Bills Posts

The Magnolia Tree is blooming well. For reasons I can’t explain, I like this picture. Still buds to pop out though. I might look for other blossoming bushes. I’m also playing Pokemon Go again. Well, not so much playing it but I have down loaded the app. That is not, in anyway connected to Photography.

I’ve had a good week for some photos, this isn’t the best but it’s OK. The walk itself was fine. I’m OK with the clockwise route. The weather has been quite pleasant, and the exercise (yes, only three miles) is good. I am doing Couch to 5K though, and am at Week 6, so that’s going well. The crane wasn’t about this morning, but the light was interesting.

The tide was still going down, and the Normandie had just passed through, creating this wake. I quite like this effect.

OK, so the pictures are out off time sequence. It was just nice to see. I was distracted just before this, by a chap who was curious about what I was doing. He’d seen my gadget stick with iPhone and anemometer. He got very excited when I started talking about being a radio ham. He was a CB’er. Still had the kit, just hadn’t used it for years. He honestly thought that the ships would be interested in my weather report.

This next picture is taken across the cockle ponds on my way home. Wanted to get the sun behind the Trinity Church Bell Tower. That’s probably about as much effort as I tend to put into composition. I really do need to pay more attention to that don’t I?

This morning was one of those walks where the rewards kept coming. It started when I spotted this bush outside St Mary’s church. I think it’s a Gladioli, I quite like this picture. I’m going to keep an eye on the bush. I may come back to it.

Having arrived at the water front, my first reward was to see the Mon St Michell come in to the harbour. In this picture she is accompanied by a Pilot boat. That’s not to say that the Brittany Ferry has a pilot on board – it doesn’t need one. Why not? You might ask There’s a thing called a PEC or Pilot Exemption Certificate. To get a PEC, a ship’s captain has to prove they have the capability to navigate the stretch of water to which the PEC applies. I quite often see the pilot boat scooting around the harbour, presumably to pick up pilots starting their duty.

Only a few minutes after the Mon St Michell, the Commodore Clipper came in. It’s more unusual to see her, she is normally quite a bit earlier than when I arrive at the waterfront. It was lovely to see her come in. It was not a bad day for it, only a slight wind, and not that cold at 7C. I was wrapped up warm though. And then, there was this;

OK, perhaps not so brilliant, but this is closer than I’ve ever got to it. I think it is because I’m being a bit sneaky and trying to keep out of it’s sight as I move to the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall. Not bad, but could be better. How about this then?

Almost directly overhead. It was not in the least bit fazed by me this time. This time, it did fly away. I would like to get a picture of that, but wasn’t quite fast enough today. An excellent point in a lovely walk.

Some lovely pastel colours this morning on my walk around Gosport.

Whilst I started working in Gosport roughly ten years ago, I didn’t move here until roughly three years had passed. It was only when I moved here, that I really began to appreciate the history that abounds in the town. I’ve talked previously about the leaflets published by the Gosport Historic Records & Museum Society. I had only a very limited number of leaflets. In the shop where I bought them, there were two more leaflets that were slightly more detailed than the others, because it was a research piece dedicated to a particular topic.

The title of this piece was “The Earlier Fortifications of Gosport.” by G H Williams, published by the GHRMS With Portsmouth being just across the harbour, being a major naval base, it is only natural that the security of Portsmouth would have to be ensured by contributing to the securing of Gosport. The leaflet I have been reading indicates early mentions of parts of Gosport are around the 1470’s. The focus was on Fort Blockhouse, guarding the entrance to the harbour. A chain was first deployed from Portsmouth as early as 1420, several were deployed between then and 1520.

It seems that the vulnerability of Portsmouth to attack from Gosport was highlighted in the 17th Century, when in the 1640’s Parliamentary forces held gosport, and the Royalists Portsmouth during the civil war. The guns of Gosport were turned on Portsmouth, lives were lost, and damage inflicted. From 1660 onwards, the fortifications of the area started to receive closer scrutiny.

As the defences of Portsmouth and Gosport were done under one banner, during the reviews of borough charters 1681-82, Gosport was made part of Portsmouth. This only lasted six years, being in done in 1688.

By 1742 the Gosport Lines encircled the land side if the town going from Trinity Church, this. Recent picture shows part of the ramparts and the moat

Up to the Gosport side of Forton Lake, adjacent to Priddy’s Hard. the trinity ramparts, the walls between gosport Railway Station, and some structures around Priddy’s Hard are now all that remains of the Gosport Ramparts. In away, I am sorry that they have gone. They would have made a wonderful walk, and a classic piece of history.

I am likely to do another article on this later.

