Bills Posts

The last few days the weather has been a bit rough, I’m not going to describe it as bad because I like rough weather; I like the wind and the rain, and the snow (not that we’ve had any and only if I don’t have to go out in it – especially driving) and I’m even happy to go out in it sometimes, except for the snow of course. Anyhow, the weather has been a b it rough for the last few days – I don’t like repeating myself in a paragraph. Sometimes I do it without realising, today I do it for effect, and I’ve lost that effect now by waffling on about it.

The one thing the rough weather has done over the last few days is to stop me seeing my Jelly fish. But, they were out in force today. There must have been quite literally thousands of them. I’ve tried to bring them out by making the header picture mono, but I don’t know how well it has worked. They were so crowded that sometimes one would pop up through the surface of the water. Amazing, and strangely beautiful. Fascinating.

The next picture isn’t for the jelly fish, and I apologise for the subject, but I want to show how clear the water is;

Ignore the subject (mostly), I ranted about it in yesterdays post.Here is a shopping trolly, it is fully submerged, even the wheel closest. I’ve put it up because as I walked a bit further along the edge of the cockle pond, there was a point where there was a solitary jelly fish moving gently and calmly through the water. It didn’t look as though it was in the least bit bothered about it’s journey, just gently swimming along in that pumping kind of motion. As I stood there watching it, I had a feeling of utter tranquility, it really was most unusual. Very difficult to describe. But, it was absolutely delightful.

After the wildness of the last few days, the ponds were once again their calm, flat selves. At that time of the morning, it really is a very pleasant place to be. Of course, I enjoyed the rest of the walk. There wasn’t much going on in the harbour, the Normandie came in, the other ferries were working, a small black rib went out. The water in the harbour was only moving a little bit.

This yacht, the Black Lady has been berthed here for quite a while. I don’t know anything about her, but I’d like to find out. I really do like the look of her. She looks quite well equipped with modern tools; two radars and self erecting spinnaker, it wouldn’t surprise me if should cross an ocean. Very interesting. Today’s walks was one of those that I will look back on with a lot of pleasure.

Out for my walk this morning. I arrived at the Cockle Ponds to be confronted by this. I was outraged. I simply do not understand why someone would do this, or how they could derive pleasure from this. The second I saw this I sent a picture and a tweet to Gosport Street Scene. I had a reply within a couple of hours. I’ll check tomorrow morning to see if it has gone.

As you walk around the town, sometimes you see litter. But that doesn’t make it a dirty town, just dirty people who have no respect. In fairness to the town, it is quite common to see street cleaners both on foot and street sweepers continuing to fight battle against litter. Around town as well are groups of “Womblers” who go out on litter picks. I have done one, I should do more. It is immensely gratifying to do so. It is also immensely frustrating to see it messed up again.

It’s frustrating that it has to be done, but it is good to see signs that go beyond the “please don’t litter” and become really quite insulting to litter droppers. I don’t have any problem with that at all. Gosport Borough Council put a lot of effort in to keeping the place clean. It’s a continuing battle, but in my opinion, they are are doing OK.

Back on to a more pleasant topic. The waters in the cockle pond were still a bit rough. I was able to see some jelly fish, but there weren’t many around. Today’s walk was really quite pleasant. I got to say hello to a few people who I see regularly, and the weather was OK, even if it was a little bit cool.

So, another milestone is reached. With today being 266/366 I think it’s reasonable to say that we are in a countdown (count up)? With 100 days to go. I’ve only had one blip, which happens so I’m quite happy with things. I still haven’t given any thought to what happens at the end. I am thinking that I may set the clock to zero.

The water in the cockle pond was so rough this morning that I wasn’t able to see any of the jelly fish, or anything else. Hopefully, I will tomorrow.

Sorry – this is about me again. I have interests, as much as I avoid writing about them here, I won’t deny my interest in politics or religion, and on those two topics, that is as much as you will get out of me. They in particular are way too divisive. With one exception, I did (notice the did) I wanted to be a councillor; whether that’s a town or a parish it didn’t matter.

