Bills Posts

The day started with a dead badger. As soon as I saw the pathetic looking heap in the middle of the road as I left the house I knew what it was. With a degree of trepidation, I took closer look firstly confirming that it was badger that was deceased, and there was no blood or sign of injury.

I sent a direct (private) message via Twitter to StreetScene and as it was just before 6AM I wasn’t expecting a response. The walk went OK. I subscribe (free) to a website called Project365. All you can do is post one photo per day, and then people who follow you can comment on the photos. Quite straightforward.

Some of the people who I follow on P365 give themselves projects. One chap I particularly like is photographing his home town of Edmonton in Canada. I quite often think that I would like a project. So, I decided that I would think about taking pictures of things that are old in Gosport. I thought about a window frame on North Cross Street it is quite dilapidated and worn, almost rotting. I thought great, I’ll start with that.

I was getting ready to look at where I would frame the picture as I approached the location, but then was dumbfounded. The window had bee repaired. Not just a reair though not even a refurbisment. It looked as though it had been completely rebuilt, I muttered a swear word under my breath. I got put off my thread and will have to come up with either a new place to the start the project, or indeed, an entirely different project?

Walking around the Cockle Ponds, I was gvery sad to see, opposite the round cafe, that someone had dumped a shopping trolly in the larger pond. b Triggering another message to streetscene.

Fair dues to Streetscene I did get a response from them. They were aware of the badger and would task a team to recover the trolley. It’ll probably take them a couple of days.

What we thought would be quite nice was to take lunch over to Titchfield Haven, the nature reserve just a little way along the coast from Lee-on-The-Solent. We prepared our tuna mayo rolls, a piece of fruit and a drink, took books and magazines and were prepared for an afternoons relaxation.

We like to take a drive along the Stokes Bay to see what is going on. As we approached the bay, we could see a container/cargo ship and it looked huge. I don’t know if it was because of the big superstructure, it just seemed very big. It turned out to be The Maersk Bahama, I was surprised to find that it massed only 28,000 tons. Not really that big.

It’s always a bit hit and miss as to whether or not we get a parking slot, as it happened today there were quite a few slots we were able to get one where we had a clear view of the water. we parked up and bought a ticket. Lunch was verŷ nice.

I thought I would go for a walk. I found a path that I hadn’t walked along before. There were plenty of signs declaring it to be part of the England Coastal Path and a bit further along was another sign showing that this area was part of the Solent Way. I was walking towards Warsash, I wouldn’t get there though. I’d allowed myself about half an hour outbound. I was surprised to find myself thirty plus feet above sea level, following the path along a cliff that was obviously inclined to crumble. There was deep undergrowth. I wonder how much that impeded the erosion?

Anyhow, it turned into a very pleasant couple of hours. Quite satisfying.

This morning I went over to Portsmouth using the Gosport ferry. I have to admit that the whole process is very smooth. I wanted to purchase a multi-journey becasue each journey is cheaper. The ticket office was closed, presumably becasue I was too early. Not to worry, the machines were working, do they dispense multi-journey tickets?

Yes, they do. Not only that, you can pay wirelessly! Excellent. I will give Gosport Council their due (not actually anything to do with the Ferry company but commenting as an aside) As much as I hate paying for car parking, the ticket machines are up to date and take contactless payment. I do think they have also come to their senses be allowing an hours free parking. That has to be good for the town. Ok, back to the main story.

Ticket in hand, I proceed to the ferry terminal. Now, we do have to wait a few minutes for the next ferry, but that’s OK. It’s saturday, and its off peak. The ferrry comes towards us, and really does look like the gates on the ferry won’t align with the doors on the terminal, and then almost literally in the last second the ferry swings around the things line up perfectly.

I have to admit that I can’t help be impressed with the skills of the captains of the ferries I have seen them get it a little bit wrong, but it is very rare.

I was going to breakfast with a group of amateur radio operators. We speak regularly, but we rarely see each other face to face , so opportunities like this are always appreciated. We went to the Royal Maritime Hotel. They do a buffet breakfast for what I thought was £9.95, but turned out to be £9.50. The breakfast was very nice, and was felt by all six of us to be well worth it. We all agreed that we would definitely do it again. Now, I have it in my mind to set a date, say three months hence, but I will confirm it with the #Breakfastclub on Monday.

Several years ago, well before Covid I did a course at the local college. In fact I quite enjoyed the course, so I did it twice. It was a course on creative writing. The teacher was a local author June Hampson. She was very good and supportive, and was quite clear that her goal was to get us published. It might only be in a local magazine, but that was the aim.

When we started the course, I told June that I wanted to focus on non-fiction. She advised that I go with the flow, which I did. It quickly became clear that I have no talent for fiction. I did try, but it just didn’t work. I have to say that amongst the other people on the course, every week we would read out our homework. I really enjoyed hearing their work, some were very good.

I do confess that I haven’t really associated creative writing with non-fiction which is a bit daft because really it’s just “flowery” writing, and that can very much be part of non-fiction. I can’t help wondering if it’s worth having another go at the creative writing course? But this time having a different focus. The only problem with that is the course was on a Thursday. I couldn’t do it if it is still on the same day.

