Bills Posts

122/366 A Wow! Milestone and Feng Shui of Mugs.

122 days ago, I embarked upon a bit of a mission. I’m quite shocked at how quickly the time has gone, and to be honest how much I have enjoyed this. Just occasionally A little bit of a struggle to write something, but I have achieved it. There is always a fear that I would give up or miss a day for whatever reason. I’m not saying that still won’t happen, but I see no reason to stop.

When we (what do I mean we, when my wife) buy mugs, we tend to buy multiples, that is a minimum of two. Have sets of two mugs of different patterns. The problem comes when one of the pairs gets broken. That happened a few days ago.

So, we have an odd mug. Actually we have several odd mugs and cups but the were generally not bought as pairs so they are not odd, and therefore don’t disturb my mug feng shui. We have a mug tree which disturbs me; it only takes nine mugs, and so unless there is a random mug laying around, I have to break a mug pair and not stack them on the work top. I stand there contemplating this. My wife Stands there contemplating whether I am bonkers. We look at other, we grin. I re-arrange the mugs. I am not obsessive about it honestly.

121/366 Saturday Walk

You get two for the price of one today. Come 3PM, we’d had breakfast, cleaned the house, put up some more Christmas lights, had lunch and some other bits and pieces and apart from the walk to top up the bird table I hadn’t left the house. I wanted to go for a walk. I popped out for an hour or so.

Not really knowing where I wanted to go – actually, that’s almost not true. I thought about getting on my bike and cycling to St Mary’s church with the GoPro mounted on the handlebars recording, or I could cycle up to Rowner church and have a look at that, or the Mott & Bailey (site) in Alver Valley, but then I looked at the palm tree which was waving about quite a bit so I decided that I’d rather go for a walk than a bike ride, I decided on old faithful, a walk to the waterfront.

That didn’t disappoint, whilst a little bit breezy, it wasn’t too cold stopped off near Walpole Park to watch a gaggle of geese feeding next to the cockleponds. There was quite a large gathering of pigeons there as well, and a chap quite close to them trying to get some pictures. I didn’t want to disturb the birds, so I avoided going near them. Only for a couple to just blithely walk past them. As it happens the pigeons just moved out of their way, and then resumed their position. OK, I thought I can do that. Then as I was walking past them filming with the GoPro, a lady with a very large dog (on a leash so not their fault) spooked the geese, they took off and flew within a few feet of me settling on the pond. I’m wondering if I have got that recorded. I’ll have to take a look.

I arrived at the water front via Trinity Church, walked out to the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall, then back along the promenade. I was about to walk away from the waterfront when I realised the Bunkering ship Whitonia was coming down the channel on her way out. So I had to stop and get a couple of pictures of her.

Then as I was about to leave the water front for a second time, I realised that the Commodore Clipper was following the Whitonia out. So obviously, I just had to wait for her to go past. Which gives you your second picture;

120/366 The Bird Table

A problem is that there is little point having the motion sensor active because it picks up the movement of the leaves. It can’t distinguish between that and a squadron of starlings. Neos will let you define more precise zones for the camera, but like everything have to pay for it. I need to get better at watching the camera between 0930 and 1030 which seems to be the main session.

Having said that, Yesterday afternoon was a pleasure. There was a squadron of starlings and three or four pigeons and two squirrels all around the bottom of the garden. There was plenty of food about, and I hope they all had their fill. One of the squirrels came right down the fence line, very close to the house. Once again, I didn’t have my phone with me and I didn’t want to move in case we frightened it.

It has made us think about getting a second bird table, to put on the patio. I’ve tried bird feeders, as I really would like to get the small birds, sparrows especially and the Robbin who is a regular to the fence and blackbirds who we see, but they don’t stay. I feel that it is a real honour that they visit us. I will try and get some pictures.

119/366 Windows & Trains

This window is part of the way along the Gosport High Street. When I go out tomorrow, I’ll have to make a note as to which building it is a part of. That’s only partially important. For me, it’s thinking about who has sat in that window since the building was built. The window looks really old and a bit worn. I can imagine people from a while ago sitting there, watching people go past, what was street life like a hundred years ago (it looks that old and older), horse & carts, perhaps early cars? Ladies in their finery, men drunk falling about and fighting. Waiting to be press ganged?

