Carter Family Christmas Newsletter 2013

Christmas greetings from Rosalind and Alan to you.

It is that time of year again when we count our blessings and remember all our extended family and friends. As I haven't had the chance to fish or post recently I thought I would share our usual Christmas Newsletter via the blog.  So here are the big events for us this year.

Washington State, USA.  We took the plunge and went to stay with Daniel and Holly for 6 weeks at Redmond, near Seattle, during June and July.  The trip involved babysitting of Erin, Harrison, Rose and Kate, some fishing and a lot of decorating!  However, we did manage to fit in some trips and we stayed at two lovely B & B’s and two amazing Church camp sites. We also saw a huge black bear in their garden!!!

The Move!  No we didn’t move, it was Lorraine and John and their boys, Samuel and Seth who moved after living with us for 2 years.  John had given up his job in central London and taken up a training contract with a law firm at Oxford so they moved to a bungalow near Bicester.  This had a big impact on us as we were able to redecorate, re-model and re-carpet parts of the house!

WelshTrips.  We spent a wonderful holiday in South Wales as guests of Lorraine’s father-in-law, Mark, who kindly took us to see the amazing Roman Baths at Caerleon, the brilliant St Fagan’s Welsh Life Village and a concert.  Alan also went on a long weekend fishing trip in Wales with his pals Rowland, Ian and Andrew.

Most spectacular event!  We were invited to attend the Lord Mayor’s Show by Rosalind’s cousin Fiona Woolf.  Fiona became the second woman to take this role as head of the City of London in 686 years!  Within the City of London only the sovereign (the Queen) takes precedence over the Lord Mayor. Fiona actually arrived at the event in the Queen’s row barge Gloriana. Having had drinks at a reception in the Mansion House, we sat in reserved seats on the balcony and watched the 3 mile long procession of bands, charities, Worshipful companies, soldiers etc.  Then having watched the Lord Mayor arrive in the gold coach and take the salute from her own personal bodyguard, a company of Pikemen and Musketeers, we all had luncheon in the Mansion House.

Autumnal Holiday.  For a reason that will become apparent, we decided to treat ourselves to some sunshine in October.  So we consulted our holiday travel expert, my brother Chris.  He recommended a small, un-spoilt island called La Gomera.  It is the Canary Island, in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa, that mass tourism forgot. Chris also recommended that we stayed at the Hotel Jardin Tecina located on the cliff top overlooking the tiny port of Playa de Santiago. We were not disappointed. I arranged the holiday through Thomson and we flew out from Gatwick in the UK to Tenerife South and then aided by a lovely couple, Muriel and John, from Scotland, caught the Fred Olsen ferry from Los Christianos to San Sebastian on La Gomera.  The hotel consisted of a main building housing the reception, restaurants, bars, sports facilities etc and the 460 bedrooms and suites were arranged carefully around the pools in the beautiful grounds along the cliff top.  My favorite feature was the two modern Otis lifts that took you down to the beach and the salt water pool and another restaurant.  Alan’s favorite activity was his SCUBA diving trip, Rosalind enjoyed the flamenco dancing and the whale watching.

Irene Moe – (Alan’s Mum) is still with us at 93, soldiering on, mainly in bed but a few hours a day propping up a chair in a nice care home. She doesn’t respond much but we do get the occasional smile.

Voluntary Service.  On the 11^th November Rosalind and Alan started working fulltime for 6 months as volunteer Ordinance Workers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the London Temple.  Although the Temple is only 15 miles from our home (near East Grinstead) we decided to live on site and just spend Sundays and Mondays at home.  Those reading this who are not members of the Church may be interested in knowing more about our roles in the temple and might like to copy the following link into their browser and have a look:-

https://www.lds.org/church/temples/why-we-build-temples/what-happens-in-temples?lang=eng

The London Temple

 

 

Most of the activities mentioned above are covered in earlier posts on the blog, if you would like more information please use the index on the right to find them.

 

So let us close by wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a happy, healthy and comfortable New Year.

La Gomera holiday: Mountain hike, pilot whales and dolphins

To conclude my account of this amazing holiday here are the pictures of our other activities.  We signed up for a 4 hour hike through "The Wild Northwest" of the island of La Gomera.  It was brilliant.

 Anahi Konrad was our excellent guide. The majority of the people on the walk were very fit Germans!

 We enjoyed walking through the tiny communities hiding in the valleys.

 Some of the paths ran through remote gorges.

 Rosalind found the descents a bit challenging but true to form she did not complain.

 The final reward was complementary refreshments at Vallehermoso.  Anahi the guide told me that in all the times she had been guiding walks she had never seen the English and Germans mixing so well.  She said they usually ignore each other.  She was particularly impressed with the duets sung by me and a lovely German gentleman who I think was called Norman. 