The “did” comes from the fact that a couple of years ago I became a trustee in a Citizens Advice Branch. It was fascinating, some seriously dedicated people. I had to give it up. I’d done that before when I was school governor. Actually, I had give up being a governor for a different reason. But, my main concern is responsibility. I have a threshold, beyond that, I need to roll back. That’s why I am not going to become a councillor. I feel responsible, and people will depend, and I don’t want that. I’ll have enough without adding to it.

So, I am thinking about interests where there are no dependencies; Astronomy, amateur radio, model railways, microscopy – Ah! Yes, well that’s a new one, well kind of new. Being treated a little bit more seriously than I have done before. I’ve joined a club, The Quekett Microscopical Society. Tonight I attended the Presidential address via Zoom. It was fascinating. It seems there are many facets to the subject, not just plants, insects or bacteria (apparently microscopists consider bacteria to be boring), but sand. Sand, who would have thought it – look at these pictures. And, I hate beaches. I’ve ordered some sample jars. Where’s the nearest sandy beach?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sand+under+the+microscope&client=safari&hl=en-gb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj39IzJ67DwAhVNZhUIHb3EDZIQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1261&bih=1663&dpr=2

And Micrometeoroids, apparently, you find in them in your gutters, and you only need a magnet. OK, that’s probably a bit of an oversimplification, but apparently, it can be as simple as that – how much do you want to bet it isn’t?

In this months issue what is unavoidable is the impression of the anticipation of the lifting of the Covid-19 Lockdowns. We aren’t quite there yet but it is getting closer unless something drastic goes wrong.

I get the view that most of the contributors to the magazine tend to travel alone on their treks. There’s even an article on how they cannot get their partners to enthuse about what they love to do. The anticipation of the lifting of lockdown in their case is not so much the act of walking, we have been able to do that all the time, just locally and within bubbles. What is different is the ability to travel further afield and even stay away over night. Something we haven’t really been able to do for over a year now. These times are not without precedent; the Spanish flue epidemic just over 100 years ago tragically killed nearly 230,000 people. This time it is that technology has enabled us to share our experiences, grief and joy much more rapidly and easily than then. For many, this has brought experiences into our lives that we would never have shared. For every person lost, for every family grieving there is deep, deep sympathy.

Conversely, for every person that has kept things going, the emergency services, refuse collectors, shop assistants, shop deliverers (for most of our delivery’s we have used Asda) and all other people there is sincere gratitude.

Tonight’s post was meant to be a comment on the magazine. I finished reading it a couple of days ago, and having refreshed my mind of the content I think the one that has struck me most is the article on the England Coastal Path. How the path is still being developed. There are parts of the path in this area, It might be interesting to explore at least part of it.

I went out to the shed so that I could get a screw to put up my wall mounted barometer. I’ve tried picture hooks and they didn’t work – wrong size. I’m pleased that it is now up, and I can look at it every day. But that isn’t the story. When I went out to the shed I was surprised at how warm it was, and very bright. It was a morning for a walk.

I thought about driving or cycling up to the Alver valley and walking through the woods. unfortunately, even though it was bright there were some dark clouds and according to the forecast, rain was threatened. The decision was made, I would do my normal walk. That way I would never be more than a few minutes from home.

The walk along Stoke Road was quite interesting, there were a surprising number of people, and a bit of a crowd outside Christ church. I don’t know what was going on, but there was music inside and every body looked reasonably cheerful.

I turned the corner by the old BT exchange, BT vans still park there, and I confess that I am curious as to what the building is used for. Now on to South Street, heading down towards the Cockle Ponds. I confess I’m quite keen to see what it happening to the Jelly Fish. As I get near I can see that the local model yacht club have an event on, there are quite a number of large models racing. The operators of the yachts are very skilful in the way that make the boats sail the course. It does look quite appealing. They make it look very easy. I’m willing to bet it’s not.

There were a couple of jelly fish in the smaller pond and I was disappointed to see no jelly fish in the western end of the larger pond. As I walked along the side of the pond I saw that the sea slugs were back, not may of them, only three or four. They were swimming quite enthusiastically.

