Bills Posts

Yes, my writings. I’ve been doing this blog for quite a bit more than 78 days. But, as you’ll gather it is 78 days since I created that intention to write every day. Monday to Friday, I tend to twice a day. The first time is my FaceBook entry in the morning. This session is my opportunity to be a little freer. I follow a bit of a regime there. Of course it’s self imposed, but I’m happy with it.

Now the thing is about this is the blog I react to something, or try to think of something every day to write about, even if what I end up with is rubbish. Which kind of implies that at least some of what I write isn’t rubbish. Without wishing to create my own Ratner moment, I have no illusions.

The, to me, less successful posts are those that a bit rushed. The thing then, is to reduce the need to rush. There are then, a number of strategies that can be deployed to achieve this goal. Now I have kind of been here before. I’m going wait until I reach no. 90, Well, I’m not really I’m going to start looking at my previous posts . I’m sure there is at least one pattern here.

A couple of days ago the latest version of the magazine turned up. I’m still reading it. But as usual, there is normally an article which sparks my interest, and I’m barely a third of the way in to the magazine.

This article is about prehistoric astronomical observatories. Not observatories as we think of them of course, but natural features which either line up naturally, or have been modified to show an astronomical events; two rocks positioned to show the rising sun on the summer solstice, less sophisticated than Stone Henge and the like, but showing an awareness unexpected for the time.

I don’t think I’m going to be going out hunting for them, but it’s interesting to think that the people from those days were interested in the sky – for very good reasons; understanding when the seasons are changing for farming and the like.

Fascinating stuff.

I had a very pleasant walk this morning. It was a little bit breezy, and it was nice to have a padded jacket, but otherwise, it was good to be out.

The part of Gombrichs book, The Story of Art I’m on now, around pages 3 – 400 are dealing with the arrival, in order of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raffello or Raphael. Whilst each artist produced a plethora of truly historic work, some pieces are worth mentioning individually;

Leonardo’s Mona Lisa – I’ve seen her in the flesh so to speak. It was strange because the picture was smaller than I thought it would be, and her eyes follow you. But Leonardo brought in the technique of painting truly life like portraits – I’m doing a gross injustice both to Leonardo and Gombrich here. The picture and the words are both so much more expressive than my writings.

Michelangelo is of course remembered for his painting of the Sistine chapel. We have been to Rome, the Vatican, We didn’t go into the chapel, the queue was too big, and we had only limited time. But any picture of it really doesn’t do it justice. I must admit, I would like to go back.

Then of course, there is Raphael; I’ve heard of him, but never paid him much attention. One of his best known pictures is the the drawing of the nymph Galatea. On page 320 of the book Gombrich talks about Raphael drawing of the picture between 1512 – 1514. He says that at the showing of the picture, a courtier asked him where he had found a model of such beauty? Now, temporarily this is where I head in a different direction; How does Gombrich know that Raphael was asked that question, and by a courtier no less – that bit isn’t surprising, it’s the detail. Did Raphael keep a diary? I can understand the information available about The Venerable Bede, he was written about and was himself writing – what are the records relating to Raphael? Come to that, who wrote about Michelangelo and Leonardo? Who gave us the information we have about them? Who knew to write to the future?

Fascinating stuff.

I couldn’t tell by looking out the window this morning whether or not it was raining. Stepping out the back door I could feel just a few drops. I have this “rain tolerance” thing. I won’t go for a walk if it is absolutely chucking it down, but if it’s just a few, I’m inclined to risk it.

I got to the end of the street, it started to rain quite hard. I paused, and turned around, taking a few steps it stopped raining. I turned around, it started raining, I paused, it stopped. I thought I’ve got to get around this, so decided to carry on. As it happened it stayed as a gentle drip, and so turned into a very pleasant walk with the reward above.

I went for my usual walk this morning, I even went on my usual route. I was about 10 minutes into my trip when I realised I didn’t have my phone with me. I’ve never forgotten my phone before. Why did I this time? It came down to what is the purpose of the walk; exercise or photography? I could have turned back for it, but as I only permit myself to be out until 7AM, it would have meant that I couldn’t get to the weather front to do my weather report. I must admit, I hummed and haa’d for about a minute before continuing.

When I got to the water front I was just in time to see the Reefer Ship Columbian Star passing the Spinnaker on her way out, accompanied by a tug. Minutes later, the Normandie came in. There was a pilot boat moving about, and of course with the clocks going back Sunday morning, the sky was nicely brightening. No pictures, can you imagine my frustration.

I may have used this picture before. If so, I apologise.

