Fishing By John Layton, Derbyshire County Angling Club

Spring Fishing: A time of expectation for the fly fisher

Derbyshire is a magic place for the fisher and for many, spring is its most magical time. If we are lucky the rivers, lakes and reservoirs are in first class condition and the passion for the sport is at its peak. Whilst these delights affect all fishermen, March and April is when the Trout fishing season starts and a strange compulsion comes over those suffering from winter fly fishing deprival. They have an unrelenting and irresistible urge to visit reservoirs and rivers to cast their fishing flies.

Derbyshire has a special place in the hearts of fly fishers. This comes from its focus in the fly fishing chapters of Walton's Compleat Angler and perhaps if fly fishing has a sacred place, a holy of holies, then it lies in the River Dove near Hartington. It was on this spot in 1674 that Charles Cotton, author of the fly fishing chapters in the Compleat Angler and friend of Izaak Walton built his fishing house.

The Dove in this area flows through beautiful countryside and towering limestone gorges. The spring-fed river is crystal clear as it dances downstream over the rocks and when the conditions are right; swarms of flies hover and skip across the surface of the deeper pools. In the spring flies are fewer but fly fishers dream of warmer days and of casting fishing flies and catching the lovely pink spotted wild Dove brown trout of about a pound or the larger stock fish, released by Derbyshire County Angling Club.

The River Dove near Hartington is clear and trout and grayling are plentiful. The river has benefited from much improvement under the Upper Dove Restoration Project, run by the Trent Rivers Trust in partnership with the Derbyshire County Angling Club. Much has been achieved and the fishing has greatly improved. Trees have been removed to allow more light into the river, allowing weed growth which provides cover for fish and a variety of invertebrate food. Long-term habitat improvement has ensured the health of the wild brown trout to the upper Dove.

If you want to know more about fishing available under membership of the Derbyshire County Angling go to: www.derbyshirecountyac.org.uk or for fishing the historic Charles Cotton fishery under the Peak Passport fishing scheme: www.peakpassport.co.uk

This article appears in our Feb/Mar 2012 issues - click here to read the All Things Local issue of your choice.

Fashion by Shona Harding of Pearls and Scarlett

Going into the New Year most people see it as a chance to change or adapt the lifestyle choices or habits we all slip into throughout the year. For most people it is giving up chocolate or cigarettes, for others it involves a gym membership or two. These resolutions normally don’t last very long as we put the expectations far too high and set ourselves out for failure. So for a change this year why not set yourself a resolution to try a new style or look. As with everything we do on a day to day basis we are habit forming, it is part of our DNA and this is no different for the way we shop. We get used to buying from the same shops; it gives us comfort to know what size we are in that shop and that season after season they tend to stick to only variations of the same look.

If the prospect of changing your style is too daunting why not look to your favourite films or T.V programmes for inspiration. Programmes like Downton Abbey and films following the lives of Marilyn, Wallis Simpson and Margaret Thatcher are all popular and hark back to the days when women dressed in a more stylish way. Likewise if you were inspired by Princess Diana or Jackie O you can achieve their style by just making the smallest of changes.

Plan your seasons – take an hour out of your weekend to really think about what you will need for the next 3 to 4 months. We can take Jackie Onassis as a style inspiration for example; start with a Capri length or cropped trouser, very straight leg with vents at the ankle. A great colour is a dark beige, navy or black, team that up with a pair of ballerina pumps or loafers; good labels to look for here are Jaeger, French Sole & Max Mara. Then a higher neckline for the top - slash is great with ¾ length sleeves. Avoid prints and stick to plain, it is classic and will ensure the look won’t date. For evenings out try a black shift dress, length just below the knee teamed with a short swing jacket or bolero and medium-heeled court shoes. 

Keep jewellery to a minimum with just an elegant bracelet or earrings. If you look at photos of her from the 1960’s right up until her death she never made a fashion mistake because she understood and knew her style.

Next edition, I will be discussing a different look altogether; in fact it could not be more opposite to the elegance of Jackie O - the madness of Helena Bonham Carter!

See you all in April.

Shona

This article appears in our Feb/Mar 2012 issues - click here to read the All Things Local issue of your choice.

The Diary of a Local Mum

A friend of mine recently asked me to help her with her CV. She’s taken a ‘career-break’ to look after her three children, and hasn’t worked in the conventional sense for seven years. She was worried about how to communicate this on her CV, without coming across as out of touch or a bit rusty.

She began looking back at skills and experience she could draw on from her previous job, but she was concerned that it looked like she was delving into the past for evidence of her abilities. It struck us then that we shouldn’t skim over the past seven years, but that her experience within this time was both valid and valuable.

