Bills Posts

Firstly, let me say, I have only just noticed my error, and I’ve been doing this for almost a third of a year (indeed, only 14 days short of 122 days), because it’s a leap year. It’s not out of 365, but 366. I will have to remember to keep that going.

I was going to go out for a walk today, but even without doing so, I have managed to clock up over 11,000 steps.

I have one of the Neos cameras set up looking at the table, but I had to turn off the movement notification because the camera was getting the leaves blowing in any breeze, so it was a waste of time. I bought a really cheap tablet (£74) to view it on a regular basis, whilst every thing was fine for the first few weeks, it refuses to connect now, so it’s my phone that I am dependent upon.

When I catch them (on the screen) I love watching them, they eat with a frenzy and are gone as quickly as they come. Quite often as I go out to load the table, I see starlings sitting on the roofs of adjacent buildings. Not long after I go back, and provided that cats are not out, they descend. The pleasure is though, tinged with sadness that I can’t feed all birds, all wild animals. It is through nature that they live and suffer and that is it. I hate the thought of them suffering.

I went out for a walk this afternoon, not far only a couple of miles, but I had a reason for going out. I’ve bought a GoPro Hero9 video camera. One of the main reasons I bought this particular model were the. Claims about stabilisation (bear with me).

I knew GoPro’s had a good reputation for picture quality, but after shooting about 10 minutes of video it is hard for me to quantify how absolutely blown away I am by both of these in the Hero9. I had the camera mounted on my monopod which extends to over 5 feet, I wanted to pretend being a low level drone by hoisting the camera in to thee air, but I left the monopod extended when I brought it back down. There are two times where you can hear the reverting “Boing” where I kick the monopod as. I am walking, these don’t even show up as slight judders. Incredible!!

I have plans for the GoPro. More on those later.

I walked down to the water front and along the promenade and was rewarded with the sight of the small cargo ship, the Split Two leaving the harbour. A very noisy boat she was as well. I carried on towards the Trinity church, where I said hello to the couple of squirrels that live there. One of them was up on his back legs, watching me to see if i was going to pinch is food. I’m not in to soggy, oak leaf covered acorns, so his supply was safe. This is where I give you another photograph;

The phone box has a definite list to it. I’m surprised that i haven’t noticed this before. I can’t help wondering the people from the pub opposite feel if they use after having drunk a bit too much. The weather was perfect for a walk.

The monthly magazine, Black & White Photography turned up on Tuesday. As usual, I put aside The Story of Art to read it, and I’ll do the same when my other favourite magazine, Country Walking arrives sometime in the next few days.

Usually when I read the magazine at least one of the articles sparks an interest, or a desire to write about it. Issue No. 247 is no different. Page 34 features an article entitled On Sydney Street. Sydney Street is one of the Brighton Laines. If you’ve never been, they are well worth a visit (when it’s safe to do so, of course). There’s a barbers on Sydney street run by Michael Hutson. Michael was (is?) a professional photographer.

https://www.mahutson.com/portfolio

Michael’s photographs are taken through the barbershop window, frequently with his iphone.

What is it that makes Michael an artist? Is it the fact that he’s taking his pictures through the window of the shop where he works? Is it that someone says “You’re an artist”? Undeniable, some of his pictures ask questions; who are they? why are they there? In some cases, why are they dressed like that (storm troopers)?

They are good pictures, what makes them good? What makes a snapshot art?

A fascinating article, a good magazine, lovely pictures.

Are you an Android or an iPhone user? I’ve been addicted to apple since I bought my first Mac Mini in 2005. I know some people complain about being locked in, but that really doesn’t bother me. Then Apple released the iphone, and I knew I wanted one, so we have been devotees since the first release in 2007. But then, about 2 years ago, I thought I better try android, so I bought a P20 Pro. I stuck with it as my main phone for a year. I really couldn’t get to grips with android (don’t think I’m a technophobe – I am most definitely not), but I just didn’t like it. So probably just over a year ago, I went back to Apple with an iPhone XR. Brilliant phone, and I love IOS. But, and here is the big but, that has meant that I haven’t got rid of the P20, is the camera. I just think that the P20’s camera is so much better than the XR. It just renders colours so much better. The picture above is taken on the XR. In fairness, I have just tried to find a picture taken with the P20 under similar circumstances i.e. grey sky. but I’m getting mixed up, soI’ll have another go later.

I think I mentioned yesterday that B&W magazine arrived Tuesday. I’m over two thirds of the way through, and I do have an article lined up, but not quite ready yet. That means that the Country Walking mag won’t be very far behind. Those few days a month when book reading takes a bit of a back burner.

Should any of our American friends read this, I hope you had a wonderful Thanks Giving.

The triangle of lights going off to the right hand side is the ramp that leads to the Gosport Ferry Terminal. Looking at the picture, the ramp is pretty much level. This tells you that the tide is in. It wasn’t quite at it’s height at the time I took picture (0633), high tide would have been about 0800 ish. I know this because I have an app that tells me.

Now, that sparks a thought in me. My iPad and iPhone are loaded with apps, many of them I have downloaded and probably used only once and am not likely to use again. So, I might just keep a track of which apps I use and delete the ones that I don’t. The trouble is I look at an app and think to myself “Oooh, that looks useful” and I can’t quite bring myself to remove them. I’ll just have to be more rigorous.

