Issue No. X December 16th 2022
Notes from a wood
Winter is most definitely upon us, the fired glow of cosiness that is my study seems a world away from the reality seen through its windows. The beech trees have lost most of their leaves, look cold and rather forlorn.
A robin provides me a smile. I watch him and his defiant chesty swells that return proudly to rest over and over – he is singing. Opening the window sonority weaves a spell around the room for a minute or two and leaves upon his wing. A time always has a place and a place always has a time. How easy it is to reminisce remembering those golden summer days especially now when days are fleeting and nights become impenetrable. I may not have those endless hours of sunshine, but nonetheless I have been blessed by a beam of light in the dark. Wonders are there in all seasons and as I close the window on another short winters day I most definitely will remember the robin’s notes of musical joy.
Pallenpool, North Norfolk – Winter 2022
The Piscatorial Raconteurs & Friends – ‘being the quiet observations of Gentlemen Anglers‘
Within these pages you will find peace and warm reflection in what we believe is a quiet backwater. Here one can while away time sitting comfortably in a familiar armchair accompanied by a favoured tipple’… continue reading
The Old River in Winter – Image Leszek Delag
The Piscatorial Raconteurs handmade wares.
A thought for the day
See, winter comes to rule the varied year, sullen & sad, with all his rising train—Vapours, & clouds, & storms. Be these my theme, these, that exalt the soul to solemn thought & heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms! Congenial horrors, hail! With frequent foot, Pleased have I, in my cheerful morn of life. When nursed by careless solitude I lived & sung of nature with unceasing joy.
Pleased have I wandered through your rough domain; Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure; Heard the winds roar, & the big torrent burst; Or seen the deep-fermenting tempest brewed in the grim evening sky. Thus passed the time, till through the lucid chambers of the south looked out the joyous Spring – look’d out and smiled.
Winter – James Thomson 1730 (Excerpt)
This issues contemplations
The Raconteurs December Miscellany – Martin James MBE, Carl Hier & Pallenpool. Plus this issues Raconteurs articles from Martin James MBE, R.B.Traditional, Paul Adams, Pallenpool, David Craine, Carl Hier & Earthing the Current
A December’s Miscellany
Martin James MBE – A visit to Romney Marsh ‘My first visit to the Marsh was in 1947 to White Kemp sewer, though it’s far from being a sewer. White Kemp was a good venue for bream, roach, perch, tench, pike and eels. The late Bernard Venables MBE fished the area in his boyhood days.’ continue reading
Carl Hier – Underneath the Arches ‘Dippers are prominent, well-established residents here, the river’s stone-laden bed providing them with a rich daily larder. Their bobbing heads and smart white bibs are unmistakeable against the autumnal backdrop’ continue reading
Pallenpool – Walks into Light ‘It’s amazing to think one set of fortunes can so quickly transform to another, and quite literally this morning I walked from darkness into light‘ continue reading
This Issues Features & Articles
Issue No. X – The Piscatorial Raconteurs articles.
R.B.Traditional, Earthing the Current, Pallenpool, Paul Adams, David Craine, Martin James MBE & Carl Hier.
R.B. Traditional’s – My best mate Pete ‘He was a countryman and angler, a man with an acute eye and an inquisitive mind for the natural world, just to look through his bookshelf would give you the measure of the man’s affinity with nature; books on landscapes of the British Isles, fish, mammals, insects, plants, dogs and one which I found recently about the life cycle of earthworms! continue reading
Earthing the Current – Chases the Ladies ‘By this time, I had graduated to tying a few rudimentary Sawyer bugs of my own and I remember concentrating hard while drifting these back downstream over the noses of my quarry before gently lifting through the water column and inducing a Pavlovian response just as the texts had said they would.’ continue reading
Martin James MBE – Lincolnshire’s River Bain (Part Two) ‘Slinging my chair over my back, I headed across the field to ‘Fox Pool’ which looked perfect in the late winter sunshine. Slithering on my bottom down the steep bank, I come to rest in a clump of reeds where I could sit and cast to all areas that might hold fish..’ continue reading
Pallenpool – Byzantine Jewels & A Most Singular Roach ‘The Sun holds the horizon, and in washes of gold bathes each and every scene before me in a gloriously false warmth. I pass the remains of the sunflower meadow that at this time of year provides sanctuary and food to a host of finches, last week I saw woodcock here – such a sight.’ continue reading
David Craine – A Winter’s Piking Tale ‘The first hour passed quickly, neither rod had made so much as a twitch to indicate any interest in the bait, the float remained stubbornly motionless, as did the bottom fished bait on the second rod. Not at all nonplussed, it was time to make a move, gathering up my accoutrements and chair, rods, landing net and bank sticks strapped together I made my way to the second swim (the beach swim).’ continue reading
Paul Adams – Eager Beavers ‘With beavers left undisturbed for decades, this glacial valley is now a plain of meandering streams over quarter of a mile wide. The water in the foreground is not the main channel, but one of several braids.Individual dams may be actively maintained for decades, but this is exceptional. In the mountains, a new dam may not survive the high flows of the following spring run-off, and quickly be abandoned.’ continue reading
Carl Hier Pays Tribute To A Fellow Raconteur & Guardian Extraordinaire ‘Despite all the challenges faced, we hope fish will always be there, & there’s every chance this will be the case, thanks to their guardian extraordinaire‘ continue reading
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