interest here, the importance of recognising how the beach affects erosion is recognised by the council, and that is why it is managed.

No, my primary interest is what happens to the shingle and the effect of longshore drift. I went on a bit of a fact-finding trip, and I have to say that I found a lot of facts.

One thing that surprised me is that the western end of the beach is where the bulk of the material used in managing the beach might be stored. When I went for a look today, this was the first area where I spent a bit of time, and this is where I found the shell in the header picture.

I must admit I was very surprised to find that there were a lot of shells in the area, not as many as Warsash, but quite a few. This was the first of several surprises. As time moves on, I hope to write about more of them.

2000 – A writing Milestone

I think I can quite legitimately claim that I am sufficiently well along with this blog that I can “look back” at previous writings. Much as i am doing now. Looking at Post 1000, which was posted on 23 May 2023.

At the time of writing, there was an event going on that caused me to mess up the numbering slightly. Luckily it wasn’t catastrophic, so I was able to make a minor adjustment and then carry on as normal.

Hopefully, there have been no similar mess-ups over numbering. But there have been some big changes since that 1,000th post. Not the least of these is my retirement, which I had not anticipated this time last year would happen sooner than I expected. Membership of u3a has, I think it is fair to say has been something of a seismic change for me. To the better, in my opinion.

I have, I think a good direction in which i wish to travel, the only slight problem is that I can”t work out what to do about facebook, which I definitely don’t want to give up, but which needs to be different to this blog.

Things to ponder.

The question I asked myself at post 1000 was; am I going to continue? The answer now is the same as it was then, but possibly slightly more emphatic, Oh Yes!

1999 – In the Garden

I don’t think I have ever really appreciated how many opportunities there are in the garden to observe nature at work.

At the moment, I have three very specific areas under observation, these are;
The compost bins
The bird feeders
And now the Ants

I’m watching the ants, I saw something today, that I wasn’t expecting. I’m not going to write about it today. I want to do a little bit more research, and it will probably be in the next Letter to Steve (Number 14), which is in draft as we speak, or should I say write.

One thing I do want to do, is learn how to use my macro lens properly. I am sure that will open up even more opportunities.

1998 – Artistic Frustration

Today, being the 3rd Tuesday of the month meant exploring art. This mont h’s topic was Domesticity. Now, I’ve known what the topic was since the last session, but I really couldn’t think how to tackle it in my usual way, which was to try and come up with an unusual angle on the subject.

Well, I did it. I got the presentation ready, not a lot of slides, about 12 in total, and the script. The presentation only lasts for about five minutes, so it’s not huge. Without going into too much detail on the presentation, I want to put it on my Substack so it’s available, but here is my problem;

The presentation involves four pictures by various artists;
– The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johannes_Vermeer_-_Het_melkmeisje_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
– The Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Caillebotte-Floor-scrapers_(1876).jpg
– Interior with a Reading Lady by Vilhelm Hammershoi
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hammershoi_-_Interior_with_a_Reading_Lady.jpg
– Interior by Edouard Vuillard
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vuillard_-_Woman_in_Interior,_1932.jpg

All four of the above paintings are deemed to be in the public domain. In theory, they do not need attribution. But I find the Wikimedia website very confusing, which seems to indicate that, regardless of the public domain status, some form of attribution is recommended, but what? I really don’t know what to do about this.

I did try ChatGPT, which has not really helped.

1997 – Model railways – More than just trains

I’d like to point you towards a YouTube Channel run by a chap who labels himself as SirDork. He shoots pictures of toys, but in a special kind of way, making scenes involving action. I’d highly recommend that you take a look at his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@sirdork730
I’d quite like to do something similar, but I’m not sure if I could get hold of the flashbangs he uses to generate his effects, plus, as a beginner, I’m not sure if I’d be able to go anywhere near the effort he puts into his pictures, which are most impressive.

I’ve wanted to have a working model railway layout for a very long. time. I remember my father buying a model railway and setting it up on the dining table. Obviously, it didn’t stay like that for long, and I can remember only one time when it was set up. But, the track, the engine (which I think was an A4 class, look up Sir Nigel Gresley), it’s here though: https://bit.ly/A4_Class stayed with me, unused, for a very long time.

I honestly don’t think it will ever come to pass. A big problem preventing it is that as my hands shake, I can’t put a OO gauge passenger car back on the track. If it is not possible with Double-O, it would be even more difficult with N-Gauge, the scale I was proposing to build.

Given the size and style changes to the existing model, to which I do have access, there are some quite exciting locations and scenes which I can film. Take, for example, the scene in the header picture. The building in the distance has been badly burned. As there are no ambulances around, everyone must have got out and are either on their way to the hospital, or gone to the neighbours for a cup of tea. Why not join us?

