Bills Posts

As usual, the picture has no relationship with the content of the post.

The Book is; The Walker’s guide to outdoor Clues & Signs by Tristan Gooley. I was going to share a link with you, but it’s a long horrendous amazon link, that I don’t want here, possibly at the bottom of this post.

Anyhow, I I have been wanting to read this book for several weeks, but had three others that I was determined to finish before starting this one. Usually, I can’t do that, if I want to read a book regardless of how many others I have on the go. As it happens, I do have another book on the go. I’ll write about that one later. Back to Tristan. No less an August publication than the The Financial Times describes the book as “A charming and intelligent guide to exploring the local landscape”. Sounds right up my street, so having finished the other books I picked it up Monday Evening and started reading.

the introduction was OK (yes, that sounds a bit weak mom, intended to be) and the first few pages were of a similar vein, not making it sound very exciting am I? Anyhow, I get to page 22, where I encounter the piece on the different colour of soils, and the story of the early 20th century American, Albert Munsell, who developed a system of categorising soil by it’s colour. The scheme, you can google it, it will come up, is still used by scientists today, Indeed, the Munsell system would have been used by yourself, when you were selecting which colour paint you want to use in your lounge. Ok, that was interesting. So now my curiosity is peaked. What else is here that I’m going to find interesting? Now that might sound like a boring thing to get excited about, but it’s these little things I get interested in.

I’m a few pages further on now. talking about how to track animals. I honestly don’’t think I will be doing much of that, but it is interesting. I’m going to stick with the book.

The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues and signs Now, there you go. I’ve just learned something else about links in WordPress. How excellent is that?

Not strictly First Light seeing as the sun is behind clouds rather than coming over the horizon, but close enough.

The mornings are drawing in. Dawns early light is beginning to catch up with me. When I had to go the dentist on Monday, the hygienist was talking about Autumn starting next week. I must admit I didn’t think that was right. I’ve just done that usual thing of googling when does autumn start.

It turns out that Astronomical Autumn starts when I thought it did with the Autumnal Equinox, well the day after equinox is 22 Sep, with autumn starting on the 23rd. It turns out that Meteorological autumn begins a few weeks earlier on 01 September. Met Autumn always begins on that date.

I keep an eye on the temperature as long as it stays around 15C I’m not thinking of going into autumn clothes. This morning it was 13.4C, I think that’s close to the lower limit. I’m not sure what the lower limit is, but it’s when I don’t feel able to go out in my summer clothes. As of this morning, not quite there yet.

The Wilson Wisla on her way out of the harbour, heading towards Rotterdam. Don’t know what she’s carrying.

I value my weekends. I obviously have jobs to do around the house, but once these are done and we don’t have anything organised, then I have some time to do what I want. I could for example, join a golf club. I haven’t played for quite a long time and I am not very good, but I have enjoyed it. Quite recently, I had a go at sailing a model yacht. The Gosport model Yacht club is very active and has excellent facilities. I had indicated that I would be interested in buying a laser class model yacht. These cost about £600 brand new. 2nd hand boats are available, but can be difficult to find.

A radio amateur friend of mine indicated that he had a boat of the class that he was happy to loan to me with the possibility of sale. I said yes, and we were going set up the transfer – he lives on the Isle of Wight. Awkward, but definitely possible. But then he also said something else as well, about it taking up a lot of space. I hadn’t given that much thought. Now, that would definitely be a problem, And of course, I would need to use the boat. Perhaps not every weekend, but certainly regularly.

I think my problem really is commitment. I don’t want that. I don’t want to feel obliged to have to do something (golf, or model yachts). I know I don’t have to, but then I end up with something taking up space and not getting used, just going to waste. I had to explain all this to my friend, backing out of the arrangement. Luckily, he was very understanding. But then I realised that I was going to say that I am going to do something else, like for example go back to the library for research, or when the next opportunity arises, take a visit out to Rowner Church, and I need to spend some time working out what I am going to say about that.

It’s not that it feels like I’m fibbing about how I want to use my time, it’s more a case of giving the impression that I’m flighty and can’t make my mind up what I want to do. I felt very uncomfortable about that, but I think it is a more accurate reflection of me. Sometimes, I’m not very happy with myself. This morning was one of those times.

Why is historical research so interesting? Because you find out interesting things. Over the last couple of days I’ve found out about hundreds (they are an Anglo Saxon measure of land area) interesting because they are still used today in at least one very special case; it’s the only way a MP can resign by being assigned to the Chiltern Hundreds.

The Domesday book, it refers to Rowner, showing who owned the land where Rowner church was built in the 11th and 12th Centuries.

There’s not very much left of the original church. I learn’t that’s because the Victorians in their arrogance thought they new better than what came before, and subjected a lot of buildings to what they called restoration, which involved the reconfiguration of old buildings into what the Victorians thought was a new and better shape. I think we would have a better name for it; vandalism is probably a bit of a strong term, but it’s not far from it by the looks of it.

