Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
~ S.T. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
It seems an absolute age since I’ve posted anything on here. It seems an age since I’ve wet a line. In fact, it seems an age since I’ve done anything apart from the 3 Ws – working, waiting and watching the news for any sign that Mark Drakeford will ease lockdown restrictions and allow life to trundle slowly back toward the meridian of normality here in Wales. Alas, it’s not to be.
The numbers remain high, the virus lurks at large, the media only just falling short of portraying it like King Cholera striding across the globe depicted in some malevolent form, and activities remain at a standstill, leaving us becalmed as though sat on Coleridge’s ‘painted ship’. I tell you something – if a bloody albatross did happen to cross my path now, I might have a cast at it from the garden, just to give me something to do! Daily messages inform me that Dai is in exactly the same boat along with, I dare say, a large chunk of the population.
But the gear waits on in the shed, cleaned, mended (where necessary) and ready for the start gun. Unlike England, here in Wales we’re not allowed to drive for recreation, so although I live reasonably close to the beach, it’s far enough to make the walk there loaded down with all the gear, dressed in the appropriate clothing, a back-breaking invite to becoming bedridden for a month!
There are those who are risking it, taking their fines, doing exactly what they want and sticking two fingers up at the rest of us, but I’m not of a mind with those idiots. While they look after number one, the horizon of COVID-free life is pushed further and further away for the rest of us. May they forever suffer the indignities of crack-offs, birds-nests and blank sessions, their fishing lives as cursed as that of the ancient mariner himself.
That’s enough ranting for now.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to be patient, work on my jigsaws, continue to write and enjoy the odd bottle of wine or three with my lovely lady, biding my time until I can hit the beaches again. By that time we should start seeing the rays, a few bass and flounders and, perhaps even an early hound or two. Tonight, I’ll raise a glass to that.
Stay safe and tight lines (when you do manage to get out!)
Waiting for a Hunter's Moon 