1996 – Letter to Steve XIII

Dear Steve,

Gilbert’s letter 13 is quite a long one. He goes into a level of detail about birds that I could never hope to match. That doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore birds, far from it.

I love watching the birds. I have a hanging feeder which I fill with mealworms. I tried seed, but they ignore them. I also have a bird table that has seed and mealworms.

I’ve started replenishing in the afternoon and evening. That usually means there is food available early, when the birds are most active.

Take this morning, for example. I came downstairs just after 6 AM. The hanging feeder was two-thirds full.

One problem I have is that, at the moment, any small brown bird is a sparrow. I know that sounds ridiculous. My bird identification skills are very low. I’m not sure what to do about it. I’ve got a pretty good book for bird identification. How do I apply it? I have a spotter scope and Binos. By the time I get to them, any bird on the feeder is likely to have flown.

There were half a dozen birds vying for the four spots on the hanging feeder, a couple of starlings and two sparrows. There were magpies on the shed, pigeons trying to get to the seed on the table.

Also, there was a crow on the grass. There has been a crow for the last few days. I’m really pleased about that. I’ve wanted to make friends with the crows for a while. I’m just not sure how to do that.

The magpies, as much as I like them (they are beautiful birds, and I’ve always had an affinity with them since reading about “the Magenpies” in Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals) are bullies. They frighten off and attack the smaller birds, and the starlings only continue because they overwhelm the magpies.

The crow takes care of that. It wasn’t trying to get into the feeder. I’d sprinkled some mealworms on the path in the hope that the crow would go after them, and it did. When the Magpies turned up, the crow wasted no time in seeing them off.

I don’t want the magpies to disappear permanently, but I do like to see the crow in the garden. I like to see all of the birds.

I just need to put a bit of effort into identifying the smaller birds.

All the Best

Bill

1995 – Trip in to town

We went into town today. There was a maritime event on. It was unusual to see people-sized boats on the Cockle ponds, but it made a nice change.

Well, we didn’t really go into town. We walked to the bus stop, got a No. 2 to the interchange. There were some shanty singers in the Falklands Gardens, We walked along the waterfront. There were some stands on the sundial and towards Trinity Church.

I had a nice burger from one of the stands. We took a walk past the Cockleponds. I wanted to walk along the southside, but didn’t have a chance. I only saw a couple of jellyfish.

Elayne went and did the shopping, I went for the car.

To be honest, that’s about as exciting as the day got.

1994 – Substack

Substack is a publishing platform, acting a bit like a blog. But it does do something a bit different in the way that readers can subscribe to newsletters. Now, that is something of an oversimplification but I have to confess that I haven’t got fully to grips with it yet.

Why do I want to get to grips with another publishing platform? It’s really being driven by two things; Gilbert White and the u3a. Whilst I publish the Letters to Steve every week, here, what I would like is a consolidated resource where they are all available together. I understand that there is a categorisation facility within Substack that would allow me to group them. I’m going to try that.

The other thing, is u3a. If you read my post a few days back, here’s the link; https://localitystories.com/2026/05/04/1984-a-u3a-review/,
You would have noticed that against Geology, I don’t have a task, well I do now. It’s a long term task. It involves the beach at Stokes Bay. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here. Ironically, I think that’s for a post in substack, but I will link to it here.

Using substack means that I can go into detail with my Archaeology Project, which I labeled as the “Society Project”, which also deserves a post explaining what it is all about, and what I would like to do. It’s like I say in the review post. There is no commitment, exvcept a personal one, there is no timeline. I can take as long as I like, and if I choose to abandon a project, then so be it.

The header picture will give you an idea of what I will be looking at on the beach. Wait for the project “proposal” which I am planning to write soon, and will post a link here. This is of course assuming that substack works the way I want it to.

And there you go, it’s midnight plus 5 (0005), so my post count is reset to zero. Please excuse me whilst I go and scream somewhere where my wife can’t hear me.

1993 – Compost Bins

We have two compost bins on the go. This is a picture of one of them. I don’t think it looks very good. The grass cuttings are from last week. When I opened both bins yesterday, the vegetation was starting to rot, but there was no insect life.

I am definitely not a compost bin expert; in fact, I know nothing at all about how they do what they do, except I do know that it involves an – I’m not sure what you would call it – an ecosystem? I would have expected to see bugs crawling all over them. But, there are none.

I’m going to leave it for a few days and have another look, but if it is still the same, I may have to get some advice. I’m sure somewhere on the Internet, there will be the information I need.