Then as I walked to the eastern end of the pond the number of jelly fish went from practically none to increasing numbers, once again there were thousands of them;

The Promenade was not so busy that I felt unable to keep away from people. I met a friend and chatted for a few minutes. I think it was the Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service (GAFIRS) was in harbour. It didn’t look as thought there was an incident in progress, either it had ended, or it was a training trip.

As it happens, the rain didn’t arrive other than a very few drops later in the day. It really was a very pleasant walk.

A couple of pictures for you today. The weather looked absolutely lovely this morning so we decided we would go for a little bike ride, and a walk. One of our favourite destinations is Stokes Bay. We set off and realised that although the sun was bright, the air was still quite chilly. We were OK though and so didn’t have to turn back. Taking a brief detour to post a letter in Alverstoke Village Post Office saw us ending up on Jellicoe Avenue heading down towards the Bay. Jellicoe is one of those roads that’s unusually wide, there are several of them in the area. They were built that way to allow for the build up of forces in preparation for D-Day.

I was pleased to see when we arrived at Stokes Bay that the Sailing Ship Tenacious was still at anchor. We joined the Golden Mile midway between the Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service (GAFIRS) and the restaurant Pebbles. We walked up to the Bayside Cafe at the Diving Museum and had an ice cream. I had a two scoop tub, Banana and Mint Chocolate Chip – very nice. We noticed that the gate in to Browndown was open, which meant we were allowed to go in and explore the limited area that visitors are allowed.

Stokes Bay was quite busy both on the water and on land. Most people were quite well behaved. I have noticed that sometimes people tend to walk down a path abreast, and will not move across. At one point we had to stand to allow a group to pass us. We got a rather pathetic “Thank you” as they did so.

As we were walking back to the bikes it started to rain. It wasn’t too bad, but we did hurry a bit to get back to the bikes. We paused briefly to take the picture at the top. The Sailing Ship Tenacious, built in 1990 the largest sailing ship to be launched in the UK in 100 years. I must admit I thought that she was older than that. Behind her is the Hoegh Target. Built in 2015, at the time she was the largest car carrier in the world at 8,500 vehicles.

The rain intensified as we were heading home. We both got a bit wet. But it was nice to get in and have a cup of tea. It was a very pleasant couple of hours.

There were thousands of jelly fish in the cockle pond this morning, a swarm of them. I’ve written a lot about them. I’ve also written a lot about the photographs I’ve taken this week. I’ve also written a lot about the birds. I’ve enjoyed writing about them. But I don’t think the writing has been very good.

Is it because the writing is quite shallow? By which I mean I am writing about subjects and saying where, when and how I took them, and how much I enjoyed taking them, but there is no detail about the individual subjects. Also, if I repeatedly photograph them, do I need to increase the story each time?

I’ve written in the past (not too long ago) about my attendance on a creative writing course at St Vincents College a couple of years ago. At the time that I didn’t really want to write fiction. The course was aimed at creative fiction writers, and there were some that were very good. But I don’t think my brain works like that.

Earlier this week, I happened to google about writing creative non-fiction. There is loads of stuff, videos on youtube. Also a whil ago, I wrote about needing to put more feeling in to my writing, perhaps that means being more descriptive in what I am writing.

There’s a long weekend ahead. At weekends, I use my big camera. I’m going to try and get out for walks. I’ll try to be more expressive. In my writings.

Sorry, this is another post of me whining about feeble I am at doing what I want to do. Rather than being feeble, and whinny why don’t I try and do something about it?

What I don’t want to do is just describe the weather. When I go out for my walk in the morning, I can measure windspeed, temperature (ambient, dew point, chill), pressure (inches of mercury or HectoPascals or millibars (I prefer millibars)) I have a hydrometer which measures relative humidity It’s a broken sensor, it never gives a correct reading. I also report on cloud cover, which for some reason is measured in eighths.

The thing is probably to be a bit fatalistic about the weather. It is what it is. One of the first things I do in the morning is look out the window. If it is absolutely throwing it down I don’t walk. If I’m out walking and it starts raining, I’m stuck and I just have to keep going. I love a windy day, and if it does start raining and I have my proper raincoat on I like that as well. So I tend to just take it as it comes.