Back then to the Promenade. It’s not too long, probably a third to a half of a mile in total. Regardless of the weather, it’s always really nice to walk along. When the weather is nice it’s lovely to just stroll along, watch the boats, and the people, most of the time people will exchange pleasantries and have a brief chat.

When the weather is rough, the wind is blowing, the rain is lashing, there won’t be many people around, just those who are really dedicated. Now, it’s not something I do very often. But when I do, I enjoy it. Just not at 6 in the morning!

I thought I would do a series on the Gosport Plaques. I thought that I would do a piece on each plaque, but I realised with Henry Cort, I would just be regurgitating what I’d read on the Wikipedia page. Not quite plagiarism, but not far from it.

I will be able to talk a bit more about some of the blue plaques because there are quite a few in the town. Some are a couple of miles away from Henry Court’s. But I am aware of at least four, possibly 5 within only a few hundred yards of this one.

I don’t intend to write about a plaque a day – you (my real and imagined readers) would get bored with that. But I don’t think one a week for the next few weeks is unreasonable.

Anyhow, here’s a link to the Wikipedia page for Henry Cort;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cort

There you can read about the “puddling” process that he developed for increasing the refinement of wrought iron.

The plaque is on a wall in a car park near the ferry end of town. I’m not sure exactly where his foundry was, I assume that it wasn’t far away. If you wanted to visit the plaque, use What 3 words reference study.trim.bound to get you very close to it.

If you haven’t heard of what 3 words, it’s a seriously brilliant mapping system. If you haven’t heard of it before, here’s another link;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words

This evening’s post is only called Monday Morning because I can’t think of a more original title. I nearly didn’t get out this morning. Having had a good nights sleep, I was a bit late waking up. But, I was determined to go.

It was warmer than Friday, but not much. No frost though. I don’t mind the frost, there’s something crisp and refreshing about it.2. It’s nice when you leave the house, your breath mists up straight away, you can feel the chill on your cheeks and your nose. But you have a hat and gloves, so your head and hands are nice and warm.

Of course, it’s even nicer when you get home, and go inside and the house is nice and warm and snug. This is the time of year when it’s like that.

Here we are then, starting the 2nd hundred. Let’s see how we do. Although it was a grey day, and there had been a brief shower before we got up. It stayed dry, so we thought we would go for a short bike ride.

On Friday, we had done our usual, fish (or in my case Sauasage) & chips from the chippy. We drove down to the Stokes Bay waterfront, and parked up near the GAFIRS (Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service) Lifeboat Station.

As we approached the car park, we could see some unusual lights in the Solent. Checking my Marine Traffic application I could see that there was a ship at anchor about where the lights were. The app told me what I wanted to know. It is the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Tidespring, and I’m not disclosing anything sensitive as MT says it’s on Military Operations. Definitely not covert, as it was broadcasting an AIS (Automatic Identification System) Beacon and was light up not unlike a Christmas tree.

We were curious to see what she looked like in daylight, so today we thought we would take a bike ride down to Stokes Bay, and there she was for all to see. It was a very pleasant ride out,

To me, It seems barely credible that I have now been doing this for 100 days. Back at No. 90 I expressed some doubt as to whether I should celebrate there, or here. Let’s do neither, but just put a marker in time. The next one will at 122. I can do that, as it is a leap year, Let’s just say that I’m really chuffed to be here.

We went for a walk this morning, down to the waterfront. We took a slightly indirect route down Mumby Road, rather than the town centre, which we wanted to avoid. On the way down, we paused to take a look at the tunnel through the remains of the ramparts. Queen Victoria used to travel along that little bit of rail track, heading towards Clarence Yard, for the boat over to the Isle of Wight, ending up at Osborne House. I knew the track was there, but had been sceptical about the tunnel. As we walked along the road though, I realised that it wasn’’t just undergrowth that obscured the view through the fence, there was a very steep bank, which could only have been part of the ramparts were built in the 17th & 18th century.

We headed on down to the waterfront, taking a stroll out to the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall. When we got there we were rewarded with seeing one of the Bunkering ships, the Whitonia. She was heading out with the plimsoll line well up, so she had been busily refuelling the likes of the ferries. Presumably heading back up to Southampton to re-load.

Afterwards, we went back to the promenade, where we found a sheltered seat, as it was just a little bit breezy. We sat and ate our sandwiches and fruit, and just watched people for a bit. Most people seemed quite cheerful and said hello as they went past.

It was very nice to get out for a bit.

I nearly didn’t go for a walk this morning. I woke up at around 10 to 6. If I had lingered I would have felt it too late to go. That would have been a pity. I’ve only managed to get out three times this week. I do have problems getting up sometimes. But I always enjoy them when I do, even if it rains during the time out.

What I am not seeing much of, whilst out, is shipping. I’m catching many fewer Brittany ferries than was normally the case. Occasional sights of the bunkering ships the Janey W and Whitchampion still come in to the harbour, but I don’t see them very often at all now.

These two ships though, the Mary Mouse 2, which is always there there. It used to be an active lightship (which probably stating the obvious, given the giant light on top) and whilst I don’t know how it is doing now, it is a very nice restaurant, serving some very food.

Now, the other ship, the EGS Pioneer is also a bit interesting it’s a survey vessel. It has some quite sophisticated equipment on board. I don’t know what it has been surveying. I’m sure it’s being useful also.