There’s a common misconception that parents of either sex who take time off work to look after children spend all of their time cleaning and drinking tea. There’s certainly some tea and cleaning involved, but looking after children (and a home) involves a great deal more than that, and during those years you develop skills that are easily transferable, and would be beneficial in any workplace.

In fact there are very few paid positions that require such a vast variety of skills. When you become a parent there is no training, and often little support. You have to think on your feet, make tough decisions, and carry out a multitude of demanding tasks every day.

We looked at the skills that had been well-honed during the past seven years and these included:

Organisational skills – speak to most parents and they will say their calendar is the most important thing in their house. Not only are you organising your own life, but you’re responsible for numerous little people getting to and from various schools, pre-schools, swimming lessons, clubs, and social commitments, often all at the same time. Then there are meals, packed lunches, uniforms, presents, and countless other things to think about. Managing an office diary is a doddle when you’ve been through that.

Multi-tasking – from the earliest days of becoming a parent this becomes second nature. In fact, if you’re only doing one thing at once you start to wonder what’s wrong.

Quick-thinking – when a wheel falls off a bike when you’re halfway home from the park and you’re faced with the prospect of carrying both a broken bike and a screaming toddler home, it’s amazing how innovative you can be.

Negotiation skills – from a surprisingly young age children are shrewd negotiators, and the ability to debate and agree on a compromise is imperative.

Learning new skills – there’s nothing like being thrown in at the deep end, and when you first become a parent that’s exactly what happens. Within days you’re an expert on feeding, winding, changing, dressing and all the things that had previously filled you with terror (admit it, everyone’s scared of even holding a newborn before they have their own). This doesn’t stop either. As your child grows up you’re continually learning new things to keep up with them and support them through all their new ventures.

Communication skills – as well as learning to communicate with your children on their level (interpreting their early utterances, encouraging them to tell you what’s bothering them, explaining difficult concepts to them), parents also have to learn to communicate effectively with a host of other adults at various levels, dealing with problems or situations that can be challenging, sensitive or embarrassing.

And this list is far from comprehensive. Being a parent is by far the most difficult job you could have, and it’s a life-long commitment that doesn’t get easier! We’d all shy away from putting this experience on our CV’s for fear of not being taken seriously, but surely any employer would be lucky to have someone with all of these skills.

By Helen Young

This article appears in our Feb/Mar 2012 issues - click here to read the All Things Local issue of your choice.

Book Reviews – Love Stories

Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare

‘For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo’.

We know it’s going to end badly from the start, and yet we can’t get enough of the Bard’s star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. It’s got everything; romance, comedy, drama, feuding families and an apothecary. There have been many adaptations, film versions and take-offs but why not settle down with Shakespeare’s original play and let the whirlwind romance sweep you off your feet.

Twilight
Stephenie Meyer

This masterful tale of forbidden love between a vampire and a human, takes you on a blood-pumping and heart-fluttering journey of yearning and lust. Set deep within the misty and brooding Pacific Northwest coast of America it’s sure to warm the cockles of even a vampire’s ice-cold heart.

First Love
Ivan Turgenev

First Love is a beautifully-written Russian classic which is set in the 19th Century and charts a young boy’s awakening to love and adult relationships. Guests at a party are invited to share their memories of their first dalliances. When asked to recount his first love, the protagonist, Vladimir Petrovich decides it’s a tale that is better written down in a notebook. It’s then recounted through the eyes of a 16 year old Petrovich. He weaves a complicated and unusual tale of how he fell in love with an older woman who lived next door. First Love is hailed as a significant and important novella for young Russians.

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
Louise Rennison

Louise Rennison’s hugely popular comic novel is the first in the series about lovelorn teenager, Georgia Nicholson. It follows the trials and tribulations of Georgia and her best friend Jas, who form part of the Ace Gang. It’s packed with sleepovers and family life, along with heart-stopping and life-altering crushes on the object of her affection, ‘Sex God Robbie’. How do you cope when the boy of your dreams winds up with one of the ‘wet weeds’ instead of living happily ever after with you? The original Bridget Jones in a training bra, Georgia’s diary charts her path from girl to woman…and every step in-between.

The Reader
Bernhard Schlink

Set against a backdrop of post-war Germany, this love story asks how generations have come to terms with what happened during the Holocaust. The novel opens with a fifteen-year-old Michael Berg falling for the much older and more experienced Hanna Schmitz. Hanna is illiterate and after a chance meeting with Berg, he begins to read novels aloud to her and their relationship begins to blossom. The story is written in three parts, charting Michael’s life. It’s a complex tale of first love, realisations about the world and coming to terms with a history that irrevocably shaped Germany’s present and future. It’s thought-provoking and truly heartbreaking.

One Day
David Nicholls

Everybody who went to university in the eighties will both weep uncontrollably and laugh out loud at the nostalgia that One Day exudes. Published in 2009, it follows the twenty year courtship of Emma and Dex, catching up with them on the same day, the 15th of July, St Swithin’s Day.

