Bills Posts

8/365 The Morning Ferries

IT looks like they’re going to collide doesn’t it? They aren’t. It’s a very well coordinated dance. The captains of the Gosport Ferries are very skilful. They know exactly where and how to direct their ships. The Harbour Spirit here is just being lined up to continue the crossing as soo as the Mon St Michelle has gone past.

It’s relatively rare for me to see the Brittany Ferries at the moment, not just the fact that the number of crossings has been reduced because of Covid, they seem to have changed their times slightly, and are now earlier than usual. Nice to see.

It was a breezy walk this morning., and a very nice walk.

I feel a bit guilty. I should be going to the radio club tonight. I’ve bottled it. Not quite ready to go.

7/365 Butterflies Again

You might get two photo’s tonight. I had lunch in the garden, There were three or four whites. Of course I was rushing because of work so didn’t do a Big Butterfly Count. When I finished, There were still a couple of whites flitting around time to do a count. My reward was to find two Red Admirals. This one was quite happy for me to get close for long enough to get several pictures.

After I wasn’t able to get out yesterday because of the rain, this mornings walk was very welcome. I almost made it to the waterfront to see the Normandie coming in, the Brittany ferries have been getting earlier. It’s normally easy for me to get there in time but recently I have been getting there too late. Perhaps one day, they will return to normal. At least there was a little bit of a dramatic sky.

Back to

6/365 A Rainy Day

It’s a thing that I don’t go for walk if it’s raining. Of course, I would expect your response to be “Well, wear a rain coat then”. I have a threshold – sometimes there is just water in the air, in which case I do walk, on the hope that it doesn’t get worse.

If I don’t go for a walk, I don’t get photo’s. I would much rather use a photo that I’ve taken today rather than one from my archive. A quick dash then in to the garden.

My eye is drawn to the water droplet to the left of the tomato, clearly there is an image there. I’ve seen it happen, but never noticed it before. I’ve tried expanding the imagine, but it becomes very grainy. It’s clearly there though. Interesting. I’ll have to try to do that again.

5/365 People

When you go for a regular walk, and you follow the same route you see the same people. It only takes a smile, and a “Good Morning” and before you know it, you are friends.

So, on my morning walk there’s Mike (although he’s retired during the lockdown), Ray, Bob & Sue and Drone Boy – don’t know his name. He looks about 20 and is there a couple of times a week flying his drone.

Bob & Sue have only introduced themselves this week, after the rough sleeper episode, they sit outside Gregs having breakfast as I walk past on my return journey.

I would have preferred a bit more light behind the clouds, but I’ll take what I’m given. I do like to see a nice dramatic sky. I like to see the drama in the sky. Hence today’s picture – Angry clouds over Portsmouth.

4/365 A lady in Red

Really, this is all about Street Photography. Wonderful landscapes are of course a joy to behold, but people add the interest to a lot of photographs. Like a lot of things, I can’t explain any of my obsessions, and street photography is certainly among them.

How much have I done? Possibly a dozen pictures, not many at all really. Too scared, nervous about confrontations with subjects, not very good. Why bother? The desire to do I suppose.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a picture of a runner, from behind and had one of those lightbulb moments, don’t face, don’t confront. Do it from behind. Then, I was reading somewhere, that this was a recommended way of starting in the genre. So here we go. Look for the red in the picture, not just the lady. It is there.

3/365 Windows & Phone lines

I was out delivering leaflets, when my I was taken by the line of windows. Along a street not far from me. When I read about photography, there is a focus on lines and shapes. I confess I’m not really very good at seeing them, but I am trying and looking. This line of houses, curving away in to the distance, with phone lines connected to most houses. For how much longer will they be a part of our street life?

There’s a thing about delivering leaflets. In the past I’ve had some real battles with letter boxes, both with the tightness of getting a thin leaflet through, and an eager dog the other side, looking to nab your fingers. I found the perfect solution. A spatula, with a leaflet folded over does the job, straight in and out. With 200 odd leaflets delivered. It only went wrong once. Excellent.

It was a grey outing, but the rain Held off until near the end. But I had a small brolly with me, so that was fine. Over the course of the trip out, I walked 4.8 miles. Happy with that.

Photo 2/365 – A Deceased Bumble Bee

I saw this little thing as I was walking along. It made me feel sad. They are so busy, and I love watching them. A Bumble bee will have a lifetime of anything from 2 – 6 weeks for workers, through to a year for a queen, the workers can be seen daily busily moving from plant to plant, helping to fertilise and gather pollen. They are lovely to watch, peaceful, forever on the go.

Of course I know they don’t live forever, but it is sad nonetheless to acknowledge that it has done its duty. I hope it had a busy productive life. I would like to say thank you for it’s service would that be inappropriate?

A photograph a day 1/365

I have not been doing anywhere near enough on this blog. I needed a mission. I therefore commit to posting a photograph a day for the next year. If I have nothing else to write about, I can write about the photo

There is one thing, the photo doesn’t have to have been taken today, but where possible I will use a photo that i have taken on that day. Take the one above for example. It was taken a couple of days ago. In comparison to a picture taken today, when it was grey and verging on rain this is, in my opinion a much nicer picture. Chances are that before the year is out, you’ll be sick at the sight of the Spinnaker in Portsmouth, and the water between it and Gosport. But the pictures perfectly illustrate the changing days. Before long, the mornings will be darkening and we will go through the blue hour, that time before the sun rises. Where possible I will diversify.

Like today, nothing is burning my pen, no news has got my ire. I like the smoothness of the light in this picture, I find it quite relaxing. As a note, I also like using black and white, so expect to see some of those. Enjoy,.

Butterflies

On YouTube, one of the channels I subscribe to is Ant Boy Xander,

You’ll see on his page for around the 17th of July his 3 1/2 minute skit on the Big Butterfly Count

I thought to myself I can do this, There is a very good app, which enables you to easily identify the most common species very quickly and count them. I downloaded the App and started doing the counts.

Over the week, it has become clear that we have three – four regular species; Large Whites, Small Whites, Comma, Peacock. I’ve now seen these over the last week. Today, I had my reward, that comes when you pay attention to something. I saw two butterflies that I thought were the same species, on our pathway, I thought one of them was dead, and the way the other was flapping around, it was almost like it was mourning. Then the dead one moved, a lot and I realised they were whites, but different species. The way they were going at each other, it certainly looked like they were fighting.

Then, I sat down, and low and behold, one of the two Commas came and sat on me. Staying still for at least a couple of minutes, it obviously wasn’t chance, and assuming it was the same butterfly, because it happened twice, and another time it Seattle’s very close to me. Brilliant. Thank you Ant Boy Xander for introducing me to the Big Butterfly Count.

Procrastination & Time Maangement

Yes, I do this. IT isn’t aa case of putting off until tomorrow what I don’t want to do today. I daydream, waffle and don’t focus. I don’t really have a goal at the moment. I think I need to set one. What could it be?

1. To get my full licence (I’m an intermediate level radio ham)

2. To lose a stone in 7 weeks – I am a bit overweight

3. To walk the Southdowns way (not all in one go)

4. To improve my photography

5. To contribute to my Locality project (that’s a little imprecise). Think about that one.