Bills Posts

Having had very nice day, up until late afternoon I hadn’t managed to get out for a walk. We needed a few birthday cards posting, and it needed to be in a postbox that would be collected in the morning in time for the afternoon forwarding.

Taking the opportunity for a walk, I said that I would go on a short walk to look at the post boxes in the local area to see what time they are emptied and drop the cards into the earliest post box, which turned out to be the post box at the railway station emptied at 0900.

During the walk, I took the opportunity to go and have a look at what was happening in the harbour. Almost as soon as I arrived I saw a tug loitering in the channel. Looking at Marine Traffic to see what was happening, I could see that the Arrow was going out. I didn’t think the tug was there to see the Arrow out, as it didn’t move as the outbound ship went past.

I checked Marine Traffic and sure enough there was a another container ship coming in, the Cote D’Ivoirian Star.

Very nice to see both ships, and to see the tugs working the inbound vessel, very professional they were too. A very pleasant quick walk.

I’m reading Country walking issue 434, July 2022, reading the article from page 48. A walker and a geologist are exploring a part of wales where the geologist works. It’s not the walking but the story that is told about the area, and then sidelines such as finding the most boring grid square in the country.

There are times, and it mostly seems to be when I am reading CW, that my brain screams out to me “For F’s sake, get out and do something”. But then sinks back into that lazy addled torpor, of “but what” and “can I be bothered?” It’s so disappointing sometimes. But then time moves on. How much do I regret? To be honest, I don’t think about it much.

I have been wanting to get in to the discovery centre for a while. I am trying out a setup that I have been very eager to try for quite a while now, that of the iPhone mount, Bluetooth keyboard and notes app on the iPhone.

The keyboard has a tendency to slip and slide around the desktop a bit. I am wondering if there is something that I can do to stop that. Perhaps some sticky tape or something on the bottom would do the trick, but that might not it be acceptable. I’ll have to think about that.

I have taken two books off the shelf. A history of the Dissenting Independent Congregational – The Bury road United Reform Church 1663 – 1986.

I am curious about two things; the URC itself – how and why did it come about, and what is the basis for its doctrine?

And why the rather nice looking church at the junction of Bury and Stokes Road ceased to be used as a church. Unfortunately the book finishes before that happened, so further research required. Plus, it is now 1640 almost, and the library will be shutting in about 20 minutes.

The second book is about Henry Cort. he was responsible for the development of the process of puddling iron, which gave a significant surge to the lead Britain had in the industrial revolution of the 19th century. But it appears that he was the victim of a major miscarriage of justice, dying broken hearted and bankrupt. A number of people have campaigned since WW2 to recognise Cort’s contribution to the country.

I am running out of time, and so further comment on this will have to wait for a bit.

So, I consider the conclusion of this first foray in to library research to be in most respects outstandingly successful. If only i had remembered my glasses and hadn’t had to go home to get them, I would have had more time.

The rest of this post is a bit disjointed. They are the notes I dictated as I was walking toward the midway point of my walk. The dictation tool isn’t perfect, it is pretty good but just needs a little bit of editing. Sorry it’s a bit disjointed – good practice for improvisation.

There’s just a very slight chill to the air and I’m trying to call which way the day is going to go. There’s a bloke walking down the middle of the road that’s two people that I’ve seen doing it over the last couple of days. Now admittedly it’s early and there isn’t much traffic around but nonetheless why do you walk down the middle of the road?

The morning chorus chorus is not very intense at 0536. I wanted to get out of the house by 05 33 and I think I beat that by three minutes heading then down to the waterfront to do a little bit of videoing and capturing a couple of pictures on the way. The air gives a freshness to the morning and there are quite a lot of clouds actually but the day could still go either way. There is the promise of a warm day but we also need rain.

There’s the sound of a jet flying overhead I wonder where it’s going, not even sure of the direction of travel. I check flight radar to see if it shows up anything. There are two jets going overhead a 747 going to Campinas from Amsterdam (I don’t know where Campinias is) and what looks like a 737 going to Agadir. I see a nice new gate next to the Masonic Hall. I stand for a moment, relishing the freshness in the gentle breeze.

Something’s been having a bit of a go at a rubbish bag. There is liter spread all over the car park. Presumably somebody left the bin liner out and either seagulls or foxes found it. I think they’re the two most likely, although pigeons might have had ago as well.

So just approaching white lion walk it’s a 1970 structure Gosport’s concrete city. There are a couple of limited photographic opportunities here. Some angles to explore; the flight of steps, it goes nowhere and what sort it looks like a waste disposal chute.

Burnhams walk seems to be quite a friendly little community just walking under the concrete pillars in morning

Into the domain of the screaming seagull North Cross Road and will be joining the High Street within the minute, 5:48 which means just under half an hour before the #Breakfast club starts.

So I’m walking past Greggs about 15 minutes earlier than I normally do. No cooking smells this morning – probably too early. Getting close to the waterfront now approaching the ferry terminal. Time to fully extend the tripod after I’ve cross the road. The Sun is getting bright.

Pepe who the first person I spoke to this morning as he was coming off the 0600 ferry

Just walking onto the Haslar Marina Pier Wall. St Clair is just making her turn out of out of the Camber.

I am very aware that my writing is a bit dry. In an effort to inject some feeling I did an experiment by using the dictation mode on the iphone and dictating what I felt about what my senses were telling me;

The sounds of the Morning Chorus, the noise of four squirrels playing in the trees at the top of Spring Garden Lane trying to get an artistic picture at White Lion Walk, the smell of cooking coming out of Morrisons and Greggs, the sounds of the huge flock of seagulls chasing the shoal of mackerel in the harbour all fed in to my notes.

