Bills Posts

You’ll very quickly notice that the picture of the Brittany Ferry Islander (which I don’t think I have seen before) has only the merest hint of an association with the subject of the title of todays post.

The round tower is the site of one of the defence works that guard the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, Built around. 1490at the behest of King Henry V, and was intended to stop raids by the French. The link with the picture? Oh, was taken from the beach in front of the tower. See, I said the link was tenuous.

We were at the tower ass part of a Camera Club trip out. Very good it was as well, there were I think ten of us there, and given that Architecture is one of the main themes for the next season for the club, there were plenty of opportunities to get some pictures.

After we’d done with our photo shoot, we retired to The Bridge, a pub on Spice Island that overlooks The Camber. We had a very pleasant bit of time there. Plus I found another very nice alcohol-free beer.

All in, it was a seriously pleasant evening.

Just down the road from us there are a couple of good conker trees. Elayne insists that we gather enough to them in the corners of at least the lounge and the dining room, to deter spiders.

Now, we’ve done that fairly consistently and if the truth be told, we don’t often see spiders marching across the carpet. I know the chances are that they are there, but they are just keeping out of the way.

As a side note, that doesn’t apply in the garden, where there must be thousands of them. They are very efficient at building webs or laying strands, I quite often get caught by them. If I’m going into the kind of space where I think they may be, I’ve taken to waving my hands about like a demented something – I don’t know what, and I still get a strand of web across my face.

Actually, I don’t mind them in the garden really. There;s one that is sitting outside our kitchen window, he (it may be a she, I don’t know), I quite like watching it.

Any how, the Conkers are still maturing, but they aren’t dropping just yet soon though.

It was just a generally normal day, during breakfast we decided on meals for the week, and from that came the shopping list. Not a lot justa few things. Even the visit to the shop wasn’t unpleasant.

I had to go to another store to get bin liners as I prefer theirs to the one sold at our normal shop. That really does sound a bit fussy really doesn’t it?

This afternoon, we went for a drive, out to Lee-on-the-Solent (that’s the formal way of doing the title I think. I wonder why that is – I’ll have to try and find out). to have an ice cream, there’s a shop on the seafront , with a window that we like, my usual combination is mint chocolate chip and funky banana, two scoops in a tub with a flake of course. Very nice.

We thought we would take a drive out to Titchfield Haven and see what was going on, especially with the Osbourne View pub that burnt down only in Feb 24, I thought it was much longer ago than that. It”s gone completely, there are screens in place at the site, so you can’t see anything. Very sad, it was a nice pub.

Driving on down to the haven, after a bit of a detour, there was quite a breeze blowing hence a lot of kite surfers, sail boarders and other systems that I don’t know the name of. Watching them was fun, they were ablew to get up to an impressive turn of speed, and get flown 20 feet into the air. It was exhilarating to watch, must have been even more so for the riders.

Home to a bit of TV, a light tea and the Sunday Night radio network. Like I say, a very pleasant day.

We went to Claires for Breakfast. I thouroughly enjoyed that, but then, when we got home, and after a 10 minute sit down to allow the food to go down, we got on with clearing the growth out the front. This is a once or twice a year job, and very satisfying when done.

I walked in to town to take a parcel to the Post Office. I think thaat what was left of the market, indicated that it was one of the towns “Special” Markets, when there are a bunch extra stalls and various activites, like a go-kart track. But the thing that caught my attention was a traditional Punch and Judy. It really was nice to see a bunch of kids in front of the stall, shouting at Mr. Punch.

I carried on walking to the waterfront, just in time to see the Mon St Michell sail out, which was nice. A slow, casual walk back up the highstreet, a quick pop into Morissons to pick up some bits and pieces for tea and then home.

A busy day, yes. But a pleasant one.

Elayne told me about a Galleon that was moored in Portsmouth. It was only here for a couple of days. We hadn’t been out together on photographic trip for quite a while. It seemed like quite a sensible thing to do.

We went to the waterfront to see if we could get a view of it, but it didn’t really stand out, so we got the ferry across and walked around. Gunwharf was quite busy. We were able to get close to what we found out was The Galleon Andalusia, a replica a Spanish Galleon from the 1600s. There are some exceptions, this one has a diesel engine, a radar and probably a whole bunch of other modern safety equipment.

It cost £12 each to get on board for a look around, and whilst where we could go was a bit limited (KI would have like to have been able to hold the Ships Wheel, pay a visit to the Poop Deck, and stand at the bow, as in Titanic, we did get to see how the crew lived, the Captain’s & Officers quarters gun deck & cargo hold and learn about life on board in those days. The tour was very well laid out, so I thought it was well worth it.