I haven’t done any research in to what impact the Second World War had on Gosport. Apart from really obvious stuff that a person would find out with minimal effort. I found out that Rowner church was damaged by a bomb. Luckily it appears minimal, damaged windows is about it.

I still have some avenues to explore, but it is surprising how quickly information can be gathered. Now I have to admit that I have never been to Rowner Church. I think that is one of the reasons I have been determined to devote a bit of time finding out about it. The research into the church has so far been fascinating. I’m looking forward to producing that part of my project. But, the first item in my list of historical places in Gosport is Gosport Railway Station. I walk or drive past it nearly every day. I know some basic stuff. I wonder what else I can find out?

I Haven’t been in to our local library (The Gosport Discovery Centre) for quite a while now. I decided to go in today, as I wanted to do a little bit of research on Rowner Church St Mary the Virgin. I had looked at the Wikipedia page, and that does give you some information, but I thought I might find out a bit more if I went to the library.

I knew that the library had a big section on local history, especially Naval. I must admit that I hadn’t expected to find such a well stocked item on Gosport & the surrounding area. Having said that I was looking for items on the Rowner St Mary’s but could only find two rather slim smaller than A5 pamphlets, but they were both very useful, containing lots of information, and they should provide more than enough for what I need, but they also gave a couple of pointers for just that little bit extra investigation. This is in contrast to the amount of information that was there about the Alverstoke St Mary’s of which there was quite simply books and books of it.

The whole point of this though, is that I thoroughly enjoyed the hour or so that I spent in the library. Of course, like the Internet, you get taken in different directions. To give you an example, this morning we went to a small but very nice art exhibition in the Gosport Gallery, featuring pictures of Gosport in times past (the 1970’s back). Some of the pictures were incredibly detailed and of scenes to locations that no longer exist. One example of which is Forton Prison – I didn’t know there’d been one.

So, back to the library, and one of the books I looked at was the story of the American Revolutionaries that were imprisoned in Forton Jail between 1777 and 1783. Would these be classed as POW’s? Or possibly traitors? Anyhow, that’ll be something to look in to a bit. It was a very pleasant hour, and I anticipate more of them.

I said last night that it would be a few weeks before I would be able to start doing this. But that doesn’t stop me from planning, I’m going to spend a few minutes each day researching the topic of the week. The aim is to be able to do a 3-5 minute video. The thing that is bugging me, is the order, for the most part I am OK with the sequence I have – it’s fairly logical, it forms an almost circular pattern.

The problem, that there is one place, actually, it’s position 9 Rowner Church. I know almost nothing about it, except I think it is one of the oldest churches in the area. Of course, it’s only a thought. Now, what I could do is the research and the visit, and then keep it until it’s the sequence.

In reality, I’ve already done this with the Motte & Bailey, which is at position 12. I’m not even sure that I took some pictures, but what I do know is that the video is dire – not the quality, the GoPro 9 is superb, but my presentation is very, very feeble. My presentation technique is, to put it mildly, pathetic.

Now, if you are on facebook, do a search for a page – GB3IW, don’t worry about what it is, unless you are a licensed radio amateur, if you are licensed and haven’t heard of GB3IW it’s probably the best repeater in the country. Every Thursday night, I run the Thursday Night Net for the Isle of Wight Radio Society. The thing is that I do a Facebook Live – you won’t be interested in the bulk of the video (there are almost literally hundreds of them). The reason I’m talking about it is because I use the first minute to have a chat. Now, I’m getting used to it, I feel relaxed when doing it. That’s the kind of feeling I want to have when doing my vlogs, relaxed and confident. Practice won’t hurt, and if I don’t like it, I have the chance to do it again.

I think this is one of the biggest sunflower heads that I can remember seeing. It’s growing from one of the sunflower seeds I’ve been feeding the birds. It’s really nice to see it growing. There’s something about sunflowers. They just seem to be so cheerful. We’ve got quite a few of them growing. Love it.

I spent just a little bit of time working on the list of Places of Interest and historical value. The one furthest out is Rowner Church, and the one closest to us is Gosport Railway Station, which is less than 5 minutes from us.

I’m going to create a google map with the location of each of them located. It’s going to be a big ring for the most part. But, my problems are time and knowledge, and in each case lack thereof. As I said before, each point of interest will need some research, and whether or not I am just going to do photography or video. I think it would be good to do video as well. Seems as bit silly to learn about these places and not to get the most out of it.

