Bills Posts

We went out for a meal with dear friends whom we haven’t seen for quite a while. We had a lovely rime, and have just got home (around 10pm) to the realisation that I have eaten too much and just want to go to bed. It was a lovely evening though.

Now, here’s a thing. I do not write about certain subjects on this blog, one of which is politics, certainly party politics. It’s just too sensitive and divisive. So, no. I won’t write about it.

Although there is a lot of party politics in local government, it’s slightly different because local government is something which is much closer to the people (OK, I know about taxes and the NHS and the like – not talking about them here).

I do feel that it is less remote, closer to home, at the town, or in the case of Gosport, the district council and at the county level. It’s where you can see with your own eyes jobs that needs to be done.

Who is going to do these jobs? The lot that is in, are they doing a good job? That’s what is important – are they doing the job well? How do we measure that?

Don’t ask me why I took this picture of a discarded piece of plastic in some rather yucky water on the portsmouth side, but there is something about it that appeals to me.

I used my bus pass today to go up to Fareham, I got off the stop closest to the Oxfam bookshop, I didn’t buy anything but did have a good browse. They have quite a good history section, well worth keeping an eye on.

I got the X4 I think it was to Portsmouth and got off at a stop near the shopping arcade (too small really to be a mall) and had a look at the London Camera Exchange, if money were no object, I’d definitely go for one of the Nikon mirrorless range, although I do quite like the look of the Fuji range, their cameras appear to have more traditional settings on the top plate. I’ll keep an eye out for dealer days nearby.

I did the usual hours (at least) in waterstones. This time though, I got a sandwich and sat in their coffee lounge and had a think about what I might be looking for, and although I enjoyed looking there really wasn’t;t anything that I felt I needed to buy – except one book, the defence of Hampshire which is quite interesting, but at £22 I thought was a bit expensive. I think I can get a 2nd hand copy for less than £10, which would be good.

Then caught the ferry back to Gosport, it was the approach to the ferry where I paused to take this picture.

I noticed that there was a sign up, announcing the new Gosport Interchange, it really does look ready for use, they just have to clear the fence line away. That’s something to watch out for, and then of course, demolition will start, and I some how think that won’t take long.

Elayne has a very bad cold, so we’ve had to change plans quite a bit. We were going to London tomorrow, we had a couple of nice activities planned, but they have gone away for the time being.

It all depends on how things developed as to what we end up doing. WE’ll just have to wait and see.I was thinking about my model railway. I had a baseboard which I’ve now realised is just too small for what I want to do.

The plan is to have an inglenook shunting area, set up in such a way that when I have solved a shunting problem I can then send the train out onto a loop and have it going around whilst i work on the next thing. The great thing. About digital control is that i will be able to control my trains easily. All i have to do is get it set up. I think I will have the transceiver on whilst i do that.

There are a few settings on my camera that I want to have a play with. There’s a particular area that im interested in up near the explosion museum. So i may take a walk up there to have a play.

Then, i may take a bus trip out to Fareham, or even pop over to portsmouth to spend a bit of time in the various book shops, haven’t done that for a while.

But there again, I may do none of this, it all depends how things go. We’ll just have to wait and see.

I’m laying in bed pondering what to write, kind of almost a little bit of writers block, as no particular topic comes to me for this evenings post. Even the photo, which I accept is a bit non-descript doesn’t inspire me.

Is there such a words as “Calendricaly”? It appears there is, it has not been highlighted as a misspelling, so it must be good to go. There it is then, calendricaly, this blog was started over four years ago, but as the posts are numbered, we have 44 days to go until we hit that 4 year-point. i think I rambled my way through quite a few different things, the blog is a manifestation of my desire to write, the variation in content is chaotic, and probably somewhat incoherent.

I’m really tired now, so flagging a bit. Shortish post tonight.

A few posts ago I wrote that I’d had an idea for a book. I’d given up on the idea when the move to Dorset fell through because there were certain aspects of the county that were crucial to the story.

