Point To Point

Had a great run yesterday. Started at Harwich pier, on to the beach at Dovercourt, across the fields between Ramsey and Wrabness, along the river to Bradfield, up through tiny lanes to Mistley Heath and finishing at Lawford. Too many commas I know.

A fantastic, mostly off road trail of 14 miles, all in glorious sunshine, albeit with a nippy north westerly wind.. Then a pig out in Luccas Italian restaurant with Bong as a treat. That'll do for me.

The TT prints mounted and in position. As if I'd put them in the bog.

I did re decorate the bog though. Blue tac and a few drawing pins and it was done in half hour. DIY SOS ? Nick Knowles ? Pah !

Pure class. Toodle pip.

Onward

Had the usual good Christmas, kicked off by a double header of films on Christmas Eve, both of which  are a tradition in the ES household. The legendary "It's A Wonderful Life" and possibly the best western ever made, "Tombstone". And yes, it is better than the original "Gunfight At The OK Corral".

I of course ruin it, by coming out with most of the lines a fraction of a second before they are spoken. Also a tradition, though not universally appreciated.

Plenty of runs and bike rides in the ( mostly ) good weather. Now making plans for the coming year.

Pressies included port, wine, one of the new Medlar books, several CDs, including my first dabble into prog rock ( well, if you don;t include Pink Floyd ). King Crimson no less. I'd heard and liked "21st Century Schizoid Man" and hoped the rest of the tracks would be similar. They're not, they're noodly, wanky bollocks, which is why I've always hated prog. Can't say I didn't try it anyway.

Anyway, the other two CDs, the mighty Wave Pictures and the newly re discovered Depeche Mode ( top chuuuuunes ) are great. 

I managed to read Robert Harris's "Fatherland" in a few days. Cracking read, though I was always going to say that as I'm obsessed with anything to do with WW2. 

Just spent this morning framing TT's last two Christmas cards. Seems a shame not too, the man's too clever by half.

Now going to decorate the bog i.e put some more photos and press cuttings up with blue tack. It's my version of shabby chic. Or shabby shite. Ah, a good title for the next blog. 

Happy New Year to all.

2016

The dark days down to Christmas paw
Like horses at an earthen floor
When all the ghosts of autumn pass away
And ragged squads of starlings fight
In firethorn trees in fading light
For orange berries brighter than the day

Martin Newell

Highlights of the Year

In no particular order...

Savages / Bo Ningan gig at Cambridge Junction.
The camper tour of France and the Spanish Pyrenees
Cycling to the top of the Col Du Pradel. 5500 feet of pleasure ( on the way down ).
Cycling all over the Tarn and Jonte gorges. Looking DOWN on soaring griffin vultures. Fantastic place.
Rock climbing with brother in law Ian at Aix Des Thermes.
Seeing half a dozen beavers one evening on the river Tarn.
Another great weeks fishing on the Beara Peninsula in south west Ireland, made even better by seeing big pods of dolphins most days. One day we saw a fin whale with the dolphins. A huge beast and truly awe inspiring.

Wild Camping at Loch Slapin on Skye.
A fantastic day rock fishing on a remote headland by Loch Brittle, catching big pollack with Goozgog from the rocks in the sunshine.
Swimming in the Stour estuary in September, on a beautifully calm, warm evening.
Watching Leicester win the league and Man Utd making cocks of themselves on a weekly basis.
Enjoyed the running too. First 5 and 10 km races. Good half marathon in the fens too.

Read this....

Orwell's "Coming Up For Air". Not as well known as Animal Farm or 1984, but a great book. He was a fisherman too and mentions the subject often in this one.
Guy Martin's "When You Dead, You Dead". He writes like he talks. Constant references to farting, defecating outside and "spanking one off" meant I was always going to love this book.

Watch this....

Storyville - Jim - The James Foley Story. Uplifting and appalling in equal measure.
The Intouchables - French film ( yes, we're very sophisticated in north Essex. Subtitles, obviously) Fantastic, funny, touching film. Don't worry about the subject matter, just watch it.

