The Curse Of The Woolly Jumper.

First of all, I'd like to say a genuine and heartfelt thank you to everyone for the kind words about our Dad, both on the blog and in real life, it means everything to us that he meant so much to so many people. 

 

The fish are just a bonus when the world looks like this.

It's a good job Dad taught me to stop and appreciate nature whilst fishing,
 if it was solely about catching fish, I'd be a miserable sod fishing this place!

  Since Dad left us, I’ve managed eight trips down to my local syndicate water, first a couple of quick morning sessions after the elusive, but sizeable perch that live there, then a switch over to do six day sessions for the tench. I’ve only done one previous spring season on this lake fishing for the tench, and from what I remember, and my diary entries, I caught fish pretty much every time I cast a line into the water. This season has been very, very different. The perch fishing almost went completely by the wayside this year as I was busy either looking after dad, or helping to organise the funeral and everything that goes with that, so it was decided that I’d skip that and go straight after the tench, easy right? Important to note at this point that I have been wearing my dad’s favourite fishing jumper on every single occasion, not entirely sure why, it just makes me feel like he’s still with me. When I look back at all of the really big or really special fish that I’ve caught in my life, he was always the one who slid the net under them for me, followed by a fist bump and a big smile, I know that he can’t do that for me anymore, but this jumper is the next best thing. I have become convinced that the old man has been jinxing me via the jumper, purely because he thinks it's funny.

As I sat by that lake yesterday morning, I was six days into this seasons efforts after these tench without so much as a bleep from any of my alarms, so it was a most welcome surprise when my right-hand Delkim sprang into life at 12pm, after a nerve-wracking fight, legs shaking, I managed to slide the net under the first tench of the season, I finally broke the jinx. Not a huge tench by the standards of this place, but it means a hell of a lot to me. You can tell that Dad didn't take that photo, he would have told me to sort my hands out and get my fingers out of the picture. 

7lb 2oz of most welcome gravel pit tench.

I know people will blame the slow fishing this year on the never-ending easterly winds, the cold nights, the clear water, the lack of weed cover etc etc, but it’s definitely this jumper. I am going to continue to wear it still, no matter what. I'll keep updating the blog as the season goes on, I'm already thinking about targeting the unknown population of eels in there.

I have one last thing to say at this point,

I’m really going to miss that soppy old sod. 

Benno. 

Keep on keeping on

Early morning sunrise

It’s been almost two months since I lost my dad, and life has been a whirlwind of admin, funeral arrangements, house clearing, mine and Benno’s birthdays, and my usual life of parenting three children, mixed with a generous helping of grief and a lot of tears.

There have been many days when I have wanted to hide away from it all, to stay in bed under the duvet and pretend that none of this was happening, but I know that wouldn’t really have helped me, even though it was extremely tempting.

Growing up as Dylan’s daughter, and also being a qualified eco-therapist, (someone who helps people to connect with nature for therapeutic healing… yes, my dad did roll his eyes at this!) I know only too well the healing power of connecting with the natural world, even in the darkest of times. And so, over the past 8 weeks, I have sought out as much connection with nature as I possibly could in the brief moments between all of the relentless jobs.

There is something about being in nature that soothes my soul, and I am lucky to live in a rural village surrounded by wildlife. Even as I am typing this, I can hear an entire dawn chorus outside my window, and I think there is a mouse on the doorstep!

 I am very conscious that my knowledge of the wildlife that surrounds me is nowhere near as encyclopaedic as my dad’s, but that doesn’t seem to take away my enjoyment of looking at it and being immersed in the natural world. So, I thought I would share with you a few images of things that Evelyn and I have seen and done so far this spring. (Evelyn is my daughter, Dylan’s granddaughter. She is 12 and attends a local farm school where she spends all of her time outdoors in nature.) All of these images are taken on my phone, I have yet to learn to use dad’s camera.

Seven-spot ladybird on Evelyn's jumper

A collared dove in our apple tree

Spring lambs

Cherry blossom

Peacock butterfly under the cherry trees

Peanut thief! We watch him for hours.

Evelyn in her happy place, growing flowers and vegetables.

Whilst clearing the house, Benno and I have rediscovered all of dad’s notebooks, dating right back to 1992, which are full of meticulous records and lists of the birds, moths and fish that he had encountered each year. It’s really lovely to have his handwritten notes and thoughts on life in hard copy, it feels like a little part of him is still here.

Occasionally he would also add little annotated illustrations, and yesterday I got a bit lost in some of the notebooks, and I thought you might like to see a few of these tiny drawings.

 

To end my first official blog post, I wanted to share with you that I have embarked on a challenge that is completely out of my comfort zone. I am running/ jogging 31 miles in May (a mile a day) to raise money for The Bowel Babe bowel cancer research fund, and Cancer research UK, in memory of my dad.

I will be very honest here, running is definitely not my thing and so this is a huge challenge for me. I have been to the running shop to get myself some proper shoes for this momentous event, which seem to be helping me and my knees so far, and I have managed to raise a massive £591 already, which I am so pleased about. If anyone would like to donate this is the link. Click here.

I will of course keep you updated on progress as the month goes on.

Thank you for reading my first official blog post, I hope you have enjoyed it. 

Sarah and Evelyn.