Bills Posts

To be fair, I didn’t intend to walk in the rain, but I knew it would be the only time I would be able to get out today, and we needed a couple of bits. Although the clouds were heavy there was always the chance the rain would hold off.

Luckily, I wore my decent rain count, because it was one of those downpours where the rain is so heavy the drops don’t just splash when they hit the ground, they explode. I was drenched by the time I reached the shop.

The return trip was no better. If anything, the rain was heavier. At one point I have to walk down a narrow alleyway. The gutters couldn’t cope with the amount of water, and it wasn’t only like walking through a waterfall, the rain had nowhere to go once it reached the ground, so there was a river running along the alley.

By the time I got home, my bottom third was a bit wet. The raincoat had done its job with my top two thirds, but I still had to get changed. It was quite exhilarating really.

To be fair, I didn’t intend to walk in the rain, but I knew it would be the only time I would be able to get out today, and we needed a couple of bits. Although the clouds were heavy there was always the chance the rain would hold off.

Luckily, I wore my decent rain count, because it was one of those downpours where the rain is so heavy the drops don’t just splash when they hit the ground, they explode. I was drenched by the time I reached the shop.

The return trip was no better. If anything, the rain was heavier. At one point I have to walk down a narrow alleyway. The gutters couldn’t cope with the amount of water, and it wasn’t only like walking through a waterfall, the rain had nowhere to go once it reached the ground, so there was a river running along the alley.

By the time I got home, my bottom third was a bit wet. The raincoat had done its job with my top two thirds, but I still had to get changed. It was quite exhilarating really.

We did talk about what we were going to do today. We have a busy, but very pleasant weekend to look forward to next week, and the visit to Gilbert whites house last week went well, so we decided that this weekend would be a bit of a lazy one.

We walked in to town and had a coffee (in my case a cup of tea) and, naughtily a piece of cake. Then when we got home we watched a few episodes of the good doctor. I had a zoom event, during which I nearly fell asleep, and that was pretty much it.

Sorry. This is more of a diary post than any kind of analytical writing. Must try to do better tomorrow.

At 2335 last night, I woke up enough to recall that I hadn’t done a blog post. My iPad was on the bed beside me. I picked it up and then my brain said “Nope, not doing it”. I forced my brain to think of a few choice words of an unpublishable nature and promptly fell asleep. So once again the counter is reset to zero, and another day when I didn’t post can be added to the calendar. The main thing is though, here I am again.

For the last few weeks (not sure how long) I have been listening to Jeffrey Archers Clifton Chronicles. I am on the last book now, with about an hour to go. I have to say that the series has been absolutely gripping. This last book particularly so for two reasons;

The first is around the main character Harry Clifton who is by this stage in the series a famous author. Archer goes into a reasonable bit of detail as to how Clifton develops his stores and characters in relation to other (real) authors. I found that fascinating, and food for thought. I won’t go into detail, read the books – I recommend them.

The second reason is, around another key character, who re-visits Berlin at the time of the collapse of the wall. This is particularly poignant for me, and he describes the atmosphere in the city so much better than I could. I know, I was there. He really caught it.

Up until this evening, and for the last six years, I have been on the committee of a local amateur radio club. I have given up my role. Not really sad to do so. In the end I was happy to surrender the responsibility.

This is from a few years ago I wanted to watch the cruise ships come in to Southampton. Of course I can watch them from Stokes bay, or Lee-on-the-Solent or I could get reasonably close to their course at Gilkicker, I just wanted to see them from a different angle.

Calshot is good because it is very near the Bramble bank, a huge sand bank in the middle of the Solent. Large ships have to take a proper dog leg course to avoid the hazard. Some ships don’t make it. 28 January 2015 the Hoegh Osaka, a car carrier became stuck on the bank. Strangely, although we went to see the ship several times I don’t have any photographs, which is frustrating.

Calshott Tower, in the picture, is one of the main observation stations for the National Coast watch Institute. A charity that, using volunteers, keeps a watch on coastal waters. There’s quite a long and intensive training course to become a part of nci. As usual, I would quite like to have done that.

I got my pictures, and I am very pleased with them. But, I’d quite like to have another go. But this time, I would go somewhere different, not quite so far; Warsash. I’ll need to identify when a good number of cruise ships are coming in, now that cruises have started again.

The wall in the picture is called a ha-ha. I didn’t know that this was the name for this kind of feature. What is the point of a ha-ha? I got this from google;  to give the viewer of the garden the illusion of an unbroken, continuous rolling lawn, whilst providing boundaries for grazing livestock. Seems straightforward enough.

I’m really annoyed with myself for not taking more pictures at Gilbert’s house, but I was, as they say; “very in the moment”. Now that is one of those classsic phrases that ordinarily I would say “what the heck does that mean”? Well, apart from rather pathetic pictures I took I didn’t even think about it until towards the end. It somewhat gives me an excuse to go back again. I’m OK with that.