So far, I’ve identified 30 individual points of interest. The last point so far are the blue plaques. I’m not sure how many of them there are, and I probably won’t cover all of them. At some point, I am going to have to give you the list. But, I’m not quite ready yet. Not only that, but for a variety of reasons, I won’t be able to start the project for a few weeks. that means that we will be at least in to Autumn, and heading to winter. Also, what order am I going to do them? The list is numbered, but that reflects a bit of a brain dump. Requires more thought. Some planning and thinking to do.

This month’s country walking arrived on Monday. I do enjoy reading it, especially when it features walks from my part of the world, which it does this month, it even talks about a pub that I like going to, which is really nice.

This issue of the magazine features walks from magnificent parts of the country, nearly all countryside – very little on urban walks. So, I had a thought. I could do a piece that I could pretend I’m going to send to the magazine. So, what do I write about?

Quite a while back, I did what I called the big circle walk, it worked out at about 10 miles. Now, 10 miles isn’t a massively long walk, but it’s enough. But that isn’t the main thing, I’m thinking about how to do it, because it will have to be broken down into smaller chunks. That’s because each mini walk will have a goal, of encountering and addressing a piece of Gosport (read Gosport / Rowner / Alverstoke) history.

Now I can’t absorb that much history in one go which is why I need to break it down – depending of course how much detail I need to go into. Well, for the walk a para, possibly two for each walk along with some pictures. I’ve identified at least 26 areas (historical topics), too much to do in one go, but I’m thinking of walking to each one, say one a week when I can, Then at the end of it, doing one long big walk covering them all. Doing one a week, gives me a bit of a chance to research for each topic.

You see, I like developing projects and tasks, it’s the way my mind works. The problem I have is finishing things like that. On the other hand, I’ve just very successfully finished what I consider to be a very big project. I’m sorry, I need to stop going on about it.

The thing about bay windows, especially those on the first floor they should be sat in to watch life. I’m not sure how long this building, this window has been here, but I think (I’d like to think) at least a couple of hundred years. I bet it has seen some sights. Not far from where this window sits (it’s above a Costa). I’m not going to do the timeline in detail, as I have that down as a possible future project but I will mention a couple;

948 The first known reference to Alverstoke & Rowner – Gosport doesn’t exist yet.

1417 First fortifications at Blockhouse – I doubt if the house that had this window even existed then. The town of Gosport would have been very limited in size, with most people living inside the ramparts that were being built around the town.

Life in the town I think would not have been particularly good. I might go on a bit about it but that doesn’t mean I’d like to lived then, Whoo no. There’s a kind of horrified fascination. Now, once again I find myself in a situation of not being too happy with what I’ve written, but I’m not going to delete it. I’ll use it as a reminder that if I am going to write about history, I need to be a little more specific in my research.

A short while ago, I took a picture of a set of red shutter blinds. It was cropped really tightly. I didn’t want to rush in to taking a series of similar pictures. Now, I took this one earlier today. But I don’t think it is as good as the red one – perhaps because it’s a grill rather than solid.

I am looking for other pictures, but my seeing eye really isn’t very good, but I haven’t given up. Too many of this type though could get boring, so I need to be careful.

OK, I know the header picture has nothing to do with the title, but I like it. We are moving to that time of year, when the evenings are drawing in, getting dark earlier. For me, I have limited time for any kind of observation. I want those observations to be good and useful to me.

To be good a useful, I need a comfortable chair. I have given much thought to this. Up front, this is aimed at my doing naked eye or binocular viewing – definitely not telescopes. The chair needs to be right.

One particular thing to consider is the binocular mount. I almost bought one of these, a cantilever mount. But I suddenly realised there is a major problem; It looks perfect, but a what happens when I want to look at another part of the sky I have to move the chair and re-position everything, although it probably is the best mount. I think I need a different approach.

It seems to make sense to use one of these;

Good reclining angle, comfortable, good frame to which to clamp the binos. I need to think about the clamping system. One minor problem with this, if I want to look at a different part of the sky I have to re-arrange the chair.

What I really need is a chair that rotates. How about putting this chair on a rotating base? That would work – even better if I could motorise it – that would be excellent. Could I buy the base? Well I’ve looked, but I can’t find anything that comes near it. I have no idea how much it might cost, but I’m willing to bet it wouldn’t be cheap.

Could I make it? I honestly don’t think so. Two bases of wood, a central rotating thing, but I would also needs some additional support around the outer edge, a ring of bearings (what’s that called)? Way too complex for me. I get the cantering wrong, I am Murphy’s law writ large when it comes to DIY.

Then, a couple of nights ago, it suddenly hit me. How about one of these?

Now, it’s an indoor chair, so I would have to carry it out each time I want to use it. It reclines, so that would be good. It rotates which is good. It doesn’t have a framework which is easily accessible to secure the binos, perhaps I could create a mount that sits the binos across the arms, cushioned. They might not be as stable but we would have to test and adjust that. It could work. A bit more thinking needed – I think.