Bills Posts

Historical research can be both difficult and easy. A resource is Wikipedia, now it obviously depends which aspect of history you are researching. Some of the more recent stuff is still subject to research.

Something like the Jacobite Revolution though unless there are things still to be discovered the history is pretty much set, I think. This all links into my Walk1000 exercise, where we are walking through Bridge of Orchy, which is linked to the Battle of Culloden over 100 miles away. I’m going to do a little bit of digging in to the Jacobites, wouldn’t it be great of there were as link to Gosport.

Sorry tonight’s post is a bit short, it’s getting near bedtime, I still have the Fantasy Holiday piece to do.

No, no – there’s nothing wrong. I think it’s more of a continuation of last nights post, where I talked about wanting to re-create pictures from the Victorian era. It ties in with my locality project and that involves me learning about the area where I live, both it’s history and today.

I’m not used to doing historical research, so I’ve been thinking about my approach and it really boils down to asking basic questions; the what, why, who, when, where and how questions and building an article or even a vlog around that.

I have a list of places that I want to visit and write about. What I think will make things a bit more interesting is for me to learn a bit about it and try to answer those questions. It only partially helps me in my research goal. I have a couple of books on Gosport that I haven’t really looked at. I should spend a bit of time with them. After all, if I haven’t read them, I don’t know what they can tell me.

I’ve pontificated so much about doing things, it’s not that I’m running out of reasons for prevaricating, I really do need to get on and do things.

Over the last couple of years I have read a fair few books. Quite a number of them have been about life in the past. There have been lots of pictures of working people, in the fields or in shop, families in the home, people relaxing.

I would like to re-create some of the Victorian photos, people working or relaxing, shop keepers – you get the idea. It’s. A combination of an unrealistic recording of history – people nowadays just don’t pose like the Victorians. But, it would put pictures into a context and probably add a touch of humour. Would it be disrespectful to the Victorian era? I’d like to think it doesn’t.

The issue, partly, of course is that pretty much all of us carry what are now really quite good cameras. Billions of pictures must be taken every day. All life is recorded (I was going to say on Facebook, but I’m not sure about that).

The header picture is of a chap who passes me quite regularly passes on his skateboard. At around 6AM this chap comes down the high street and it is really noisy. There are a lot of people who live in flats over the shops. I’m sure they really appreciate that! But this isn’t a complaint, this is an illustration of normal activities. I know that these will be recorded somewhere, I would just like to photograph everyday people, doing everyday things.

It has been a little while since I wrote about Vlogging. Don’t think i have forgotten about it. Some of the kit is very cheap and I now have the setup to produce videos of a reasonable quality. Now I did, and do have a plan. But its one thing to have a plan, it is something else entirely to have the skills to do it.

Now, I don’t want to produce videos of the type that a lot of Americans produce, there is nothing wrong as such with their videos, except they leave me a bit breathless, I know it’s they way they’ve cut it, leaves me quite breathless.

I’ve written before about a person the style of who’s TV programmes I’d like to emulate, Jack Hargreaves;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egVfxSkjWaE

The thing is to start simple. I will be doing some practice videos. I may even post a couple to my YouTube channel.

When I went out for a saturday walk I noticed the owner of one of the yachts hadn’t furled their spinnaker properly. It was making quite a noise flapping backward and forward . I don’t think it was unreasonable to assume that someone from the marina would spot this and do something about it.

It appears they didn’t. When I had to pop in to town today (Sunday) I did so via the waterfront (why not in this stormy weather? I figured that the waterfront in the harbour would be safe and it was – for people, not incorrectly furled Spinnakers.

Other than I couldn’t help but think the expense of the repair to the sail I found it quite amusing. I couldn’t help a little bit of anthropomorphising and I got the distinct impression that the sail was very enthusiastically waving the loose bit of itself. Either to say “Look at me, I’m here” or “Yay, go on”. It was brilliant to watch. Sorry the video is a bit unstable, as you can imagine the wind was really blowing.

As I was walking back, the wind was almost stopping me from moving forward and there was a light rain shower, but even though light when driven by a high wind, it felt like my face was being peppered with BB pellets. Normally I find walking in weather like this to be exhilarating, but my joy in the fun of being out in the wind and the rain is very much tempered by the thought of the loss of life and the damage caused by the storms.

I walked past the Geese;

I couldn’t help thinking that the geese are completely unfazed by the storms. The other birds, the gulls and swans were pretty much hunkered down trying to shelter, the geese just keep on eating. I did wonder how birds of any species cope on their migratory journeys when they encounter a storm. Presumably they either try to get down straight away, or just accept that they are going to be blown off course.

