Bills Posts

It just goes to show how easy it is to lose track of time. I was surprised to discover that it was two weeks ago that I wrote the similarly named piece, where I mapped out the posts for the week ahead.

The trick is to come up with original posts. Unless something happens during the day, it can be difficult to come up with something to write about. When anything like that doesn’t happen, more often than not, then it’s convenient to have basic stuff to fall back on. So quite often you’ll see posts about; the magazine or book that is on my bedside usually on a Monday.

During the rest of the week I’m likely to write about photography – I tend to take a lot of photos. I’ll admit that most of them are fairly mundane, but just occasionally I get one where I think I really like that one. The subject could be anything from a spectacular sunrise to a shopping trolley in the cockle ponds. I become really quite annoyed when I see that and always report it to Streetscene, Gosport Borough Councils facilities team. They are pretty good at sorting that.

I’m as likely to write about the weather. I tend not to walk when it’s raining but there has been times when I am out and get caught in it. Hopefully I’ll have my waterproof coat on. I have ended up getting home drenched.

Quite often when I’m out walking I’ll see people whom I see regularly and get to exchange pleasantries which is really nice. So let’s see what the coming week brings.

I apologise about last nights post. We’d sat down and had watched a couple of episodes of Bones, the latest boxset we are binging. The last episode we watched I missed 90% because I was sleeping.

We were in bed quite early, and I managed to put together last nights post. Today, I was determined to do a little better. With our trip to Chichester, I had the opportunity.

We had two good reasons to visit the city, but except the we failed in both they are irrelevant. I like Chichester it’s a very pleasant place to have a wander. In particular, there’s the canal;

Then of course there are two good bookshops, Kim’s the 2nd hand shop which is over three levels, today, I bought a book about Dorset. It was published in 1925, it’s called Dorset by H.O. Lock. It’s one of those books, that when you pick it up and read a random page you know you want to read the rest of the book.

The other shop is Waterstones. It’s always nice to have a browse through. I didn’t buy anything though. With regard to one of the two failures, not completely so. We do have a couple of options.

The only reason you are doing this post is to keep the count going.

Sorry, goodnight.

I went out for my usual lunchtime walk. It’s usually just over two miles. I normally end up on the Haslar Marina Pier Wall. I saw an unusual view as I approached the ferry terminal. To reach the ferry terminal would involve walking up a slope.

I don’t think I have ever seen the ramp slope up. I have to admit, I found that a bit disconcerting. I looked at the tidal app on my phone , the tide was hitting 4.61m. It looked like the tide was only about eighteen inches below the the bottom of the sea wall which has holes in it.

Could the town really have been that close to flooding? I don’t know. It was quite breezy as well. It was a nice walk though.

Does it seem macabre that I wanted to get as close as I could to the place where in 1963, at the age of six I found my dad, laying on the ground, either dying or dead? I couldn’t to the exact spot of course. Not only would there be no markers, but the place had been built upon since that date. But I did try.

The ticket machines of the car parks in Wareham are not as sophisticated as those in Gosport. They don’t have contactless payment. I ended up going to the ATM to take out £10 then popping into the shop and buying a bar of chocolate (actually a duo bar of biscuit & raisin Yorkie) which I ate later, on the way home). I bought a ticket for two hours. Would that give us enough time to do what I wanted?

We walked over the causeway, pausing to chat to chap working to lay broadband fibre. Seems to be happening in a lot of places. He was happy to talk.

We walked past my old primary school. Strange, but I don’t really have many happy memories of any of the schools I attended. Actually, I am hard pushed to recall any happy memories, but I am sure there must be some there…somewhere.

We met a chap who says he remembered be from the estate where I used to live. We talked for a bit about names from the past. He got on with repairing his frost-fractured bricks. We walked back the way we came.

I spent a few hours with my family. People whom I love. If my wife had been there it would have been perfect. She wasn’t able to today. Still, it was lovely. I ended the day happy/sad. More happy really. I had done what I had set out to do.

There’s this thing. I am curious about the Neolithic period and megalithic sites. I bought a book about the celts. It’ll be a reference book which I will dip into. this book was updated as recently as 2019.

I am also curious about the Saxons, and have bought a book about the Saxon chronicles. I didn’t think there was much written evidence about the celts, but it appears that there’s a fair bit, produced by the romans, who I think thought they were barbarians. It’ll be interesting to read the book and find out what I don’t know.

There’s a lot of material about the Saxons, the written evidence kind of brings them alive.

The megalithic sites predate both of those periods easily and it looks like they fall within the Neolithic period. My understanding of this is woefully inadequate.

Every so often, I find myself wondering where rascal is, of course, he’s not here.

Sorry, another feeble post.

Rascal came to us in 2003, a little black bundle of fur, along with his two brothers Droplet and Tinsel. Elayne said “you can’t call him Rascal’” I said “why not” Rascal he became.

Today, Rascal left us. At the end he was a frail shadow of his earlier self but the love we had for him will never diminish. We miss him.

Love you Rascal, goodnight my dear.

All day yesterday, I had a post in my head that I was going to do, and then I went and forgot it. So that means the post counter having reached the stratospheric value of 76 has now been reset to one as of this post.

The post had been in my mind and so you can imagine my frustration upon the realisation this morning of what I had done. Anyhow, what is done, is done.

Elayne wanted to go to the local garden centre, but had a WI duty to perform beforehand, so suggested that we meet there. Which I have to say was a pretty good idea.

I thought I would walk down Anglesey Road rather than the railway track (which is actually a rather good footpath). A pleasant walk along Stokes Bay’s Golden Mile up Gomer Lane then along to to the garden centre where we had a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake.

I’m wondering if my being awakened by the foghorns sometime between three and four accounted for my feeling really quite stressed. Only superfluous reasons for feeling that way. I did have a choice as to whether to stay in bed and stew in my feelings, or get up and go for a walk. If I got up, at least I would be doing something.

After hearing the foghorns, I thought it might be an interesting walk, so obviously I did get up, and I was glad at that. Visibility a long the high street was getting shorter. By the time I reached the waterfront, it was down to around one hundred yards.

Shorebased foghorns were sounding very regularly and each time were followed by a real cacophony of shipborn horns. The Normandie came in whilst I was at the waterfront. I could hear, and almost feel the deep thrumm of its engines. I couldn’t see a thing, not even a dark shadow as the ferry passed by.

The header picture unusually for me, is related to today’s post. Taken at the cockle pond, the view across the pond gives a good demonstration of the restricted view.

I must confess that it was a relief that my feeling of stress dissipated really quite quickly. Plus, I enjoyed the walk.

Clarence yard, in its heyday must have been a very interesting place. One of two victualling centres for the Royal Navy. The site contains a slaughter house (still called the Slaughterhouse) and the ovens for backing bread for all of the ships in dock.

I heard a story about how small boats would collect bread and take the loaves out to ships in the Solent, moving from ship to ship. When you are here, it’s easy to imagine. But, you could have no idea of what life must have been on board ship, especially for those who had been picked up by the press gangs. Horrible life.

I walked around the yard, taking pictures to do a series on the project 365 website. I think I get everything I need.