Bills Posts

I went to Homebase today. They had a piece of MDF (they had several). It was just the wrong size. I wanted 1.25×0.5 metres – not a big piece. They had these pieces 1.2×0.61. Just slightly too short, and slightly too wide. Now, the width I can cope with. The length is a bit of a problem. I needed it to be more than 1.2 because I need to be able to get it as close to the wall in the office as possible, and that means it has to be able to sit over the radiator, as that is he only place it can go.

I haven’t yet measured to see if 1.2 will fit, but if it does, then that will be fine. Of course, the width is a bit of a problem. But it is a minor one, as with a jigsaw I will be able to cut that easily. I need to be able to cut the base support wood (25x25mm) to the right length and then smooth off the ends with some sandpaper. I have a decision to make here, to make the baseboard free standing sitting on a table. This will make it easier to flip over and work on.the underside, there will be a lot happening there.

I’ll need clamps, glue and either nails or screws to hold the support wood in place. I am suffering from a little bit of a lack of planning, and could not guarantee that I had the correct tools for the job, but at the same time purchasing items that might be a possible duplicate of something we already have. So, before I commit to the wood and the work of building the baseboard, I am undergoing a tool collation exercise.

So, I consider to have been both successful and frustrating. I must admit, I nearly bought the wood today, it was with reluctance that I left Homebase without it. I even sat in the car almost wracked with guilt at not having bought anything. But I have taken things a little bit forward. If you couple today with the almost decision that I am going to go for NCE powercab as the DCC system, then it has been fruitful.

I haven’t been very i,pressed with my photography this week. Plenty of nighttime shots of the water and the cockle ponds, and some buildings, slightly misty a bit rainy, all in all very samey.

I have to be honest and say that my writing hasn’t been much better, some of the pieces have been almost token really. I have been as unimpressed with the writing as I have with the photography.

I know that I have several months of night time photos ahead, apart from when I go out midday, which makes a nice change from the morning walk. Perhaps I’ll spend a bit of time over the weekend to try and get a bit of inspiration. I took pictures of several of the old pubs in the town. There is some reasonably interesting architecture, it’s finding the angle and having the light to make an interesting picture. One of the things I wanted to try and do is get in a bit closer.

On the writing front, I started looking at the schedule that I ended up applying during the 366 times. That helps me as at least it forces a focus. I’ve not done very much on the model railway front. The blocker is the wood for the baseboard. 9mm ply or MDF. I’ve had a look at several online services that offer it cut to size, but it seems awfully expensive. I’ve been to the nearest B&Q in Titchfield. They have the wood, but in huge sheets, way bigger that what I want, and they don’t have the facility to cut. Apparently, I can go a bit further afield where I can get it cut, but I still may have to buy the full sized sheet to do so. I still have two places to visit to see if I can get a piece cut to the size I want (0.5×1.25m). I also haven’t asked on Facebook if anybody has, or knows where I can get a piece of the wood. I’m going to see if I can visit a couple of those tomorrow.

On the DCC front, I think I may have narrowed it down to two candidates Digitrax and NCE Powercab. I watched a YouTube clip installing NCE powercab looks very easy, I can get the minimum set up for somewhere between £150 and £180. I have been a bit slow, but the research is good.

OK, sorry, I need to get this out of my system – playing with colour selection in Snapseed, I thought that the sign of the The Star would be a good subject for this. The original is below. Which do you prefer?

We have had a few nights where it has been sufficiently cold that I have wrapped up to almost full winter standard. There were few mornings where there was a little bit of ground frost and some cars were covered in frost.

This morning was an example of a mild morning. I still had a fleece and a coat and my cap. Gloves have been a bit of an issue. Several years ago I bought a pair of touch sensitive gloves where you can operate a phone through them. They are just beginning to wear out, and I am likely to have to get a new pair. I’m thinking that I might get ones with the every tips of the fingers off.

It’s getting to that stage in the year where we can expect cold weather and going out in it is a real pleasure.

OK, I’ve used the two photographs I’m going to include quite recently in blog posts, they are only here for illustration. The brief focus of tonight’s post is the application I used to create these pictures.

That application is Snapseed. It is available on both iphone and Android, and it is completely free and not riven by adverts. The process used to create the header picture, and this one;

Is called Colour Selection. The process is conceptually fairly straight forward, and generally comprises;

• Open the Application
• Open the picture you wish to work on
• Create a monochrome layer on the picture
• Work on erasing that part of the mono layer allowing the underlaying colour to show through.
• Save the picture

I haven’t gone into some of the detail for example that of the fourth step, which also involves error correction (you’ve erased the wrong part, or too much of the mono layer.

The application is absolutely loaded with editing tools, that really allow you to explore photography. I have only, through the use of this one process, begun to explore the capabilities of the app. If you are interested in a free, highly effective editing tool then I strongly recommend SnapSeed.

It appears that the development of the waterfront is progressing. There is no argument that the bus stop is a 1960’s or 70’s eyesore (well, I think it’s 1960’s or 70’s. It definitely needs to be replaced.

The bus stop is going to be moved to where the taxi rank is, busses will pull in and reverse out. I’m slightly concerned about that – I wonder what traffic control measures they will put in place?

As to the building itself, words being used are an iconic gateway with waterfront entertainment. The town definitely needs it. A nice cafe & restaurant near the ferry would I suspect do very well. But, the iconic gateway includes accommodation. I wonder what that means.