I haven’t started Gilberts book yet, I have two other books (three if I’m honest), but I’m not sure. It’s a bit of a recurring dilemma for me, a book I really want to read gets bumped down the reading order, because another book I really want to read pops up. Now, the issue is Lee Miller, I didn’t know about her until I read about her in B&W photography and then went to her exhibition where I bought the book.

I’m going to continue with the street photography and the history of Hampshire. I think Lee Miller will move down the list. I feel more commited to those two, and definitiely Gilberts book than Lee’s. Sorry about that.

It has been more than a week since I last went on my morning walk. The really quite nasty cough that I’ve had is fading. I’ve secretly enjoyed not having to get up at 0535 and follow the same route that I have followed for what feels like five or six years.

The deep frustration is that I am bored with the walk. I am not bored with the #Breakfastclub which coincides with the walk. But, I can’t participate in that radio net at home because I have a tendency to talk too loud and it would disturb my wife.

I have to confess that in particular over the last week, i have been lucky to avoid the stress that these two positions were causing me. How silly is that? Why on earth was i getting stressed over getting up to go for a walk and having a chat with friends at the same time?

I think it is absolutely OK for me to not get up and go for a walk if I don’t want to (after all, it’s not as if I need to add miles to the #Walk1000 project, that’s done and delivered). It’s also OK, even, if I don’t take my radio with me. I’d lay their usually waking up anywhere between three and Five AM, and then streesing about getting up for the walk. Most of the time once I’m up and even just getting ready, I’m OK, the stress goes. I don’t know why I let myself get like that, but sadly I did. I am fully aware that I do stress over some of the daftest things. If I don’t want to go, I don’t have to.

There were two articles in this month’s B&W photography that grabbed my attention. But it was more of a relationship between where I live and the two pieces.

The first B&W article by Jim Bailey has some really quite lovely pictures of snow covered mountain regions. I can appreciate the beauty the pictures show, but to be honest, they don’t really do an lot for me.

The second piece is entitle Silent Coast by Rob Ball. Rob visits many UK coastal towns. He looks at the attractions and the communities. I get the impression that Robs images are almost intended to convey a feeling of dilapidation.

People talk of the heart of a town. What is that? How do you depict it? Every town has its good and its bad bits. The window frame may be up for restoration. It’d dilapidation May even be used as a symbol of the chequered history of the town.

Is it a good thing to want to picture the heart of a town, even if that heart isn’t in a good state? To what end? How do I do that? Just wondering.

I’ve written about Gilbert White a bit in the past. I’m prepared to accept that he has been a minor scale obsession for me for the best part of nearly eight years now. Just to recall, the best way for us to get to the north, having moved to Gosport was to travel up the A3. Just to the north of Petersfield is the Ham Barn Roundabout. The first time we travelled that route, I recall seeing the brown sign saying “Gilbert White’s House” – Of course, my thought was “Who’s Gilbert White?”

Gilbert White lived in Selborne, he lived from 1720 – 1793. During his time he kept a journal which he published as “The Antiquities and Natural History of Selborne.” The book records observations that “laid the foundations for modern day study of ecology”.

I could have bought the booking at anytime, but I was determined to wait until I had visited the house. I thoroughly enjoyed looking around the house and was very surprised to see an exhibition on Captain Lawrence Oates. He was the member of Capt Scott’s Fatally flawed Antarctic exhibition who as the expedition was reaching its deadly conclusion said, as he leaves the tent; “I’m going for a walk, I may be gone for a while”. Captain Oates’ cousin Robert was an enthusiast of Whites journal, and when Robert found out that Gilbert’s house was on the market, and people were trying to establish a museum, provided the finance and made sure there was space for The Oates collection.

We had afternoon tea in the cafe, it was delicious. They even boxed up the fourth meal when a member of our party couldn’t come.

It goes without saying that I have a copy of the book.

The latest edition of B&W photography turned up yesterday. I’m sure that Country Walking will turn up next week. I very much enjoy reading both magazines, but it is mildly frustrating that it interrupts my reading of the two books I have on the go; the history of Hampshire and the street photography workshop. But I do enjoy reading the mags.

Now, what gets really frustrating is that tomorrow, we are due to visit Gilbert White’s house, we’ve booked afternoon tea. Ever since I worked out who Gilbert White was and why I would be interested in him I have been waiting for tomorrow. I have promised my self that I would only by his book, the Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne at his house.

Over Saturday and Sunday I started developing a sore throat, that had gone by Monday and I started coughing and sneezing. I’ve been doing that all week now. I went out for a short walk at lunchtime. It was OK. But I’m still coughing. Will we get to Gilbert White? It’s going to be difficult to express my frustration if we don’t.