Bills Posts

The whole of September and what we’ve had of October has been a little bit fractured in terms of my walking. Since the beginning of the year I’ve been recording my miles for the walk1000 project. I am proud to say that I reached my target during early September.

It’s halfway through October and I’m about 20 miles down on my usual monthly goal. Now some of the days I’ve missed have been because of the weather – I won’t walk if it’s raining. I have to confess that there have been a couple of times where I’ve not gone, simply because I didn’t feel like it.

So with two and a half months left in the year, I could potentially achieve a couple of hundred miles by years end. So, I just have to try and do my best.

Usually at the weekends I do a little bit longer walk than my normal three miles, I’ve not done those for a few weekends because there have been other things going on, so I have really been slacking. I will crack down on that and try to do better.

Sorry, this is another rubbish post.

Today was one of those occasional trips across the water to Portsmouth. My goal once again was to pay a visit to Waterstones, the closest big bookshop. As usual, I started by browsing the latest non-fiction section just inside the front door. I have to say that there wasn’t anything that really grabbed my attention, so I moved upstairs only glancing in the direction of the fiction section as I ascended the escalator.

Today, I spent a fair bit of time looking at the British History section, something I don’t normally do. It was quite interesting. One in particular being a book about the Civil war. I also realised that whilst I know a very little bit about the tudors, I know nothing at all about the Plantagenets, that be worth a bit of reading. I think one thing I was looking for was some kind of time line, or books which mentioned hampshire I didn’t find either, but there again I didn’t look in every book.

From the history section I moved across to the religious section, I wanted to see if there was anything on spirituality, there probably was but I didn’t see it, so I moved on to the self help section. I really don’t know why I bother with this area as I never find the book that is going answer all my questions (which I know doesn’t exist anyway).

From the self help section, I move across to the writing about writing area. I did take a look at creative writing for dummies. It had a section on non-fiction, but I have a number of books covering that so I didn’t linger long.

Finally a quick look at the travel writing section some interesting books there, but nothing that really interested me. I would have spent a bit of time looking at the art and photography sections but I needed to catch the 1500 ferry, so I shall go there first on my next visit.

I didn’t buy anything, except being a bit naughty and having a Burger King for lunch.

I like maps. I always have. Maps tell you lots of things about a place. If I had enough wall space, I would have a very big map. I’ve said in the past that I don’t like marking books, I have a different view of maps. Places of interest need to be highlighted.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time this week looking for books about the history of Hampshire. They’re are quite a few web sites about the county, but I can’t find a book about Hampshire. Actually, thinking about it I haven’t looked for the same book about Dorset. I suppose I should.

I know that Winchester has a lot of history that goes back a long way. The south coast has a much more recent history. I’m willing to bet there is a lot of history in between. I wonder about places or areas in between. Take for example East Meon The area has history going back to 2,000 BC. Even if there isn’t a book, places like Wikipedia can be a useful resource. I must admit I didn’t know about Meon, although I knew there was history.

I’ve just had a look at West Meon, that’s another place that looks interesting. I think both villages are worth a visit. I think the way to do this is to draw a name from random and look it up. Just those two villages alone seem to have a history that covers centuries. Most interesting.

This is Knowlton near Wimborne St Giles. Parts of the church are 12th century. There are also parts of the church from the 15th and 18th century. The church sits in the middle of a Neolithic Henge monument.

A couple of years ago, I drove past this site. I didn’t have time to stop but I did come back came back the following year. This time I was able to stop and have a good look around I walked through and around the church.

I had a good walk around the henge, it was very interesting. But, beyond curiosity about the site I didn’t feel anything, no energies. I would say that I feel no resonance with the people who built these sites, but I am very curious about who they were and why they built these things. It’s all really fascinating stuff.

A couple of things; I know only a little bit of the history of Dorset. I know even less of the history of Hampshire. I wonder how different it is between the two counties. I am sure that Winchester Plays a big role in that history. I am sure that politically Hampshires history is as interesting as Dorsets but in a different way.

I should spend a little bit of time on Hampshire. I’ll do that. But as far as I am aware there appears to be one significant area where the two histories do I presume diverge massively – earth mysteries.

Dorset is loaded with such things and other romantic stories. I have no idea if there are similar stories for Hampshire.

I am very keen to explore Dorset. It seems reasonable to at least put a little effort in to explore Hampshire.

Last nights post arose from a thought I had. What I wanted to do was to paint a moving vibrant picture of a major geological event that ended up giving the people who visit Lulworth Cove a visual feast.

