Saturday 1 February 2014

When will it end?

The weather has been atrocious for weeks now - all through Christmas and into this new year. More this weekend too with another batch of high spring tides. I am longing for cold and frosty days and for the rivers to drop so I can actually cast a line for............something, anything! The Avon will be up for weeks as the groundwater has now kicked in - it is as clear as a bell and in places crystal clear to a depth of eight feet or more. The Stour now reacts to the smallest amount of rain and resembles chocolate soup after each downpour.



I missed autumn on the riverbank and also the apple harvest. The family orchard up country resembles a neglected Christmas tree with its baubles covering the carpet of grass. The Fieldfares, Redwings and Song Thrush are happy with that and our Labrador who hoovers them up when our backs are turned and then duly farts like a trooper for days - the joy of it! 


West Bay Esplanade - after the large stones and rocks were removed!

What I have managed to do is collect some superb flotsam and jetsam from our West Dorset beaches - more often than not it has been totally unsafe to venture anywhere near the beach, but on the odd calm day it is amazing what the sea provides. 


West Bay Harbour - One of the calmer days!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Greetings Dickie.Well......I hope it will end soon.Not this week by the look of it.February fill dyke!!!.Hopefully spring is just around the corner and the sun will shine.It will surely dry out enough for a cracking last few weeks on the rivers.Heres hoping.
I must confess to thoughts of spring trouting, fresh green shoots on the banks and our birds merrily singing their breeding songs!..All good things.Ttfn Champ.

The Two Terriers said...



Dickie,

Definitely 'February fill-dyke' here in West Norfolk but the Pike and Perch fishing is brilliant. My best season ever, so every cloud has a silver lining. The apples in the orchard are being scoffed by Redwings, Fieldfares, Thrushes, Blackies and lots of other birds plus Barney one of our JRs but boy do they give him gas…

All the best, John

Dickie Straker said...

Greetings and felicitations Champ - finally the sun is shining today! Just an interlude I fear with more storms on the way.....thoughts of clear chalk rivers and trout....but wouldn't mind a few pike first! TTFN Dickie

Dickie Straker said...

Hey John - hope your lacerated fingers are OK? I have a few war wounds from old Esox! Can't get near the rivers here - chocolate soup or the river is somewhere it shouldn't be! Enjoying your posts as ever (especially this week) - best fishes, Dickie