Bills Posts

You might have to try and expand this image to see what it is. A picture of the Portsmouth waterfront, taken as a panorama, but not in the usual way.

This time, I had the phone mounted on the monopod, base of the stick stayed still, but I swept the phone in a large arc. It has worked, but I think I will have to research them-do it in daylight to get a better effect.

There are a couple of other ways of using Panorama mode, gives a quite surreal effect, I’ll have a play with those as well. I might even suggest surreal to the camera club as a competition for next year. Not the same as abstract.

I went to a Gosport Borough Council meeting tonight. I had read through the agenda pack which had been published last week. To be honest I expected it to be a bit frosty, and whilst everybody was unfailingly polite that did not prevent the offering of barbs.

The last meeting I went lasted barely an hour, tonights session was two and a quarter. It was quite interesting though. I already knew that MacDonalds was returning to the High Street, but also Bon Marche as well, which will please Elayne. We were also told about a new butchers and grocers that are to open on North Cross Street.

The controversy was about the 24 hour CCTV that had been cut by the previous council, the conservative group were calling for its re-introduction, and were rightly accused of hypocrisy (actually, my word – but that was what it was) and people from Alverstoke are not happy about flood defences. Understandable.

There were about ten people like me, sat in the public gallery. One of them had brought popcorn. Obviously expecting an entertaining evening. I had the agenda pack up on my phone. That was quite handy for keeping up with the proceedings. There were a couple of things that I didn’t understand though. So I’ll have to research them. All in all, very interesting. I’ll look to see when the next one is due.

I finished The Wars of the Roses Monday Night, and was pondering what to look at next on my journey through the 16th & 17th centuries. I was debating whether to skip over the Elizabethan era, straight towards the end of the Stuarts, possibly picking with Pepys.

But then I listened to a brief YouTube offering on the Elizabethan period, and it seems there was a lot of drama during her rain (if anybody who knows their history is reading this, they are probably cringing at my woeful ignorance and the description of “quite a lot of drama”) sorry about that.

Frustratingly, Dan Jones, the author of the Plantagenets book and the Wars of the Roses books that I have just read doesn’t have a book covering the Elizabethan Era, so I have to look elsewhere, so have gone for Anna Whitelock and her Elizabeth’s Bedfellows. Given that Elizabeth was known as the virgin queen, that should be interesting.

I did pause over the title for tonights post. I almost called it “Vlogging”, because I think that is a bit limiting, because there are many things on my mind. I hasten to add that most of it is good or very good.

I’m after a piece of music, the only snag is I don’t want to pay for it. If you ever watched Jack Hargreaves and his Out of Town series, the introduction music evokes that feeling of being in the country. That’s what I want, something that reminds me of the being amongst the fields and the trees, listening to the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees, the skylark twittering over head.

Also, I’ve caught myself looking in the window of a particular shop on Stokes Road. It is a second (possibly 3rd, 4th, even 10th) hand shop for unusual objects. One segment of my vlog will be interesting and strange object of the week, or month – whichever.

Just to confuse the issue, the picture was taken yesterday. Not much going on today. We had our GrandDaughter over for the night and the best part of the day. It really is a delight to watch how she changes over the first few months. We were able to give her back to Mum and Dad at the Chairmakers, a pub in Denmead, that does a rather fine carvery.

Having had a very nice meal, it’s time to sit back with lovely company,m enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and then head for home. Having fed the cat, I was set up to go on the Confusion net for an hour, which was enjoyable.

I’ve now finished the Dan Jones’ The Wars of the Roses and am now faced with a quandary. Do I find books relating to the Elizabethan (the First, that is) and the Stuart eras, do I read Pepys’ diaries, or do I jump straight to the Civil War? In the meantime, I haven a couple of other unrelated reading projects that I am interested in, so I am doing a bit of time slicing with them.

I might give the history thing a rest for a(nother) book, before coming back to it.

Storm Darragh has been blowing a bit of a hoolie, just a tad of a gale. THe Isle of Wight ferries have all been cancelled, which really kiboshed one aspect of the day. Much to our dismay and annoyance.

Friends from along the south coast and the Isle of Wight were due to join me today at the Royal Maritime Club in Portsmouth for breakfast. The cancellation of the ferries meant that only the “mainlanders” were able to make it.

