Saturday, June 23, 2007

Stress relief

I've had a bloody busy month.

How dare other people have holidays and time off for "Man flu" and "hurty tummies".
Wimps, wheres their fucking commitment.

Anyway, I managed to get away Friday afternoon for a bit of R&R at our lake. Yes those are my "wellies" and Dive, you paid for the top couple of feet of that rod with the cash you gave me for my birthday, thanks.


I am fortunate to have been a member of our little fishing club for the last 20 years. It is exclusive to employees and old Formula 1 team members.
The lake is in the grounds of the old hall where the race team had their headquarters in the good old days of World Championships with Andretti, Fittipaldi, Peterson, Senna, Mansell et al.
It's only 5 minutes from the factory and me and a few of the guys needed to unwind so we had a dangle in the lake....................... Then we went fishing.




It's very peaceful over there and one is surrounded by nature in all her finery.
As I sit contemplating life, the universe and everything, I am watching a kingfisher catching fry not ten feet away. Dragonflies are content to sit on my float, rod, feet or hands without any apparent fear, and a barn owl is hunting in the field behind me.

The swans didn't want me to get any closer than this though, as they thought their cygnets needed protection from me and a camera. "HHHHIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS", they said.


That's the rear of the Hall on the far side of the lake. We left this end un-disturbed until later in the year so the swans can raise their family.

We do have a new arrival this year, an otter. I love to see them on our rivers and coasts but this one turned up at our lake earlier in the year and has killed and eaten most of the big carp.

We had several fish over 30lbs and at least 20 fish from 15 to 25lbs which have been found almost entirely eaten, just a few bones and scales are all that was left. If we were to replace these the bill would run into thousands of pounds and Mr Otter would get another fish buffet so we will wait to see if he moves on later in the year.

All we can do is get as many members to fish as often as possible this year and hope the human presence will be enough to encourage him to bugger off and eat someone else's fish.

Maybe I should ask Old Knudsen, I'm sure he could come up with a plan.

Tarka tikka kebabs anyone?

3 comments:

dive said...

Idyllic, you lucky sod.

I don't know about tikka tarka but I quite fancy cygnet sashimi. Stick one in the boot of your car next time you're down there.

Sassy Sundry said...

That is lovely. Sorry that you've been thrwarted by the nature, though. Otters are too cute to kill.

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said...

Looks gorgeous. Reminds me of fishing with my brother when i was small. He had all the gear i recall and i had a token girly attempt - a simple white rod - which i was very pleased with. The bad part is that i was always chased by him carrying a pot of wriggling maggots. Urrrgh.