Sunday 14th May 2023

Went on a fishing trip with Howie and Eddie on Tuesday.

Howie is a member of the Trafalgar boat club in Portsmouth so we went out from there. It was really interesting just visiting all the fishing spots seeing the sights. We were primarily lure fishing for bass. Howie caught one early on but it was too small to keep. I also nearly landed a small one but it came off at the last minute. We were using barbless hooks. We bottom fished at lunch time and I caught a dogfish and also lost one. Howie also caught one and a nice black bream that he kept for eating. Here's a few of the sights.

The Spinnacker

Old fort that was a hotel for a while

HMS Queen Elizabeth I think

HMS Warrior

A pilot boat

Obligatory shot of the wake

Weather was good apart from a brief light shower around lunch time. A great day out. Dodged the showers on Wednesday to put up new lights by the back door. Played around with some acoustic blues ideas in D tuning. On Thursday I stripped the ivy off the judas tree in the morning. It was a very sunny afternoon so I did the Fobney Meadow walk. On the way I spotted they'd put the plaques on the posts in Holybrook Nook.

It was quite flooded in the meadow but I figured as I was wearing shorts it was only my boots and socks that would get wet so I went for it.

I decided to start keeping a record of birds I've seen, so here it is. Today's highlights were a whitethroat and a greater spotted woodpecker down by the Kennet. Did my Playhatch ride on Friday morning then worked on my blues song. Lazy day for me on Saturday, recorded my song. M spent the day gardening and then made an excellent homemade pasta dish. Then settled down to watch Eurovision. Won by Sweden. Did a society walk on Sunday organised by Andy based mainly in the woods around the Cherry Tree at Stoke Row. Lots of bluebells.