In reply to Post #218
Yeah,Leeds Castle Kent,they have a christmas fair every year,normally theres RSPB/RSPCA type stalls amongst the usual local food and drink stall's,My daughter was drawn by the toy otter straight away...

In reply to Post #216
Went To Leeds Castle yesterday,there was a Xmas Fair on,there was a Stall for the Wildlife Britain (??) and Countryside Alliance,there amongst their pamphlets etc was a book on the Reintroduction of otters, also to suck the kids in was a couple of cuddly toy Otters.
I pointed out to my kids the damage otters do to Fish stocks and used an example of the castles waters being decimated if otters were present,got a few funny looks.

In reply to Post #1247
Not Fishing related but here goes....
My dad told me this.
Back in the late 60s early 70s my dad worked in a royal naval building that dated back to the 1800s.
Him and a colleague were given the job of rewiring and renewing light fittings on a old stone spiral staircase after office hours and at the weekend when no one was around.
Whilst working away and chatting my dad said you could feel it getting colder and colder,at first they put it down to a door or window being left open and carried on.They didnt think much of it as it was Feb/March so not exactly warm,However he then said when you talked you could then see your breath,the temperature was dropping rapidly.
My dad thinking sod this went down the stairs to see if a door or window had been left open,as he went down he said he felt warmer and could no longer see his breath,no doors or windows were open.
He went back up and they continued working.
At the top of the stairs was a corridor that led off to offices but the staircase continued up to the roof area where the loft space was used by the sea cadets for their training.
Whilst working away he said both he and his colleague could hear footsteps comming down the staircase,they called up but got no reply,carried on working.
They then heard more foot steps,thing was the steps were stone but whatever was comming down the steps sounded like it was treading on wood and shuffling,they called up again and again got no reply.
The temperature was now very cold,the wooden footsteps must have been litterally just round the bend of the spiral from them,my dad shot up but there was nothing and no one there.
They finished the job and put it down to one of those things.
A while later they were working in the plant rooms in the basement when another fitter said that hed experienced the same thing working down there,temperature drop and shuffling footsteps,wooden sounding steps on stone.
They asked a curator about the building,it transpired it had been built by Napeolionic prisoners of war who were manacled together and were forced to wear CLOGGS,they were billited up stairs in the rafters/loft space and were only allowed to use the spiral staircase to get to and fro as the rest of the building was occupied by officer class types.

Afew years ago i was fishing my club water,there were a few other anglers on.Late afternoon most started to pack up and drift off and eventually i had the whole place to myself,great i thought.
I was squatting down close to my rods when directly above me came an almighty ROAR.........i absolutely shat myself and fell over,luckily not taking my rods out but landing in a kind of press up position with my hands in the margin.I looked up and saw the bottom of a hot air balloon basket about 20-30 meters above me,there were 3-4 people in the basket absolutely pi**ing themselves laughing