Hazel catkins hang like lanolin lanterns. Little lamb’s tails that shine against the chocolate brown of the ploughed field beyond. The leaves remain tucked up, but the season is shifting. Spring is coming but winter has yet to bite. There is a different kind of cold out there though. Clouds casting shadows where even theContinue reading “Catkins”
Tag Archives: Fallon’s Angler
Institutionalisation
I spent some time in a secure unit when I was 20. Actually, ‘secure unit’ is being generous – it was a Mental Hospital, dating back to the First World War and since bulldozed and developed (for housing, obviously – nobody gets mentally ill anymore). ‘It’s nothing like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ theyContinue reading “Institutionalisation”
Autumn winds
I made an unexpected return to the Wye valley a week or two back. A celebration for Nick’s 50th to which I was generously invited. I only fished for the final couple of days but missed very little earlier in the week. On the Monday, Nick and Tony had arrived to find a river inContinue reading “Autumn winds”
Garden Party
Spring has sunk into high summer. Days of hot sunshine and sneezes, the air thick with pollen and a rapidly expanding grasshopper orchestra. My time has been stretched. A new issue of Fallon’s Angler has been tied up and released, a sample chapter for a potential project picked at and almost certainly over-scrutinised. A newContinue reading “Garden Party”
Off-line
It’s been a peculiar 10 days or so. Having become conditioned over the past fifteen years or so to a life online, a cow with an interesting appetite has thrown our routine into a vague chaos. A fallen tree had brought down the telephone cables a mile or so down the valley, breaking a telegraphContinue reading “Off-line”
The last tench of Summer
I played Santa last Christmas. At least, I played a very small part of being Santa. My mother had filled a sack with presents and set up the moment – all I had to do was slip out and ‘deliver’ it without any of my nephews or nieces suspecting anything. As it was, I didn’tContinue reading “The last tench of Summer”
Ten Down
It is over three years since I received a rather intriguing email from a chap called Garrett Fallon. A talented designer, artist and writer, Garrett also loved to fish, and was planning on combining his skills to produce a angling magazine. It would, in part, be a nod to his late father, the journalist andContinue reading “Ten Down”
New Year
After a damn good knees up at the winter solstice, the Ancient Celts would return to their homes and hope to last beyond the forthcoming ‘Famine Months’. Spring would have seemed a long way away, and with food and fuel dwindling, late winter would see a dramatic increase of disease and starvation. The first ofContinue reading “New Year”
Branching Out
I was pretty good at German at school. In fact, I managed an ‘A’ – but a quarter of a century later its almost all gone – save the bare bones, swear words and smut. So when the latest edition of Am Haken magazine turned up in the post (on my birthday in fact –Continue reading “Branching Out”
Read all about it!
I’ve just finished going through the proofs for Rivers Run – and it is looking pretty darn good. Rider have made a lovely job of it – the typeset seems to work well and the layout is uncomplicated and contemporary. All being well, I won’t be looking at the text again until I have aContinue reading “Read all about it!”