Bills Posts

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.

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.