Bills Posts

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!

I am reading a book that I’ve wanted to read for quite a long time. I’ve hunted for it several times and then a couple of weeks ago whilst browsing Amazon, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by The Venerable Bede in the year 735.

I can no more explain to you why I am interested in Bede and his writings. I have written before about my interest in history how it was taken away, and how I have gained it back.

The book was written in Latin, and so is a translation. It is an easy read so far, and the early chapters are covering events between the Roman occupation and Bede’s era. It is an interesting read, giving us a perspective on geographical knowledge of the time. Bede talks about the positioning of Ireland, where he says that It’s southerly extent reaches down to Spain.

In comparison to today, obviously, life in those times would have been very tough. At the moment, each chapter isn’t very long sometimes less that a page. It is a fascinating read.

I don’t think that I should be rewarded for going out on the walks. But, sometimes things happen, and I think of it as a reward.

I won’t deny that one of the main reasons I went out for a walk today was to visit my Jelly Fish in the Cockle Ponds. I wanted to see how they were doing. There weren’t as many as I thought there would be. I am assuming from the size that they are youngsters. I don’t know what will happen to them, I’m not sure if they have a route out to the sea or whether they are stuck in the pond. A concern is that the pond is drained every so often, I don’t know when that is due to happen next, but what happens to them then – who knows?

Today, They seem to be in fine fettle. Still from the looks of it mainly concentrated in the western end of the pond. They seemed to be quite mobile. I wonder if they are preparing to escape?

You can imagine my excitement then to see one of these flapping about. There were a few of these, from quite small up to probably about two inches long. I had no idea what they were. I thought they were another Jelly Fish. Turns out, they are a Sea Hare or Sea Slug. I had to resort to Facebook to find out what it was. The group to which I posted the query took about 5 minutes to respond, which was pretty good. I suppose this comes of paying a bit more attention to the site. Absolutely fascinating. I shall continue to observe. This is the first of my rewards or today’s walk.

From the cockle ponds I followed my normal route. When I arrived at the waterfront I strolled along the promenade as I normally do. I could hardly miss the collection of what I think are classic scooters, I don’t if they are really are classic, but they are clearly well loved machines. This is my second reward.

Then of course there is the walk itself, which as usual I enjoyed very much. Which is sufficient reward in it’s own right.

This is one of several pictures I’ve taken this week that really appeals to me. The picture was taken at the Cockle Ponds on one of my morning walks. It is a favourite picture because the reflection of the tree is almost perfect, not quite but good enough. The frustrating thing is that I couldn’t either get rid of the building, or position myself to include it in the reflection. This is one of several pictures of this type that I took this particular morning. They all pretty much suffer from the same problem. Here’s another example;

OK, so the reflection isn’t quite as good, but still not bad. To the extent that I like this one as well.

Then there’s this one;

I’m also doing the 365 project, I used this picture. I like the colouring, the position of the boat, the ripples and the sunbeam across the water. One person commented that the scene reminded them of Venice. I have to say that it does for me also. But that isn’t the reason I like it.

Then there is the jelly fish. Purely by chance I decided to walk past the Cockle Ponds. Of course, the jelly fish were there. I then made the mistake of identifying the species. Not only that, but I learned a little bit about the life cycle. So of course, I am now interested. To the extent that I am becoming possessive about them. I even wondered if I could catch one and keep it to observe it’s progress. I decided that was probably going too far, so I’ve decided that I will watch them in situ. The next time I go to the ponds they will probably all be gone, having been flushed out to sea. I’ll be upset of course, because even over only a couple of days, I have enjoyed watching them, and want to continue to do so. It’s not a good picture, but here is a Moon Jelly Fish;

Then, on Wednesday, the sun was amazing. A blood red sun, comming up behind the buildings;

The colouring of the sun behind the building was in my opinion quite striking. I like it.

Thursday’s picture was something a bit different. Sometimes a picture attracts your attention, as this one did, I don’t know if in the greater scheme of things it is a good picture, but I like it;

Then of there was the Thursday Post – the Feng Shui of the cup rack. How could I not include that?

