Tales of Home [9]

Nice flowers. I've noticed that most flowering trees really aren't much to look at when not in bloom - you need a mix of perennial lookers and bloomers.

Yeah, they are mostly boring really. Its only in Spring that they look so lovely. I do take snaps when Im out, never know if a neighbour complains about "oh my front room is in the shade, cut the tree down immediately" & before you come back again the tree is gone. I get so cross with that !

So long as the tree is trimmed so it's not claustrophobic I can't understand why people would prefer sun to shade. Trees naturally give you shade when you want it in summer, then the leaves fall and give you sun in the winter. People are fools.

halfwise wrote:Malick - what's the deal with that swing gate?  At first blush it looks like a really clever way to only allow people, not vehicles in.  Until you notice the knee-high fence beside it.  Wouldn't stop anyone from tossing a bicycle over, and even a small motorbike wouldn't be much of a problem.  So what are they actually trying to accomplish?

Hey Halfy, that swing gate leads to a side path through the woods:

There's a map of the common on page 4 of this PDF the council has put together:


https://www.fareham.gov.uk/PDF/leisure/treetrail_print.pdf

Having walked that path myself I'd say you could probably ride a bicycle along there, but not a motorbike as the path is uneven and a bit steep in places.


the main entrance to the common is just next to it (the swing gate leading to the path through the woods is on the left just as out site in this image) , as you can see in this image i nabbed off google:



People ride bicycles (or even horses) around the common quite a bit, but i think the main gate is only ever open fully to allow the council to drive in and do maintenance or check up on things.

Loving all the nice photos/videos guys!
Beautiful flowers Az

Bloody cracking photos Malick I went back & looked at the 1st set you posted. Love the newts, insects, butterflies. The dandelion was just so lovely in its simplicity. Ive been collecting dandelion leaves this morning. They shalt be my dinner
( you can put them in a salad or steam them for a moment like spinach )

And for today (well, actually from two days ago) a series of photos I took on a long walk down the beach (at a guess totalling four or five miles), in mostly chronological order:

To answer a few likely questions:

The pond with the Heron is actually a water reservoir I think, I don't think there's any fish living in it, the Heron was most likely having a rest there before flying down the titchfield Haven nature reserve which is just down the coast:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titchfield_Haven_National_Nature_Reserve


The pond with the swan and ducks is a private fishing pond, I think Trout and Carp live in it.

The bunch of houses you can see at the end of the beach cliff are mostly chalets, some are holiday homes and some are lived in year round i think, Titchfield Haven is next to them (as is a ice cream truck usually )


The big industrial building with the tall tower is Fawley Power station:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawley_Power_Station

(I think it has recently be decominishined though the oil refinery just down the way from it is still active-and the various big ships you can see in the photos above are oil tankers moored there)

The very blurry photo of  bunch of houses/buildings (just below the photo of the speedboat/house of the hill) is a very zoomed in look at the twin towns of East and West Cowes, Isle Of Wight:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowes

At a random guess it's probably three or four miles across the water (and yes people can and do swim it occasionally, mostly to raise money for charity), the big ferries you can see in the images above are run by Red Funnel and operate a car-ferry from Southampton (a big city a few miles down the coast from me, about 35 minutes away on the bus) to Cowes several times a hour 365 days a year (there's also the 'Red Jet' a fast passenger catamaran service which takes about 15-18 minutes journey to get across to the Island).

There's three other passenger services to the Isle of Wight currently active, 1) A Lymington to Yarmouth car ferry, 2) The Southsea to Ryde passenger  hovercraft and 3) The Portsmouth to Ryde Car/passenger ferries.

I used to spent a week or two over the island every year for my easter and or summer holidays growing up, and have occasionally visited for the day in recent years as well, lovely charming place packed with history and great scenery and food (the ferry is rather expensive though!). On a random side note, IIRC the Passenger hovercraft is the only large passenger hovercraft still operating in the Europe, when I was a kid there was another passenger service operating from Lee On Solent to Ryde but the company went bust, which is a shame as Lee on Solent has a rather fascinating hovercraft museum and I believe locals were heavily involved in creating the first hovercrafts.

The very blurry image of the tall white spikey building is:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirates_Spinnaker_Tower

On a good dy you can see for over 20 miles from the top, it's quite a good view though the tower is rather overpiced to visit in my opinion.

The old stone castle building with the tower next to it you can see in one of the photos above is Calshot Castle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calshot_Castle

Which me and my girlfriend visited last year, interesting museum and building with a nice stretch of beach to explore as well, definitely worth a visit in you are ever in the neighboorhood. I think the large tower is a Coast Guard building.


And no, I have no idea what the large metal pole sticking out of the water, and the random stone block in the field are about.

I couldn't tell you what most of the flowers I took photos of are called either...I just thought hey that looks like it was make a nice photo I had never actually walked that route back through the woods before, was a pleasant surprise to see so many bluebells in bloom already.

That was fantastic. I love the countryside so much that I never get tired of looking at it !! Ive pinched a few of your pics as they are so nice. Theres one nice pic where it opens up to the sea from the woods & I swear I got a whiff of salt

My pots ready with my Runner Beans for this year

Good god, Malick; have you got an automated uploader?

10th one from the bottom, purple flowers among the saplings in my favorite. Sort of impressionistic, though on zooming up I see that may be a focus effect.

{{ Cracking pics Malick- must have taken ages to upload them all!
Nice garden Az- but then you probably need it all for your witches brews!

