25 Friday Dec 2015
Posted in Beer, Books, Car Boot, Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Conservation, Cooking, Cornwall, Drink, Everything about fishing, Film, Fish & Game Recipes, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Food, Gin, Interiors, London, Lure Fishing, Mudlarking, Music, Nature, Old Salts, Photography, Pike Fishing, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Thames, Rod Building & Restoration, Sculpture, Sea fishing, Sport, Street Art, Tackle, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, Tools, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares, Whisky
To all of you brothers of the angle, shutter and paintbrush, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, may you all find peace and love not only over the Christmas season but for evermore.
For those of you heading to the river or sea tomorrow may your lines be tight and smiles put upon your face.
I bless you all for a prosperous New Year.
24 Thursday Dec 2015
Posted in Art, Barbel Fishing, Beer, Books, Car Boot, Carp Fishing, Childrens Books, Coarse Fishing, Conservation, Cooking, Cornwall, Dogs, Drink, Everything about fishing, Film, Fish & Game Recipes, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Food, Gin, Interiors, London, Lure Fishing, Mudlarking, Music, Nature, Old Salts, Olympics, Photography, Pike Fishing, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Fishing, River Thames, Rod Building & Restoration, Sculpture, Sea fishing, Sport, Street Art, Tackle, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, Tools, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares, Whisky
Between the rain showers and the warm glow of winter sun we dashed around the village doing the lasts bits of shopping before retiring to the pub for a beer and a bite to eat in order to give us energy to wrap those Christmas gifts for young Tales, it may take some time.
The years seems to have passed all too quickly, possibly because we’ve done a lot but more than likely because we are getting older. During the year we went West Wales for young Tales birthday to allow him to fish for sea-trout, went to a wedding in St Ives, visited Mrs Tales birthplace on the island of Cyprus, retuned to Bexhill – a place I spent time at as a young teenager to fish, stalled out at The National Vintage Tackle Fair, worked on some new projects and now it’s Christmas.
As it’s time to spend time with Mrs and young Tales on this Christmas Eve I want to take this opportunity to wish all of you who have taken time to read my blog a very merry Christmas.
22 Tuesday Dec 2015
Posted in Everything about fishing
The clocks ticking and Christmas is nearly upon us.
We are still experiencing warmer than average temperatures, maybe the amount of Christmas lights are contributing to this phenomena. Only a few years ago we had experienced a good snowfall and the temperatures were at a seasonal norm.
Today sees is the first of the Christmas present delivery runs as the family scatters for the festive season, however we will reside by the river and call into the neighbours for season drinks and banter.
As you can tell from the posts there has been little fishing of late and certainly no purchases of vintage tackle or piscatorial items. Hopefully we will get out to do some Grayling fishing but what we need is a good frost as there is nothing quite like hearing the crunch beneath your feet as you walk along the riverbank listing to the flow of the water and the shrill of a Robin in the hedgerow. I guess it’s a bit early to buy a half pint of mixed maggots just in case we head out on the Thames for some perch fishing but I better not leave it too late but then again a there is always the option of digging up some worms from the garden.
20 Sunday Dec 2015
Tags
Christmas, Fishing, Personality, Presents, Santa, Sports, The Apprentice, The Premiership, Tottenham
With such high temperatures at this time of year surely it’s going to be a great opportunity to head to the river to fish. So I’m planning where and when.
Lord Sugar has made his choice of candidate as his Apprentice, the number 1 in the Charts is a Mr. Bieber, Tottenham are 4th in the Premiership, Watford beat Liverpool, Andy Murray is Sports Personality Of The Year, Star Wars is set to break box office records, there is no snow in the Alps, a teenager is crowned Scalextric Champion after playing for the first time, young Tales realises Santa isn’t for real and I still haven’t won The Lottery!
Most of my work projects are completed, Christmas gifts purchased, food list finalised and wines selected…bring on Christmas!
