Another busy day

Thursday morning started with a walk down the lane. 30% had decreed that it should be a family outing, so TP joined us, and we had a pleasant amble. The dogs had their usual fun and games, taking in the scents from the comings and goings of the nocturnal wildlife.

After lunch I headed out to the potting shed and installed a LED strip light over the potting bench. The light in the shed isn't great, and the lower light levels of Spring and Autumn make improvements necessary.  I should point out that I only installed the light fitting today ... connecting it up to the lighting circuit can wait for a day or two.

In the early afternoon TP and I headed over to see Dot 'n Dave on our bikes. We swapped machines, so TP had his first run out on my R1250R, and got to ride TP's recent acquisition, a very nice Honda VFR 800 in a stunning red livery.

The roads were busy, which was unfortunate, as TP's VFR was just begging to be opened up on the twisty road towards Arrow.  I'm certain he would have liked to explore the BMW's capabilities too.

We had a lovely afternoon with Dot 'n Dave, catching up on each others' news. There was, predictably, a lot of motorcycle based conversation. Dave has recently re-acquired his Honda 50th Anniversary VFR 800 and has also managed to swap his, much disliked, BMW F800 for a Royal Enfield Meteor.  It is good to see that he is now much more positive about his bikes, as he was considering stopping riding a few months ago.

Later in the day I met up with Bubbles over at Barton for an evening of fishing. 

Last week we fished at Fladbury and I caught nothing at all. Bubbles was slightly more successful, bringing in a large olive green bream, but that was it. I suggested that we should try a change of venue because our recent successes at Fladbury were giving me the expectation that we would catch a decent fish every time. I was also slightly suspicious that we were catching the same fish repeatedly, so I thought fishing a different section of the Avon would be a good idea.

We had a fun evening, chatting nonsense and watching the antics of a lovely young robin that was very confident. It flitted from rod to rod and even perched on my fishing chair and took crumbs from my hand.

As for the fishing, I had plenty of bites, but Bubbs had very little interest at all. I was using luncheon meat, marinaded with garlic and chilli powder. Bubbles was using a commercial Red Robin boilie. Of the two baits, the Barton fishy community seemed to prefer the luncheon meat.

Over the course of the evening I managed to bring in a very small chublet and a slightly larger skimmer bream.  Unfortunately there were no monsters, but the bite rate increased the later it got. I would have happily fished for another hour, but Bubbles had work tomorrow, so I thought it only fair to call it a day at half past ten.