It’s been a fairly successful week walking, Apart from Saturday, I’ve managed to get out for a walk. There were a couple of days towards the end of the week where I felt it necessary to wear my full weather coat because it might rain, and also, it is better at keeping the wind out, I was about to go out on Saturday, but as I was preparing to go, the hail stones started. They then became intermittent for the rest of the day, and to be honest, I just couldn’t be bothered. Isn’t that naughty?

We didn’t go out with the intention of meeting up with anybody, but as you do, we saw a few people to say hello to as we were out, which was nice. And then there was a chap behind Trinity Church who was feeding the birds. Perhaps Durrito chips isn’t the best bird food, but they didn’t seem to be objecting at all, even grabbing them whilst in the air. We spoke to the chap, he feeds them regularly, and it was clear that the birds were happy to get quite close to him.

I’m wondering how Covid-19 and the lockdowns have affected you? I must admit, I’m not enamoured of the idea of mixing with a crowd of people whether that is in a hall or out in the open. So when out, I make a point of staying away from people, even to the point of moving away from them if they encroach on my personal space, which has got quite a bit bigger in the last year.

Having said that though, It is getting to the point where I almost crave the random conversations when I’m out. I won’t deliberately start them when I’m out, but if somebody asks me a question, I am more than happy to answer. It all makes for an interesting walk.

If there is one thing that today’s blog entry is not going to be about, it’s Vlogging. I haven’t done anything about it. Even tonight’s photograph is from yesterday’s walk. I have only been out to go to the shops today. We have had an incredibly lazy lockdown-induced day.

I did got to Morrisons to buy some stuff that we had needed and forgot to get on the weekly shop, otherwise, we have been ironing and. Bingw3atching box sets; Frost (season 8), Grey’s Anatomy Season 1 up to Episode 5 and three episodes of Bridgerton. That last one, Bridgerton is of an era near to Downton Abbey, the two series are completely different though, and DA is much, much better in my opinion. Strangely, the last two episodes of Frost that we have just watched featured an appearance by Joanne Froggatt, the lady who played Anna Bates in DA.

Weather-wise, today’s been quite changeable. There was a quite vicious hailstorm around midday that put me off going for a run, and when I went to the shop around 10AM, it was bright and sunny, but the wind had a bit of a bite to in. Thinking of that , last night we had fish and chips and went to the waterfront at Stokes Bay, they serve the chips in a flattish cardboard box. I got out of the car to feed the last scraps to thee birds and the wind just whipped the box out of my hand. By the time I had put the first box in to the bin, I couldn’t see the other one. We stopped to find it as we were leaving the park, but couldn’t see it any where, it had just gone!

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t given up on Vlogging, and I am going to do it, it’sd just not as easy as I thought – or, am I making it too complicated? I’m thinking about it.

For quite a while now, I’ve been writing to a topic schedule. In theory I am still happy with that, what I am not pleased with is some of the content of some of the posts. There are occasions, when I do run out of things to write, I suppose it is a kind of writers block, and my usual strategy is to write about the fact that I have writers block. I’m figuring that you would probably get a bit fed up with that. At the same time, I’m not sure what to do about it. Define a plan to last more than 7 days?

I think the first thing to say is that whilst I am having a bit of difficulty, I absolutely will not stop writing. They say that repeating an activity 21 or more times, is habit forming. I think I’ve got it.

On a Monday, it’s the book of the week. Normally that doesn’t give me any problems. At the moment, I’m reading a leaflet published by the Gosport Historic Records & Museum Society in 1974 (Auth: G H Williams) “The Earlier Fortifications of Gosport”. I’m not going write anything more about it here. That’s for Monday Night.

Do I give a weather report on the waterfront every week, summarise the weeks weather perhaps? Activities such as ships coming in or out, if anything interesting happens (not very often, I have to admit). I do a weather report to the #Breakfastclub (what’s that I hear you ask), not a forecast note you, just a report on conditions as they are. People I see and say hello to on a regular basis, there are a few. There must be some opportunities there. Just ding this little exercise is giving me some ideas.

Then on Wednesdays, I thought I would write about photography. No, I’m not a good photographer, and I’d like to do a lot better than what do at present, areas to improve working in a lot of cases. I’ve said that I don’t want read books on how to do photography. That’s not working very well is it?

Thursdays is the weather, this causes me some problems, as I talk about the weather in the context of the waterfront. There’s little point talking about it in any other context, it is after all, weather. The changes and foibles are commented upon both here on this blog, and nearly every day on my facebook page. Could I broaden the topic to talk about meteorology rather than “just weather”?

