Bills Posts

I managed to wake up in time to go for a walk this morning. But, looking out the window it was difficult to tell whether or not it was raining. Out the back door, in my dressing gown (ready to go back to bed if it is chucking it down. It wasn’t. I went for a walk. Just watching a forecast – tomorrow doesn’t look good!

As I sat having breakfast and reading the Story of Art, I realised that it was time for another chapter. I also realised that if I wanted to write about the book I wan’t keeping Amy where near enough notes.

I have been reading about the 13th & 14th centuries and how artists like Giotto de Bondone, Brunelleschi, Van Eyck & so on. Pictures like the betrothal of Arnolfini where artists began to realise that they were not tied to creating pictures of the sacred story, and that they could do portraiture. Developing the ability to create perspective was almost literally a revelation, and became an obsession, shown by pictures that included things like Uccello’s fallen warrior.

I’m page 260 now, and am happy to confess to being utterly engrossed. My major disappointment is that at the moment, it is really difficult to visit an art gallery, something I would really like to do.

I didn’t go for a walk this morning. I was late getting to bed last night so I ended up oversleeping. Here’s the thing, It’s a mental block for me, if I can’t get out off the house by 0610, then it’s not worth doing the walk. Perhaps sometimes I use it as an excuse. I don’t deliberately delay my exit, but I cut it a bit fine. This morning was one of those. Perhaps if I say this here, it will shame me into doing something about it.

So, on to the picture, and the real point of todays post; feeding the birds. I need to get out to the bird table a little bit earlier than I do. This morning it was about 0845. As I walked out of the house I looked up and there were half a dozen starlings on the neighbours roof watching me. By the time I had put food on the table and walking away they had moved on to their next feeding station. If only they had waited another minute.

Now, I have to confess that in the past I have not paid a lot of attention to the habits of birds. But of course, they would have them wouldn’t they, indeed they would depend upon them. It makes sense. It also increases my sense of responsibility to ensure that I have the bird table correctly loaded at the right time. I also apparently need to ensure it’s loaded twice, which I haven’t been doing. If only the bloody pigeons weren’t so greedy!

By way of consolation, having loaded the table and returned to the kitchen to load the dishwasher, by the time I had finished we had fed a magpie, three or four starlings, two ringneck, and two normal pigeons. Now, what I would really like to see are the sparrows. For some reason, they just don’t come near us – but they are next door.

I have a bit of a problem with pictures over the weekend which is strange because you’d think that would be the easiest time to take pictures. We have barely been out this weekend, and so I don’t think I’ve been in the position to take a picture that I would say is reasonable. I’m a bit annoyed with my self because it really should be easy to get out. I think from next weekend I’ll have to try and do something about that.

Frustratingly, I was talking this morning, and at one point I said “I feel a blog entry coming on” Do you think I can remember what we were talking about? No, of course we can’t. Oh Well. Do I need to start keeping a note book in the car? Probably!

A picture taken Friday night as we were sat at the waterfront eating fish and chips. I had been waiting for the sun to come through the bottom of the upper clouds. I had thought that would be a bit more spectacular than this, but it isn’t too bad.

This is one of those evenings when it’s getting quite late, 1020, and I hadn’t done this or my 365 project. Dangerous because there is the temptation to not do it. But that is a major point to this exercise, I need to have a really good reason not to do it, and it being a bit late isn’t good en enenough. So whilst it is a little bit waffly, here is tonight’s efforts.

This picture has a lot of the elements that make a Friday evening interesting and enjoyable; A ship – OK, not a big one, and not easy to see, but between the man and the left hand edge of the picture on the waterline is a either a small cargo vessel or a dredger. Not sure – I should have looked it up, but I was eating my chips. People interest always (well, nearly) adds interest to a picture. The Bird is either a rook or a crow – I can never tell the difference. Either way, it is waiting to be fed more chips. We aren’t the only ones to sprinkle any leftovers.

Quite often there won’t be any birds about, but as soon as a chip is down, they don’t take long for to flock. It’s sad that they are so hungry. But it’s very interesting to watch.

Of course there was the promise of a lovely sunset developing. We stayed as long as we felt able, but the next episode of the Ghost Whisperer was beckoning.

The moon in the picture looks a bit like a blob. The moon was showing a very slim crescent. Whilst the image quality is not excellent. It was quite clear that the rest of the Moon’s body was being illuminated by earthshine. I can’t remember thee last time I saw such a clear showing.

It’s the little things like that which add to the pleasure of the morning walk.

Not many people about this morning. I wonder if that was because it was distinctly colder, around 7C – we’ve been there before this year, but I think it is going to become a regular feature – tomorrow promises to be the same if not colder. I am a bit torn there. I do like a nice crisp cold autumn and winter morning. On the other hand, it’s quite nice to be able to get down under the conversation of a nice warm bed.

I shall continue with my walking.

