Bills Posts

I bought a book on Saturday, about the subject. Even the sales assistant commented on the slightly gruesome cover. It’s a period of our history of which pretty much know nothing, just a couple of things that happened here in Gosport.

I wonder what impact it had on Dorset? I think Corfe Castle may have had a role, and possibly accounted for it’s destruction, but I’m not confident about that.

Although a violent part of our past, I’m keen to read the book. I’ve even bumped it up my reading list. Let’s see how it goes.

Ok, perhaps the header picture is not in the garden, but there’s a link between the pleasure of seeing these geese and just sitting in the garden.

We sat at the top of the garden, there were some light fluffy clouds, and a couple that looked as though they could drop a load of water, it stayed pleasant most of the afternoon.

The seagull stayed surprisingly silent on the neighbours roof. It was probably laughing at the pigeons attempts to get past that anti-big bird measures, against which the squirrel was able to just slip through.

The butterflies were flitting about, I confess I have never paid much attention to how they feed, I think they have a long proboscis that uncurls so they can drink the nectar. I guess their main role is pollinator. I’m not really sure.

There were a couple if insects that were either dragon or May flies, quite big, bluish in colour flying around the garden. Occasionally they would meet up for a fraction of a second. I like dragonflies, they remind me of helicopters. Really though it’s the ornithopters off Dune that mimic them.

A delightful few minutes.

I asked ChatGPT. Which nations have a propensity for queuing neatly? It turns out that amongst nations listed were included the UK, Japan Singapore.

I was in a queue earlier this week. We were mostly very patient, but what changed that were people taking a long time to deal with matters that really should be dealt with during non-peak times, especially as the people who were at the counter were not tied to being there at peak time. It didn’t help of course that I was time limited and was becoming apparent that I wouldn’t reach the counter in time.

Nobody said anything of course, but the lady in front of me was rolling her eyes at me. I broke away from the queue.

Why am I writing about queueing today? We went over to Portsmouth via ferry. The queue seems to be one of the few situations where it can be chaotic and not raise temperatures. It was orderly in the sense there was no jostling.

As we were standing there, my mind was drawn back to driving on motorways and the ways in which traffic can clump and traffic flow in general. There’s probably a deeply mathematical explanation, way beyond me. But interesting nonetheless.

I haven’t seen any of the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible films. I can imagine some people being as shocked about that fact as I have been when people have told me that they’d never seen any of the Star Wars films.

This weekend we are going to see the latest film. It’s a bit frustrating that it’s a two parter.

The original 1960’s tv series had used to be a favourite of mine. I wonder if the film will match the memories?

Back in the ‘70s I did a Geology O’Level. When I was at school I really quite enjoyed geography, mainly the physical side rather than economic, how ox-bow lakes are formed the weather cycle, things like that are really fascinating.

I thought that geology would be an extension of that. Well, not really. But it is nonetheless fascinating and as wide ranging. The course involved an introduction to fossils and included a trip to a site which was well known for the ease with which fossils can be found. During our explorations I even found one, a belemnite – they are pretty common though. Of course it’s the Dinosaurs that are the big ones to find.

Then there is the rock side of the subject. We learned about Moh’s scale of hardness ranging from Talc at 1 to Diamond at 10. We also learned about the three main types of rock; igneous, a sedimentary and metamorphic. I delighted in using the geologists hand lens, I still have one downstairs.

Learning about the various geological periods was fascinating and associated with that are Orogenies – Mountain building periods when the earth’s crust buckled and bent to for ranges like the Rockies, the Himalayas or the Alps. The Alps in particular were formed between 66 and around 3 million years ago. The impact of the time can be seen here in the UK particularly the Purbeck Monocline which can clearly be seen in the rocks around Lulworth Cove, these are the ripples flowing out from the Alps.

The topic is fascinating.

I couldn’t let this post go past without commenting on a visit to France a few years back. We made a point of having a tour around. After leaving the ferry at Ouistreham we drove along the Normandie coast and learned about the impact that WW2 had on the area. That really is a separate story.

One thing we really wanted to do was to see the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry is embroidered on a cloth over 200 feet long and roughly two feet wide. The tapestry depicts the events leading up to the Normandie invasion of England by William The Conqueror.