There was a street food fair on in one part of Gunwharf so we had a burger and chips, which was slightly unusual – the chips were drizzled with cheese and had chunks of steak on top. They’d run out of forks, so it was a very messy eat, but it was very nice, and as I had missed lunch, very welcome.

I’ve had an interesting couple of days. The problem here, is that I’ve only done one Facebook post this week, and one of the interesting events is an ideal subject for another, I’ll mention it here once I’ve done a post there.

We had a thunderstorm here. It was brief and the rain was very intense. I came downstairs to make a cup of tea, and stood watching two of the wettest pigeons I can remember seeing in a very long time. I felt really sorry for them, but at the some time one of them was looking at me, and I could tell it was thinking “You B*****d”.

The only comment I will make is that our grand daughter, being 10 months old, could teach a whirling dervish a thing or two about chaos.

No Friday could go either way, I wake and feel like going for a walk. Or I don’t. Of course it could be raining. It has been throwing it down this evening.

Somehow, I’m not quite sure how, I’ve managed to do what I thought would be three of the four most difficult day of the week with relative ease. They were the days when I’d have to get up and go for a walk. Surprisingly, I’ve had no problems at all in getting up and out.

One of the chaps I watch on YouTube is Rob The Mariner. He lives in Nova Scotia. I like his style of video and I get the impression that he does his videos in one go, with basic editing. I thought I could do that.

I have some video clips that I need to edit together, a weekend job I think, but hopefully it should be ok.

I know that I’m not going to be walking in the morning (grand daughter duties) but that is ok. So that leaves Friday as the remaining day of walking. At the moment, only rain will stop me, and I don’t think that is on the cards.

Today’s picture is worth mentioning. It was a leaf floating in the air, actual hanging in single strand of spiders web. I took loads of pictures in the forlorn hope that at least one would come out sharp. Very difficult in the natural breeze, let alone when a car went past, it would bounce around like nobody’s business. A testament to the strength of spiders webs.

OK, I’ve played with the colours a little bit, but it is brighter than the original.

I did a facebook post this morning. The frustrating thing is that I always enjoy doing them, I think they are a little bit more personal than these posts, yet in many respects they aren’t. It seems right that I do a post in the morning after the walk, a round the day up with a follow up post in the evening. Having said that, the two posts aren’t really related although the two posts do occasionally cross-refer.

I’ve been doing these posts for over 4 years now. I had been doing the facebook posts for quite a while before that, but these posts here became a commitment to write. Rather than what the facebook posts are, kind of fun (but I do not wish to disparage them in anyway, more people . Yet, they both filled a need in me to write something.

It gets a bit frustrating when I sit here and can’t think of anything to write, or when I get tired and have to ‘bin-out’ (which I hate doing, but I feel I have to sometimes).

Sometimes, these posts can get a bit frustrating, as they require a bit more effort that the FB posts, but I enjoy them at least as much, especially when they flow, like this one has (well, I think it has).

I could very easily have not got up this morning, but I did, I find it hard to describe my thinking around my reluctance to get up, or get out. I guess it doesn’t help that bed is so comfortable, and it is a degree of I can’t be bothered.

But then the other side of the argument kicks in; this morning it was an opportunity to have a chat on the radio. Next it was what is happening in the high street. It has been a few days since I last walked down the street.

It looks like a couple of holes have been dug in the floor of No. 8, what used to be poundstretchers . What could they be looking for? I am still of the view that the unit will have to be pulled down and a brew build for the shop units and flats to be built. Almost opposite at, I think it is 135 – 138. A previous planning application was required to get an archeological exploration carried out. I don’t know if that happened. I wonder if the same requirement has been placed upon No. 8. I should have a look. (I did, couldn’t find it – doesn’t mean it’s not there)

There was a new place For Bakes Sake – I can’t remember when I saw it first, I think it opened on the 25th. They do cakes and things. I really do need to get my High Street data base sorted, so that I can register that as a change.

A very pleasant walk along the waterfront. The Commodore Clipper came in, and the Heron was on the tidal line.

I only saw one jelly fish in the Cockle Ponds. Where have they all gone?

Looking at the weather app, tomorrow morning (Monday) promises to be bright and sunny. The radio is on charge, so apart from me feeling stressed about getting up (which I don’t at the moment) there’s nothing to keep me from going for a walk in the morning.

Tuesday could be different though. There is an almost even chance of rain. Beyond that, the only morning that I know for certain that I am unlikely to go for a walk is Thursday.

What with the radio planned for Monday & Tuesday, vlogging on Wednesday, Thursday otherwise occupied and Friday available for other things. There is the prospect of a good week. How much I will achieve is a different thing.