The lull in the detecting season has provided a window of opportunity to explore other pursuits outside of seeking archaeological interests.

Apart from angling (covered in the previous blog) I have been sampling the delights of our local Michelin Star restaurant at Northcote Manor near Clitheroe.
Another distraction has been a trip to Tuscany recently taking in some superb Medieval architecture and fantastic food & wine into the bargain.

Lucca is a great place to see a Medieval town with its walls still in situ.
We were entertained by Simply Red carrying out a sound check whilst dining on what was probably the best Calzone I've ever eaten to date.
​This is the restaurant where we took shelter a few years ago and I ordered a half bottle of wine. When the wine arrived it turned out to be a FULL bottle of vino. I quickly notified the waitress that I'd ordered a half bottle, she just as quickly remedied the situation by taking out a pen and drawing a line half way down the label! LOL!

The trip to San Gimignano was truly spectacular with the town resembling a complete Medieval film set! It boasts 14 Medieval towers where there was once SEVENTY TWO of them!!
The views from the tallest tower enabled some superb views over the Tuscan countryside.

Images of the trip can be seen here.

With the crops about to be harvested, Rob and I have been engaged in the skill (or luck) of angling. I have had the luxury of utilising days during the week to take advantage of waters with no other anglers present!

With sessions resulting in up to 35 carp to 18lb+ between us, things haven't stood still.
In one session I banked 70 carp to 9lb with one lost fish and several missed opportunities. Most of the catches have been on floating dog biscuits exclusively on the pole.

One venue has produced several double figure specimens including the 18lb+ mirror carp. It is this water that I was lucky to land two 18.5lb mirror's last season.

One of the highlights up to date was a kingfisher almost landing on the pole.
We're both having fun trying new baits and methods and tomorrow will see more trials taking place.

This fishing season may be quite short as a new permission is about to harvest their OSR next week!

Well, here we are in July and quality detectable land is fast running out.
We were on pasture for a change which is quite rare for us!
Using the same settings as normal; standard GMP, large coils and "Tracking", we jostled with the sheep to try and locate any Medieval evidence there. There is reputedly a deserted Medieval village in this locale.

Alas, nothing Medieval was to be found with the oldest dateable evidence being a George II half penny dating to 1754. There were also George III, Victorian, George V & VI coinage too.
One find of note was a Victorian silver name brooch that was in quite good condition. Another nice find was a badge commemorating the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria. 
The body of a watch was recovered with the date not known at this time (no pun intended).
A gilded toy pig and a Georgian buckle along with a few musket shot and lead were the other finds recovered.

Experience has shown that land (ie pasture) that hasn't been ploughed since before 1800 WILL be a challenge to recover anything older than Georgian. The pasture which HAS produced Medieval artefacts and more ancient items have either been ploughed or disturbed in the last 200 years or so.

The next few weeks are going to be interesting as Rob and I are going to be otherwise distracted with house moves, designing an archaeological display for a large landowner, angling and following up new permissions.
The two of us have certainly got our work cut out for us!

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