Bills Posts

After last weeks cold weather, this week has been positively balmy in comparison. So far, I have been able to get out for a walk every morning and tomorrow is looking good as well.

Having said that though, there have been a couple of mornings where there has been quite a breeze blowing. I’ve taken to wearing my balaclava as a neck warmer. I probably don’t need to, as the coat I wear has a high neck that does up quite tightly, but I’ve got into the habit. Where it has been breezy, there has also been a chill to the wind, on one occasion, it was causing three or four degrees of windchill. On another occasion, the wind was so brisk that I was concerned that my hat might be blown away, so it was good on both occasions to be able to pull my balaclava up over. It was also very comfortable.

Of course with the variable weather comes the dramatic skies and spectacular sunrises, we’ve certainly had a couple of of those, here’s a couple of examples;

I have to confess, I don’t always relish getting up at half past five in the mornings. Mostly it helps if I wake up a little earlier than my normal get up time, or especially if I have a purpose to the walk. For example if I want to photograph something specific, or if there is something I especially want to discuss on the #Breakfastclub. Sometimes, it is just nice to go for a walk and enjoy the weather.

I haven’t checked, but I am pretty sure there’s another post that has the title “A bit of a dilemma”. I have actually, no really, taken the Tom Ang Digital Photography Masterclass book of the shelf and opened it. Of course, I haven’t bothered with the pre-amble, and have gone straight to the assignment. The first set of tasks relates to City lights – and to be honest, that is as much as I know. Except, part of the assignment is to explore different camera settings. I’m just not sure how easy that is to do with the iphone. I bet there’s an app that will give a proper manual mode. Should I explore that?

Of course, upstairs I have a very nice Nikon D5300, OK not a top of the range, in only just slightly more than entry level, but it is a Nikon, and I’ve always wanted to own one, and now that I have one I have barely used it over the last three years. Using that would be much easier for accessing the different camera modes, but of course, it does mean more bulk to carry in the morning, although I do have a very comfortable camera strap. The other problem as well, is with the strap, it’s fiddly to use the tripod, and with any kind of low light photography, I really do need to use a tripod.

It seems that doing the exercises in the book provides a perfect opportunity to re-familiarise myself with the Nikon. I’ve recharged the batteries, and all seems OK. I’m going to give a try I think. I may have to get the manual out – I’ve forgotten some of the things.

Now, as I said earlier the first set of tasks relate to city lights. As you might imagine the photographs in the book will be of somewhere like Leicester Square. What do I have? Gosport High Street! Actually, there is quite a variation of lights there. Perhaps not to London’s scale, but different.

Now, the other thing is timing. I’m going to have to read the assignment properly, which means I have to dedicate some time to properly read the assignment. I think that’s a weekend thing.

Amongst other reasons, this is why I get up and go for a walk in the morning. This morning was an excellent example. As soon as I stepped outside I saw that the sky was brightening. The first part of the walk I normally take has me heading west, away from the sunrise. I do a sharp U-Turn at the end of Stoke Road and then have about a mile and a half until I reach the waterfront.

The skies like this occur for me, timing-wise, over a fairly narrow window. Give it a couple of weeks I will be walking in daylight throughout. I admit, that some of the pictures during daylight can be as boring as pictures taken when it is dark. On the other hand, I am about to get the Tom Ang book out and look at what the first assignment in the book is. Obviously, I won’t be able to go to places as grand as his pictures were taken, but I will attempt to adapt it. One thing I will have problems with is portraiture – but tonight is about the waterfront, not photography.

One notable thins this morning was the water in the harbour had a distinct swell;

I don’t think any of my pictures show it, and it’s difficult to say how high. But it was much rougher than normal. We’ve been over on the Gosport ferry a couple of times when it was rough. It’s quite bouncy when you sit in the front of the boat.

Talking of the ferry, they don’t just go between Portsmouth and Gosport. They run trips. We’ve been out to see the cruise ships go out, to see an American Aircraft carrier close up and for parties. They always serve nice food. But, they usually end up doing a Grand Harbour Tour. Now the first couple of times you do one of these they are great. Then, third and successive time you go out , after you come back, and are itching to get off the boat and you hear the announcement “We will give a Grand Tour of the harbour” it’s not necessarily the first thing you want to hear. Still, it has been quite a while since we been on one. It is quite impressive, the first time you do one.

