OK, joke over - give us back our summer

Canon 1D MK111, 70-200mm f4L IS lens (at 90mm), ISO 200, f11, 1/500

• Above is a photo looking across to Constantine and down the north Cornwall coastline, from Wednesday morning this week. I was on the beach with the kids and managed to get a few photos of the big skies and rough conditions just before my two young daughters turned totally blue from the cold wind. But as I said the other day, we are nothing if not hearty us Brits, and my girls were swimming/paddling in a rock pool as I took this photo, in little wetsuits of course. With the sea running at less than 15C, I reckon that is pretty hardcore - but you won't find me swimming in these temperatures, it's far too cold.

• I am really feeling for our charter skippers at the moment - this is a busy time of year for them all right now, and the weather is dire, plus it is forecast to get even worse. They are saying that we might get gales to severe gales tonight and tomorrow. These winds are playing havoc with their trade, and I only hope that we get a prolonged settled spell sometime soon. The fish are out there, but we can't get at them.........

• I am off over to Norway on Thursday, to photograph some salmon fishing up near Trondheim. I believe that it will be 24hr daylight when we are up there, so it should give me a chance to really push things hard and get some awesome photos. I have been wanting to photograph the salmon fishing in Norway for ages now, so this is my chance to get things started. I am travelling with a couple of guys from Hardy & Greys Ltd., so it should be a blast.

• I then get back to the UK four days later (the 14th), and the day after that (the 15th), I am driving over to SE Ireland for this bassing photography trip. It's not too bad a drive at all from Plymouth, about four hours to Fishguard, jump on the StenaLine fast ferry over to Fishguard, and then less than hour over to where my mate Graham Hill lives. I have done this journey loads of times, and I expect to be doing it plenty more in the future - the fishing is that good over there.

• I am travelling back from Ireland on the StenaLine Dunlaoghaire to Holyhead route, to do a couple of jobs up in north Wales, which I can't wait for. I will have more info in due course, but you can guess that it revolves around bass fishing !!

• And then straight after I get back from north Wales, I am heading up to Blenheim Palace for the CLA Game Fair, where over the three days (25th, 26th, 27th July) I am doing some fishing demonstrations with Nick Hart. The Game Fair is always huge fun, and if you have any interest at all in the outdoors (fishing, shooting, hunting, animals etc.), then you should try and come along. Please come and find me if you do, I will mostly be around the fishing area. If you have not been to the Game Fair before, you will be staggered at just how huge this event is, and there is far too much to do and see in just one day.

• I have just found out the exact times of our fishing demonstrations, and these are :

Friday 25th July : 12.15 - 12.45

Saturday 26th July : 13.00 - 13.30

Sunday 27th July : 10.45 - 11.15

• Remember to check out the photos from my recent trip over to Montana, check here for them. What a place, and both Nick and I are itching to get back over there sometime soon. In the meantime, speak to Aardvark McLeod about a trip somewhere nice and warm, with plenty of good fishing !!

• To sit perfectly alongside this vile weather, how about some old school, classic-style death metal to warm you up ? Hail of Bullets play it proper, and that means awesome riffs, sick vocals and a warming glow of nostalgia working its way around your body. If you remember the band Asphyx, you will recognise the vocalist immediately. "....Of Frost and War" is the title of the new album from Hail of Bullets, and you can listen to a couple of tracks here. Track this one down and I assure you that any die-hard metal freaks among you (and I include me here) will be banging your heads in time to this one. Ah, they don't make 'em like that anymore.............