Week beginning 6 April 2020
Monday 6th April. Day whatever it is of lockdown and its all blending into one. Good news is Sally (wife) is getting better apart from being a bit breathless; I am still symptom free but have a few more days of isolation to go. I drive to hut feed hens walk dogs then drive home. The river is in fine fettle if maybe a little low now 1’3” today, who would imagine that after all those floods for two months that we’d be looking at a low river.
Tuesday 7th April. Now I only know its Tuesday because I look at this of an evening and it says yesterday was Monday. Dugs walked and a few logs cut, whilst I was sawing logs said dugs found a rats nest on the water edge which provided much excitement. The swans were fighting and the skylarks were singing their beaks off, my log shed has never been as full at this time of year which is a good thing. My seedlings are doing well and I think I might put my Dahlias in tomorrow after taking some advice from Andrew Roeleader up at Gledswood. The grass is now growing at a pace round the beat and will take a bit of knocking down when we get going, worryingly the Hogweed will also be getting a head start on us which is not a good thing. There is a supermoon tonight which they are calling a pink moon, I’ve been for a look and its not very pink really. Saw a couple of trout rising but no salmon; I’m not really there long enough.
Wednesday 8th April. Day whatever it is of lockdown. 1’2” with a bit of a westerly breeze coming down the river, as I pulled up at the hut to feed hens and run dogs a lovely fish of around 8lb or so launched itself out of the water in the Lower Cauld, bent into a banana shape and fell back in with a silvery splash. An Otter was giving me a hard stare as I looked at the gauge and a Heron and Little Egret were squabbling over a wee fish on the other side of the Cauld. Still to see a Swallow but I’ve not been looking all that hard for them. Sally is still breathless and has to take a breath between every sentence I remain tickity boo but still have two days to isolate. I went back along tonight to lock up the hens and saw another fish in the Cauld and one in the slap, there’ll be “hunners” there when we get going again. A few cans of German bier tonight me thinks.
Thursday 9th April. A very different day today with not a hint of sun and a cold east wind blowing, a midday high of 9 degrees as opposed to 23-24 degrees in London. Pair of Ospreys were seen at Wark the other day but I’ve yet to see a Swallow. Nice hatch of March Brown which the gulls were making the most of. Outside to clap and make a noise at 8.00pm for all the key workers and there was a good turnout on the street.
Friday 10th April. A lovely warm day once it got going, pale sunshine behind high cloud but it was flat calm and warm, and if it was August it would be really humid. Its about a foot on the gauge and heading for summer level, there are fish showing not when I have my camera ruining of course but I did get a nice clip of an otter under my feet swimming away. A few trout rising this evening and the swans fighting for territory. All around the farmers are getting the potato crop in and things are starting to green up. It looks like another few weeks of lockdown for the country but we have to do it for everyone, I’ve watched Sally going through it and it is not nice to watch, I am still symptom free and have done my isolation, trouble is I now think I am a Typhoid Mary, I carry it but show no symptoms, we’ll find out when the antibody tests come round, sooner the better.
Saturday 11th April. It was a glorious day today, sunny warm. Dogs walked, hens fed. Went to Kelso for supplies and ended up between two women fighting in the veggie store over distance and queue jumping, I stood back in case I received a kick in the Blueberries, everyone is getting a bit crabbit now. Got the Kelsae Onions into the bed Clancy and they seemed to have settled in nicely. I think I’ll give this “fishing report” a miss until we are back on the river as it’s all a bit samey, I’ll keep puting up clips and photos on instagram on a daily basis though, so if you haven’t already put instagram on your laptop or Smartphone and follow tweedbeats, there are some good clips and of course some crap ones. Sally is improving by about 1% a day but the better phases are lasting a wee bit longer. So until then good luck and keep washing your hands and stay away from everyone.
©M Campbell 2020
our twitter feed