Coffee & Quotes…

  My brother gave me that coffee pot. Solid silver and as heavy as a boat anchor. The lid is bent too.  There is little point in making the coffee, then pouring it into the ornate pot, and then pouring it into a cup. But I do. On cold days, with a good book.  Speaking of which, Jerry Kustich has written some fine stuff. I don’t yet have his latest one (  “Holy Water”) , but I am re-reading one of his early ones (2001)  “At The Rivers’ edge”, from which I take this quote:   “The older I get

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Coffee and quotes

I often grind some cardamom (elaichi) with my beans. It is something I read about, and which is not uncommon in the levant.  My local coffee shop once offered a “copperccino” , which claimed to be cardamom coffee, but I was disappointed to discover that they scattered a few pinches of powder on top of the milk foam. I say go big. Throw a few pods in the grinder…say 3 in a double shot, and taste the stuff. It gives it a warmth and smoothness which is difficult to describe. Warmth and smoothness is a fair description of the feeling

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The ban on Broccoli

The South African department of environmental affairs is about to see to it that broccoli ceases to find its way onto dinner plates in South Africa, by listing it as invasive and requiring a permit to do anything with it. Dammit!  I like my broccoli!  What is it with them! Broccoli is tasty. It is only grown in small areas. It doesn’t harm anyone, and millions of us like it. Hell, some people are passionate about it. They say not to worry and that we will be able to get permits. I don’t trust them.  Broccoli, it seems, are guilty

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Coffee & quotes

Thanks to my friends Anton and Allison for this oh so posh coffee drip filter thing which they gave me for my fiftieth. Very suave! I become philosophical when I drink coffee made in it.   And the quote: “Fly Fishing, or any other sport fishing, is an end in itself and not a game or competition among fishermen; The great figures in the historic tradition of angling are not those men who caught the greatest numbers of fish or the biggest fish but those who, like Ronalds and Francis and Halford and Skues and Gordon and Wulff and Schwiebert,

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Serendipitous connections

Back in August of 2016 I wrote this piece about a certain Capt HA Cartwright, his old fishing tackle which I happened to be keeping, and what I had discovered about the man on the internet. My fascination with the story didn’t end there, and in the winter of 2017, I read the story of Fritz Kolbe…”Betraying Hitler”. I read with intense interest the snippets in there in which the meeting between Kocherthaler and Cartwright in Berne was mentioned.  I had no sooner turned the last page of that fascinating story when I received an e-mail, out of the blue,

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Spring reborn in summer’s cloak

Crisp white snow linen met verdant spring veld. A rarity and a delight. Cold mixed with summer’s replenishment. Crisp mornings, sent to sweep away stifling humidity. A short reprieve. A re-setting of the seasonal clock. A checking of the rolling march of Summer’s oppressive heat. An elixir for our Trout, bracing themselves as they were for warmer water, regardless of flow.  Now we have ice melted into summer aquifers. Flows are up, and they are cold to boot. A gift of full rivers. Levels and clarity nearing perfection just as the balance is about to tip on its fulcrum towards

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Coffee & Quotes

“There is a fatality about fishing which makes most people, myself certainly, do what we know to be inept. Fishing faults are incurable. So though I shall proceed to lay down the law in pontifical fashion, pray do not think that I am one of those impeccable individuals whom we read about, for no one sins so often against the light.” A Summer on the Test , John Waller Hills . 1924.   ….and these are the beans I am currently grinding:

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Coffee and quotes

My hiking buddy said I would burn my eyebrows off with this thing. I bought it anyway.  Turns out he wasn’t far off the mark. There was this little incident last year, you see. But enough about that. It’s a fantastic little thing, and it requires finess and skill to make it really hum. Not like one of those little gas cannister things that you just switch on and light.  You would have to read Pirsig to understand. This photo was taken in that little sheltered spot under the Nchi shi bushes at Highmoor. It is the perfect spot to

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Coffee and quotes

“The whole thing about fly fishing is that it’s supposed to be fun. If you have more fun not catching fish on a dry fly than catching fish on a nymph, then fish a dry fly” Gary LaFontaine, from Paul Arnold’s book “Wisdom of the Guides” (and that is Al Troth on the cover by the way)   There is a story to this hut!  LINK. I eventually got someone to do one for me !

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Coffee and quotes

The coffee is a cappuccino, made with “Nonmara” beans, from the Coffee Merchant. “Non- “not” and Mara – “bitter” = not bitter! A multi continent blend that is roasted medium/dark. An intense espresso experience, great body and is vibrant and snappy, without any bitter after-taste” The quote is from “A Fisherman’s diary”, published in 1969 “True anglers fish for sport, not for a medal, or mess of pottage, but they ought not to be ignorant of the peaks and summits of their attainments, whether directly solicited or not.”   Oliver Kite Read more about Oliver Kite here

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