I have to confess that I wasn’t sure if the Gosport ferry would be running. I did check Twitter (X) to see if the ferry people were saying anything. They weren’t and as it happens there were no issues with the ferry.

Breakfast was lovely, although it had had a bit of a price increase from £9.95 to £12.50. Still it was a buffet breakfast, and very nice too.

It was seriously lovely to see my friends from the radio amateurs community, the only sadness was that the Isle of Wight contingent was missing. The upside of that is that we will have to do it again. It looks like the end of January could be on the cards.

Not too bothered though. Next Saturday is the Isle of Wight Radio Society Christmas meal, on the island. So a trip across for me. Which reminds me, I need to book my ticket.

I went for a walk this morning. It was the third time this week I’d been out. Quite exceptional for recent time. I think it was because I had something I wanted to do.

I needed to take some kit out with me on the walk, I reached a point where I felt comfortable getting set up, where I thought there wouldn’t be the likelihood of a lot of people passing by.

Having got my tripod and phone set up I added the other piece of kit and started videoing. I tested, and thought it worked. I videoed, which involved my moving a little distance away. I came back and looked at what I’d done.

It was quite clear that it hadn’t worked. I had no idea. I think I found out though, it looks like the iphone camera doesn’t support what I wanted to do. I’m exploring this. It was also clear that I didn’t know how all the controls on the kit worked.

I will have another go.

I keep a kind of diary. I fill it in when I go to feed the birds. It’s kept in the shed. There isn’t much in it; whether or not it rained since I last wrote in the diary (there are quite a few times when there consecutive days where I have not filled the diary in). Minimum, current and maximum temperatures (I moved the thermometer in to the shed whilst the builders were about, so I doubt the validity of data over the last couple of months. I really must get it back outside. How much cloud in the part of the sky I can see, measured in 8ths. Not sure why the weathermen do that, must find out. Finally, the wind direction; using my weather stations wind vane and a very convenient neighbours flag, and force measured with the Beaufort scale, helped again by the neighbours flag.

I’ve bought a new diary (A5, week per view) for 2025. Strangely The Works wasn’t selling those this year, so I got it off Amazon. I’m quite excited at the prospect of getting the 2024 diary in and analysing the data, even if it isn’t wholly accurate.

I took the header picture on this morning’s walk. It’s another of those I can’t explain why I like it photos. Perhaps it’s the lines in the clouds, the reflections in the water and the land. It was taken across the Cockle ponds, from the North East corner, looking south.

Two pictures for the price of one today. I was down at the waterfront as the Commodore Clipper came in. Very nice to see her.

There wasn’t a lot going on along the high street, but as I was walking along the promenade and turning towards Trinity Church, I could very clearly hear the Morning Chorus, it was as it always is, quite lovely.

I was very grateful for my new coat, I was as snug as a bug in a rug. Well, all except my ears. I had my flat cap on, so my head was OK, but I need to do something about my ears. I did have a blue balaclava. It had been made from recycled plastic, but it didn’t feel like that, plus it was really warm. I haven’t worn it for a couple of years, and I have no idea where it is. So it looks like I may have to buy a new one.

When you are researching a book, you get a licence to do things that under normal circumstances might be considered quite mad, and given opportunities to talk about them with reasonableness.

I am researching a book (or at least, pretending to) whether it will ever get fully written or not I do not know. In the meantime though, I have the opportunity to research a number of are generally called Pseudoscientific hypotheses or para scientific beliefs. I think these two terms are intentionally derogatory, and so I prefer the friendlier term Earth Mysteries.

If I am seriously to write this book then I need to explore at least three of these earth mysteries. They are; The existence of UFO’s, the existence of Ley Lines and Earth Energies and dowsing, a means by which such energies and therefore Ley lines can be found.

If then, I am to research these earth mysteries what do I need to do? Well, I have to confess that I have bought a set of dowsing rods! I can Dow dowsing anywhere, who knows what I will find here in Gosport? I have been finding out how to use them – they haven’t arrived yet, but if you are in Gosport and you see me walking around with them, stop and say hello.

As for UFO’s I feel I should spend at least part of a night at an ancient site, perhaps Knowleton. But, I would like a portable chair that rotates so that I can scan all of the visible sky. And for part of the night, I do mean past midnight.