It has been a while since I did a Merry Christmas post on GFF, so I thought I'd make one this year. A few pictures from this year and a handful from earlier.
I have a goose roasting in the oven. Goose is a tradition that my wife's family brought into my life. We usually ate duck or roast pork for our Christmas dinner, but my mother-in-law made a goose, and since she is now quite old, I have taken over the tradition. Goose is very tasteful, and not something served often. Stuffed with prunes and apples, a dash of salt and pepper, slowly roasted 5-6 hours at 130 degrees C, and it's about as good as it gets, juicy, crispy skin, tasteful. And the gravy? To die for!
Fishing and such
This year has been my absolutely least productive year ever since I started fishing seriously. I have one (like in 1, a single, more than zero, less than two) sea trout to report and if it wasn't for a couple of feisty Swedish rainbows from the lovely lakes in Hökensås, that would be it. That can be compared to my most productive years where 150 sea trout was more the norm.
My fishing has been severely ruined by disease as you might have read, and being unable to wade, confined to using a wheel chair to "walk" longer distances and becoming tired very quickly has not improved on my number days out. As I say: Go fishing! You never know when it becomes too difficult to overcome.
In the archives
In order to present my usual cavalcade of fishing photos I have dug into the archive, and luckily that is big and contains dozens of thousands of good fishing pictures that haven't been published yet. The archive is actually several hundred thousand images, but not all are of fishing, even though a good and healthy portion is. I have added a few other subjects to this year's harvest, just to show you a bit of what I see and do.
What I do then
My bad luck regarding health has benefited one thing: The Global FlyFisher! Never before have I produced and published so much material for the site. I can still write, still shoot photos, still tie flies, still do web pages and still program. In fact that's some of the things I do best now, and some of the things I really enjoy doing now that my radius of activity has been lessened as it has. So here are a few images from my daily life too.
With the scent of the goose in the nose, my wife taking a before-Christmas-nap, my oldest son on the way here to join us for Christmas (the younger one is here already) and a large dinner at my brother's place planned for tonight, I still feel it's been a good year, and choose to focus on what's good rather than all the rest.
Merry Christmas!
So with those words I wish all the GFF readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I hope to see you back often in the new year, because the plan is to keep up the pace on GFF. And should you feel like joining the party and producing material to publish here, there's plenty disk space and heart-room, and you can just contact me.
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Kate,
Regarding w
Kate,
Regarding wading, I'm not setting my hopes too high, but it certainly would be nice to jump a few rocks again!
But for now I'm more in my office chair than in the water, so expect more new stuff on GFF in the coming time.
And whether the new section is exciting or not, might be a question of personal preferences. We'll see.
I'm putting the finishing touches on it now, and I'm expecting to launch it quietly tomorrow and see where it leads. It might become popular, but I'm certainly not expecting anything in the league of our patterns not to mention the videos.
Some things take off like a rocket... some things just don't. But it's fun making new stuff and new functions.
Martin
Martin,
So good to
Martin,
So good to read that your medical condition is stable; perhaps a bit of wade fishing is on the horizon. I know that you would rather be fishing, but on the other hand; we GFF readers have been the fortunate recipients of your extended hours spent at the computer keyboard. Thank you very much for beautiful photos, and great flies with clear tying instructions. Aha!
A new and exciting GFF section? Kate
Merry Christmas, Mar
Merry Christmas, Martin and All at GFF!
OK its been awhile since I even fished ( I don't like going out by myself) But you have inspired me to get out there and FISH! Thank you for your inspiration and information! From Washington State here's wishing you a New Year full of wet lines and lots of fishin' From Gayle
Kate,
Thanks a bu
Kate,
Thanks a bunch for your kind comment!
You are absolutely right about the articles... they seem to just materialize themselves in my list of ideas. Too bad they don't write themselves! But right now it's Christmas and holiday, and a lot of GFF stuff is getting done. A great way of spending some spare time if you ask me.
Much better than complaining about a situation, which I can do little to change. Sure it's a bitch to be unable to go fishing on a day as beautiful as the one we just had today, but I had a nice day anyway. And I can comfort myself - and maybe others - with the fact that I'm actually getting better or at least I'm stable, which in my case is the same as getting better. I'm not ready to wade fish, but at least I can move around the house without a walking stick. A year ago I needed a walker to go to the kitchen for a cup of coffee!
So I'll leave the complaining to others and enjoy my days off here, tying flies, shooting pictures, writing articles and programming a new and exciting section for the site.
Martin
Martin,
Best wishes
Martin,
Best wishes to you and yours for a happy and an interesting 2013. You definitely provide us with interesting articles on this website; I know that in your mind there are sparks of many more such articles waiting to burst into written thoughts.
Please do complain a bit about your physical limitations, the rest of us constantly complain about much more trivial issues.
All of you connected with GFF have done a fantastic job; thank you all very much.
Merry Christmas and
Merry Christmas and a happy new year from the UK. Your site is an inspiration !
merry Christmas to y
merry Christmas to you and your family and everyone on GFF
Merry Christmas to y
Merry Christmas to you and all the reader/contributor off GFF.
Martin,
Merry Chr
Martin,
Merry Christmas and a happy, as healthy as possible New Year 2013 for you and your family.
I am really grateful for your GFF website and all your input in it and with it, all the input in my fly fishing and tying.
All the best
Jan
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
Best wishes from Tur
Best wishes from Turkey for the new year!..
May you have better health and better fishing.
And many thanks for the GFF...
Merry Christmas to y
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Martin, from the middle of the States.