Happy When it Rains

It has been noted that rain hasn't fallen in these parts since Moss joined us. A portent that would once have had many an Aztec or Inca reaching for the knife drawer.



Rain is forecast for sometime soon so we'll defer a decision on any necessary action that needs to be taken regarding Moss for forty eight hours.

The July weed cut is now complete and while verdant bars of weed maintain a fishable level the rate of flow is greatly reduced and the clearing down of cut weed at the denouement took an absolute age. The heat has been nothing short of uncomfortable and while Heathrow made great play of its thirty five degrees one day last week,

we recorded thirty seven degrees on our digital weather station sited in the shade on our garden table on the same afternoon. The new trees that we planted in the winter are struggling a little and receive a few buckets of river water several times a week to get them through these parched conditions.

I'll just pause there to make a pitch for a television series.

Nothing to do with Fishing, Bob and Paul have raised the bar with their recent series shown on BBC2 "Gone Fishing" because that's what they did,

go fishing,

as opposed to "Gone Catching" because a day with a rod in your hand is so much more than putting a fish on the bank.

Anyway the pitch:

A four week nightly show titled "River Island" in which an equal number of males and females (they don't have to be young, they can wear what they like and sleep alone if desired) are put on an island where they must couple up, triple up or quadruple up if the mood is upon them to form traditional Irish dance troupes with the relevant routine.

Ideally Michael Flatley and Amanda Donohoe would host with Selina Scott the anchor on the River Island extra catchup show.

I think it has legs

It's raining, it's pouring and I was roused from my snoring by water lashing through the bedroom window.

Moss's future is secured.















Searches through old vinyl for The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Happy When it Rains" and plays continuously for much of the morning.




Saw them three times, Phsychocandy, Darklands and Automatic, although the star faded with Barbed Wire Kisses. The day that my "Automatic" tour T shirt assumed duster status remains a low point in our marriage.

Anyway,

We have just returned from a soggy post prandial perambulation where we found this puddle, an old friend (yes puddles are Riverkeepers' friends) who Otis and I had not seen for some while and Moss's first introduction. You will note from the photo that Moss has entered a gangly phase and now adopts a steady trit-trot on the road that would set the Littlest Hobo purring.


On reflection, the Littlest Hobo was a dog not a cat so we may have to revisit that last line.

Alice from Fishtec has not been on since the last post, there are whispers that problems exist over the tone of the piece.

The rain has smashed down much of the Phragmites

and at tea time today the venerable conker tree by the chickens fell apart shedding a substantial limb. It's what old conker trees do, in rude health otherwise it could live for many years yet.

Heron seem to have bred well this year and we've a brace of goofy youngsters prodding away at our fish. Watercress is creeping out from the margins pinching the river maximising the little flow we have. The Kingfisher wars have also resumed and currently approach the level of brutality experienced last year when adults regularly locked beaks in efforts to drown their adversary. They are a beautiful bird and we regularly see them fishing and each year two pairs bring off young but you do feel like banging their heads together and saying this river is stuffed with minnows, there's enough for all!

Numbers of roach and perch appear to have increased with plenty of two to three year old fish in evidence.

William is on his way back to Blighty. He was employed full time for twelve months by a fun bunch at a Melbourne planning consultancy while playing cricket for South Yarra plus poking his nose around bits of Australia and New Zealand.

It was a full time position and he thoroughly enjoyed the work. The company offered him a second year's contract and with town planner on the list of professions that Australia are keen to attract to the country, both William and the company were confident a visa would be issued. What should have been a 28 day decision was dragged out for several months with significant costs incurred and his application was eventually refused, on the grounds that it is a position that had not been adequately offered to an Australian. A lawyer specialising in immigration was consulted and an expensive appeal process considered, but the final decision was taken to make the most of his last few weeks and then head home. An unwelcome/unwelcoming end to what has been a never to be forgotten twelve months in a stunning country with some super people. Australia's loss as he's quite good at what he does, both on and off a cricket field.

Australia first anyone?

and oh yes Matilda, you can whistle/waltz for those speeding fines you issued for driving a few mph over the limit on a quiet three lane highway.

That'll learn em!

Shakes fist at meddling bureaucracy and over regulation in all corners of the globe before falling off stage to the left, curtain closes. Lights on.