The dictations weren’t perfect, pig instead of pigeons, here instead of hear, and the brief conversation that I had with Bob outside Greggs, the Egrets at the cockleponds, I had it all.

I spent about half an hour doing an edit tidying up. Then last thing I’d was ready to copy it from where the dictation is being done in apple notes to wordpress, two button presses and its all gone. Disappeared never to return. How annoying is that? I have to say in a most polite way – very annoying. Extremely annoying. As you can imagine, I was slightly less polite when it happened.

I’d been awake since about 4AM. I had been thinking that I would take advantage of being awake to get up early, no not that early, 0520 instead of 0535, not too mad. But it would give me an opportunity to do a bit of videoing before the #Breakfastclub starts.

Getting up that 15 minutes early meant that the morning chorus was different. The birds were singing away very enthusiastically, unfortunately just those few minutes meant there were a surprising number of vehicles driving around.

The only movement in the high street were the birds flying around and the few pieces of litter that there were drifting being blown around in the gentle breeze. The smells of sausage rolls coming out of Greggs were making my juices flow, I could almost taste them.

The only sounds I could hear as I approached the waterfront were the shouts and screams of a huge flock of seabirds out in the middle of the harbour, it looks a shoal of fish might be tempting them.

The pond weed in the cockle ponds is really quite bad. It makes a disgusting looking mess on the surface. It’s having an impact on the model yacht club. A lot of weed was removed earlier in the year, so it would be interesting to find out what is going on in the pond. It does make me wonder what has happened to the jelly fish, which seem to have disappeared, pretty much over night.

There are many articles and books that I have read where I have thought, I really wish I could write like that. Even down to the latest issue of country walking, I’m only on page eleven and the author of the article is waxing lyrical about the waves of flowers he is seeing.

I sometimes think that my writing is dry. I think that whilst I know the words, my brain for some reason lacks the emotional feeling to express those words in a way that makes pleasing reading. Which is frustrating. Can I learn to write like that? Is it back to the creative writing?

I have taken the header picture of the wild patch in our garden, which this year is dominated by daisies. The plan was to make an attempt to write about the daisies, and as nice as they are, they don’t really inspire me. Of course, that begs the question what does?

Yeah, I’m thinking about that there are definitely things that cause me a lot of pleasure; Seeing a lovely night sky, the birds in the garden, rough weather, all sorts of things. So it’s back to the brain again.

I was going to write about me being embarrassed about making a fool of myself by trying to write emotively in public, but of course, I don’t have to.

The book by Richard Bach was published in 1970. I’m not sure when I read it. But I can remember that the book caused a bit of a stir. I also recall, that having read it I recall not really understanding it. Perhaps it’s time to read it again.

We’d had a lovely and productive weekend in Dorset. I have to say that it looks like in a fairly short time, the EV charging position has improved significantly. I recall our first trip to Dorset in the EV – there was only one place to charge, Rownhams Services on the M27. There are now at least four locations. The Starbucks near Wimborne is particularly good.

The situation has even improved in Swanage. Admittedly, the new stations aren’t rapid units, but at least they are there.

We paid a flying visit to Swanage today. We didn’t do much more that just sit in the car and watch the sea. But, we were absolutely fine with that. You might think what a waste of a trip, why didn’t you go and look and around, and even worse, why didn’t you take any pictures? I would normally expect to at least see the seaside.

To be honest, I never even thought about taking any pictures. It kind of demonstrates our familiarity with this wonderful seaside town, we have literally spent years there. It was just so nice to revisit, and sit and contemplate without rushing around taking pictures.

We had lunch in a pub called The Silent Woman in Wareham Forest. It’s been quite a few years since I was last there. The name is a variation of the name given to the pub “The Quiet Lady” in the Thomas Hardy novel The Return of the Native. Before then, it was called The Angel. It seems to me that it was entirely sensible to change the name.

I had the smoked belly pork. It was quite simply delicious. It’s always nice to have a good pub lunch.

In a small barn, in a place that I know and love, a family of swallows have set up home. These incredible birds have flown all the way from Africa, to make their home here.

That they destroyed part of the ceiling to build their mess, and are leaving a pile poo on the floor is irrelevant, we are so fortunate to see these incredible creatures.

I am delighted that we seem to have a couple of magpies adopting our gardens, and a swarm of sparrows and starlings, along with the usual pigeons. I must admit I would like the wagtails to come back, but you can’;t have everything. We are fortunate to have what we get.

Just spending a few minutes appreciating these wonderful animals is just so relaxing. It fills me with delight.

I did my usual morning walk, which was fine. I even took the header picture not really expecting much of it, but really I quite like it. I think it’s better in B&W. It’s the lines, the textures and shading, all seem quite pleasing to my eyes. There’s even a degree of symmetry in the windows.

I also managed to get out for my lunchtime walk. As I was walking along the esplanade, I can remember thinking “Yes, I think that’ll be a good subject for the blog tonight.” The trouble is that as I am sat here, I cannot for the life of me remember what the “It” was. Now, I am wondering if I need to start carrying a pen and notebook.

Part of the problem is that I have been here before, then I forget to take the notebook with me. I think that I need to start carrying my man bag with me whenever I go out, and get in to the habit of writing down, not my thoughts, just ideas.

The weather for both walks was lovely. The high street was busy at lunchtime, and there were quite a few people on the esplanade, clearly having a good time. Perhaps the thought I had was around just how pleasant is that part of Gosport. I know there are some changes afoot particularly around the bus station, I have previously thought that more should be made of the Esplanade, but with these lunchtime walks I am having a bit of a re-think. I think it is really good that we have a place, close by where we can just go an quietly contemplate, life and Portsmouth Harbour entrance.