Hear this......

Anything by the Sleaford Mods ( yes, again )
Anything by the mighty James. Glad I rediscovered them. Mighty tunes aplenty.

And with that, another year ended. Toodle pip, have a good one.

Golden Days

Autumn is the second spring
When every leaf is in flower

Albert Camus

The boy Camus played in goal for a team that twice won the North African Champions Cup in the 30s. That is your factoid of the day kids.

What a stunning couple of days we've just had. Perfect late autumn weather. Crisp, totally windless, the sun straining to melt the frost.

Most of the trees are clinging on to the last of the leaves, all of which will be gone in the next decent storm, but what a show it is at the moment.

I went out around midday today, along the river and through the woods, now several inches deep in brittle, flaky leaves, crunching underfoot. Almost total silence, just a few tell tale peeps from a group of long tailed tits and the far off "cawing" of rooks, squabbling on the stubble fields.

Days like these are rare, especially near the coast and you cannot help but be aware of the lack of "weather noise". I made the most of it today and probably did five or six miles in total.

It almost makes me want to dig the pike rods out for a go on the river. Toodle pip.

Roll On Spring

God, I hate it when the clocks go back. Dark at five. Horrible.
Caught yet more skate last week, plus too many whiting.
On Sunday I did the Lode Half Marathon in 1.38.40, battling a strong, cold northerly wind blasting across the fens. Good course and sunny though. Didn't enjoy the last mile. Like most long runs, enjoyable in retrospect.
That is all. See you in April.

Fill That Freezer

Sea fishing locally this summer has been poor, so we've been hoping we'd get a run of codling this autumn. Unfortunately, they appear to be as rare as rocking horse shite. What to do ?

However, over the past week or two there have been a reasonable number of rays being caught off the piers. Normally when this is the case our ( not so ) secret roker spot is loaded with them.

That being the case, me and Norfolk Bob arranged for a shortish afternoon session. Conditions were perfect, a coloured sea and a northerly wind, which at this mark results in a calm sea.

NB arrived early and by the time I turned up he was on ray number four.

My first two casts resulted in fish, certainly a good start. Things eased up, but throughout the afternoon waves of fish came through, mostly in the 4-8lb range.

I then hooked something that felt bigger and called NB. We expected to see a double figure ray, but instead were greeted with the sight of a double shot of five pounders. Oh well, can't complain.

Just before high tide the rod tip sprang back and I pulled into what I hoped this time really was a bigger fish. It did what ray do, plodded around a bit and in a short a while a real clonker hit the shingle. 12lb 4oz. Happy days.

I ended up with 16 and NB 17, so a cracking afternoon. We both took only three fish home, not because of conservation concerns, but for the fact that it's difficult to carry any more back a mile across the shingle. Unless you have a wheel barrow.......

On The Ressie

I've been fishing the "large Suffolk stillwater" over the past month, with reasonable success. First proper session was with Wak Baines. We roach fished and caught a good few, with Wak having a couple of jack pike too. A good start.

At the moment the ressie is stuffed full of roach, most 4-8 oz, but plenty of bigger fish too. A few bream and the odd tench showing too. I managed to jam a nice tench of 6lb 15oz when float fishing for the roach. Fun on 2lb line. Real brute it was.

My first piking session resulted in a nice fish of 14lb, before I got hungry and cleared off early.

I did manage to get caught in the only rain we've had for three months.....

Last weekend Wak was back and after a late start we had four pike between us, plus a few missed and lost. Wak had the biggest, a corker just short of 14lb.

A lovely autumn day, lots of piss taking and a few fish, lovely.

To finish the day off, an old face from the past turned up. Mr Colin Abbott was totally unrecognisable, as I'm sure, we were to him ( point of order Mrs TT. Grammatically, is that sentence shite ? )  We had a good chat and he seems keen to join us next time. Good 'ol boy.

Sorry, bit of a boring write up. Bit lacking in inspiration. Must try harder next time.

Toodle pip.