Bills Posts

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.

In one way, it hasn’t been a very successful walking week. I didn’t get out at all on Friday or Saturday, they were very lazy days. On the other hand I have closed up over 20 miles. I know, that’s not many, but it’s enough for the week to keep my Walk 1000 on track.

Weather wise, there hasn’t been anything which would have stopped me from going out. Cold, and a bit windy on occasion but no rain, although one morning had the potential to get a bit misty. All of the walks were very enjoyable – once I’ve got up and got out.

Monday to Friday my walks take place between 0600 – 0700. It is very nice at the weekend to be able to have a choice as to when I go out. Normally, I choose not to go early in the morning – as you might expect. Today’s walk was between 1200-1800. I started out with the intention of doing my normal 3 mile route, but whilst the air was slightly chilled it was so pleasant that I thought I would extend it a bit.

I went down the old railway track, now a very good walkway & cycle track to the Iron Bridge, this is a very photogenic area. I returned to my normal route via a slightly different path, having added around a mile to the walk.

I usually head for the waterfront, you never know I might see a ship coming in, now I could check the QHM timings – I receive the email everyday telling me what are the main ship movements of the day, but today I’ll take my chance. As it happens, apart from the Gosport ferry, and a couple of small private boats, not a dickybird. Oh well, that is the luck of the draw. I did have a socially distanced chat with a couple of people; Ray, whom I say hello to every once in a while. He lives in the last tower block.

Ray told me about the Kingfisher that has taken up residence near the ramparts. We walked down to have a look if we could see it. There we met Tony. Tony’s a bit of a twitcher, and is quite socially conscious. He had been clearing out some glass that some vandals had thrown in to an area of water. The consensus was that we really do not understand why people do that.

It was a very nice walk, and very nice to get back and have a couple of tea.

I thought these two lovely birds were yellow wagtails. It appears not; grey wagtails. Yellows have a yellow head and are more yellow generally. Anyhow, I caught this picture this morning, both birds were bobbing about and every so often running over to the little pile of food that I have started putting down for them.

I absolutely love having these two in the garden. Those and the sparrows, starlings, pigeons, magpies and anything else that appears (potentially goldfinches). It is incredibly nice to have them appear.

Not far from us is a nature reserve, Titchfield Haven. Every so often I get the urge to go and spend some time in the hides. I am not an ornithologist, by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy watching birds. Once again, thoughts of taking out membership are filtering in to my mind. My spotter scope is languishing unused in the cupboard. It’s time it saw light.

I have other occasional obsessions; model railways is one, I will have a layout one day. Not so long ago, I went through a phase of reading about philosophers. I re-read (actually I listened to on audible) Sophies World. That lasted a few weeks, and I still have the notes. I may go back to it, but I’m not sure what the endgame was going to be.

I’ll write about my occasional obsessions as they crop up.

Well, (Is it a cliche when people start sentences with words like Well, So or Now)? Anyhow, Well, wasn’t yesterday’s efforts pretty feeble? I think it must have been a massive case of indigestion. I was very uncomfortable for several hours, but did have a good nights sleep. I didn’t go for a walk this morning, it’s been a lazy day really, apart from being busy at work.

Apart from last night which I put down to an aberration, I feel that this weeks writings haven’t been too bad. I only really had a bit of writers block last night, well, it wasn’t writers block.

I quite like today’s picture (well, I like most of the pictures I put up on these posts. I’m watching Grayson Perry’s art club. We discovered it during one of the earlier lockdowns, and became quite addicted to it. He is such an unusual person, but seeing him in his home environment is very interesting, and of course seeing the artistic efforts of the public is what’s makes the show so interesting. Did I really think that reading the history of art would increase my interest and understanding of art? I’m not sure that it’s worked. I still look at things and go, I don’t understand that. For example, the man who photographs his shadow against the shed wall every morning, but then nearly every morning I walk to the waterfront and photograph that – what is my artistic measure?

Do you watch the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, recorded in the 80’s I think. He produced some wonderful pictures. I quite fancy going around an art gallery. Perhaps we will be able to do that soon,

It was a calm day, quite a light breeze, but what little there was still caused a bit of wind chill. I’m not sure what the forecast is for tomorrow, but if it is dry, I intend to be out for my walk in the morning. I don’t mind it being cold.

It has been a bit nippy most mornings and I have been wrapped up well. I must admit I really feel for the crew of this small fishing boat.

OK, this is a moment of reality for the blog. It looks like I just ate too much of our rather delicious sausage hot pot for tea, and am feeling a little bit full, uncomfortably so. So I am going to have an early night and hopefully be fit for the walk in the morning. Sorry this has been a short post this evening.

I am going to do something I definitely don’t normally do in this blog. Just very briefly I’m going to talk about me. When I was at school, one of my favourite subjects was history. I can’t remember what it was that I enjoyed about the subject, I just remember that enjoyment. Then I went to college. There I met, what I still class as the most boring history teacher in the universe. He pretty much destroyed the topic for me.

well, I don’t think he really destroyed it, completely, lets say damaged. Anyhow, There have been a couple of times over the last 40 years where an interest in history has served me well. Not least spending four and a half years in Berlin, a city truly steeped in history. That the Berlin Wall came down halfway through that period was really the icing on the cake (and a period of my life of which I am always proud to talk).

Now, living in Gosport makes it almost impossible to not appreciate the fact that this town is absolutely stuffed with history. As to the question of why am I writing about history when on a Wednesday I should be writing about photography. Apart from the fact that my self imposed regime allows for occasional posts on random topics, I wanted to follow up on my post from Monday, where I commented upon the book of the week; The Gosport Journals. In particular the inspection of the fleet by Charles I in 1627.

A dear friend of mine who read the piece commented that Charles had prepared the invasion in support of the Huguenots. Now, I have heard of the Huguenots, but did not know who or what they were. Of course they were (are) a Protestant sect, born of the Calvanists if I’m not mistaken. I didn’t really know who they were either.

It was nice and good to have a train of thought triggered by a comment, and to do a little bit of research as well.

The last couple of mornings have seen (for me) some remarkably low tides. The picture above shows the rails and supports for the Old Gosport Ferry. The picture was taken around 0640, the tide still had five minutes to run before turning. The distance between the low tide and the high tide mark, clearly visible is almost 5 metres. I can’t remember the the last time I have seen it so low.

Taken from near the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall again to demonstrate how low the tide was I am not normally able to over see the decks of the Might Mouse light ship. Here I have a clear view in to the ships foredeck.

I think we have all heard of Spring and Neap Tides. I had never realised (I should have done) that these are not seasonal but monthly occurrences. Obviously tied primarily to the moon. The app that I use on my phone to give the tidal state also, logically, gives the phase of the moon. I’m going to have to pay more attention to that.

Again, you get an impression of the tide being low from the level of the lower walkway against the bracing pillars.

The temperature is also a bit up and down. Over the last few days, the temperature has been getting colder in the morning, definitely frosty this morning. I have been really appreciating the balaclava and gloves. The metal of the tripod that I take out with me in the mornings, gets almost too cold to touch, and I have to have a glove of, usually my right hand, to operate my phone. But, I always enjoy the walks.