 On our final day we went whale watching and we were really lucky as about a mile off shore we were surrounded by several pods of pilot whales.  They circled around us for around half an hour.  This does raise the question as to whether we had come to see them or they had come to see us?

Then we moved off and found the dolphins who did all the things that dolphins are meant to do.  In fact they got so close to the boat you could almost touch them.

 

Then the boat anchored in a small bay opposite an abandoned tuna processing factory and we had a swim in the warm water and then a lovely lunch.

 Tuna steaks were on the menue.

 

Then we headed back to Playa de Santiago and the hotel.

 We were so blessed to have had such a brilliant trip thanks to www.excursions-tina.com

La Gomera: Holiday Paradise!

La Gomera is the Canary Island in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa that mass tourism forgot.  I only headed there because my most reliable travel guide, my brother Chris, recommended it. He also recommended that we stayed at the Hotel Jardin Tecina located on the cliff top overlooking the tiny port of Playa de Santiago.  We were not disappointed. I arranged the holiday through Thomson and we flew out from Gatwick in the UK to Tenerife South and then aided by a lovely couple, Muriel and John, from Scotland, caught the Fred Olsen ferry from Los Christianos to San Sebastian on La Gomera. 

 

A taxi driver, who would have done well at Formula 1 motor racing, drove us from the port up and down a continuous series of hairpin bends past a perpetual array of spectacular views to the hotel.  The hotel consisted of a main building housing the reception, restaurants, bars, sports facilities etc and the 460 bedrooms and suites were arranged carefully in the beautiful grounds along the cliff top.

 

So there we were perched up on the top of the cliffs.  This is how it looked from the sea.

 

And here are some shots of the hotel grounds

 

 

Next is an aerial view of the hotel's salt water pool and other facilities next to the sea seen from the lift landing.

 

I was disappointed to find that Spain now requires sea anglers to have a fishing license especially as I met a local chap who had caught a large barracuda just off the harbour breakwater.  So I tried to charter a sport fishing boat (they have a license that covers you) to go after the serious stuff, like Tuna and sail fish but I was told that a new film version of Moby Dick was being made on the island and all the charter boats had been recruited to help the film crews.  However I spotted these canoeists out on the water.

 

 

This led me to "Splash Gomera" (http://www.splashgomera.es) in the middle of Playa de Santiago, run by Brian, originally from London.  When I realised that as well as being a canoe instructer Brian was also a SCUBA diving instructor I decided I had to have a dive.  Our friend Muriel kindly let her husband John join me and having had our training session off we went with Brian.  The pictures tell the story.

 Brian had all the gear

 

Brian helping John with the kit.

 

John getting ready to rock and roll over the side.

 

Me in the water, totally relaxed with Brian working on reducing my buoyancy!

And down we go!

When we got back it was nearly dark but we were smiling because it had been a great experience with clear water and plenty of fish etc.

 

If you want to know about the walk in the wild northwest (of the island) and the encounter with whales and dolphins please read the next post.

 

 

 

 

Osprey seen at Bewl Water?

See the osprey top right. We do get ospreys at Bewl Water as they migrate through but I must own up to the fact that I scanned this picture from the front of the latest Bewl Angle magazine.  Ray French, the editor, always manages to photoshop in an osprey in somewhere on the front cover of the magazine.  I must confess that he had me fooled the first time I saw it.

 

On a more helpful note here is the latest fishing report.  Please note that boats will be available for use on the water till late November.

BEWL WATER FISHERY WEEKLY REPORT week ending:  10-Oct-13

The good fishing has continued for another week. Conditions haven't really changed since last week. The fish are still high in the water but do need a bit of work to catch them at times. This week's rod average is a very good 3.99 and average fish weight up to 2lbs 2ozs.

Best areas for boats - from the dam across the Main Bowl and into Hook Straight . The cages and further down Hook Straight. Bank anglers are catching well from the dam wall. There are also plenty of fish at Chingley and Bramble Point which are starting to come in closer as the water cools.

Successful flies have been Minkies, Minky Boobies, Sparkler Boobies , Cormorants and Hoppers. All fished on a floating line.

Request from Vince Brooks: Please could anyone wishing to take part in Vince's Annual Boss's Day Charity Competition on 26th October, and hasn't yet done so, please give him a ring on 07955 174210, so that he has a reasonably clear idea of numbers.

Water temperature 14degC - water level (now falling quite quickly) 65%

I like to fish Bewl this time of year when the fish are on the top and hunting the fry, but I will have to wait as I am off now to a La Gomera a small unspoilt island in the Canarys.  If I get a chance to fish I will give you the full report.