I was awake a 5AM this morning, not unusual as the clocks had gone back. As I lay there in my nice warm bed, I could hear the rain literally hammering on the window, and the wind pounding away. Definitely not a morning to be out without extremely good reason and I really didn’t have a good reason. So, as I tend to do at weekends, I made the most of it.

I really love laying there, in the dark listening to the wind and the rain. I did get up eventually, to make a cup of tea. The rain was like a continuous drumming on the conservatory roof. The cats weren’t too bothered abut going out either. indeed they had breakfast and then did their usual go and find somewhere really comfortable to sleep for the day. I spent most of the day doing a little bit of re-organisation in the office. with a lovely lunch it’s been quite a relaxing day.

A squirrel visits the bird table. It’s normally only occasionally that we see it. This weekend I must have been putting something on the bird table that it really like, as it seems to have literally spent hours stuffing itself. i wonder if it is the berry infused suet pellets?

It doesn’t look rough does it? But it was starting to blow, and the water was falling. We decided to take a breather in Cafe 1m with a hot chocolate and an oatcake, very nice.

As i write this, at about 10PM, it’s blowing quite a bit outside, and still chucking it down. When we were out walking, we had decent raincoats and it really wasn’t too cold, but there again we were only out for an hour.

One of the topics of discussion we had was about the rough sleepers. They seem to be growing in number. There are three or four regulars on Gosport High Street now. I must admit I do feel sorry for them but it oversimplifies things to ask; do they have to be there? Probably their view is they have no choice. The council have set up a number of “pods” for them, are they full? i don’t know. GBC also appear to have in place a number of other actions, vouchers for meals, bus vouchers, sleeping bags, hats & gloves.

I can’t understand why they do this, but it has always been a fear of mine that I could end up like them. No reason to think that I would. but you hear stories where things have gone wrong, and this is where they end up.

I help by buying food – do I need to given the above? Perhaps not, but if they accept the offer, then presumably they need it. I never give cash. These days, with the covid situation it is now very unusual for me to carry any. It makes it that much easier to say no when they ask.

I had a bit of a dilemma, It took the colour versions of these two pictures and then tried them in B&W, and couldn’t make my mind up which one to post, so tonight you get both.

I have a route that I walk to work, it involves Mumby Road, Clarence Road, North Street, North Cross Street and the High Street. These last few walks I’ve started taking a bit of a diversion. I never do that. I never take diversions, I always walk the same route. Well i changed it this morning. I wanted to try and get another atmospheric picture of Trinity Church. This one isn’t too bad. Along with the picture of the high street. Apart from not really wanting to get up this morning, I thoroughly enjoyed the walk. It wasn’t raining, there was a clear sky, and it wasn’t particularly cold.

It wasn’t that I was suffering from writers block, it was partially that I couldn’t make my mind up what to write about. This morning, as I went for my 2nd walk of the week; one having been slept through, the other rained off, I looked up at the stars. Whilst frustrated by the light pollution, I had a lovely view of The great plough, Cassiopeia and Orion and Venus was very bright that I thought I could do a post about Astronomy.

But no, I decided I wasn’t ready to do one on that, so then I thought about the Story of Art, and whilst I have moved on, and am at the beginnings of Gutenberg, it’s only been a couple of days since that post, so I need to wait a bit longer for that – don’t want to bore you with it.

Then I thought about photography; now here there is a. Bit of potential; I mean I have literally thousands of pictures stored in the cloud but there is sameness about them. What frustrates me is when somebody takes a really good picture, this simple or basic in composition or colour I think “I could have taken that”. But I didn’t because I had completely missed it.

There are some other things I could have written about, but won’t as I see no point in stirring controversy. So, here you are for tonight; Much ado about… well, nothing really.

OK, so not the most spectacular picture of autumn colours, and this was admittedly a grab shot taken on my lunchtime walk. I didn’t get out for a morning walk because it was chucking it down.

I thinks its fair to say that my least popular season has always been summer. But even this year it hasn’t been too bad. I only dislike the heat, and much prefer the coolness of the other seasons. They all have their own characteristics. Autumn for are those cold misty mornings, and damp days, I have no problems with those at all and certainly don’t see them as depressingly grey. They are weather, and when you are in your home, and able to just look out and see the rain falling and the wind blowing, it gives me a good feeling – I know not everybody thinks like that.

I was walking through town today, and got asked by one of the rough sleepers if I had any change. I don’t think I’ve carried change for several months now. Even if I did have change, I wouldn’t give it to them. I do though quite often, buy them something, a sandwich & a drink, or more regularly, on a Friday a bag of chips. More useful that money. The regulars it seems know me, and acknowledge me, perhaps that’s because I treat & speak to them like normal people. I know a lot of people don’t do that.