It was absolutely fascinating, and amazing to think that it had been created over a thousand years ago.

I was walking across a car park. In front of me, a car started reversing. I’m pretty sure they hadn’t seen me, not a problem I was perfectly safe, so I stopped and waited. The car continued moving.

As I was waiting for the car to clear it’s parking space, a family walked past me, a mum and three kids (minimum age guess twelve) walked past me into the zone the car was reversing in to. To be honest, I was gobsmacked. Why would you walk in to a danger zone?

I am assuming that the family, especially the mum (dad not present) were utterly confident that the driver of the car would see them. I had stopped so that I did not pose a risk to the driver of hitting me. I cannot believe that the family did not see the car moving

I have to admit that I was intensely annoyed with the family, both putting themselves needlessly in danger, and presenting the driver with a real threat of injuring someone. Of course the driver did spot them and stopped. Whereas, I felt that I had stopped as a matter of courtesy to the driver, the family were clearly demonstrating either their arrogance or ignorance of a risk, There was just something about the whole scenario that incensed me almost to the point of saying something. I resisted the urge.

When I was very young, my mum worked in Swanage. During the holidays I would go with her. I was pretty much left to my own devices so I would wander all over the town exploring it.

Amongst my favourite places were Peveril Point, where I would watch the waves and explore the old WW2 bunkers, with I think at least one where you could just sit under shelter. Particularly useful when it rained. Also Durlston Castle, I was fascinated by the large stone globe.

Not much further on from Durlston was Swanage Lighthouse. For a lighthouse, it was (to my small eyes) quite a sizeable establishment. I wonder if the keeper lived there with his family? My first encounter with a lighthouse though would probably been Portland Bill. I can remember seeing the red and white building. We must have been on a day out.

Quite a few years later I was on a camping trip (yes, against my better judgement I went camping, never again though through chop ice. this trip was to the Scilly Isles, I must admit, it was a fascinating few days, exploring St Mary’s the main island, we visited fresco and experienced the sub-tropical gardens there. But for me the highlight of the trips was the boat ride out to the Bishops Rock lighthouse.

Sadly we weren’t able to visit the lighthouse, but to see it was impressive, especially when you think how it was built and when. I had always fancied the idea of being a lighthouse keeper. Not really sure why, it just really appealed me. Nowadays of course they are all automatic (I think. There may still be some manned ones).

Not sure what it is that appeals to me, but my interest has never gone away.

I think I mentioned the society a few posts ago. We were in Dorchester as I usually do, I went into every book shop I could find. This one particular shop had a pile of books that were “The Proceedings” of the society. These are published every year. I bought the 1984 proceedings.

It was the article about the smugglers that I read and found most interesting. This morning I sat down and went through the book, I started reading page by page. The first article was about the excavation of a barrow.

What got me was the level of detail. Details of measurements within the barrow, down to fractions of an inch in the excavations. I don’t need that, in the sense that I’m not bothered about that kind of detail.

What did disturb me was the findings. Descriptions of the positioning of the bones they found, including those of children, young children. The finding of bell beakers, so a fairly close dating over three thousand years ago. A fact of life, distressing nonetheless.

I suppose part of the name being archeological you would expect nothing less. But there is also the natural history side of things. I don’t know anything about the authors of the articles, but I get the impression that they are professional, possibly academically qualified or have received some training.

I’ve looked at the membership details. £60 a year buys unlimited entry into the museum, access to an extensive library, complimentary tickets, and a few other things as well as a copy of the latest proceedings. I am asking myself, is it worth it – oh, I nearly forgot, there is a magazine published twice a year. I’d like to see one of those. It might influence my decision.

I intended to go to the Discovery Centre to a b it of research in to Gosport’s role in the Civil War for example, was it a strategically important place for either of the protagonists, the Parliamentarians or the Royalists? Did any significant battles or events occur in Gosport during the campaign?

Well, it turns out that the Parliamentarians had two events that were significant localy (the seizing of the Mary Rose (not the one that sank) and the bombardment of Portsmouth) Apart from that Gosport had barely no notable invovlement in the civil war.

Still, that does give us a couple of opportunities for vlogging.

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