On this mornings post on Facebook, it tried a bit harder to write something a little less prosaic than I normally do. For example instead of say the there were lovely colours in the morning sky, I wrote something along the lines of the sky brightened to the east, the muted grey on the horizon gradually rose to a glorious pint before turning to the brilliant azure blue. Just a little more descriptive.

My father-in-law paid me a compliment about my writing, and knowing his book related background, that meant a lot.

I need to practice that style of writing more often. I think a lot of the things I write about could be more interesting if only I put a bit more effort into it. I can honestly say that with over nine hundred blog posts behind me, writing more creatively should be easier, and perhaps posts between 1,000 and 2,000 I should really work on developing that skill. Did I really just write that? It seems I did.

It’s all very well writing, when it is just putting words on paper or on the screen. They really should mean something, and make you feel something. I quite think I would like to achieve that.

At the end of my Facebook posts I usually write something along the lines of “and whatever you are doing I wish you a lovely day” I like doing that. I would like to feel that message comes through in my writing, without me having to say it.

There are somethings that are really quite cathartic. For me it can be as simple as cutting the grass, shredding or organising a book shelf.

All of a sudden, I am to be given almost half of one of our bookshelves. I have more than enough books to fill it. It is though, more than just putting books in place on the shelf. They should be arranged, organised even. But how?

Should I employ the Dewey decimal method? I think that’s probably extreme, but certainly by subject. I don’t have enough space currently for my nature books. Also, my Dorset and Hampshire selections are growing. I will transfer books around to create some space. The new shelf space is a shelf higher do I want the newly placed books to be higher or lower? Now, there’s a question to be pondered.

It was a cold start to the day. I have to confess that I didn’t really want to get up. As usual though I’m glad I did. There was a northerly breeze with a real bite to it. Luckily my headphones cover my ears, so they don’t suffer.

The high street was even more quiet than usual, no window cleaner, no Holland & Barrrett replenishment lorry, and I haven’t seen Pepy for several days.

Arriving at teh wasterfront just in time to see the Mon St Michel come in through the harbour entrance, but because I couldn’t get to the very end of the Haslar Wave Guard as it is currently blocked off, due to maintenance being done underneath I missed the departure of the Dredger Barge, the Split Two. The Split Two uis an usual ship. It is incredibly noisy. I think it is a diesel engine. When the Mon St Michel comes in I can barely hear it. This morning, the Split Two completely drowned it.

I used to see a few people walking their dogs and say good Morning to them, Mike, I think has a bulldog and a lady with a spaniel called Billy (I don’t know her name). Billy carries a tennis ball which he drops at my feet and waits for me to kick it, he absolutely loves it. There’s a chap who drives a van, He stopped one morning to ask me what I was doing. We now give each other a wave although he’s not about every morning.

A normal mornings walk, if slightly chilly – but not frozen. This evening I went to put the car on charge. Looking at the sky, I had the impression it might snow. We shall have to wait and see.

It’s not that I have writers block, it’s just that I can’t make my mind what to write about. I don’t want to write about photography, I did that last night.

I could write about astronomy, the Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) are figuring in the news a lot at the moment. The sun’s main cycle lasts eleven years. We (people) started measuring the cycle in 1755, that was cycle 1. We are currently in cycle 25, and cycle 25 is more active (it appears a lot more active) than cycle 24 which ended in December 2019. This increased actiivity means that the aurora is being pushed further south. There are reports that it has been visible from as far south as Somerset. You’d think that was quite exceptional.

Reading Gilbert White’s journals, surprised me. On several occasions only within the first couple of chapters he reported seeing several aurora at Selborne. Cycles s1 & 2, which cover what there is of Gilberts journals that I have read so far seem to have been fairly average strength with an average daily sunspot count of 70 and 99 respectively, which when compared with cycle 24 which had 49 makes them relatively twice as active.

And there you go, that’s today’s post, which involved a little bit of research and reading, which I found quite interesting.

It is very unusual if I don’t take a photo when I go out for a walk. To be honest, I haven’t given much thought to the practice of taking a picture, or the tool that I use to do so.

As I was sorting out t somethings in the office, I found the cable supplied with the Nikon for down loading pictures. I put the cable in the camera bag. How long will it sit there before I use it again?

That got me to thinking about batteries for the camera. They are getting so little use, that I am sure they are degrading, and I will have to buy replacements. That got me thinking about the another camera I bought at the height of my “intent to vlog” phase. I think the batteries for that are shot.

I have some decisions to make. It disappoints me that I have such lovely kit that is going unused. What to do about it? That is what I need to think about/

We spent a couple of hours in the garden today. It’s the first time since towards the beginning of December, when we had the last brown bin collection of 2022.

Today’s exercise was mostly a tidy up and actually, I am generally happy with that on the understanding that I don’t actually have to get my hands dirty. I’m fine wearing gloves. Especially as it’s been obvious for a while that a fox has been using part of the lawn as a toilet.

I do like to see a good garden and Elayne is excellent with that.