You’ll be getting the drift by now that my morning walks pretty much always end up in the same location. I’m entirely happy with that. Every visit to the waterfront is different in several ways.e

The most obvious is the sky, through the seasons, the sky changes in a multitude of ways. I confess that I do prefer what I call a “dramatic” sky, that’s lots of broken cloud scattering the light of dawn in different ways. A plain blue sky is nice, but not dramatic.

Then there is the shipping. Before the lockdown I used to arrive at the waterfront fairly consistently 10 minutes ahead of the arrival of the Brittany Ferry, that is a relatively rare occurrence now, they are generally going around the northern corner of the harbour as I arrive. Then, just occasionally something like a reefer (a ship bearing refrigerated containers) or even a cruise ship (admittedly, only a couple of times over the last 6 months), the usual Isle of Wight ferries, the pilot boats, Ipshing boats and private vessels add to the variety of activity in the harbour.

Then there are the people. Fairly often, somebody will stop and ask what I am doing. I love having a chat with them and telling them about my radio and why I am doing it. Some I see regularly, others are one offs. Of course, it’s socially distanced.

I enjoy my morning walks. I seek to pass that enjoyment on to you.

There’s a point in my walk, where I can leave the normal pavement and go only 3 or 4 yards to one side, where the spot is sheltered from street lights. There is still ambient light obviously, but as this picture shows, Orion & Sirius are quite clear. This is a 20 second exposure with the sensor set at ISO 50. I like that you can see the sword of Orion as individual objects. I’ll have another go.

It was a very pleasant walk, chilly at 7-8C. But no wind, so no wind chill as such. It was a bit frustrating that I would have to leave the waterfront about 20 minutes before the new Brittany Ferry the Galicia was due to enter the harbour for the first time. I believe it was on a shakedown cruise, no passengers. It would have been nice to be able to see her come in.

When I arrived at the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall there were a couple of anglers there. One of them had caught a 4lb Bass, Interesting to know that fish of that size come in to the harbour.

As usual, it was a very nice walk, and I’m glad I got out for it.

I’m a little bit conflicted. If you follow me on Face Book, since before the lock down, we have been on initially a virtual and then a fantasy holiday. We should have been going just as the lockdown was beginning to become a reality, I like writing and decided that I would write about our virtual holiday, running it pretty much in real time.

Then, as the holiday was due to finish I decided that I was enjoying writing about being on holiday too much to stop, and so I turned into a fantasy holiday. The thing is about a fantasy holiday, is that you can do what you want, so I have all my friends with on the Queen Elizabeth that I’ve chartered and the captain does as I ask. We are in New York at the moment, we’ve been there the best part of two weeks. We had two weeks in Florida, holidays within holidays. It’s an all expenses paid experience. Tomorrow, everybody who wishes will be visiting Bloomingdales for a days shopping. We’ve had lots of days shopping. We’ve shipped crates of clothes home. Who knows what will happen with it all.

Anyhow, Tomorrow night, we set sail from New York. Also tomorrow, I’ll be giving an indication as to when the fantasy holiday will be coming to an end. But, it is a Big But, I am enjoying this fantasy holiday so much that I am planning the next one.

Why am I telling you this? (Especially if you are following me on FB). Because I’m debating whether to run the holiday here on my blog. I might do it on both. Of course, it’ll be a copy and paste. Which do I make the definitive source?

Just a quick addition, post number 60 in this thread. Almost two months. Wow. I’m surprised.

In episode 18, I talked about my book choices, they were;

Hubble Vision

The Story of Art

Britains Pilgrim places

At the time, I was finishing off The Photographers eye, and couldn’t make up my mind which book to read, so decided that I would have all three on the go.

As it happens, I reached a point with Hubble vision, when reading about Saturn that I realised just how out of date the book was. I couldn’t bring my self to continue reading it. I’ve a Hubble related book lined up that I will buy myself for Christmas.

I continued with Britains Pilgrim Places and the Story of art, until today when I made a decision.

Who would have thought that a book about art could be so utterly engrossing? I’m finding it difficult to put down. In The Story of Art, E H Gombrich (16th Ed published 1995, re-printed 1996) weaves a story of human kinds ability to create art from the stone age toward today. I have worked my way through the Egyptian art of the Pharoahs, through how the Greeks discovered how to improve the view of the human form, and how from roman days art is suborned entirely to religion, art extends not only to statues , but to church building, and am at the tenth and eleventh centuries, when cathedrals such as The Notre Dam (how sad I was to see the picture in the book, of a beautiful intact building, to carbonised husk it is at the moment. Chartre, we were there several years ago, but I certainly didn’t appreciate the effort that the architects of the cathedral put in to the design of the building, and how that design is dedicated to the story of god, and ensuring that the gospels are given to the peoples.

So, here I am. I have made the decision that I am putting Britain’s Pilgim Places on hold until I have finished The Story of Art. But, there’s more, because I don’t want to forget what I’ve read in this book, and so I will be writing more about it here.