And that takes us on to Friday, Other than the Jelly Fish, which had all decided to crowd together in the south west corner, where presumably, the water was warmest. They are difficult to photograph, so I’m using a different picture. All the mornings have been crisp and cold, the last couple have had a fresh wind as well. Yesterday’s was particularly fresh, but all of the walks were very enjoyable. Here’s the Friday picture. You tell what the wind was like from the flags – blowing from a north easterly direction, it was not warm.

It’s been an interesting week, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this review.

Don’t worry, I am only going to beat myself up about missing a night a little bit. There are two really annoying things about this; the fact I did it and a counter. Until that day the counter has been nicely ticking along. The next day it had reset. Going from 250 to 1.

The episode of writers block was unwelcome, but understandable. The strategy of writing about it helped. That I had a couple of topics lined up for the next two nights also helped. Even if the article on Feng Shui of the cup holder didn’t come out quite as I intended. In my mind, I was laughing. I don’t think the humour translated very well at all.

Almost a week ago I wrote a piece on birds, I really enjoyed writing that. I should also have done more research on the Jelly Fish, and will do so. I’ve started walking past them every morning to see how they are doing. This morning, they were all clumped together on the south western side. Some of them are very small, others are around three to four inches. I’m going to keep an eye on them.

I think the important thing is to keep writing, and I am going to. Even if it is waffle.

We have this cup holder. It’s been causing me problems. Why is that? You might unreasonably ask. Well, our cups tend to come in pairs. There are three hooks at each level. It just doesn’t work. I had thoughts of keeping any pairs off the stand. That doesn’t work, you pretty much always end up with at least one pair.

The problem I have here is That the randomness of the mugs jars my sensibilities. I have to come up with a strategy for resolving this. So I though OK, if I put one random mug on a hook, that leaves eight for four pairs. Then the odd one is very discordant.

Then, last night, I thought I had discovered the solution; Three pairs, two cup to a level, and the third slot on each level is occupied by a random cup;

The trouble is I can’t really show you the 3D view around the rack to show you the pairs. I did try doing a panorama and walking around the rack, but that didn’t work (I think it was probably my approach – I’ll have to try the technique again, but not necessarily on the cup rack. Of course my wife doesn’t understand my obsession with this and thinks I’m bonkers. I don’t really mind that at all. I’m still not satisfied with the Feng Shui of the mug rack. I suspect I never will be.

I think that writing for a blog can be a bit like catching a bus. You stand there for hours and nothing comes along. Then, out of the blue two of them turn up (I know, the traditional saying is three, but two fits my story better). Last night, I tried writing a blog and nothing came along so I ended up writing waffle. Tonight, there are two posts bubbling in my head. One of them is going to have to wait until tomorrow.

Do you find that when you are out and about and want to take a photograph, people will act in a number of ways? There is the couple who will politely wait until you have taken the picture, and for which you thank them for their patience, exchange smiles and then both go on your way. Then there is the second type who as they approach you clearly seeing that you wish to take a picture of something that will rival a David Bailey or Ansel Adams and they could not give a monkeys and pretty much right through you picture just as the magic moment passes and give you that look almost as though to say, it’s our space you are invading. Then there is the type coho area very similar to the second group, but who proceed to confront you of stealing something from them for daring to take a picture with them in it.

I have written in the past about my interest in street photography, which by it’s very nature I expect to involve people. This isn’t really about street photography, this is about having people in your pictures.

I’m not going to talk (much) about the second and third groups, and a bit on the first, those who politely wait for you.

Not long ago (on the order of a couple of months) I read, and it makes perfect sense to me, not to worry if you have people in your pictures, they can add both human interest and scale.

Of course with me being out between 0600-0700 for the most part, this means that there are relatively few, if any, people about to include in my pictures. I find that like street photography, I want to include people in my pictures. But this needs to either be for scale, or for a reason (does it?). I think I am trying to work this out. I have taken a couple of pictures with people in, mostly walking away from me, here’s an example;

It doesn’t mean anything does it? It’s just a person walking away room me down the street. There is no story here. How about this;

Now here are people disembarking From the Gosport ferry, and somebody either waiting for a passenger, or waiting to board. A bit of a story here, for effectively a random group of people. More interesting? Possibly.

As you can imagine, not having a steady supply of people to hand is a bit frustrating. Perhaps I should go out more at the weekend?