The idea hasn’t gone away. Today, a book I’d ordered arrived, UFO’s over Hampshire. I think that book will become fundamental to my revision of the plan for the book. Of course, it could all be a complete fantasy and nothing will come of it, but it won’t leave my head, so I am going to play with it.

If my plans don’t work out, at least I will learn more about the county, and visit some interesting places.

A slight change of routine this morning. I needed to get a few bits and pieces from the shop after my walk – too much to carry. I drove the car to the shop car park and left it there ready for when the shop opened.

I walked the length of the high street, one area has been marked for re-development, it’s quite near the council offices, but is either one shop or three, nothing happening there. The bus stop on the cross street is still covered, so not active.

There were a surprising number of people about. Mostly youngsters quite noisy, shouting instead of talking. Oh well. I reached the new bus station, it really is nearing completion. It looks like all the glass is in and the electronic displays are up – not active at the moment, but it can’t be far away. It’s getting to the stage now that I’m expecting it to be open, and then the demolition of the old bust station will commence. Someone told me that will be this week.

It was definitely colder this morning. A fleece, my jacket and flat cap were the order of the day. Well, it is autumn.

It’s not often I use the same picture twice, I try to avoid doing that, and usually if I do it’s because I’ve forgotten that I’ve used it previously. Tonights re-use though is quite deliberate.

On Sunday, we visited the New Forest (as I said last night) but before we went looking for pannaging pigs, we visited a small lake at Eyeworth. What a delightful setting it is as well.

Nearby though was this. When I first saw it, I thought it was a chimney and wondered what was underneath, but then I read the little sign next to it that it was a post box which had been placed there for the convenience of the workers at a gunpowder factory that had been operating since the 1860’s, but it was mainly to save effort by the postman, this being the time before delivery vans.

The site though is only a couple of miles from The Rufus Stone, which marks the site of the death by arrow of William Rufus, King William II. In turn the stone is near the pub the Sir Walter Tyrrell, named after the knight who shot the fatal arrow. Sir Walter escaped to France in fear of his life, but it appears that everyone hated Rufus, so he was never threatened.

But all this made me wonder about The New Forest itself, which I know was dotted with WW2 airfields, some remains of which are still visible, but what other little gems are there? Something else that is worthy of investigation.

This is a postbox in the middle of The New Forest, and is only indirectly involved in the story of today’s post in that it is within the area of interest of today’s post. More on this in a later post.

The subject of which is partially about pannage; The New forest has an abundance of oak trees, which produce an even greater abundance of of acorns, which are poisonous to the New Forest ponies and other animals.

Acorns, on the other hand, are an excellent food for pigs. So, at this time of year 600 or so pigs are released in to the forest to stuff themselves with the fallen food. https://www.thenewforest.co.uk/explore/wildlife-and-nature/pigs/

I found out about pannage a few years ago, whilst on a RAYNET event in the forest, and did get to see a few of the pigs. I thought it would be nice to go with some friends and photograph the pigs.

The only problem is finding them. The thing is, we didn’t. Find them that is. We took a few other pictures, one being this postbox. Had lunch at the Walter Tyrell. A pub in the forest. As it happens, I had Pork – from the forest. It was lovely, and I’d highly recommend it.

It was a very pleasant day.

I do have a few people who receive notifications about new posts on my blog. To you, thank you for sticking with me. I don’t know where you are, but if you are in the USA and are affected by Hurricane Helene, I sincerely wish you safety.

The header picture was taken a couple of days ago, and the clouds were building up. We have had some rain, but it held off to give us a lovely sunny day to day, if slightly chilly in the shade.

A year ago today, was also, like today the Alverstoke Michaelmas faire, it gave us a very pleasant couple of hours to have a wander around, I even bought a couple of books.

At the end, unlike last year we were able to return to our car which was nice and dry. I’m bout going to say any more about those memories.