Saturday and Sunday were days of contrasts. I think I’ll have to split this over a couple of posts.

Saturday Morning

The train journey up to london went very well, except I disrupted Elaynes plans for the tube journey from Waterloo to Piccadilly, from where we were going to walk down to the Royal Academy such that we ended up going to Green Park, which I thought was closer any way (bearing in mind I’ve never been to the RA before). Any how, we arrived and met up with Helen and Mark and embarked on an exploration of the works of Antony Gormley. AG is probably most well known for two works; the Angel of the North and the metal figures on Crosby Beach in Liverpool. I’ve also seen those figures elsewhere, like Oxford. They seem to pop up.

Mr. Gormley is obviously a very deep thinker about his position in the universe and I think he tries to express that in his forms. There were two things I especially liked about about the exhibition; absolutely no restrictions about photography, and unless something was obviously delicate no prohibition on touching, indeed, several pieces demanded interaction.

The one with the bands contained 8km of aluminium tubing, which you could either walk around or through, which a lot of people did! Of course there were quite a few off AG’s metal men, in a room at all angles on floor, wall and ceiling. What are you supposed to think at things like this, it reminded me of an Escher drawing, and strangely a sequence in 2001 A Space Odyssey (the waitress transitioning from vertical to horizontal during Floyd’s Earth-Moon transfer).

It was a very interesting morning.

Rascal is giving me that “you are interrupting my eating” look. Misty is less worried about eating, more worried in case the badgers are in the garden. Betty just wants to play.

Deep frustration. I was typing this entry at about 8AM when I did something, I don’t know what, and about 4 paragraphs of text disappeared. No indication of selection and deletion, it just went, and then I couldn’t edit it, but I was able to save the remainder as a draft.

Today turned into not so much of a FGF, it is because of DIY. You see I hate it with a passion, it is one of the few things I am passionate about. I knew I had a job to do when I got home, and I just stressed about it all day. Isn’t that utterly pathetic? I know it is, and that just added to the stress. It (the diy task) did not go well.

I am the treasurer for the Horndean & District Amateur Radio Club (HDARC). This evening I had to get the books audited by members of the club. That went well. There are balances.

This mornings walk was very good. Not much activity in the harbour, temperature was a little up on yesterday. The #Breakfastclub was, usual excellent.

I hope you had a really good day.

This is going to be a short post as time is running out on me this morning. The walk went well, the #Breakfastclub was lively with a variety of topics, including running a Ferrari on the Isle of Wight and the various storm fronts that are about.

The frustration was seeing what looked like was going to be a lovely sky developing, and having to walk away from it before it did so. That’s a timing thing. Hopefully as time changes there will be other opportunities.

The minor crises include; a door deciding spontaneously to fall off its hinges, a curtain rail not wanting to be so high up, and a cat suffering a crisis of confidence, and deciding to mark her territory in doors in the smelliest way possible. These things are sent to try us.

Betty and Rascal are their usual selves, Misty is in the cathouse.

I hope you all have a lovely day – sorry for the short post.

Betty Misty and Rascal are behaving themselves mostly, except one of them we are pretty sure it’s Misty keeps leaving little deposits around. Frustrating we don’t seem to be able to stop her.

The star was there again, no surprise. But, was a proper clear sky, or another break in the clouds? As I usually do, I stuck my head out the back door and was immediately drawn by the lovely view of The Plough and Cassiopeia. It really was a clear sky, and it felt just a bit nippy.

I could see the sky brightening behind the spinnaker as I walked toward the water front

Walking down Gosport high street, I was just going past the Holland and Barret lorry that had finished resupplying the shop when he started his engine, made me Jump!

Then a little bit further on, I was distracted by the Gosport timeline. My mind started wandering and I thought Hmm what I should do is a small piece of research against each date and write a small piece. Not the first time I’ve thought that.

Just as I was arriving at the water front, the #Breakfastclub started. The normal chair, 2E1PHW Peter, is taking a break today, so the chair is taken by G7EPE Dave. With M3OHN Peter and G6RTE Jo we always have a pleasant chat.

Doing my usual weather report from the end of the Haslar Marina Pier wall I watched the Normandie go by

Definitely colder this morning, I had my flat cap on, and a glove to hold my gadget stick Temperature was well down, 9.5C 84% humidity and atmospheric pressure of 1016. The wind was a quite brisk 4-5 knot northerly, making it feel really quite chilly.