Now, this is a bit awkward. The Rotary club is a very worthy organisation and I am sure that they have not done this intentionaly, and I acknowledge that the banner has been there quite a while., I am not sure when it was put up. But, I went out today with the specific intention of taking a particular photograph, and I am sad to say I could not, because of the positioning of the banner.

What have they done to raise my ire?

Well, in my opinion, even if they do have the permission from the council to place the banner in that location, I think they are being disrespectful to the history of Gosport. For, underneath the G of the first line of the banner is the blue plaque to Henry Cort, who in the 18th Century developed and patented an improved method of the puddling process for refining cast iron.

You can feel the plaque underneath the banner. It was most frustrating that I couldn’t take my photograph, for another in my series of the Blue Plaques of Gosport. I do feel an email to the council coming on.

IT’s not often I complain, I don’t like doing it, but I do feel that sometimes it is called for.

It’s a bit unnerving when you hear the clunk and the crash of a ridge tile falling off the roof. It’s always a bit of a fear when we have a storm, but this is the first time it has happened.

I didn’t go for a walk this morning, it was raining and I didn’t for a walk at lunchtime as it was a bit blowy, and it was before the tile. I did though have to out mid-afternoon. The wind was still blowing. What got me though was that it was sunny with small clouds scudding along at a high rate. It was the combination of the high winds and the sun that I found surprising.

What is disappointing, apart from the damage to the house, which is of course the main thing, I have missed out on my daily walk. A consolation in that respect is that I am slightly over the weekly walk1000 distance, so anything I do over the weekend is a bit of a bonus.

There’s a bit of a theme tonight. Not unreasonably the weather has been a topic of conversation throughout the day, with the arrival of Storms Dudley and Eunice (I don’t know the order, which comes first). I’ve been lucky that there has been no rain, so I haven’t had my walks interrupted by rain – that’s not strictly correct, I think there was one day where it was raining at lunchtime, so I took a walk in the evening, which was quite interesting.

I had thought before of going for a walk in the evening. You would expect there to be stuff going on, but as I was walking around on Wednesday, the town centre was as quiet as I see it in the morning.

There’s no sign of the wind at the moment, but I’m sure it won’t be long before it arrives. We even had it as a topic on the Thursday night net. That was recorded as a Facebook live. If you are on FB, just look for GB3IW and you’ll find it.

I think that I have become a little bit more adventurous in my photography. By that I mean that I have been more prepared to take pictures of things, from different angles, because I am not sure what will make a good picture, so I try. Sometimes it may work out. Most of the time though, like above it doesn’t

Now, this one of the light, taken a couple of weeks ago, does work for me. There’s a sharpness to the lamp, and the beam of light, perhaps it’s the positioning of the lamp, it looks a bit imposing. It’s one of those I just like it.

One of my inhibitions I had when taking pictures of unusual things, or from unusual angles out in public was being concerned about what people may think of me, namely mad! I think the transition is trying to get a good picture being thought as more important than being thought mad.

I have to admit that I am finding the change of mindset quite refreshing, the release of inhibition – I’m not going to do anything mad or dangerous, absolutely not. But, if I’m kneeling, or crouching to take a picture of a piece of litter that I think may make an interesting picture and somebody walking past thinks I’m mad – so be it. Like this pile for rubbish. Again, it didn’t work out, but it could have done.

I feel a bit like new doors have been opened for me, and I can afford to be a bit more adventurous.

At six thirty in the morning there isn’t much happening at the waterfront. The Gosport ferry going backwards and forwards, a Brittany ferry coming in usually it’s the Mon St Michel or the Normandie. Yesterday morning it was the Barfleur, a ferry that I don’t think I had seen before.

This morning, the Mon St Michel was followed in by the Whitonia one of the bunkering ships, that I knew was heading for the Galicia, one of the ferries that I still haven’t seen. Most frustrating.

Just every so often a cargo ship will enter or leave the harbour. Usually these are ships carrying refrigeration containers, the ships are consequently called Reefers. Sometimes they can be general cargo carriers.

After the channel in to the port was dredged for the aircraft carriers, the harbour became more readily available to cruise ships. Not the giants of the major lines, but bigger than what had been coming in. I haven’t seen a cruise ship in a fair while.

Whatever the happenings in the harbour, it’s always a pleasure to see it.