One Day is filled with humour and wonderfully rounded, yet beautifully flawed characters you’re bound to fall in love with. Beginning as the two protagonists leave university and embark on their journey into the great wide world, fate soon overcomes youthful enthusiasm and aspiration. How long do we hold onto first loves, dream careers and a notion of happily-ever-after?

This article appears in our Feb/Mar 2012 issues - click here to read the All Things Local issue of your choice.

MONEY MATTERS by Rob Terry

Welcome to High Edge Financial Planning, your local independent financial planning and advisory professionals and our column on issues relevant to financial planning and advice.

Investment and Risk

We’ve gone through some testing times in the last few years: banks collapsing, credit crunch, stock markets falling and then bouncing back. What is one to do when it comes to investing money? If you ask anyone what they would like from an investment the typical response is ‘no risk and a big return’! Utopia! 

However, all investments and savings are exposed to one or more forms of risk and it is true to say that by taking increasingly more risk you can achieve a better return over the longer term.

Term: why is that important? Well, depending on your investment horizon (the period over which you are prepared to invest), it will dictate the type of asset you may consider for the investment. As a rule of thumb, if your investment horizon is under 5 years, you would generally be better off investing in deposits with a bank or building society. This is because if you need the money in the short term you would not want to expose yourself to the risk of not being able to access it, or getting back less than you have invested due to asset price movements.

When investing for 5 years and beyond you open up other investment possibilities. The traditional asset classes are: cash, bonds, property and equities. Each carries a different level of risk and within each asset class you can access different levels of risk. A key consideration for the investor is that of risk and return, and capacity for loss. For instance, you could build a portfolio of shares yourself, but that can carry a high degree of risk, as you are relying on your own experience and research capabilities to select the right stocks.

There are also different types of risk. Inflation risk is a particular issue right now as cash deposits are paying low rates, whilst inflation is higher. Your money is therefore losing value in real terms.

There is market risk. This is where your investment is subject to the ups and downs of the markets. This could be the stock market.

Concentration risk is where you may have all your cash in only one or two asset classes or investment funds. A way to tackle this issue is to diversify your investment. This means to invest varying percentages in different funds and asset classes to spread the risk and also the return (the not having all your eggs in one basket principle).

Counterparty risk is typically found in what are called ‘structured products’. These are products which aim to provide a return of capital after a fixed term if the stock market index they are linked to falls. The provider enters into financial arrangements with other counterparties to provide the capital protection. 

However, as found when Lehman Brothers collapsed, the counterparty may not be able to uphold their obligations to the product and consequently the return of capital could be affected adversely.

Consideration also should be given to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme limits for deposits and investments. This could affect how much you invest with one institution.

So, I am barely scratching the surface here on this A5 page. A lot of thought needs to be given to how you invest and this depends on a number of factors personal to you. I would suggest that when in the position of considering investments, speak with someone who has access to the whole of the market and can therefore offer independent, impartial advice.

High Edge Financial Planning is an appointed representative of Unleash Advice Partnership Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Information presented here is generic, does not constitute specific financial advice and are personal opinions of the author. For advice tailored to match your personal circumstances, please feel free to contact us on 07773 426498.

Rob Terry

Independent Financial Advisor

“On Two Wheels” By Ian Bax of Roy Jervis, Ripley

Motorcycling – The Benefits

I make no secret of the fact - I love motorbikes! I have loved them since I saw my first one as a toddler and, as soon as me and a couple of mates could raise the required £5 (a lot to a 12-year-old in 1972), we bought a very used Raleigh Runabout, painted it white and proceeded to thrash it round the woods!

Various bikes followed, ex GPO Bantams, stripped down Vespas and such like until the magic day arrived; my sixteenth birthday. My parents had relented and bought me my first road bike, a PUCH M50 Sport, the first in a long line of bikes that I have owned and ridden on and off road, in fact I still have four motorbikes and my son’s scooter in my garage at present.

To me, riding a motorbike is pure joy and I have never really given any conscious thought to the real benefits of owning and riding one, even though I travelled to work for years on bikes - mainly because I enjoyed it but also because I knew I would get to work in less time than in a car and parking was a doddle.

Congestion is a major problem in many of the UK’s towns and cities with the number of cars increasing annually. London’s Congestion Charge has, depending on where you are sitting, proved a success and now the charge looks set to be rolled out to other major cities. Motorcycles and scooters are exempt from congestion charges and often parking for bikes is free so straight away the cost savings are quite substantial.

Not only will you save money but, because bikes can filter through traffic queues, you will get to work a lot quicker and probably be able to park a lot closer to work as well.