17 Thursday Dec 2015
Posted in Everything about fishing
The lights twinkled on the hedgerows and the trees stood tall in the the windows of the more affluent households on my way home, in fact many of the lights had clearly been professionally installed. There were some pretty impressive wreaths adorning the high gloss doors of the large houses that once had horse drawn coaches pass beneath the arch to the side of the houses. Today these houses only sport an average 225bhp plus of gleaming metal on the driveway. Anyway we are fortunate to live in a pleasent part of London close to the Royal Parks and Kew Gardens.
I realised today that I have done very little shopping for Christmas, no browsing, no click and collect and no searching of that well known online auction company in fact for the first time in many years it will be left till quite late but I will have to do it all before Christmas Eve.
We managed to buy our Christmas tree yesterday evening but still haven’t collected it yet so that will be on my to do list for tomorrow as well as collecting the Christmas wreath for the front door. I managed to find the Christmas lights and untangle them but they are also not up yet, however I did manage to get the Christmas cards in the post. So I need to focus and draw up a list of things I need to do.
One thing I must not forget is to buy a box of maggots so we can go fishing the day after Boxing Day.
15 Tuesday Dec 2015
Posted in Art, Books, Childrens Books, Conservation, Film, London, Nature, Photography, Presents, Reclaim, River Thames, Sea fishing, Tales by the riverbank, travel
This day marks the first day a British Astronaut visits the Space Station. The question is can he Santa from up there?
One thing he will witness is that we live in a very special place so why does man continue to fight, scar the landscape and pollute the seas…why?
14 Monday Dec 2015
It was mid-afternoon when I stumbled across this very rare item, it is a boxwood rope gauge. I found it on a table of treasures in a shop close to my home.
Having lived in SW13 for nearly two decades I have frequented this shop that sells an eclectic mix of vintage fabrics, homewares and hand crafted items by Angel. On the run up to Christmas I always make the effort to visit this iconic shop in Barnes. As you open the door the air is filled with the scent of flowering hyacinths, beeswax and lavender. The warm glow of candles and the glimmer of light reflects the the polished brass, ceramics and glass domes that shroud exquisite works, one that stood out was a tree full of baubles, beads and over vintage trinkets.
This is in no way a shop for thrifty purchases, each item for sale is hand made and unique much like the rare items sourced which in their own right are works of art.
A good friend of ours is a boat builder, well he is a master craftsman, carpenter, sculptor in fact nothing quite describes his sublime skills, for me one of the most talented people I know much like his partner who is a fantastic painter. For Bob these rope gauges would be an ideal gift, more as an item for the mantelpiece than to work with. An item to sit beside his Mamod Steam engine and clockwork Meccano boat.
I do try to find obscure gifts for those who know me for me it is part of the pleasure of Christmas finding things that are not usually available on the high street.
13 Sunday Dec 2015
Posted in Art, Beer, Books, Conservation, Drink, Everything about fishing, Film, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Gin, Interiors, London, Music, Photography, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Thames, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, Tools, travel, Vintage
12 Saturday Dec 2015
Posted in Art, Books, Childrens Books, Conservation, Cooking, Drink, Film, Fishing, Food, Gin, Interiors, London, Mudlarking, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Thames, Rod Building & Restoration, Sculpture, Street Art, Tackle, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, Tools, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares, Whisky
11 Friday Dec 2015
Posted in Art, Beer, Books, Car Boot, Childrens Books, Conservation, Film, Fishing, Food, Gin, Interiors, London, Music, Olympics, Photography, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Thames, Street Art, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares
The streets were packed with people, children crowded around a couple of real Raindeer that were grazing in a makeshift pen, choirs sang and bell ringers rang their bells and classic Christmas songs sung by iconic singers of the 50’s filled the air.
As we made our way along Church Road towards to Olympic Cinema originally know as the Olympic Studio known better as the recording studio of the Rolling Stones, Led Zep and a cast of many well known groups. There on the pavement was a pop up vinyl DJ booth playing an array of tunes from groups which frequented this leafy village in SW13. It was an evening of nostalgia and one where everyone took to the streets for the annual Christmas shopping evening.
As vinyl is making a comeback there is nothing quite like picking up an old LP feasting your eyes on the graphics then listen to the sound from that rotating black disc. These old records make great secret Santa gifts and if purchased from a charity store should cost you no more than a couple of pounds.
tales by the riverbank 