I don’t think it worked very well. Strangely, I had the thought that I would try again, but this time with the formation of an oxbow lake. Not tonight, sometime in the future. Perhaps I need to plan what I was going to say. T

he trouble is I have thoughts and images in my mind and I am too eager to get the words down, and my brain says that what I’m thinking is what I am writing I become over confident and rush to publish and of course, when I read it back I find all the mistakes, plus what I’ve written really doesn’t match what I had visualised.

If I want to even try to write well, I can’t rush, but it will take time. To me that implies that I may need something other than this blog (in addition to, most definitely not instead of) where I put a bit more thought into my writing, and a bit less rush. The thing is though, I do this blog every day, and it can be a bit rushed at times.

One thought I suppose is to plan my posts, I tend not to know what I’m going to write until I sit down with the iPad. If only I could plan a week ahead, perhaps even longer. I’m probably partly my own worst enemy as I don’t really have a focus for the blog.

Thirty Five Million years ago, in the area of what we know as the Mediterranean it was getting very hot and heavy. The African continental tectonic plate is heading north. In the way, and waiting for it is the European plate, as big and as solid as the African.

The two plates collide and the African plate burrows underneath what will be Europe. The pressure and tension on the surface are building to levels we can barely begin to comprehend.

The surface of the European plate buckles and melts, and we are now into what is called an “orogeny” a mountain building period. All that energy is going to produce the Alps. But it doesn’t stop there.

The impact of the contact between the two plates sent out ripples. The effect of those ripples spread out from the southern edge of the plate. Those ripples are felt in the rocks of the Purbecks softening them and moulding them into the spectacular formations that you can see when you visit Lulworth Cove. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purbeck_Monocline That’s a new term I’ve learned this weekend.

The Purbeck Monocline, the vertical bending and levelling off clearly and spectacularly visible at the cove have been described as a ripple in the building of the Alps. A ripple! I suppose that’s one way of describing it. Don’t you just love Geology? Although, the forces that can be unleashed can be terrifying.

It was one of those days, we didn’t have any plans, had a late breakfast and seriously considered just sitting in the lounge and snoozing.  The problem was that it looks a really nice day and it seems churlish to stay in.  So we decided that we would head over to Titchfield Haven.  My better half sat in the car with a flask of coffeee.  I decided that I wanted to do some pebble hunting.

It turns out that doing pebble hunting on a beach that is comprised mostly of gravel.  One of the things that did surprise me was the amount of sea shells.  It makes me think if there is some sorting going on, because I recall when we visited Warsash, the shore of Southampton Water was nearly all seashells.  I’ll look in to that.  In the meantime moving down to the waterline the seaweed was a rather spectacular green – I don’t often see it like this.  

Considering the it was October, the weather was lovely.  The sea was a beautiful blue and there were lots of Yatch’s on the Solent. The airspace was busy with light aircraft, presumably flying in and out of Daedalus and probably Bembridge as well.

Titchfield Haven is a Nature Reserve, there’s a fee to be paid for entrance, so we didn’t go that way this time.  We did cover the few yards to the harbour where the ducks and the swans were looking for food, luckily there were people feeding them, so they seemed to be OK.

Is it possible to have too many books? Even if space for them is running out? I have no more bookshelf space to give and have resorted to having a couple of piles, plus I have several books on the go. I am lucky that audio books only take up storage, not physical space.

The problem I have is that I’ll go into a bookshop, I like Waterstones and other similar chain stores, but also like a good 2nd hand shop, because you never know what you are going to find.

But then you get them home and you have nowhere to store them and disposal is considered sacrilege. The pile gets larger, and the only thing you can do is keep on reading.

Can’t think of anything to write about? You end up with either a really feeble post, such as a couple of nights ago or sometimes a bunch of waffle that, just very occasionally turns in to something interesting. At this moment in time, I have no idea which way this post is going to go.

I really don’t like producing poor posts. You have the courtesy to take the time to read my posts, the least I can do is put some effort in to producing something that makes it worth while you spending your time on it.

Except where a post is truly pathetic, I’m not going to apologise for my blog, but it is useful to look back on times where writers block has been a significant issue for the evenings submission. When I started doing this blog, gosh, is it nearly 800 days ago? Yes, it is – that is really good going for me, I knew that I would have to contend with writers block.

After one particularly bad episode, I think it was (please don’t ask me which number post – I will try to find it later) I decided that I would try to combat the blockage by writing about it. Here is the result.

As I had no idea which way this post was going to go, you’ll get the picture that my brain was absent of words just a few minutes ago. Nothing was putting itself forward as a viable topic, to give you a return, in payment for you giving me your time – thank you for that by the way.

Once I had got going, it wasn’t too difficult to write this. I’ve found it both useful and interesting. I sincerely hope you did as well.