Posts Tagged With: quill gordon

The Clock is Ticking …

It is hard to think about fishing right now, when this is the best spring has come up with so far:

On the other hand, it is hard not to, with Opening Day here at Fish in a Barrel Pond a mere three and a half weeks away. I don’t know how you prepare for Opening Day in your neck of the woods, but I’m willing to bet I prepare a little differently than you do.

Today, for example, I counted spatulas and ordered 90 rolls of toilet paper.

It’s almost time to start digging out the roads, just as I do every year but, when it comes to the ice on the lake, there’s not much I can do but have faith it will go away on its own, just as it does every year, sometimes with only hours to spare.

Oh, look! A crack!

In the weeks to come, readers of this blog can look forward to more exciting preparation rituals like distributing itchy wool blankets, hitting up the linen service for cold sheets and starchy pillow cases, along with the unveiling of the new brooms (complete with instructions!). Water will flow through pipes and down drains, septic system pumps will be tested (graphic photos!), worn gasketing on wood stoves will be replaced, chimneys will be cleaned and critters will be rousted from their winter homes. There will be setbacks and surprises along the way, I’m sure (there always are) but, come the last Saturday in April, the ice will be off and fish will be on as the members of the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society hit the water for the start of the 2011 season at Fish in a Barrel Pond.

Some anglers count themselves fortunate to have one Opening Day excursion to prepare for; Quill Gordon gets to prepare for dozens at once.

Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Fly Fishing, nature | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Flashback Friday: Great Moments in Literary History

Great Moments in Literary History #24: On this date in 1951, Ernest Hemingway caught a small trout and decided to not write about it.

(That, of course, is a marlin)

Categories: Flashback Fridays | Tags: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Brief, Tropical Interlude

For being the season of hope and renewal, spring can be surprisingly grim.

 

Grim enough, even, to cause a severe flare-up of a latent case of the shack nasties, treatable only by a quick trip south. Less than a couple of hours from the dirty, glacier-like crust back home, Mrs. Gordon and I were both pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in tropical warmth, surrounded by thousands of colorful butterflies at Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory and Gardens in South Deerfield, Massachusetts.

 Knock it off. If a butterfly doesn’t make you smile, there is something seriously disconnected and wrong with you. Continue reading

Categories: +Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Flashback Friday on Sunday: Double Feature!

Abercrombie & Fitch was once one of the premier purveyors of gear and clothing for fly fishing.

Modesty was not their strongest trait but by most accounts, if they were not the “greatest sporting goods store in the world,” they were pretty darn close.

Continue reading

Categories: Flashback Fridays | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Not Likely to be Framed: An Outdoor Blogger Network Photo Prompt

(A photo prompt from the Outdoor Blogger Network: The photo least likely to be framed and hung on the wall.)

I click the shutter button a lot and, most of the time, my pictures look pretty good.

A Newt

Sometimes I will review the contents of my camera’s memory card and come across a shot that makes me wonder just what the heck was going on when I took it.

Huh?

Sometimes I will take a picture because of the unique point of view or to look at something from an unusual or uncommon angle, figuring “well, as long as I’m down here …”

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!

Photography has come a long way since I started taking pictures with that old Kodak Instamatic and those throw-away flash cubes. I have done my best to keep up with the latest advances and have fully embraced digital technology to take, sort, edit and share my photos but I’m telling you, if I live to be a hundred and ten, I don’t think I will ever get the hang of taking pictures with a phone.

I Can't Talk and Take Pictures at the Same Time

Categories: Humor | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments

Annual Shaving Edition

I have seen guys stroke their stubbly chins on Sunday morning and make growling noises, like that’s what one does when one has a beard. It’s not, and they don’t. I believe my growling is more effective because of my beard but my beard is not why I growl and Sunday stubble is not a beard.

I come across blogs and web sites featuring young men in their twenties, spending five days at a time fishin’, sleepin’ in the dirt and drinking PBR, but those dark shadows on their jowels are not beards, either. They are five days worth of stubble and sometimes when I look at those guys I wonder if they aren’t also stubbly other places, too, after five days.

