Trout for lunch!

One of my goals on moving to Devon has been to learn to fly fish on the local rivers. Although I have done some fly fishing before on lakes and chalk streams, I really had no idea about how to go about this. The rivers here are all very "natural" and wading is almost essential. I was fortunate to find a chap locally (Paul Kenyon) who teaches fly fishing and does guiding on the local rivers. I had a session with him on Wednesday last week on one of the local still water fisheries to practice some of the casting techniques prior to moving onto the rivers. I used the new fly rod (# 5, for the technically minded) that I had bought two years ago and never had out of the bag. This did the job very well and I picked up lots of new techniques. When Paul had got me doing things more his way than my old way, the piece of wool on the end of the line was replaced by a fly and we started fishing. The fish in the lake were pretty stupid (some had gone for the wool, earlier!) and I soon had a trio of nice Brown trout on he bank. The two smaller ones were filleted and these went into the hot smoker that Diane had bought me for Christmas last year. I think the smoking technique still needs to be refined a bit, yet, but the result was pretty good and it made us a nice lunch. The largest fish went in to the freezer for another day. I am hoping to have a go on one of the local rivers with Paul during May, once I have got myself kitted up with some new waders.

Lost dog drama

I was working on the new herb bed by the decking today and Diane was going out to the garden centre with Sara. She decided to leave Digger in the hall so I could "keep an eye on him". After a while, I thought I heard a funny noise, so I went to investigate. Digger was not in the hall so I did a quick flit around the house but there was no sign of a dog anywhere. Had Diane taken him with her after all? I checked all the upstairs rooms again and there was not a hound to be found in any of them. I desperation, I went in the "downstairs" loo and there he was. Somehow, he had pushed the door open, gone in and closed it behind him. Unfortunately, he had also done a large wee on the floor (it is amusing to wonder if that was on his mind when he went in there, but I doubt it - more likely it was stress-related!). I was so pleased to find him so I just got the kitchen roll out and cleared it up. Naturally, I chucked all the paper straight down the toilet and that promptly got firmly blocked up, so there was nothing for it but I to get my hand down there to clear it. Thanks a lot, Digs!

All the Chucks are Christened!

"All 6 chickens how have a name and a sponsor - and I can identify them all which is even more of an achievement.

The first to be named was "Houdini"(see earlier post), who has yet to develop a comb and lay any eggs. She is the first out of the hen house every morning but gets picked on by some of the others.

"Jenny Henny Brown was the next to be named - as she is black with a brown ruff - and seems to be one of the top chicks!

Guin and Ness were christened by Claire and Darren (I think Darren had a lot to do with it!) while they were here. Guin seems to be a bit intimidated by the others so I have to make sure she gets her share.

This leaves "JoJo" a pretty pure blonde bird and "Henrietta Poobrador" a pure black anti-thesis of a golden labradoodle.

Another busy week

We had Claire and Darren here with us for a few days at the end of last week. They thought they had come for a holiday but we soon put them to work shifting the hen house and moving a shed down to the orchard. We all went up to Leicester on Saturday to watch the Bath v Leicester Heineken cup quarter final. It was a good exiting game but the wrong result for us (20 - 15)! We went back to Coventry after the game and spent Easter Sunday with Irene.


On Monday, we had a visit from Dave and Liz Lawrence. Dave is just about to retire from Syngenta and take up a main Board position (he is buying himself a Maserati as a retirement present - lucky Sod, all I got was a tractor!). They now have a holiday home in Torquay so they are occasional near neighbours of ours.


On Tuesday, we went over to the Wheelhouse to see the builders who are installing a loo and wash basin upstairs. It was all looking good (apart from a small flood in the bathroom) and we will soon be going back to do our bit with the tiling and decorating.

On Wednesday, Philip and Louise called in on their way back from Cornwall to collect their caravan that has been over-wintering in our barn.

Back on the ranch, the chooks have been producing well and we have been getting up to four eggs a day (and very tasty they are, too). We have finally managed to erect the new tool shed down in the orchard. Unfortunately, we had a major thunder storm just before we had finished that job so we had to let it dry out a bit before we put the felt on the roof. We have also been creating a new herb bed alongside the decking by the house. This involved sawing up old oak railway sleepers with a chain saw. This soon put paid to the old electric saw and it is now awaiting its final trip to the tip. I now have a nice new petrol one but it was touch and go whether I would get the job done without knackering that one, too! Meanwhile, I have also been busy sowing vegetable seeds in the greenhouse and the raised beds and Diane has been planting up pots and hanging baskets.

Doodle in the doghouse!

Yesterday, Diane and I were trying to do a little job on the hen house. At one point, I was inside the house and Diane was in the run with the chickens. Digger decided he would help by tearing around the outside and terrorising the hens. After much flapping and squawking (and, yes, the hens made a fuss, too) we decided to put him back in the house out of harms way and he got unceremoniously dumped back in the hall. Unfortunately, the internal door was open and when Diane went in he was licking his lips after polishing off six eggs (Sorley eggs at that!) and an iced bun that had been on the kitchen worktop. Needless to say, he was in big trouble but we are all friends again now.

It must be spring!

I came across this group of spring flowers the other day. They are on the bank of what used to be Sturtlebury Lane that ran around the edge of our top field. I took my mother up there in the car this afternoon to have a look at them.

We got another egg from the girls today - that is a grand total of four this week, so far!