Bills Posts

Ok. So I might not have blogged every day, but I am trying to get back in to the routine of writing every day. I’m aiming now for 1200 posts, with 80 days to go, that takes us towards the end of the year, quite apt really.

The thing for me is writing about things that interest me. I tend to go through cycles of interest. At the moment it is geology. I’m still reading the geology of the Jurassic coast, between Weymouth & Studland, coming a little way inland to follow particular formations.

I’ve recently been reading about the fossils that have, and continue to be discovered. We’ve visited the Etches collection fossil museum at Kimmeridge, it’s quite amazing and well worth a visit. Here’s a link; https://www.theetchescollection.org/

We have a couple of Alexa’s. The one in the lounge is set up to give weather warnings, which it did for Gosport for tonight, when it is supposed to be absolutely chucking it down. It’s just on 10PM, and it is raining.

I was then reminded of the beginning of the year, when I went through a phase of collecting some basic weather stats; max, min & current temp, humidity, pressure and I also had a wet rain gauge. I’d record these in a spreadsheet and then chart them.

I stopped doing it and I’m not sure why. I think I’ll start again, as it’s getting to the time of year when changes become even more pronounced.

I haven’t written about photography very much at all recently either as a practice or as an interest. I pretty much always have the intention of trying to take at least one photograph per day, I don’t always succceed, by quite a long stretch especially recently.

Taking pictures with my iphone is absolutely fine, especially if it using one of the three focal lengths, but there is just something missing, not holding what people might call a “real camera” and I’m not talking about a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) – the ones with interchangeable lenses, the smaller alomost pocket cameras, which may also have interchangeable lenses. I’d quite like to have one of those.

A very good website is mbp.com. it buys and sells second-hand cameras. I’ve considered selling my Nikon to them, this was not so long ago when I was ‘disengaging’ from photography. I don’t use my Nikon much, I think basically, I have the feeling that it is too bulky. Perhaps if it were a simpler, lighter outfit would I use it more?

A poor photographer always blames his tools. There’s nothing wrong with the tools. Don’t worry, I’m not beating myself up over this. I think I would just like a different camera, whether that is instead of or as well as my Nikon, I don’t know. Not yet though. What ever I’m going to do, I have to save up for it!

Depression is a strange thing. It doesn’t always manifest itself in the ways you’d expect. I certainly didn’t expect it to show itself as basically a withdrawal from society, I stopped going for my morning walks, I stopped going to my radio club. Stopping the morning walks were particularly distressing. I have no idea how I managed to keep the Thursday night net going.

There were times when my desire to not do the TNN was so intense that I really had to force myself to sit down. Usually, I was ok whilst it was running, and releived when it finished. There were definitely times when I wanted to stop doing it.

The walking, getting up at 0535 used to be a pleasure, it stopped being so. I’m afraid that getting up at that time is off the menu certainly for the time being.

I’m not sure what has clicked in my brain that has made me realise where I am, something my wife said, and something I read I think. I’m probably going to have to speak to someone about it.

I had to pop out quite early this morning. The first morning mist that I have encountered as we move well in to October. It wasn’t that it was chilly, presumably the air just has a lot of moisture and warm air is meeting cold. Either way, it was really nice to see.

I need to get back in to the habit of writing something every day. I’m very aware that I haven’t written anything for the last three. I’ll start looking the plan I used a while ago, and see how that works.

Sorry about the shortness of this one. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.

It’s frustrating isn’t it? You be doing something, for example I went for a very short walk this morning, just to get a bit of fresh air at the start of the day.

At one point on the walk I can remember thinking a thought, which was immediately followed with that would make an interesting topic for tonight’s blog. Now, this is where I make the mistake of not making a note of what I found so interesting.

I’m now sat here thinking about what to write for tonight’s blog, and nothing comes to mind. Then I remembered that I’d had this thought. If only I had made even a brief note because do you think I can remember what it was that I found so interesting at the time? Of course not.

When I go somewhere usually to visit a book shop for example, I take my NASA man bag with me, it contains amongst other things, my reading glasses and and a note book and at least one pen, for me to jot a thought or other note down.

I really need to make sure that as much time as possible I have a means of making a note with me. Well, I do don’t I my phone. Which is perfectly capable of recording a note. So why don’t I do it?

Sometimes, I get really annoyed with myself. I have been extremely annoyed with my self this past week. Actually, damned furious with me!

For several years I would happily arise at 0535, get ready and go for a walk, only very occasionally varying my route. And then, several months ago I stopped. I had stopped for a few weeks during covid, but once the family understood that at that time of the morning. I carried, and then a few months ago I stopped. Completely.

What it boiled down to was me just feeling that I didn’t want to get up. I found the thought of getting up to be quite stressful. The only way to stop feeling stressed was to accept that I wasn’t going to get up and go for a walk as I normally did. It wasn’t the walking, I was quite content to carry on with my lunchtime walks, and. walking at the weekend.

I am kind of coming out of it. I go for a walk in the morning, sometimes. Not at 0535, an hour later, and I’m not walking three miles as I usually did, two at most. That’s a time thing, not ability.

That’s the situation at the moment. I don’t know when I will get back to my original activity.

I’m sat at the desk thinking about what to write about for today’s blog. I probably should write about the civil war again, but I have written about that several times recently and I don’t want the blog to become single topic. To be honest, I don’t think there’s much danger of that.

Here’s another thought – The diary of Samual Pepys. I’ve tried a couple of times to read it but for some reason it hasn’t worked. Perhaps I should just dip in to it. The other thing I should do is try to read a letter from Gilbert White’s A Natural History each day.

I’ve just been watching a youtube by Ali Abdall, he’s introduced me to Expressive (as opposed to creative) writing. Seems it’s a bit emotional and quite personal. If I were to do that I think it would stay on paper.

The picture? That’s one of the very narrow streets of Mdina, Malta. No relationship to the story.

This picture does not feature Portchester Castle. Unfortunately, I don’t have one that does. This isn’t a piece about the castle, it about books that talk of the English Civil War.

I have a bit of a dilemma, I bought a book a while back by Diane Purkiss it draws upon the personal experiences of the people who lived in those times through letters, memoirs and other resources and is almost a diary type book in its own right. I had decided that if I were to read this book, I would need to commit to doing so, and thus it became the next book on my list.

But then, I was doing a search on the internet of episodes from that time that were happening in Hampshire, and I came across the story of. Basing house. And before you ask, the ruins of Basing house are about one mile from the centre of Basingstoke.

Although not a castle, it was nonetheless it was a grand house and it was pivotal in Hampshire’s involvement in the civil war. Ending as it did after being besieged for several months.

It is the main feature of a book called, unsurprisingly, The Civil War in Hampshire. Even Gosport receives several mentions in the book, written in 1904 by the Reverend G. N. Godwin, which surprisingly, is freely available on the Internet. I confess that I am inclined to read that first, not least because it refers to Gosport, and the clubmen which I thought was a Dorset phenomenon.

I don’t think it is a dilemma really, I know which one I am going to read first.

The picture? Oh, that’s the remains of the Palace of Knossos of Crete. Which I think guarded the labyrinth in which wandered the mythical beast the Minotaur, half man half bull. But that, as they say, is an entirely separate story.

I haven’t done a post for a few days. I just haven’t felt like it. Tonight’s post is going not much better I’m afraid sorry about that. I’ll slowly try and get back to normal. Just bear with me.