Out on my walk this morning, I stopped to have a chat with this gentleman. This was about 0630. He’d been there since midnight and hadn’t caught anything, but was not in the least disheartened. He was on the verge of packing up and looking forward to going home to wake up his kids.

I’m still reading the Gosport Journals. I’m about halfway through, reading leaflets that were written around 1973. Understandably, given that it is the Gosport and Historic Records Society the contents of the leaflets are not contemporary. They focus on the 18th & 19th century where solid records are most likely to be available. Indeed on one piece where I have identified a potential topic for a vlog I have found a news article from 1891, which I suspect forms the basis for this article and a book about Gosport that I read a while ago.

The leaflets are interesting, and I am very much enjoying reading the leaflets, but I’m not sure if they were what I was expecting. For a start, I did have a quick look at the volume before I bought it, so I had a rough idea of what I was getting. I think I may have commented on this before, but the leaflets were written between 1970 – 76. I think what I wanted to read was about what was happening in Gosport then. This is 50 years ago, half a century. At a period in my life which was, shall we just say interesting. So, now is the time to write about then. I think I can access newspaper articles from that time. Can I get at the council minutes from that time? I shall explore that. That could be next years blogging project. I’ll consider that.

We went out for a walk today around lunchtime. We did just under three miles. Like I always say not a large distance but better than nothing. I had to take a couple of Amazon packages for return so it was useful that the route we took had us passing the drop off point.

It also happened that the drop off point was very close to the promenade, so it made sense to take a wander along there. I must admit, that we did pause to admire the scenery. It’s just so nice to be outside.

There weren’t a lot of people out, the promenade wasn’t crowded, which was nice. The route took us past the park with the Cockle ponds. We said hello to a couple of friends who were heading in the opposite direction, it was nice to see them.

It has been a good walking week. I’ve met my walk1000 target for the week. I didn’t go out on one day (Wednesday), that was because of rain. Yesterday (Saturday, 20 Feb) it wasn’t a walk, but a run. I’m doing Couch to 5K again. I should be on week 5, but I didn’t go out at the week before – it was just too cold. I re-ran week 4. The next week definitely gets a bit heavier.

This evening’s image is perfect for an illustration (in my mind anyway). A long time ago, in a walk far, far away before the thought that I might actually blog became reality I needed to be able to mount two devices on my gadget pod, so I bought the top double bracket. It was perfect for my need and has served me well for several years.

The double bracket has housed my mobile phone and anemometer for the #Breakfastclub morning walks, looking like this;

Then of course the need for Vlogging of course has introduced the need for me to have an additional component – a GoPro camera.

Apart from lacking a bolt for a third attachment, the bracket itself was just not long enough. So, the search was on for an extended one of these. I have now been searching for this for at least several months. In the end, I ended up buying this bracket, almost in frustration, because I couldn’t work out how it would work;

The bar fixes to the tripod via the centre bracket, which means that it would not be flat, it would be at right angles to the way I’d normally have it, which means that I would have to buy right angle brackets for everything. So, I was starting to look at that kind of thing.

Now, yesterday, I was looking at my iPad, just browsing not looking for anything in particular, when this popped up;

As you can see, not only does it have three mounting points – it has four! You would not believe the effort I have put in to finding something like this, resorting to a compromise which I knew I would have problems with, only for this to appear when I wasn’t even looking for it. Well, of course I knew I had to buy it, so I ordered it and it turned up today, and it’s perfect. All I have to do now, is use it.

A late update, I forgot to show you the desired end-state.

Tonight, I am supposed to be writing about writing. All this week at around 7pm I am thinking about what to write for the evening, and not once in the past six days have I thought about writers block. The words have mostly flowed quite easily. Now, it’s not that I have writers block tonight, I just can’t make up my mind what to write. Last Friday was a special day, the half way point of this 366 project. I confess that I was very pleased with myself to have got that far, and am continuing.

The walks themselves are pretty much routine. This can make. Them difficult to write about. Have a daily focus, whether is the weather, photography or as in the case of today writing, I find that it does help me to focus on a topic. I have the list written in the front of my diary to remind me. I know that tomorrow’s topic is the Vlog – well, I’ll write about that tomorrow.

What I am finding is that in making the decision to move from my straight journal books to the day per page diary has been both a blessing and, well curse is too strong a word, I am not putting pen to paper as much as I have done in the past. I’m not sure that I have fully integrated the diary aspect in to my writing practices.

It looks like a blue sky, but it isn’t it’s just high clouds. But it is nice to see the sky brightening towards the east, and that was around 0640 this morning. The dawn is on the way.

The weather last week was cold. I went out on the Monday, with just a hat on my head. My ears suffered seriously. I had to dig out my Balaclava, which I’d bought a couple of years ago when I was cycling to work (rather than just walking upstairs as I have done for the last year). Wearing the balaclava made a big difference, very comfortable and not at all bad for a Fiver from Wish.

I haven’t needed the head covering aspect of the Balaclava this week, but I’ve kept wearing it around my neck to keep the wind out. Especially as on a couple of days this week I’ve gone “Full Rain Coat” as opposed to my normal nicely padded coat, which is barely shower proof. It’s nice to have a bit more padding with the main rain coat, especially around the throat. It has certainly made the morning walks more pleasant.

I’ve missed one walk this week, Wednesday morning, but that was down to my having a rough night rather than the weather. That also means I’ve lost the miles for the Walk1000. On balance though I am probably still on target, and obviously have loads of time to get ahead.

The weather these last couple of weeks has been interestingly variable. Let’s see how the next week goes.

Just under a week ago, I had this moment of madness where I decided to commit to a photography project every week. I had a boo that has been laying around for several years that I hadn’t looked at. I thought it would contain some projects that I could follow – it didn’t, it was effectively a bulky sales brochure – about a phone that was prominent several years ago.

OK I thought, that won’t work, so I bought another book off Amazon, that was about the latest iPhone, the 12. That turned up earlier this week. Well it was about the iPhone 12, but mostly a technical thing on how it works. Now, for some of the features that I haven’t yet discovered, that might be useful so I will look at.

All of that leaves me; unsatisfied? Not fulfilled? Not delivering? I don’t know which word – I’m not doing what I wanted. Now, we do have a book, it’s a Dorling Kindersley I think; Tom Ang’s digital photography master class. Now, I have been deliberately avoiding this book. But I think I am going to have to look at it. I’ll let you know how I get on.

I didn’t go for a walk today. It’s not often I say I couldn’t be bothered. But I had a rough night, and rising slightly later really put off my sorts. Of course there are knock-ones from no going out, that’s three miles I haven’t walked and pictures I haven’t taken.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to resume normal tomorrow. The weather though, I haven’t seen a forecast.

This a is the old Cowes Chain Ferry. It was replaced with a bigger new one a couple of years ago (how long really – I need to check)? I think it is probably safer to say that the new ferry has not been problem free. Every so often I get asked to confirm that the old ferry is still here at the waterfront. I think there is a degree of nostalgia there.

Sometimes I compare this waterfront to others that I have seen. Perhaps most notably, that of Key West off the southern tip of Florida. I wonder of there is a web cam there, I must have a look. Apart from the truly spectacular sunsets there was lots going on, performers showing their skills. And they were skilled. On a lovely warm evening it was magic to slowly stroll along and admire their abilities and look the wares of the street vendors laughing at their funny T-Shirts. We had a truly lovely couple of days there.

It always surprises me that there were no performers on the Gosport waterfront. I think possibly the promenade is possibly a little too narrow to allow performers, and for people to get past easily. If they are going to reconfigure the promenade, they could make it a bit wider.

Having said that there is a serenity about the promenade. It’s very pleasant to go and sit there and watch the ships and the people and sometimes we might get some chips from the chippy and sit there. It’s surprising how many people ask where you get the chips from. Unfortunately the chippy had a bit of a problem – the fryer caught fire. Doubly unfortunate, is that it’s one of our favourite chippies. Oh well. At least they are trying to get back in to business. The decorators are in, and it looks like the new fryer has arrived.