Shall I.....or shan't I ?

Oh, Ok!

I just didn't think it was worth writing about it it, but as I've just got back from a week away in Dalyan, Turkey I thought, why not!
This was a sort of last minute holiday, not our usual choice of location, we've never been to Turkey though.
Dalyan is set on a river in an environmental protection area. A great place for riverside walking, and for a river trip. Very touristy.
Not certain there a great deal of culture, although there were some interesting tombs, and in excess of 130 restaurants to choose from.


I say,to choose from in respect of restaurants, because there's not a lot really, all menus are about the same, you just need to find one offering a better standard of cooking and freshness.
We tried different restaurants every day for lunch snacks and evening dinners and a couple that were a touch above the rest.
If you want our best finds, should you be visiting, they were the Heybe and Aubergine.
Bloody hot at about 30c in the shade from 9am.
Take an up to date Skin so Soft though, as there are many biting insects, who seemed to like me more than Pauline.
My bottle had a date of 4-10 on the base and was totally ineffective!

Our hotel is known as Club Alla Turka  http://www.cluballaturca.com/Eng/hakkimizda.asp?id=h1

It's  quite a good hotel,not a bad location and within easy walking distance of the river and the town centre. Food only average though, but I'm a bit snobbish when it comes to food.

Home
Next door
Jim's house is now sold and we have new neighbours from Ely Cambridgeshire, a couple of about our age.
They have been spoken to about this, and are complying with our wishes!

The current view from our front window!

So, we  still have to deal with Jim's Trust Fund, but we now know the exact financial position.
We've lined up a local financial adviser to deal with that, a meeting sometime next month.
Garden
 Firstly, I think we've seen the last of the swallow's for this year, none about since Wednesday.
The swifts , now long gone had a very productive year locally, the house martins were scarce.
Hoards of sparra, they have done well this year, probably three broods, they have taken over our rear hawthorn hedge for an overnight roost and are constantly walking and bathing on the ponds water lilies leaves.
Both the hedge and the pond will need some work though, hopefully they will not be disturbed too much by that.We're starting now on the tidying up of the other shrubs.








Our fruit trees have been bounteous this year, the eaters are in storage, the plums eaten, or made culinary use of. Our cookers and conference pears aren't falling off yet, but we'll need to do something with them soon.

The grapes are ripening well, what to do with them?
The Car
I did think about getting a new car, and probably would have done, but after 167500 miles,an MOT and a full service all for a tad over £200, it didn't take much thinking about. The Octavia stays, after all it's only a tool!
Shares

My Oil and Gas company took off this week and is likely to continue in that vein for the foreseeable future.
Some of my holdings are now showing a 780% growth, overall as I keep topping up, an average growth of 166% as of yesterday. More holidays!
The other shares, mainly in the cancer research field, are ticking over nicely , with some showing a paper loss.News expected very shortly, with luck.
Holidays
We're off to Rye for a long weekend to celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary.
Not certain if I've mentioned it, but we're of to Boston for Thanksgiving and Pauline has booked us a trip across Canada for this time next year.
Booze
Off to a brewery visit on Monday with the boys from the pub.Bradford here we come!
On Thursday The International Drinking Society has another meeting in London a pub in Russell Square will be our starting point.
Fishing
I've been a touch busy for any fishing, but will probably have a session or two down in the valley.
Very tempted to visit the rivers but they are low at present, never dodged a challenge though, so we'll see what October brings.

....and another!

Reprise

Lens condensation!!

Grabbed a few hours last night down in the valley,arriving just after 5pm.
I decided to fish the fishier swim. By fishier I mean, it looks the mutts, lily pads, reeds etc etc.
BUT, fishing light I tend to leave this area alone, as there are so many rogue carp to take you through the pads!

Anyway I put the rod to the test last night and held every fish without giving line, right thumb firmly fixed!.
I am quite impressed with this hotchpoch of a rod, it would be interesting to find out what it's base before being rejigged was.
The butt section is 54 inches of which the shaped cork handle is 26 inches, the top two are 40 and 39 inches, so perhaps the top inch lost!

Different swim different fishy action. The evening was taken up by mainly carp up to I would say 8lb, but two small eel and my mate the deformed tench showed up for a bit of light weight work. 

Lot's of leaf debris on the surface as Autumn starts to show it colours made it a little difficult with surface wind, soon overcome by sinking the line..

 Just some of the carp.

I'll try the cockle and prawn approach here next. I'm sure there are some better roach and rudd in here.

The way back

Another day!

Prawns

I've started to use prawns and cockles a bit more and defrosted both and some hemp today for a four hour  'til dark session, down in the valley.Determined to top my perch personal best.

Had a cast of a lure around first to see if I could attract a big perch but they weren't having it, so I set up my hotchpoch cane along with my Heritage and decided to float fish prawn on a size 10 suoer specialist, over hemp doused with a sprinkle of aniseed oil..
My first bite, almost immediately was from a carp which I lost to a hook pull.

The second was what I was after,although it nudged the 3lb mark, it was just under at 2:14.

From then on I continued to catch carp, roach, rudd and a chub, more perch of lesser size and one of those fiddly bites that I just couldn't hit, it ended up as gudgeon, much to my delight.
I knew they were in there,well they were when I first fished the water, but hadn't seen one for a long time.

It was time to ring the changes as the bites were getting finicky, probably gudgeon, so I put on a cockle and was surprised to land what must be the second tench in this pond. the one I keep catching is deformed about the mouth so I know it's not the same fish.

More carp followed and a couple of crucian.

I packed up at about 7:30, quite happy with my varied lot, didn't bump into anybody, or spot any wildlife on the way back

101 Squadron Commemoration day

Ludford Magna 7th September 2014