And then we have tonight’s topic, writing. For some reason, this is the one paragraph this evening that has given me pause. I’m trying to think about how to write about writing. I’m doing that, so I think I’ll call it quits for this topic.

Saturday see’s me writing about the vlog. Now, Vlogging (one ‘g’ or two?) This is also something which is going very well isn’t it? I’m almost beginning to think that I need to be retired in order to have enough time to be able to engage in this activity? Now, that opens up a whole new area to consider; time management. Anyway, for a few moments, back to Vlogging, so many skills are needed, and so many considerations to produce a good vlog. The advice though, is to get on and do it. My first efforts will be rubbish, the thing is to learn from those mistakes.

Now Sunday’s offering is mostly a review of the weeks walking, or anything else related to walking. Perhaps I should conduct a virtual walk, much like I am doing a virtual holiday on FB?

Well that was an interesting exercise. Let’s see how the week goes.

I was awake at 0300 this morning, it was the wind wot woke me. I can quite easily equate last night gales to a vandal. It certainly felt like it. I had major problems sleeping, and mostly didn’t. This was due to the wind taking great pleasure in kicking a tin can down the street. Not only that, it would turn round and kick it back the other way.

Then, it insisted on slapping the window. It certainly sounded like a wet slap, several times, well quite a lot of times. It was raining then.

I had to get up at 0500, I took the opportunity to look out the window, it wasn’t raining then. It was going to come down to a decision as to whether or not I was going for a walk in the wind. Well, I was walking over the Millenium sun clock I was walking at an angle of about 45 degrees, and laughing at it.

I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed the walk.

I did say that I would look at following the exercises or assignments in the Tom Ang Book. I haven’t done anything. I’m not sure why, I just really haven’t thought about it. The book isn’t my main book of the moment. I’ll have a think about it.

This morning’s walk was very pleasant. I was a bit surprised that it wasn’t raining. I got the impression that It would be absolutely chucking it down this morning. I had that thing of waking up five minutes after I normally get up. When I’ve been asleep I hate that feeling of having to rush to get up. Of course, I don’t really have to get up but then, if I don’t I feel guilty for not having had my main daily exercise. Especially there is no real reason why I couldn’t get up other than not feeling like it. Sometimes I do that.

I’m going to go back in to the Tom Ang book. I was intending to try to do the exercises in order. Perhaps, I should have a browse through the book, which I admit I haven’t done. Perhaps a couple of hours at the weekend.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been walking in one particular direction on my morning walk; ant-clockwise. I like walking that way because when I reach the waterfront I do my weather report for the #Breakfastclub and then I only have a relatively short walk (1/3 roughly) home.

If I go clockwise, then I do my weather report and have a longer walk home. But, there is an issue of timing; at the moment, going anti means I get to the waterfront after sunrise is well underway. Going clockwise means that I get to the waterfront before sunrise.

Having said all that, at the moment I would prefer to see the sunrise, so I have made my decision. Until sunset is past I will be going clockwise.

This morning was the first exercise of that decision, and it really wasn’t too bad. Certainly you should see some of the benefits;

Now, there is another choice – I could extend the walk by another mile taking in the iron bridge. Of course, that would mean extra time, which would be a bit of a problem during the week, but is certainly a consideration for the weekend. Whatever I do, whilst sometimes I might have a bit of a problem getting up, I always enjoy the walk.

A cold, clear fresh morning greeted me. No wind meant no windchill, which was very nice. Mind you though, the weather is promising a big change with storms coming mid week. I tend not to walk if it’s raining, so we’ll have to see what the week brings.

I’ve finished reading the Gosport Journals. After last week as I say I only had a couple to go. The last leaflet contained a few interesting pieces. I didn’t know that the origins of the St John Ambulance Service goes back to the hospital of St John of Jerusalem, with the Order of St John beginning in A.D. 1100. It appears that there is still a branch of St Johns that services both Fareham and Gosport.

Then there is the event that has been labelled Gosport’s Finest hour, that being the visit of King Louis Philippe of France on Tuesday, 8 October 1844. Apparently, the pageantry was absolutely splendid.

Until my arrival in the area, I never knew of the role that Gosport had in the formation of the Royal Air Force. In the 14/18 war, Major Robert Smith-Barry identified the lack of appropriate training given to the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps, and introduced training methods that are still appropriate today, based upon how to get out of a situation, rather that how to avoid getting in to them.

I want to bring my readings of the Gosport Journals to an end by saying how much I have enjoyed reading them. They have certainly given me food for thought. My next book, is more of a pamphlet really; the earlier fortifications of Gosport. Looking forward to that.