Why Trains? It suddenly hit me today when I opened the latest edition of the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society’s monthly magazine, The Railway Observer, that I hadn’t written anything about my interest in railIways. I’ve always loved trains. I don’t know what it is about them. I love watching them, I always loved watching the mechanics of the semaphore signalling system. And yes, I definitively aspire to having a model railway layout – with digital control of course.

Being a member of the RCTS gives me access to an unparalleled (for amateurs) level of information. That’ll do me for the time being.

118/366 Is there a good photo here?

I know this is not a good photo, so please don’t compliment me if you were even inclined to. But, I am convinced that somewhere around here, there is a good photo waiting to be found.

The building is White Lion Walk It’s quite long, I had to resort to Google Maps to measure it at about 393 feet, or 131 yards, or 120 metres. The only other fact I can establish is that was either built 34 years ago or, as seems more likely in the 1960’s. Things seem a bit uncertain, and I’m having no luck tracking down information on the Internet (admittedly, I’ve only tried for about 10 minutes). Lots of information about flats for sale, but that’s it.

I’m aware that I have put only minimal effort so far into finding that good picture. I may never even succeed. It’s likely to become a bit of a project that I will go back to over the coming months. At the very least, it’s another topic for the occasional post here. I need to try some different angles I think. Also, it’s the time day These are taken at around 0650-7AM ish, when the sky is only just beginning to brighten. So, different angles and different times of day. Some exploration I think.

117/366 Beamister Lane

OK, so apart from the Vision Express shop, and the electric lighting (could it be gas?) I wonder how close this street is to the way it looked in the 1800’s? I have mentioned Beamister Lane in previous posts. As a man, in the 1800’s walking down this lane was to put your way of life in danger. You were as likely to receive a bump on the head, and wake up on board ship, somewhere in the English Channel. Obviously, life on board ship wouldn’t be very nice. Apparently, you could get out of by having a “Not eligible for press ganging” letter. I don’t know if that’s true. Perhaps a bit of research might sort that out.

What I would quite like to have a go at is getting some people together, 5 or 6, a couple dressed in normal 18th century clothing, the rest in naval uniforms of the time. Then I’d like to film a couple of scenes one where a chap gets bopped over the head. The other has an exemption letter. How is that done?

Why wouled I want to do that? Two reasons; I’m a member of the Gosport Society. They are involved in all aspects of the town, it’s history and they are involved in the Heritage Action Zones. I think something like this, filmed properly would be a nice to have on the website – one of several ideas I’d like to suggest to the society. The second reason is for my vlog. I’d love to start one of those. Perhaps I might one day, who knows?

116/365 The Story of Art

Is it really almost three weeks since I last did a post about the book? Too long.

In that time we have visited Montmartre, in the book, but several years ago in real life. It isn’t the same now as it was in the 1800s2 (I guess that’s stating the obvious really). But, you can see why the artists liked it. And we have now encountered the the age Impressionists; Monet, Renoir and the like.

I am now on Page 522/645 (not including indexes and the like). I confess, reading the book at this point was a bit of a blinding flash of light, I won’t pretend that I understand The Impressionists, but I know why they are called such. It was fascinating to read about how their ideas & art were mocked. Gombrich wrote “All the old bogeys of ‘dignified subject-matter’, of ‘balanced compositions’, of ‘correct drawing’, were laid to rest”. But, not before the art critics let rip calling their first exhibition “a disaster”,”alleged paintings”, “something terrible”. The trouble is that whilst it took a bit of time to learn how to appreciate them, the public absolutely loved them. Of course, this seems to have permanently damaged the reputation of art critics. It was one of those pivotal moments, where art is freed from the strictures of tradition.

Some years ago, we embarked on a bit of a touring holiday, taking in some dear friends, followed by a tour of the Loire, we visited the home of Da Vinci, and before returning home, we visited Monet’s garden near Paris. What a lovely place. I can entirely understand why he liked it.

This is perhaps one of the parts of the book that is resonating with me more than I expected, I won’t wait so long before My next post on this topic.