It appears that a developer is being selected.

The harbour was surprisingly busy this morning. There were two small fishing vessels heading out with one coming in. The Pilot vessel was behaving unusually. It was loitering and cam to a stop towards the harbour entrance. I can only think this was to allow the Amourique to come in. Once the Brittany Ferry has passed through the pilot cutter resumed its exit.

Whilst we were on lockdown (and we still are, to a more or less self imposed degree – with relaxations) when we started doing some binge watching of boxsets. One of the earliest we worked through was Downton Abbey. I have to say, we were completely addicted and watched barely anything else. This included the inter-season specials. There were 52 episodes including the specials. Actually, it didn’t take us long to get through the 6 seasons. We were devastated when it finished, we had come to love most, and hate some of the characters. It was wrapped up in the film. During the series, we got to learn about both levels of the house, above and below stairs.

Elayne was given a book about Village life in the 19th & 20th centuries. Of course I grabbed it immediately. It was fascinating to read about the life of people during those times. The conditions in which they lived we can’t help comparing to today. The comforts of housing; heating, lighting, clean water, waste disposal, and yes new, recent additions starting with the telephone, progressing to radio, television and today broadband are beyond compare with the house of a hundred years ago.

Of course, we now have the time to wonder how people a hundred or more years from now will be living. I wonder.

We’ve had a busy weekend, doing things around the house. There was an opportunity today when I could have gone for a walk but I decided not to. It’s the first time in quite a long time since I have deliberately avoided going for a walk. But I don’t really feel guilty about it. If I were still trying to achieve walk1000, what I am heading for this year is 1500. Not going to make it, but enjoying trying.

Because I haven’t been out for two days I don’t have any really fresh pictures. I thought I would have another bash with Snapseed. I took the picture of the buoys a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to do the colour separation with it. It’s OK. The editing on the app is excellent. But I think there is probably too much water.

Hopefully, back to normal tomorrow.

Here’s the thing that I am about to do, is kind of blame other people for my rubbish photography, not the equipment, it’s the location. Invariably, the book or magazine you are reading will contain superb pictures, taken in spectacular locations at absolutely the right time of the day. They just make my pictures look utterly feeble. It’s not my fault that I don’t have access to the same wonderful locations that these famous photographers do.

Of course, it is all absolute bunkum. A bad picture is a bad picture, regardless of location, equipment or photographer, and I would be the first to say that the header picture is not a good picture – in my eyes anyway, exposure, lines, composition are all really not very good.

I would be very curious to know what potential a good photographer would see in something like this. Perhaps a different time of day, a different point of view may all offer potential for a better image. What about editing? That may allow us to do something with the location.

There is a whole range of videos on YouTube relating to photography in a small town. Mostly American of course, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, there isn’t (at least from a photography perspective) any difference between UK or US concrete, except perhaps scale. I have a habit of looking at the wide scene, perhaps if I focussed down on things and got in a bit closer, I would find scenes that are perfectly acceptable. It’s all down to the eye, isn’t? What you see.

There, it isn’t their fault at all is it? It’s me needing to get my seeing eye sorted.

Don’t look for a link between Portsdown Hill and the picture. There isn’t one. I don’t have a picture of the escarpment to the north of Portsmouth (at least, I think it is an escarpment – I’ll have to check on that). Anyhow, this hill; Portsdown is about 400 feet high. From the top of it you get an absolutely magnificent view of Portsmouth, Gosport & the Solent. There are several places for viewing, one in particular has a burger stand. The food they sell is excellent, every time I drive past, there is an large queue. Sometimes, I’ve even stopped to partake. Not tonight though. Tonight I was enroute to the radio club.

But, it being the 5th of November, I had not taken in to account just how popular this area was going to be for bonfire night. It was heaving. Traffic jams, people all over the place. It easily added 10-15 minutes to my journey.

But, I can entirely understand why it was like this. I reckon that the viewing point was not that far above the point where the rockets from organised shows, and especially peoples gardens would detonate. I can only think that the view must have been quite out of this world. To the point where I am considering joining the chaotic throng for next years event. Things had calmed down for my return journey about two hours later. But there were still fireworks going off. Best though to be there Early evening. That’s when things are really active. Interesting evening.

It’s been 84 days since I finished the project. Apart from one night where I got things a bit wrong (I think it was around 119/366, I am now well in to my second year of continuous blogging. Almost three months into it. I must admit some of these last 80 odd days have been difficult. It’s not so much writers block, and it’s definitely not – not wanting to do it. Sometimes a topic for the night just doesn’t come to mind.

Every Thursday night for the last few years – three to four I think it is, it might be less, I do the Isle of Wight Radio Society Thursday Night Net. It’s a radio net run over the IoWRS repeater at Ventor. Built & looked after by one of the club members it’s a lovely piece of kit. Going by the designation GB3IW. It has magnificent reach and that not withstanding the connection to a service called echolink, which allows licensed radio amateurs all over the world to link in and talk to anybody connected to the repeater.

It’s thursdasytoday, as I write this. The net is about 40 minutes to go before the net starts I think I have a topic. sometimes I can get to just as the net is starting before I think of something, and sometimes, it ends up as a “natter night” – anything goes. It doesn’t always have to be radio related. I’ll let you know how tonight’s net goes.