Bills Posts

There is a very obscure relationship between the picture of Knowlton Church and the subject of todays post.

Recently, I wrote about being very excited at the prospect of starting to read Hubble Vision (2nd Ed, 1998). I was on page 51 and was reading about Hubble’s vision of Saturn, when I came to a sudden stop. That is because I read about the Cassini mission in the book. The book was published in 1998. Cassini, at the time of the book was in transit and due to arrive at Saturn in 2004. Seven years after the book was published.

Here I am, in 2020 reading the book which is not only omitting the thirteen years of service that Cassini gave (10 years more than the three planned), but three years after the probe met its fiery demise in the atmosphere of the planet it had been exploring.

Now, I don’t mind reading old books. Indeed, most of the books I read are old. I think this is the first time I have encountered a situation where a book is so blatantly obsolete that I’m no longer prepared to read it. Sad, because I had been looking forward to reading it. I do though have a replacement planned. I’ve ditched Hubble Visions, and am now reading what was to be my next book; the history of art. I can’t help wondering how much our knowledge of ancient Egyptian and Greek art has been augmented in the last twenty five years. I suspect not enough to put me off reading this one.

I have another more recent book about Hubble lined up for Christmas. I may look for a book that covers the more recent research about the solar system in general.

The link between the church and the book? They are both old. Bit like me really.

The photo has no relationship to the date or the title.

Towards the end of February we were due to go to the Chinese Visa Bureau to get our visas for the holiday we had booked. We had to make a decision as t0 whether or not to bother. We didn’t and It was a few days later when China was put off limits. We didn’t go on holiday. If you are following me on Facebook, you’ll know that was when the virtual holiday started. Where I virtually ran the holiday that we due to have taken. When we reached the point some 3 weeks later when we were due to return home, I turned the virtual holiday in to a fantasy holiday. We are still on that Fantasy holiday, and by the looks of it will be for several more weeks. At the moment, I am in the Smithsonian in Washington.

The thing is, I’m quite enjoying it. So I’m already planning the next fantasy holiday. But, I’m not going to say anything about it until that one finishes.

In the foreground, is the Medusa, the last of the 464 Harbour Defence Motor Launches that were built.

Behind the Medusa is the Mary Mouse 2. MM2 was once a Trinity House lightship,. I suspect it may have been Covid that did for it. MM2 is now a restaurant, and we have eaten on her a couple of times. Each was lovely, excellent food. I wish the staff well during Covid-19

They are very near the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall, which is part of my morning walk Monday – Friday. I thought a combination of the colours, lights and lighting made for an interesting picture.

This is the closest I’ve come to not doing a post. I was busy with the IoW Thursday night net, which went on a bit longer than usual. Ending up going straight to bed after, and the realising I hadn’t posted. I must do better.

I was sat here, in my chair, with the TV on, and I was thinking what do I write about tonight, and nothing came to me, so I had writers block. But then I thought, I know, I can write about writers block. So at the risk of writing absolute rubbish (and who’s to say that isn’t the case anyway) here I am.

It’s a kind of frozen condition, absolutely nothing comes to the mind as a possible topic, then you run through a list of thing – or actually no, I don’t there is nothing there, so now I am just producing words to take up space. See absolute rubbish. We are waiting for an Asda delivery. I accidentally cancelled last week’s and so I ended up having to go to Morrisons for weekly shop. Oh well. I’d rather have the delivery.

This morning’s walk was quite pleasant. it had rained a little bit during the night. There was a fair bit of cloud around, but it was quite mild, I had a fleece on and it was just right. A good #Breakfastclub chat on the radio. I have the South East Hampshire Radio net tonight on 144.625Mhz. Let’s see how that goes. So then, how much of a writers block was that?

Stepping out the front door, ready for the morning walk, I look up to see what the sky has to show me. This morning, for the first time in several months I could see Orion. Also in the sky were Venus and Mars, with its distinct red colouring. Very nice to see Orion though, this will now be with me for several months as we go through Autumn, Winter and some of spring until the sky once again becomes too bright to see this wonderful constellation.

I put a proper coat on this morning. I probably didn’t need to but it was certainly a bit cooler, not only is this going to develop deeper, but the weather is changing for the season, with the strong likelihood of rain. One excuse that I have used in the past for not walking in the rain is that as I would be cycling to work, I didn’t want to get wet twice. That is not the case at the moment. With Boris’ pronouncement of working from home is back in vogue, I shall carry on as normal.

Hopefully though, I will be able to keep on with my walks.

After a whole week away from my morning walk, it was very nice to get out again. Nothing spectacular, with only the ferries, the pilot boats, and one or two yatchs moving. It was slightly on the chilly side, but that was ok, not many people about as well. It was nice to get out.

If they were able to hold the NFM, you’d think they would be able to do the Rufus Ride. I enjoy doing that one. Well. If the truth were known, I enjoy doing them all. I don’t think it will happen though, as things are getting dodgy again.

What an interesting weekend. The New Forest Marathon was OK. It was good to be out with my radio kit, helping on an activity, and I felt perfectly safe doing it. When it’s time for me to get my radio vehicle it ought to be a 4×4?

OK, so whilst driving towards Wimborne St Giles yesterday, I saw this derelict church, and I really wanted to visit it. Luckily, today I had time to do so, both in the morning and on the way back after the event. Knowlton Church, the sign at the entrance says the church is 14th century, but some articles say it’s 12th century. Apparently, it’s a very haunted site. It was atmospheric to visit. I’m not sure what atmosphere it was, but I thought about what people could have built the earthworks and the now destroyed stone circle, and the people who built the church and worshipped there. A really fascinating place to visit.

The New Forest Marathon normally takes place…in the New Forest. Not this year though. The body that governs the New Forest (not sure who that is) wouldn’t allow it to happen, partly because of Covid, partly because of the impact of relaxations of the restrictions that had been imposed decided that the NFM couldn’t be run under their licence this year.

Rather than cancel, the NFM governing body decided to try and find another location, and a landowner near Wimborne St Giles kindly agreed to allow it to happen, but obviously very strict adherence to Covid safety measures was a primary requirement. Which was done. I was at a point on the course, which because of the lay out was Mile-8 and also Mile-21. If you use what 3 words, I was at; zones.manicured.absorbs

Of course, sat in one place for upwards of seven hours makes the brain do things. The first thing I noticed were the dust devils; there were several of them OK, were they really dust devils because they were very small? But it was fun watching them form and scoot across the field, I watched one come down the road towards me, I’d swear it swerved off down a sidetrack about 20 yards from me. I wanted to photograph one, and of course no more appeared. Then it was the sand storm, you could see them building up on the track I was on, the wind was blowing straight in to my face. I would watch the dust pick up in a breeze, build up and then hit me in the face. It got to the point where I would watch it form, and start moving then I’d turn around so that it wouldn’t get me in the face and watch it blow past. I want to photograph that, and of course no more formed.

I might get another chance tomorrow, as I am back there again.

I haven’t taken a photograph today, and I had several opportunities. To be honest, I didn’t think about it until about 6 o’clock tonight, when we were down at Stokes Bay, for some reason I can’t explain I just didn’t get out of the car to take a picture.

I’ve spent a lot of today messing around with computers, and talking about fences (boundary markers, rather than any other kind). So not much to write about today. More tomorrow.