Continue reading

Categories: Humor, Winter | Tags: , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Flashback Friday: Boating Safety

As a younger man, my boating experience consisted mostly of drinking beer on the pontoon boats of others. I went bass fishing with an uncle once (Caught my first bass, too. Thanks, Uncle Dwight!) but I was 10, so what did I know about boating — other than we went really fast? There was also a long-ago week on sailboats in the Caribbean but it was still more or less me drinking beer on someone else’s boat. And a lot of rum, too. I think. I can’t really remember, but that’s not the point.

Boating is just not something I grew up with. Knowing better than to fib about such a thing, I was completely honest regarding my lack of boating experience once, during an interview for a job that required quite a bit of boat work, and still got the job. I hauled people and gear, fuel oil, tractor parts and even sheep, to and from an island on Lake Champlain for a time and didn’t make the evening news so, while I may not be the most seasoned of skippers, I do have tales to tell and slightly more than a passing knowledge of boating safety.

 If that is not enough to convince you of my experience with today’s topic, I currently oversee a small fleet of wooden craft resembling rowboats in that they have oars and are roughly triangular in shape. Continue reading

Categories: Flashback Fridays | Tags: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

An Impressive Start to Mud Season

A stiff, warm breeze has kicked the process of melting into high gear and mud season is upon us. Driving on an unpaved road can be an adventure this time of year, even for those who have experienced mud season before. Four wheel drive certainly helps, but so do ground clearance and a certain amount of good judgement.

We wondered all morning, Mrs. Gordon and I, if anyone would get stuck today and if so, whom. It’s early yet, so there is still time for my choices (the weekend people from New Jersey) to hit the ditch but they catch a bit of a break today by not being the first to get stuck in the mud of our road.

That honor goes to a tiny little car from Massachusetts.

And it only gets worse from here!

I once came across a Hummer with Massachusetts plates, stuck in a ditch during mud season but did not have my camera along so I had to settle for laughing at the driver before shifting into low and leaving him behind, not even twenty yards up a hundred yard hill. It still bothers me to not have a photo of that Hummer in the ditch so when the driver of this car knocked sheepishly at the door, looking for help, I said, “Sure! Just let me grab my camera.”

Frankly, I’m surprised they made it this far up the side of Nonesuch Mountain and I’m not sure why they kept trying to go further, but they did, plowing with the skirting at the nose of the car until they were stopped dead in their tracks. I did give them credit, though, for staying out of the ditch.

Of course I’m going to take pictures.

 It doesn’t look like things will be drying out any time real soon — and I certainly don’t expect people will stay off our road — so maybe we can look forward to more entertainment like this in the next couple of weeks. And if, as I’m taking pictures before pulling you out, you ask how (other than a large 4×4 truck) I avoid becoming stuck in this springtime morrass, I will tell you I just don’t go out and about. That’s not dry Yankee humor; it’s good judgement.

Categories: Humor, nature, Rural Life, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

When Skwerls Attack

According to this article from the March 15, 2011 Bennington Banner, a local neighborhood is under siege. Residents are scared and you, no matter where you live, should also be concerned about this growing menace. It is spring and, once again, bushy-tailed terrorists are working on their goal of total world domination!

These skwerl attacks are apparently “unprovoked” and target humans as they go about their business, shoveling snow and clearing sidewalks for the safety and convenience of all. I have known for years that these attacks are part of an ongoing plot to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

If you don’t believe me, check out this web site: Scary Squirrel World

In these troubled times we must all remain vigilant!

(Posters from www.scarysquirrel.org)

You have been warned!

My good friend, Eugene, has had his own encounters with the Bushytails:

Careful with that Axe, Eugene

I, myself, have been on the forefront of this ongoing battle:

A One Way Ticket to Exile Island

Categories: Humor, nature, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Signs of Winter’s Demise

The calendar puts it only a few days away but, for me, it’s not really spring until someone spots a pair of turkey vultures sharing a dead skunk on the shoulder of Rte. 5. We have a ways to go yet, before the peepers are in the pussy willows and the anglers are on the pond, but things are looking up, knock on wood.

Rain and melt water are absorbing into the snow on top of the lake ice, creating a thick layer of slush so heavy the ice groans loudly under its weight.  Meanwhile, the snow piles out front are shrinking, the hay rake is once again exposed, and the driveway is a mess during the day but, man, you should hear the racket when it is driven on in the morning after freezing at night.


Continue reading

Categories: Humor, nature, Rural Life, Vermont, Winter | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.