The Fish!

Sometimes I'm too imaginative for my own good. I really mean that.
Take today, for instance. Beautiful weather: sunny, no wind and calm seas. Perfect for kayaking. So off we went, paddling through glassy water out beyond the rocks. It was deeper there, but still calm enough to see WHAT WAS BELOW.
Sea monsters, giant water snakes, hideous creatures of The Deep, barnacle-encrusted skeletons. A dinosaur reared an ugly head just above the waves, fossilized for eternity, a snarl clearly visible on its face. We steered clear as my heart began to beat faster. I cast a nervous glance over my shoulder until it was out of sight...
Unseen fingers clutched fruitlessly at the fishing lure trailing hopefully behind, the line slipping through them with barely a hesitation. Until the rod jerked, struggling against the hands deep below, attempting to drag it - and us - below the surface.
We fought, of course, the rod bending so far I feared it might snap. Slowly, carefully, patiently we reeled the line in, bringing the lure closer and closer to the kayak. We had caught A Fish. (In previous expeditions - in fact, almost in the same place - a fish named Rock put up a tremendous fight. It fought for an hour, pulling the kayak first one way, then the other, until the kayak gave up and left the (fish named) Rock on the seabed where it belonged. But this was a real fish.)
He was indeed a monster. Not quite of Jonah proportions, but with a face of nightmares. And a weight of 4lb 7oz. (That's over 2 kilograms for the metrically inclined.)
Supper.

A random half term break...

Saturday evening. One more day, then back to school. It's been a random week.

The families I work with go to Mauritius, Barbados, Egypt, Morocco or EuroDisney for their half term holidays. (Skiing in February, of course.) 
I whizz around between here and the UK.

Latest trip was Norwich, to see Jonny. He came down with flu the day we got there, poor thing. Still, we had a good evening together, then whizzed off the next morning to get the plane back here, calling in on a set of godparents on the way. Really good to see them: "We would have been good friends if we'd lived closer," said Kim, some years ago. She was wrong. We have never lived close but we are still good friends. Their friendship is valuable and precious.

Mother that I am, I spent a couple of days praying hard and hoping to hear that Jonny was better. It was a doddle when they were toddlers - there seems more to 'worry' over as they get older... Thankfully, he is on the mend now.

Inbetween the visits to the UK we caught up with household tidying and gardening; took the kayak out on a glassy calm, sunny afternoon, creeping through tiny inlets in the rocks as seaweed undulated gently beneath us. Went surfing. Enjoyed 'down' time.

Today, I have spent a day at New Wine Women Guernsey. Ellie Mumford spoke to us. What refreshment!

Fishing

A beautiful evening in the kayak yesterday. There was almost no wind and the sea was glassy calm in places. There was some swell, and a little rip along the coast, so as we came in we almost seemed to surf along on top of the waves.

We also caught a garfish. Twice. The same one. Apparently they do that - bizarre, stupid or what? Fortunately, he jumped off the hook without too much trouble.

Apart from Mr G, we caught lots and lots of seaweed, despite steering a zigzag course to avoid it.

Fun.