Bills Posts

There are three (possibly soon to be four) books, of which I am reading one page a day (don’t ask why, I couldn’t explain, I just am). They are;

• Everyday Nature by Andy Beer
• On this Day in Politics by Iain Dale
• The Journals of Gilbert White Edited by Walter Johnson

Tonights focus (for a little while at least) isgoing to be on Gilbert Whites Journals. On the his journal for the 26th of February 1769, Gilbert writes; Vast rain in the night. Vast Aurora Borealis.

Now, bear in mind that this is for Selborne (look at What3Words climate.chosen.provoking) – what an apt locator!

The thing that got me about the post was the report of the borealis, and that it was vast. Now, I have never seen the northern lights and it is an ambition to do so. I am very early on in Gilbert’s journals – Page 11. Now, I am wondering if he will mention any re-occurrences of borealis in the future.

If he does, then it will serve to reinforce my view that if it werenot for the light pollution of today’s world would we be seeing the Aurora Borealis this far south more frequently? I know there are a couple of places in the south classed as a dark skies reserve – one is Moores Reserve on the South Downs Way. Do observers see more Aurora from these locations? I haven’t asked the question – I should do so.

Should it turn out to be the case that if it were not for the pollution by light at night, we would all be experiencing the stunning glory of the Aurora Borealis on a regular basis, it will be the source of an immense frustration.

In the header picture, you can clearly see not only Orion, but the sword on the belt which is really combination of three stars and the Orion Nebula.

My brain can be incredibly stubborn sometimes. Every so often it lets me have glimpse, the merest glance of an idea, fleeting, popping in to my head and then hailing off to the left or the right laughing maniacally.

The idea? Well for a book of course, what else do I obsess about? It’s not helped by my not being able to find my journal. It’ll be about somewhere, I just need to put a bit more effort in to finding it. I find it useful to jot things down. There are still somethings for which I prefer pen and paper.

I think that my preference would be to write a non-fiction book, but just occasionally, I like the idea of fiction but then I get to thinking about plots and characters, of which I have no idea. Is it procrastination I ask myself, or am I just barren of ideas?

I wonder how many other frustrated authors there are out there? Perhaps I should start a club or society; The Society of Frustrated Authors, or The Frustrated Authors Club? I really must check if either those exist. I bet they do.

When I learned to read, I needed reading material. My sister’s book case served that need for a while. Famous Five mainly, but there was one other book as well. I can’t remember the title, I can’t remember the author. It was a science fiction.

I have been looking for this book for literally decades. I have spoken to second hand book people, people on science fiction websites. I have spent a bit of time searfching second hand book shops. It’s one of the reasons as to why I want to back to Hay-on-Wye. If I’m going to find it anywhere, I am sure it will be there.

The book may have had a dust jacket when new, but I never knew it with one. It was a green hardback.

The plot involved space travel, and the development of a Faster Than Light drive. The problem is that ships dissappear. A young man, a chemist becomes involved. At some point, he realises that the ships are dissappearing because as the ships approach the speed of light the aging process in people accelerates. He starts looking for a formula to counteract the acceleration, and at the last minute finds the formulae saving his and the crews life. Now, if you have ever read a book like that and can remember the details would you please let me know? Thank you.

Oh, and I still want to write a book.

I should have realised that something was wrong. The wordpress app was doing unusual things, being quite bouncy. Then I did do a reset and there were two entries (last nights) with the same name and time. But apart from the title, picture and two empty blocks no sign of the three paragraphs I had written about the historical differences between Hampshire and Dorset.

I had written them as I was nearing settling down for the night, and after things had gone wrong I really couldn’t summon the energy to try and re-write them. Besides, when I have to do that (luckily, not too often) I can never re-create the same level of passion.

I wrote about how the histories of the two counties had some similarities. But I have a perception that whilst Hampshire’s history is mostly straight politics; Kings and Queens, hunting in the New Forest. That kind of thing.

Dorsets history on the other hand is much more romantic; Geologically Lulworth cove, a ripple in the crust caused when the Alps were formed, Dinosaurs roaming the area leaving their remains in in the chalk and the clay, people from the Neolithic era, building Maiden Castle.

Don’t get me wrong, Hampshire’s history is interesting, but Dorset appeals to me in a different way.

Ok, that is really annoying. For some reason, the post I wrote about the histories of Dorset an Hampshire didn’t save. It has gone. I’m not going to write it again – sorry.

