Friday Ditty Pt 12

There hasn't been a Friday Ditty for a while. I have been getting all melancholy over the music of my youth - this is one of them, an absolute belter by the mighty Wild Swans. Was it really 1982?? Great video and in a rather lovely sort of way my nippers like it too. Enjoy.

Wakey, wakey Jasper!

I just happened to look down whilst preparing the veg for dinner and there she was, all dosey in a warm cabbagey nook. Still alive, only just. Out of interest I put her on the window ledge to inspect later. That evening The Captain asked me what that drilling noise was........it was this Queen wasp flying like a zeppelin around the kitchen. These photo's do not do her justice - she was a whopper. Back door open and she was off. Thank goodness I say. I called them Jasper's as a nipper. These days it's more like stripey bastard or just plain old bastard. Me a nature lover too!    

The next best thing

They say the next best thing to actually fishing is reading or talking about it. I do agree, but also include walking by water - rivers or lakes where one fishes or intends to fish. I needed a fix and my favourite venue never fails. Only a few weeks left of the coarse fishing season and the Avon was slightly coloured and tanking through after some heavy rain of late. Really looking forward to squeezing in some tail end trips, but this wooded glide won't be one of them. Wrong time of year.

The conker copse is one of the best places on the estate to wind down and contemplate a barbel in the early autumn. After then it seems to get harder to catch the fish. I don't think they stay here all year round. The barbel are few and far between, but monsters do lurk around these chestnuts. Recognise the glide above? Autumn Glory in the delightful A Passion for Angling series by the lovely Hugh Miles and starring Ferney and "him who we don't talk about". This is the scene of the conker match and barbel capture. Moody today in its winter cloak. 

Coot Club Forever

And ever! A few more delicious covers for your edification.

True lovers knot

I think our veggie box chap does it on purpose. Here we have another fine example of the weird and wonderful in the veg world - a parsnip this time. 

Girl in a hoody

Mervyn O' Gorman c1913

Mervyn Joseph Pius O' Gorman (1871 - 1958) was an electrical and aircraft engineer. Also a bit of a dandy by all accounts. He was a pioneer of colour photography and I only recently discovered these, taken by him on the Dorset coast.

Mervyn O' Gorman c1913

I have always liked them and wondered whatever happened to the girl, Christina, who appears in many of his photographs. By all accounts she was his daughter. The hoody picture (top) could have been taken this last summer, but was in fact taken in 1913.....amazing.

Lulworth Cove is the location by the way..........looks nice and quiet in 1913.

Mervyn O' Gorman - Christina

Mervyn O' Gorman c1913

The Woodbine Challenge

Feast your eyes on this classic from 1973 complete with music of the time - remember the show? 

Brings back memories as a nipper fishing matches on the Warwickshire Avon in Evesham town. The bus would take us there and it would be rancid going home - the stench of bream slime coupled with the cocktail of stinking kids, maggot sawdust and a bag of chips. Did we wash our hands? Did we heck!

The opening few minutes, actually most of this film, is like a gather of the Golden Scale Club.......not much has changed, including the rockets. Now, where's my packed lunch and bottle of beer squire?

Jan and Feb.....

........lowest ebb. So the old saying goes. I am fully signed up to this and only just start to come out of the gloom into February when the first of the snowdrops appear. After the Twelfth Night celebrations I sort of go into hibernation - sod all this get fit new year resolution malarkey. Who really wants all that during the glooming time of the year? Most folks just want to curl up in front of the fire with a syrup pudding open the port and just get through it, me included.......until about now. 

There has been a paucity of posts and there is good reason - been too cold to go fishing, too cold and grim to do anything. But I do sense we may be breaking through to the other side. I do feel we are on the cusp of something. The light is changing, the birds are louder and the sun of the last few days is slightly warming when out of the wind. I even thought of dusting down the fly tackle in readiness for the spring! No doubt it will all come crashing down before then, but at the moment there is the end of this coarse fishing season to look forward to - anyone for a pike? 

Look up, not down

I had my first proper walk yesterday after being struck down with a bug that just would not go away. A few days ago it was -5 and the fire was continually lit. Yesterday it was positively balmy out of the wind - a glorious winters day with no need for the extra layers.

We live nestled near the top of one hill that forms a pair to the north of the town. Like a glorious pair of breasts they are a delight that guide me back home. There are many like that round here. I have been trying to walk each and every path within a few miles of home and this one came as a complete surprise to the west of the pair.  

It isn't marked or signed it is just there - worn down by years of footfalls. A locals route. Those walking to town or school and in recent times neglected as the pavement offers a more convenient route. Yesterday though, the wind sounded just right as it whispered through the trees. 

I thought of BB's book Brendon Chase (1944) about some small boys who run away to live in the woods. Some of the trees here would have appealed to them. The first bumblebee of the year crossed my path and the bird song was the loudest it has been for weeks. Is something afoot? As a boy when I first met BB he did say on more than one occasion to me - look up not down when out and about. I think of that often. Yesterday was just one of those days.