it's all downhill from here
21/06/09
you can feel it in the air tonight, and no I'm not
referring to a balding ex-Genesis musician's song,
I'm referring to yesterday being the years shortest
night. The summer solstice. The beginning of the
winter, eeeh lad, ee can feel the nights drawing in.
Expect Christmas goods in the supermarkets within
weeks.
As per last year I spent the night patrolling the Stonehenge landscape in a works landrover, putting out the odd fire, moving the odd camper on their way. It felt slightly different this year, not a spiritual occasion but a pretty good natured one by all standards. People, and by people I mean almost all 36,500 of them, were in high spirits (read into those two words what you will), it was a good natured affair with plenty of banter even when I was pouring water over their fires. I finished my shift at 1am and fled to avoid the actual sunrise as I'd seen the state of the A303 and decided I'd like to see the inside of my eyelids at some point this weekend, we watched a tanker plod his way along the A303 at one point and it took him over an hour to do a mile.
After a sleep that wasn't long enough by anyones measure I threw the waders in the boot, grabbed the rod from it's hooks above the back door and headed out for some sunny r&r on the riverbank.
First stop was the Bourne and for me, a fishing first... After 30 minutes I gave it up as being pretty much unfishable, and for me with my penchant for the wilder reaches of rivers, that was really a surprise. Wall to wall weed, 7' vegetation on the banks, bright sun, gusty winds and gin clear water; all added up to more of a job than the r&r I was searching for so I tromped back to the car and pootled over to the Avon and a little carrier stream I knew wouldn't be affected by the current weed cut. Inside an hour and without moving more than 10m I had 6 brownies to around the 2lb mark and a lovely little grayling. To be honest I felt like a coarse angler sat there on the bank flicking the fly out to one rising fish after another. Only a ruddy great box filled with every item of tackle ever invented, like some deranged granny from hell on a mission to find the last box of tunnocks tea cakes in Tesco's, could have completed the picture.
~ malcolm
As per last year I spent the night patrolling the Stonehenge landscape in a works landrover, putting out the odd fire, moving the odd camper on their way. It felt slightly different this year, not a spiritual occasion but a pretty good natured one by all standards. People, and by people I mean almost all 36,500 of them, were in high spirits (read into those two words what you will), it was a good natured affair with plenty of banter even when I was pouring water over their fires. I finished my shift at 1am and fled to avoid the actual sunrise as I'd seen the state of the A303 and decided I'd like to see the inside of my eyelids at some point this weekend, we watched a tanker plod his way along the A303 at one point and it took him over an hour to do a mile.
After a sleep that wasn't long enough by anyones measure I threw the waders in the boot, grabbed the rod from it's hooks above the back door and headed out for some sunny r&r on the riverbank.
First stop was the Bourne and for me, a fishing first... After 30 minutes I gave it up as being pretty much unfishable, and for me with my penchant for the wilder reaches of rivers, that was really a surprise. Wall to wall weed, 7' vegetation on the banks, bright sun, gusty winds and gin clear water; all added up to more of a job than the r&r I was searching for so I tromped back to the car and pootled over to the Avon and a little carrier stream I knew wouldn't be affected by the current weed cut. Inside an hour and without moving more than 10m I had 6 brownies to around the 2lb mark and a lovely little grayling. To be honest I felt like a coarse angler sat there on the bank flicking the fly out to one rising fish after another. Only a ruddy great box filled with every item of tackle ever invented, like some deranged granny from hell on a mission to find the last box of tunnocks tea cakes in Tesco's, could have completed the picture.
~ malcolm
click click click
16/06/09
just
some photo's this time. No rambles, no rants. Sorry!
