Cup my Corks and Call me Titan

Well here we are and all bridge work is complete.

Moving the old bridge from the river to the flight pond went rather well. The brains trust that is Lord Lugg and myself recognised the need to be fairly fluid with regard to a plan of action and adapted accordingly throughout the process (Process - the new word of first choice for football's David Brent - Alan Pardue, having graduated from the word "group")

The first few feet of the bridge that was a boat that was destined to be a bridge again was hauled from the water by the tractor onto the narrow isthmus that separates pond from river.

Short of space a long rope was passed over the island and across the pond to the repositioned tractor and the bridge hauled into the pond.

The proprietor of the establishment then turned up, replete with a month old new hip, to look in on the chaos of the bridge reshuffle.

before a rope was then run over a v in a tree in order to raise the nose of the bridge come boat onto the bank of the island.

The whole thing was then jiggled level with bars and winches and a hard wood bearing put under each end.

It went really well, and I expected all manner of problems, and was prepared at any moment to go at the thing with a chainsaw should we get stuck at any point.

But the bridge is in place, and the colours retired to Lord Ludgershall's log drying facility at the heart of his estate.

There are a few more willows to attend to that are impacting upon marginal growth on the middle bends, and then it's on to the final titivations before the beginning of the trout fishing season.

This week I added another year to my age, and edge ever closer to the halfway point of my life (the sustained consumption of red wine, dark chocolate, biffidus digestivum, fkax seed and chia seed indicate three figures is a bare minimum)

Last year I discovered the number 47 has magical qualities

Googling the number 48 we gain further numerological enlightenment

With Wikipedia as our guide we find that the number 48 is the natural number that follows 47 and precedes 49, it is one third of a gross, or four dozens.

Our friends at "Angel numbers" have 48 as a combination of the vibrations and attributes of the number 4 and number 8, the angels of abundance are all around and positive life experiences are ahead, do not concern yourself with material loss there will be ample compensation for the honest effort that has been put in. (I'll stop trying to get that hammer I dropped in the river while building a bridge then.)

While numerologists at "Riding the beast" point out that there are "48 petals of the two petals of the Ajna Chakra located between the two eyebrows"

Experts at lucky-name-numerology.com are a little less upbeat and have the number 48 as the cause of a colourless life , and insist "if you really wish to have success, good family with wife and kids and posh home, you have to correct your name"

and biblewheel.com talk of Majesty and Greatness and quote some psalm - "and man shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness"

Combining these last two it's cup my corks and call me Titan for the next twelve months.

Go on and Google a number, it's a lot of fun!

There now follows a short clip of a debate in the second chamber of the House of Commons on rural broadband requested by our MP Caroline Nokes.
You may recognise the scenario described around the 9.45 point, and thank you very much Caroline Nokes.



An experiment in internet marketing:

Late Availability: We have a half rod available on Thursday. Every other Thursday from the last week in April until the second week in October. A mile and a half of prime chalk stream fishing shared with another rod, no marked beats, fish where you want and when you want, feel free to share your rod with a guest or send someone along in your place. It's all very relaxed, good fun and rods don't become available as some of our regulars have been fishing her over thirty years. If you are interested, don't be a stranger and drop us an email.