With fuel costs at well over £5 per gallon never has motoring been so expensive and many people are swapping to motorcycles and scooters purely for the savings to be made in fuel costs. Modern 125cc motorcycles and scooters cost a lot less than 10 pence per mile to run and some can achieve 100 mpg!

In addition, a 125cc powered two wheeler (PTW) costs just £16 per year in Road Tax, even the largest bikes only attract a tax duty of £74 per annum. Savings will also be made on insurance, running and servicing costs over cars. Also, don’t forget that bikes are substantially cheaper to buy than cars.

Despite manufacturers’ claims, electric cars have a long way to go before they are a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine, whereas electric two wheelers are lighter and therefore don’t need the plethora of batteries and large motors to keep them going. OK the range is still not fantastic - up to 50 miles - but to get into work they are ideal and again parking is a doddle and it’s a lot easier to get close to a plug socket to recharge.

Not only will you enjoy the cost saving benefits of owning a bike you will also be benefitting the environment by reducing your carbon footprint and on a nice sunny weekend, you will have a vehicle that you can go for a ride on purely for the fun of it and hopefully you will come to love bikes as much as I do.

Interested? Then come and see me for a chat and we’ll see just how much you can save by joining the biking community, I’ll look forward to meeting you.

Jessica’s Column by Jessica Davies

Jessica Davies from Duffield has been a regular columnist for All Things Local for the past 3 years. Jessica is now at Cambridge University studying French and Spanish. With such an intense workload, Jessica has decided to step down from her role as regular columnist for All Things Local and this is her final contribution:

Welcome Winter

This is the time of year that Dad likes to play his thrifty heating game. It’s a game of endurance and pushing the boundaries. And shivering. He likes to sneakily knock the thermostat down one degree at a time and reduce the hours that the radiators thaw; with an adamance that 18^oC is a healthy room temperature. How cold can a house get before the family turns into icicles? 

There’s probably some secret league table for fathers everywhere. “I got it down to 15.5^o today,” They boast, “Only had it on for two hours!” Cue impressed hand-shaking and blokey congratulations. We just huddle together resignedly.

I can forgive winter for making me sleep in a cocoon of dressing gown, fleecy blankets and duvet, surrounded by hot water bottles. I can even put up with the depressingly grey mornings when it’s terrifying to set a toe out of bed, because the sub-zero temperatures make way for exciting novelties that have been forgotten about amid the tedium of t-shirts and boring in-between weather.

I want drama from my sky. I want heat wave or snowfall, fierce wind or mysterious fog. Much of the time, England’s weather is indecisive – autumn is all showers and breeze and short spells and frosty edges, whereas winter here is executed thoroughly. An everyday family walk could be dull - plodding along, drearily uphill and aimlessly downhill. Winter throws a bit of spice into the mix. She strips the trees to leave hauntingly beautiful skeleton silhouettes and stiffens the grass to give a satisfying creak when we tread. A brisk winter hike gives you a fairytale rosy flush and gets the circulation going. Plus I can gleefully dust off my pea green coat and retrieve my beautiful rainbow scarf and gloves, glad for zero threat of a bizarre socks-and-shorts tan.

When my legs have entirely forgotten the golden brown sunshine feeling of summer, a hot drink is medicine, an antidote to the frost that presses threateningly against the windows. The steam floods my glasses, rendering them opaque, and I sigh with happy anticipation. I am permanently in the mood for a cup of tea and often scarcely have I drained the dregs before the kettle is put on afresh. Winter is a time of banding together, of laughing and of passing around scorching mugs. Hot chocolate anyone?

As the world outside grows darker and colder, the lights inside glow brighter. Ice tightens around the visitors’ cars on the drive whilst indoors songs are sung, food is gobbled and spirits remain high. Everyone’s clothes become more colourful and jolly despite the plummeting temperatures on the streets. We have the ideal excuse to wear ridiculous woolly socks and gorge on casserole and crumble.

When the flurry of red and green festive sparkle dies down, the Christmas presents are thoroughly investigated and the doors are locked – an established custom at home known as the hibernation period. It’s the rest between the relatives, and a brief respite from celebrating the cheer when we can sleep until late and generally indulge.

Winter is my favourite time of year. Last year the snow was so special – and so unusual. Because, lovely as it would be, the weather isn’t always that spectacular. It’s sometimes just an inundation of chilly muddy rain. Hopefully this winter the delicate drifting flakes will be a frequent sight and we’ll get towering mounds of snow again. Then I can wear my wellies and scruffy navy jumper and enjoy snowball fights and snowy sculptures, as well as the other joys that winter brings – glistening turkey, early nights and friends home for the holidays. Oh, and did I mention my birthday is in January?

Jessica

Note from Editor: Congratulations on securing your place at Cambridge University Jessica, thank you for providing an excellent and well-articulated range of articles over the past 3 years. Good luck with your course and I wish you every success for the future. Karyn x