115/366 The weekend

For several days my wife has been watching the long distance weather forecast with an intensity that isn’t usual – unless there is an outdoor Women’s Institute event scheduled, which there was, a driveway sale.

We had everything in place, during the week members of her branch have been bringing contributions. Every evening would watch at least two forecasts, with increasing intensity as the weekend approach.

By Friday, it was becoming evident that acknowledging a more than 50% chance of rain, it looked like there may be a window of opportunity. Saturday morning 0900 was the go / no-go point. The decision was; it’s a Go.

Everything was set up, volunteers turned up, and exercising the usual social distancing & PPE things were ready to go.

Luckily, the rain held off. It was a little bit busy, so it was lucky that nothing fell out of the sky. We did have parasols but we couldn’t have used them as it was a bit breezy. They would have taken off like rockets.

The ladies stuck at it for three hours, before deciding that it was getting too cold, with the usual efficiency everything was packed away just in time for the heavens to open. Short intense showers followed.

I decided to go for a walk during an interval between showers. It was a good job I wore my proper rain coat as that interval wasn’t very long. I got quite wet. I didn’t take the picture at the top though. I took that one this afternoon. Frustratingly yesterday I lost something, it only cost a couple of quid but I was frustrated and surprised at its loss. So I revisited part of yesterdays walk. I didn’t really expect to find it, and I didn’t. But I did take the picture and for some reason, I really like it.

114/366 The Starlings

Oh dear, what a dilemma. I am in the lucky position of having three blog posts lined up. It’s not that any one of them is time critical, it’s the excitement in the anticipation of writing them. I suppose the first thing I should say that although the post title is Starlings, the photo is absolutely nothing to do with the story. Which is, for the most part about starlings.

There are several areas around where large flocks off starlings roost, one of the main ones is underneath Portsmouth Railway station which a pier reaching out over the water. If you are travelling on the ferry, you can hear them fussing around.

Another favourite spot to see them, especially if you want to see murmurations, is the old gasometer behind Asda’s. I have no idea how many gather there, but it’s a lot.

It looks like, to me, the larger flocks break up in to smaller scavenger groups. It’s one of those groups which visits the garden. I always enjoy watching them and I’m glad that even if only in a small way, I’m helping them to live.

This morning I went out to load up the bird table, it was the last in the batch of mixed food (birdseed, mealworms, suet pellets & peanuts) I had prepared earlier in the week so just piled on what was left. I tend to only do it once a day, sometimes twice. That’s why (I’m willing to bet) the main group only visit once per day.

Anyhow, I had to return to the shed at about 0930 to get something. As I was in the shed I heard the characteristic shouting and arguing that typifies a squad of hungry starlings. Frustratingly, I couldn’t see the table from where I was in the shed and I didn’t want to move in case I frightened them away. Every few seconds something would spook them, and they would take off towards next doors roof. Only to return a few seconds later. At best guess, I’d say there was at least 50+ of them. Notwithstanding the lack of view of the bird table, to be this close to them (5 – 6 feet) was absolutely brilliant. Very nice indeed.

113/366 Technological Impatience

So I had this idea about technological impatience. Now, what I’m talking about is films. I sometimes find it difficult to watch some films from the 70’s and 80’s. I can’t help thinking that things like mobile phones and decent computers . I think it’s mostly in crime shows. That seems to be the area where my technological impatience comes to a height.

Now, you see. I have that thought out of my head, and it only lasted one paragraph. So this is going to turn in to one of those articles where pretty quickly I run out of something to write about. So perhaps one of the easiest things to do is have a bit of a look back, even if only a few days, to the beginning of the week. Monday was the day of the mist.

This is St Georges Barracks in the 19th century, around 1856 to house the Marine Garrison. Can you imagine the life to soldiers lived their? The 19th century wasn’t a nice time at all. But, the barracks are still there, and are not just a museum. The barracks are now people’s homes. They’ve all been converted.

I Love the way the building fades away in to the mist, and the lines. I’ve just had a thought – I wonder how it would look in colour? After a brief diversion, I went away and here’s the B&W version;

And I know which one I like, how about you?

This has given me an idea for my next post.