Bills Posts

Droxford Station Signal Box. A very pleasant couple of days.

It has taken quite a few weeks for me to finish this 600-page book, working my way through it last thing at night trying to read usually between 5 – 10 pages before having to put the book down because of falling asleep. I think I even strained my right thumb through the way I was holding the book.

This is the first history book that I have read in a very long time, I recall the point roughly around 1974 where, at college, my interest in history was severely damaged by what iI considered to be a really bad tutor. But, I have never really lost my interest in the subject, but I have been very aware of my woeful level of knowledge on the topic.

I decided to start with the Plantagenets as I have a perception that it is around this time that the recording of history became more factually accurate, being less influenced by other factors. There probably is a little bit of poetic licence about some of the conversations, and acts, all of which can be reasonably inferred from the outcomes of the events to which they relate.

The book is extremley readable, it really pulled me in and it was fascinating to follow the rise and fall of this amazing ruling family, their trials, tribulations and successes.

Of course their time does come to an end, and culminates in the Wars of the Roses. Luckily, Dan Jonnes has written a book about the Wars of the Roses. I’ve ordered it, and it’ll take a week or so to arrive. In the meantime, I’ve started reading the Diary of a Nobody.

We saw this mum and her lovely foal as we were walking yesterday morning. It was our last full day at Droxford, the morning was lovely and relaxing, we spent the afternoon having a look around the shops at Wickham.

Elayne bought a couple of compacts, I was toying with an idea, but Elayne scotched when she told me that charity shops aren’t allowed to sell the particular item for safety reasons.

In the evening, we had a meal in the Bakers Arms in Droxford, very nice it was as well. I had chicken & mushroom pie, mash & veg followed by apple crumble and custard. Very nice it was as well.

It has been a lovely, calming couple of days.

For a long time, I have wanted to walk part of the Meon Valley. OK, we didn’t do a massive amount but it certainly gave me a feeling that I wanted to do more.

The thing was, that walking along a disused railways line is delightful. It’s just so calm and peaceful, and even when you do encounter someone, everyone is happy to be there, and friendly. You don’t have to stop, just exchange pleasantries and you’re are on your way.

Alternatively, like we did, we spoke to one young chap about his rather cute dog, which turned out to be a short haired dachshund.

You’d think that walking along a fairly flat, straight (almost) path would be boring – far from it, it was an absolute delight. I want more.

I’ve been out today. We are at Droxford Railway Station. Droxford ceased operating as a railway station in Feb 1955. The original was demolished. This has been rebuilt and it can now be booked for breaks. But that is not the topic of today’s post.

We saw a flock of birds, comprising; Geese, Ducks and chickens. What was making me chuckle was how they behaved.

The ducks started panicking as soon they saw and would start running away. At one point they all ran to their little pool and started drinking, but the main thing was running away.

The Geese make an awful lot of honking noises, and come running towards us, beaks agape and wings flapping, you think that you are going be subject to a serious pecking, but actually, they stop in the last foot or so. I’m told that having some bread in your pocket ready to distribute will make them friendly.

The chickens? They really couldn’t give a monkey’s. No reaction at all, except perhaps slight looks of “Are you going to take our food away” or possibly “Are you bringing us more food”? Admittedly, the Cockerels were a bit “Do you want to fight? Then just try”

All very entertaining.

There’s no doubt that one of my favourite meals is the carvery. I went through a phase quite a few years ago where I was working on a contract that meant I spent Monday to Thursday away from home, that went on for just over a year.

During my time away, I always stayed in the same hotel. I think it was a Day’s Inn. The main thing though, was that it was right next to a Toby Carvery. So, for those four nights a week, I had a Toby Carvery. I worked it out that I’d had somewhere around 240 carvery’s. I never got tired of them.

We’ve had family visiting this weekend. Circumstances meant that it was easier to eat out a couple of times. As it happens the Friday and Sunday meals were both Carveries. I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m quite satisfied.

After today’s meal (Sunday), we went to Lee on Solent and sat in the car, on the waterfront for about an hour. We watched the Arvia, one of the P&O cruise ships for part of her departure from Southampton. It was one of the most relaxing hours of the whole weekend.

Having said that makes it sound like the weekend was stressful. It was not. Just a bit busy. After which, it was nice to relax.

My apologies, I have been dropping off. Just to tired to write tonight.

I have just acquired these two beauties.

Now they aren’t DCC ready, but they are DCC compatible, so I can get them modified. That will cost me a little bit of money, but that is OK.

I also have a fair bit of track. Now, whether it is the right kind of track remains to be seen, but that is OK, it’s something to get me going.

Now I really do have to do a number of things;

• Get the Dremel sorted,
• Get the baseboard sorted,
• Get the base material for the track,
• Get the pre-wired fish-plates,
• Get the bus wire,
• Plan the layout & test with track, not fixing anything down.

That’ll do for the time being. Pretty much up to that point I’m not committed to anything permanent.

Let’s see how things go.

Yes, but a lot smaller than that. N-Gauge no less. Not the smallest (I think that’s Z-Gauge) but it is small. It has always appealed to me. Not least because you can fit a reasonable layout into a relatively small space.

I have, for a very long time, had aspirations to build an N-Gauge layout, it is one of those things I keep putting off, well, really just not starting. I am running out of procrastinations for this project.

Why am I writing about it all of a sudden? Well I have the opportunity to acquire some resources. Not sure exactly what it will bring like, but I’m prepared to give it a go.

I didn’t go for a walk this morning, so I don’t know if the two trollies have been cleared, or indeed, added to. Hopefully tomorrow.

I went to the gallery shop up and picked up the bool. It looks like it could be an interesting read. The Highways and Byways of Hampshire. I think I would like to work my way through the book and try and visit at least one location from each chapter – I think that sounds like a retirement project, so a couple of years away.

If I want (as I do) to produce a video for each place I visit as well as write about it, I need to get practicing with my vlogging so that I am proficient at it when it comes to doing it for real, so that means practice. Then we are back to the old problem of time and talking in public.

Can you believe that over thirty years ago, I bought a small recorder as I wanted to record my thoughts as I walked around Berlin, but I was too self conscious to do it. Nowadays, I can quite happily use my mobile phone and have a full-on conversation with myself but put up a camera and I become all shy – ridiculous.

The thing about the sky behind the Spinnaker is that it is never the same.

This morning’s walk was a bit cooler than it has been, no issues with that.

Once again there wasn’t much going on between the front door and the far end of the high street. I haven’t bothered taking any pictures of the new bus station. Scaffolding around the outside is still up, and they are continuing to work on the Electricals & presumably electronics. There’s still a fair bit of the groundwork to be done. I’m holding to my estimate of a month until complete, but it’s a week further on since I made the guess, and I’m uncertain about the speed of the work.

Very annoyed to arrive at the Cockle Ponds to see another trolley had been tossed in, the south east corner I think. It looks like who ever is doing it is rolling them down a slope. These people confuse me.

I was even more annoyed to find another trolley had been thrown in in the south west corner. I haven’t reported them to StreetScene. I will do if they are still there tomorrow. StreetScene are pretty good really.

Walking past the Richard Martin Gallery I always look into the windows he always has some interesting books on display. There hasn’t been anything which caught my eye for the last few weeks, but today was different. The Highways and Byways in Hampshire, with illustrations by Arthur B Connor. I’ve sent Richard an email asking if he would put it to one side. The last time I did that, he emailed back saying I was too late.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow.