Bills Posts

There’s no particular link with this picture.

Because of my desire to vlog, quite a while ago I started experimenting with microphones external to the iphone. Lapel Mics, known as lavalier mics are small and easy to use, but they are a bit frustrating because the clips on them are a bit frail, and I keep knocking them off.

Then there is the thing that they all need to have a receiver unit, which is in turn frustrating because they are small and light. I’ve already lost one through the gaps in the Haslar Marina Pier Wall.

I bought a slightly more expensive set up, but do you think I can get that to work? No.

I’ve gone back to the small mic that I don’t really like, but does work. I think I am just going to have to be a bit more careful with it.

I’ve written several times since I started this blog, about my little project I call “Locality”. What it does is bring various hobbies and interests of mine together to be be applied to a study of the local area, hence Locality.

If there is one thing that Locality is about it is landscapes, not just how an area looks, but what goes on there and if not equally as important, in some cases definitely more so, what went on in the past.

There some locations where a feature may not be understood. A reasonable example might be shown in the header picture. The feature is a ha-ha. The National Trust describes it as a a type of sunken fence, designed to give the viewer, usually from a grand house, a continuous view whilst providing a boundary for livestock.

The thing is if I want to get full benefit out of Locality, I should put a little bit of effort in to learning how to read a landscape, to recognise less obvious features, that can give us a clue as to how the land was used.

I suspect to that comprehensively would require a lot of effort, I guess a book will teach me a bit, but then, I would need to go out and put it into practice. A lovely idea, but I do need the time to do that.

I’ve just looked back at what I wrote for Christmas 2023. The joy of this year is the addition of our GrandDaughter. Elayne once again produced a delicious meal, and we are mostly tidied after a bit of a chaotic day, which I have to say was enjoyed by all.

I hope you had a similarly delightful day..

So, it has happened again. On the book front. I ordered a book; The making of the English Landscape by WG Hoskins, it arrived earlier than Amazon was saying it would, I wouldn’t complain about that.

We were sat at the breakfast table when I opened the package, it was a hazard back version of the book, and it had cost me about £3 as a used but in good condition version. As soon as she saw the book, Elayne said “I’ve got that book”, and went straight to the paperback version on the shelf.

I checked the publication date of both books, in both cases it is 1988, but because paperback versions are released after hardback, Elaynes book had been printed in 1992 – no difference in content though.

And that is the thing. It’s another one of those books that I want to read straight away. It is on my reading list, and it will get read. But first I have to finish Elizabeth (I’m on page 42 of what looks like a 400 page book, and the diary of a bookseller which I am wanting to read, and of course, I am still working on British Political Ideologies. As you can imagine then, my brain is jumping all over the place (normal, I guess).

One annoying technical problem that I can’t seem to fix at the moment. Getting an external mic to work with the iphone. Totally unrelated to the post, but I thought I would just mention it here.

I post 1488 I wrote the actions of the current and previous councils. I got somethings wrong, and so it’s good to do a little fact checking. I had said that the previous council had turned off CCTV in the town. This is incorrect. They had removed monitoring by people. Recordings continued, so could be reviewed post-incident.

It looks like it was the current council turned it off, and it appears they did so outside committee, so there was nothing publicly formal about it. I believe there was a confidential paper that had not been made public, but has now been disclosed by a councillor and that may be mentioned in the minutes that will be presented at the next full council meeting in February (I intend to go).

We went in to town today, we had a couple of little tasks to do, and went for a coffee/tea in Cafe #1. The high street was busy with Christmas shoppers. I had to go to Argos to pick up some stuff, and in Argos terms it was absolutely rammed (probably about 10-15 people).

We binge watched the latest series of Strike on iplayer which was good. I have to go out for a couple of small things, but apart from that we are just about ready for Christmas – all bar preparing the food.

I meant to comment on Post 1500, well chuffed and somewhat amazed to have got here. I guess the next target is obvious.

We went for a family visit today. On a bit of a random basis we went for a pub lunch, a pub called The Silent Woman. We had the Sunday Roast, Elayne and Meg had the Roast Beef, I had the Pork.

I’m quite happy to say that it was one of the best pub roasts I have had in a Very long time. There was no scrimping on anything, even the gravy. Really quite delicious, It’s not the first time we’ve been to the Silent Woman, the food has always been good, this was excellent.

Every time we go to the pub, we always wonder about the name, and where it came from. It appears that the pub was once a smugglers haunt, and a woman who lived or worked there had a reputation for being a bit talkative. The smugglers, to make sure she stayed quiet, the smugglers cut out her tongue.

That’s a bit gruesome.

I buy too many books. I buy more books than I can read, because I start reading a book, and whilst I read it, I happen to look at something on the net and a book recommendation pops up. I look at it and think “that looks like a book I’d like to read” and whilst I don’t do it for every book recommendation (that would be unsustainable, I would run out of money very quickly).

I’ve bought two books this week, the book before this was bought 10 December. I am actively reading that, and will finish it.

The two books I bought today, one about landscapes is a reference book. I may read it cover to cover, but I am more likely to refer to it. The other is entertainment. It will go on my book pile and I will read it after the current book (I’ve read a previous book by the author, it’s funny and entertaining so I will be reading it – OK, it’s Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell).

Also, I’m running out of space to store my books. My book shelves are a bit rammed.

I just like books!

I want to explore what I am going to call the Gosport Peninsula. I’m sure that isn’t the correct name for this area of land, but it serves my purpose, so it will do for now.

I was writing something elsewhere, and I wrote that I thought this area was boring from a geographical point of view, being very flat. Of course that is wrong. I was reminded of this as we drove on the A27 past Titchfield, going up the hill towards Southampton. The hill up to Fareham is just as high. Then there are places like The Alver Valley, and The Haven,

All of these put the lie to my assertion of boring. There are many features worth pursuing. I really should get to it.

Social media is a magic tool for keeping friends and family informed, and I love it for that. It can also be a monumental time waster. How many times have you been scrolling through any one of the various apps, only to find that an hour, or possibly even two have gone? Don’t get me wrong, there are times when that might be ok. But also I am very aware of even 15 minutes might be too long.

I end up getting frustrated with my ipad, which I happen to think is the most incredible device, and I love it, but I’m not being productive with and it’s that feeling of lack of productivity that frustrates me. So, what to do about it?

I guess, instead of scrolling through posts there are loads of free courses from some very respectable institutions, sites like free learn and coursera provide courses that can last three or four weeks with about four hours of study per week covering many subjects. Why not look at them?

It’s just doing something useful that I need to do. I don’t include my blog in the list of un-useful activities of course. I love doing that, even if I do get frustrated when there’s nothing obvious to write about.

On the 23rd of March, 23 We let Rascal go. You’d think that after not far short of two years, I’d be able to write about him without tearing up. What sparked this off today was news about another loved cat who has left us – not ours, my sisters – Clover.

Who are these creatures that come in to our lives and then leave us after way too few years. In the meantime, we shower them with love and food, and they give their haughty looks, their zoomies at 3AM and the muddy paw-prints on the newly washed pillow case & quilt cover.

The pain of the loss when they go is monumental, but then you remember the times when Rascal stole the filter sponge from Mike & Lynn’s pond. Or the time when he came home with something wrong with his eye, he’d either caught it on a bush or had been in a fight.

On that day, I held him in my arms as he went to sleep. His ashes are with Droplets, in their bush at the bottom of the garden. We sit with them in the summer months.

They are just cats, but my god, the love…