I don’t think tonights post is going that well. I just wanted to write about how much I enjoy the weather, and part of that is enjoying the measuring of weather, that’s why I want to know what the temperature is, how much rain has fallen, what the pressure is, that kind of thing. I have a unit in the garden that’s probably towards the mid-range of an amateur set up and cost me £400 probably about 10 years ago. They haven’t gone up in price, but I don’t think I would buy the same unit unit again. The unit is very awkward for getting the data on the internet. There are units that you can buy nowadays that just connect straight to wifi and the data is on the computer.

I’m not too happy with this post, but I’m not going to delete it, I just need to think about what I want to say, so I may have another go.

Tonight’s piece is supposed to be about photography. Over the last few days I’’ve spent a fair bit of time talking about my photos. The photo at the top is of an old variant of the Gosport Ferry. There have been a couple of times over the last few months when the tide has been so low that the pillars have been completely exposed. This morning at 0621 the tide turned. It was at its lowest point whilst I was stood here. I think the sun was at the correct angle to bring out these colours so I quite like this picture.

It’s actually quite difficult to not write about photography, my pictures in particular, when it’s in my mind. And now, in trying to not write about the photo’s my brain won’t cooperate with me.

It’s magazine time again. My issue of Country Walking has arrived. I’ve only read the first few pages, so I’m not going to comment on it at the moment, but I confess to being slightly frustrated. I want to continue reading Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, it’s becoming very interesting because I have what I would guess is an academically (rather than a popular history) detailed book of the era. It’s fascinating to read about Bede’s account, and then relate that to the book. The history book even refers to Bede, I’ll have to make sure I keep notes. I may have to write several pieces about the book as the Monday night slot will be taken up with magazine reviews. Who would believe that I would get tied in knots about photos?

The walks so far this week have been very pleasant. Dry, except for one brief period this morning when for about a minute there was a very light shower. I’ve had to wrap up though as it has been quite cold. I’m just going to put up one more picture (Oi! Brain, get off those pictures will you).

I just wanted to show a little bit of drama in the sky.

The thing is, I don’t feel able to say that today, I have taken some photo’s that I really like. I have a dilemma, I want to post them all, but I want to do an end of week photo review. But, if I don’t post them I can’t review them. I had to crop this one a bit, I didn’t like the light post off to the left. I quite like the line of the flags from the right, just a slight pity that the tip of the spinnaker isn’t slightly lower. That would have been an OK line. I’m wondering if the line over the sun (a contrail) is a distraction. I quite like the colours.

Now, I know this is not a technically perfect picture, but I like it. I have to admit, until a week ago I hadn’t given the jelly fish a a second thought. Then, all of a sudden I noticed them. They are now a regular feature on my morning walk. I’ll follow them until things move on because I’m interested. I might even try to learn a little more about them. There are a lot of them in the pond. Lots of different sizes. Up to the largest I’ve seen, about 4 inches. That’s apparently about a third or a quarter of their size potential. They might all be gone tomorrow. Let’s see what happens.

Now, this is a strange one, it’s just a plant that’s growing in the cockle pond. I quite like the colour of the water, and although I don’t consider the flowers to be particularly attractive they are quite interesting. Compositionally, I didn’t feel there was much I could do to improve the picture. There’s just something that appeals to me.

I just like this picture, it’s the little boat heading out of the harbour. I wonder where it is going? It doesn’t look like a fishing boat. Perhaps it’s a lobster boat, it’s not a stern fisher. Today, the weather was a mix. The sky looks quite glorious doesn’t it? A clear brightening blue sky promising a lovely day. The only problem is that at this point, the temperature is around 5.5C, and the wind has such a bit to it that it’s reducing the temperature to just over 2C. Quite a reduction. It looks like it’s going to be the same tomorrow.

I had a bit of a problem getting up this morning. I was awake before 0500, I spent a bit of time reading the news, and then at around 0515, I turned everything off and relaxed, psyching myself up to get up and of course, I fell asleep. Normally I get up at 0535. This morning I awoke again at 0537. Which meant it felt a bit of a rush getting up. I don’t like that. Tomorrow will be better!