It was a lovely walk, with a nice cup of tea at the end. A good start to the day, I hope yours goes the same way.

I always try and do my posts before I go to work. Sometimes, as was the case this morning, I run out of time which means you either get an evening post or, unfortunately, none at all. Here is today’s effort;

Having stuck my head out the back door, I couldn’t make my mind up as to how cold it was, so decided to wear my “medium” jacket. It has a light fleecy lining, so is strong breeze proof, but not really rain resistant. When I looked out the bedroom window at about 0540, one of the first thing I saw was a star, I guess it wouldn’t rain.

When it started to get light, it was obvious that the break in cloud revealing the star had been a small one. Cloud cover was pretty much total. It was also surprisingly mild, temperature was around 14-15C, practically no wind and atmospheric pressure of around 998mb. No rain as yet.

The Mon St Michell looked quite graceful as she sailed in to the harbour, but apart from the Ferries, the pilot and police launches no other movement except what looked like a rather expensive motor boat.

It was a lovely walk, and a very nice start to the day. I hope you had a good one. Have a picture of Rascal, Betty and Misty having breakfast.

We are moving to that time of year, when my morning walks will mostly be in darkness. My problem with that is my picture become very. “Samey” and therefore boring, and I don’t want to bore you.

This morning though, almost as soon as I stepped out of the door, I knew that the sky had the potential to develop into something interesting, and by golly, did I it!

I’m trying something with WordPress, putting pictures in sequence with the text, so again bear with me. Also interested in what will happen in facebook, I suspect they will be batched at the end.

Anyhow, the sky continued to develop as I walked toward the waterfront, where I exchanged pleasantries with Mike, I have no idea who Mike is really, but we always have a chat before he catches the 0630 ferry, and I wander off to the Haslar Marina Pier wall, from where I do my daily weather report (note; this is not a forecast).

It’s still quite mild at 14C, very little wind around 1 Knot, and the pressure around 1008mb. I had a medium coat on, which was just right really.

Dissappointingly I had to leave the waterfront to return home, as the sun was still not over the horizon and another chapter in the morning’s sun rise story was happening.

The #Breakfastclub was doing well with 2E1PHW, G7EPE, M3OHN, Myself And G4ADK. With G0JHQ dropping in right at the very end. A lovely mornings walk.

Getting up at 6AM to go somewhere you’ve never been before is always going to be a bit of an adventure. As was the case this morning. I departed for Tenantry Farm, between Fordingbridge and Salisbury, just bear with whilst we re do a bit of the journey.

I left the M27 at junction 2, on to the A36 heading north toward Salisbury. Conditions varied between no rain and a heavy drizzle and associated low cloud. I was able to see that I was driving through some absolutely lovely Wiltshire countryside, rolling green hills and woodlands, and then just before turning south, the spite of Salisbury Cathedral became a way marker appearing slowly out of the crowds. A lovely sight, it was just a pity that I couldn’t stop to take a picture.

Arriving at Rockbourne, I was surprised at the lack of activity, a tent and a few cars in the middle of a field.

My role for the day was to shadow the event organiser, Kayti. Under the circumstances, this was a relatively task. It appears that around 70 people had booked to ride in the British Horse Society (BHS). As it happens, only 35 turned up. The event is not a race, or timed, over a roughly 6 mile circuit that caters for everyone from beginners up.

Everything went OK apart from a horse sustaining a small cut – it was alright.

The weather varied between a fairly heavy drizzle to the sun making a brief appearance, whilst the tops of the trees were moving a fair bit, we didn’t really feel it at ground level. It certainly wasn’t cold. All in, it was a very pleasant day, and one I would be happy to attend again next year.

The thing that I need to know is, when this post comes u on Facebook, do you as a reader have to do anything extra, that you would not have to do with a normal Facebook post, I would like it to be as seamless as possible.

Here are some pictures.

It has been the case that whenever this is on, apart from our first year in Gosport that we are away on holiday. Well, this year we’ve made it again. I think it excellent the amount of effort the villagers put into this event, loads of stalls, loads going on. Whilst the wind was a bit of a pain for the stall holders, it was ok for us as visitors.

It was nice to see the mayor open the event, for some reason I had problems photographing her. It was either her head or her feet that got missed, sorry about that.

Got a little bit of exercise in by cycling to the fair and then ruined by having chips from the chippy and tea and cake a bit later. Oh well, it was a nice couple of hours. G