For the last three weeks I have not been motivated to get up at 0535 and follow my normal morning walk. It appears that the walk is one of the few forums of exercise that I do to keep me anywhere near fit is not sufficient motivation. This is really not good enough.

I need to do something to give me that extra “Ooomph” to encourage me to get up. I like the idea of a project. I thought about something to do with urban life, and have been doing a bit of digging around. What about the number of bins in town, and their fill state? No, perhaps not.

What about tracking the number, types and locations of closed units on the high street? I think that might involve some initial research and effort, with an ongoing update conducted every few weeks, or whenever a change is detected.

I might need something that I can track that changes more regularly . I’m still thinking of what I can do.

I have to confess I felt more than a bit disgruntled this morning. I have no idea why, I thought that perhaps a stroll in to town might help. I took a very slow cruise down the high street.

Whilst I didn’t take any pictures on the high street I was looking for interesting people, either on their own or in interesting situations. I did see two or three but held off taking pictures. Why? Not sure, probably nervous about it.

The high street wasn’t particularly busy, that was perhaps down to it being a bit closer to the regular November temperature, colder. I went into the works and had a browse of the books, but didn’t find anything and then made my way down to the waterfront. The gull in the header picture is sat on Lord Fieldhouse’s bust. It was very nervous, as I tried to get as near to it as I could.

I spent probably about 20 minutes in the gardens, just people watching. There would be a wave of people coming off the ferry and then a disjointed gathering as people waited to board. Fascinating watching individuals and groups. After that, I took just as gentle stroll home. I felt less off than I had. Perhaps I just needed to get out.

I am only touching very lightly on the histories of these two famous counties; Dorset and Hampshire. They both have similarities including invasion by different groups; Romans, vikings & saxons, Wareham is a town with Saxon built walls surrounding it.

There is a point though where I get an impression that the characteristics of their respective histories diverges quite a bit. After about the time of William The Conqueror Hampshire becomes almost sedate (I’m probably doing the county a massive disservice here, put that down to ignorance, I’m still learning) by which I mean it becomes the county of the monarchy, the new forest occupying much more of the land than it does today for the pleasure of kings and queens, towns with high cathedrals and seats of Government.

Dorset on the other hand is wild and untamed. The haunt of smugglers and cider brewers. Much more romantic with an air of mystery and romance. With the Jurassic coast just waiting to be discovered and the story of Corfe and Maiden castles to be told.

The two histories are different, and waiting to be explored. I shall spend Av bit of time exploring the story of Hampshire. But the story of Dorset has a massive appeal to me, and the county is drawing me to it.

No, not the starlings, they never left, and annoyingly, I don’t have a picture. The grey wagtails, well one of them, which has reappeared in the garden today. We frightened them off when we put the garden furniture out earlier in the year, and now that the table & chairs have gone from the patio, there they were bouncing away. I can’t tell you how much that pleased me. Lovely to see.

I’ve started a thing each morning, where I read a page of three books; a nature calendar, todays page was about Moorhens, and in particular how big their feet are in relation to the rest of their body. Then there is Gilbert Whites Journals, not mind you his natural history of Selborn, a different book, from 1768, he was commenting in January on the foul smelling blue fog that was invading the county from London. It must have been dreadful, then there is Ian Dales’ 365 days of politics. Todays piece was about John Turner Walton Newbold, the first communist MP to be elected to Parliament. He was elected in 1922.

Once again, I didn’t get up and go for my walk this morning, although I did manage to get out for a short walk at lunchtime. It’s not enough though. I do need to do more exercise. At the moment though, I just can’t summon the energy to get up. I will have to I try better. It’s just not good enough.

Once in a while, a ship from a foreign navy visits Portsmouth. Thia is the USSN Gerald Ford. It’s 25,000 tons heavier that either of our carriers, and is one of eleven that the US has. It’s quite an impressive sight and is staying for another day or so. I hope her crew are having a good time visiting the hostelries in the local area.

Talking of visiting (oh my, this is a tenuous link), I am about to start reading the next chapter of the history of Hampshire, Medieval towns. I wonder what towns the book is going to talk about, I am hoping to visit some of the modern day equivalent.

It rained again today, heavily and quite abit, around mid afternoon I had to put an office light on, it was getting so dark.

I didn’t go for my morning walk again this morning. It looked as though it had been raining, and it did so before I would have finished the walk. But, my frame of mind is that I would rather stay in bed. This is something that I am going to have to sort myself out of.