Sticking my last ramble vid back up, not sure if it got lost in the mix of pictures or if folk are just sick of listening to me ramble on already but as its only got 3 views (and I happen to know my mum was one of them!) hoping it just got missed).}}

you crack me up with your loathing of pine trees tho I do understand why. To be honest the trees look sad, the mood in that forest is sad. 'Man' can never get it right. We have Ash die back all along the Downs, its going along the coast for miles. What was once lush & green is now looking like the day after a major battle, with gun fire & canons. I don't think people really realise how much we owe to trees. I miss the animals & birds. Everything from a teeny tiny insect or beetle affects the whole chain if its missing & its not until everything is gone do you wake up & notice, you notice the silence, you notice the sadness. Im enjoying your rambles Its nice to hear how people feel about where they live. The view from the top of The Downs is amazing. you can see all of Eastbourne & going off towards other towns also. Theres some landmarks up there from a bomb crater to a war memorial. At the moment walkers are told they cannot access The Downs because of social distancing etc which I think is a bit daft but, hey ho. My biggest reason for not trotting up there is because its rife with Adders & I hate snakes more than I can find words !

{{ I really do hate those forestry forests. What didnt come out in the vid, when I say even the trees are protesting, the upper branches whenever the wind blow rub and crack and scrape together as theres no room between them. But the mic on the phone wasnt good enough to pick it up. Youll notice there are no lower branches to speak off as no real light gets down there.
Those forests always feel dank, dark and oppressive. The phoe picked up light underneath much more than the human eye does, it was all but dark to the eye under there despite the strong sunlight.
And as you say Az, once the small stuff has nowhere to live everything else goes with it. Its a knock-on effect. }}

@ fab photos Malick, I love the bluebell woods and the sparkling sea, it looks so inviting.

@ Petty "just this shit forever"   poor pine trees.



@ do you eat the beans Az? or are they for climbing up to find golden geese?

My point is, they have two structures there that allow pedestrians through, one of which also lets bikes be lifted across. They only need this second one, making the first a silly waste. I suppose they put in the bike-allowing part some time after the pedestrian only structures?

malickfan wrote:

halfwise wrote:Malick - what's the deal with that swing gate?  At first blush it looks like a really clever way to only allow people, not vehicles in.  Until you notice the knee-high fence beside it.  Wouldn't stop anyone from tossing a bicycle over, and even a small motorbike wouldn't be much of a problem.  So what are they actually trying to accomplish?

Hey Halfy, that swing gate leads to a side path through the woods:
the main entrance to the common is just next to it (the swing gate leading to the path through the woods is on the left just as out site in this image) , as you can see in this image i nabbed off google:



People ride bicycles (or even horses) around the common quite a bit, but i think the main gate is only ever open fully to allow the council to drive in and do maintenance or check up on things.

ok heres my crabbit ramble. I am truly shit at steady-camming. I start talking after a bit, just getting used to filming and walking at the same time.

{{ Beware the cyprus trees! Amazing how much further on your spring is, our trees are only just starting to bud yours are fully green already. It looks lovely.
And yes, very proud of you Figg, that was a proper crabbit rant! And quite right too! Bloody littter louts and fly-tippers
Also interesting how we Forumshirians see the world through a Tolkien lens
Oh and I hate bread crumbs in the bed too, they stick to the buckie spills }}

Petty - I think it's important to distinguish between pine and fir trees. Pine trees make fine open spaces if mixed with other trees and are great for camping. Fir trees should only be used to decorate the tops of high mountains.

You're quite isolated, Figgles - quite nice really. I suppose people have to pay for garbage service so would rather leave it along some quiet road? Damn orcs.

One of my chinese friends posted this: someone is placing mounds of flowers around New York City.  Since all the commentary is in Chinese I'm not sure what this is all about really.  But it's nice.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NYTvKYKAPG2sJGOLyzfewQ

Ah, found them.

https://lewismillerdesign.com/flower-flash/ Most are from the past, unfortunately. I was planning to head down to the phone booth one until I saw the date.

I think it's important to distinguish between pine and fir trees. Pine trees make fine open spaces if mixed with other trees and are great for camping.- Halfy

{{ I do make the direct comparison between the open natural Scots pine and the forestry version. }}

I was one of the three first viewers of Petty's video (or maybe two of the three, since I didn't see it all in one go). I am amused at how similar the landscape is to the one around here. Including the large area of planted pine, planted so the next generation could cut them and earn some money. But most of all the video made me wanna drag my lazy fat ass out of the sofa and huff and puff my way up our forrest road. And so todaay I actually did. No video tho.

That was lovely Mrs Figg & yes, I heard so many birds, they are really telling a story. I bet they are enjoying life right now. No planes ripping across the skies, fresher air, even I can smell the flowers better this year. The lilacs have been gorgeous, smelling just as they should. To me that looked so very British to see dumped bags in the countryside. Just goes to show no matter your nationality we are all the same, conniving, devious, self centred idjits world over. We are also kind hearted & caring, a right bloody mixture. Those rocks falling willy nilly must be a worry ? Do you get little Earthquakes ?
{{{ as for beans -- one has to finance ones spell book so the odd golden egg does come in handy }}}

Crikey, Even though your neck of the woods is also so lovely Amarië, if Petty had been narrating Id think that was Scotland. I bet you both have similar rock formation & its a very similar compound ?

{{ Amarie besides some slight differences in the shape of the hills, yours tend to rise steeper than ours, it is remarkably similar. But then I suppose we arent really that far apart all considered. }}