Courgettes

I was going for a run one day, up through the woods onto the track to the open tops of the South Downs near where we live. That's where I had the initial idea. Running is good like that, ideas come from out of the blue. I just thought I'd love to make a film about Hardy's, they were such an interesting, enigmatic and iconic name.

The idea had not come from totally out of the blue. I had wanted to buy a spare rod, just to have handy for when I can persuade visitors to come along for a spot of fishing. But I thought hmm maybe I can buy something a little different and let the visitors use my own rod. I wondered what would I like and remembered that I'd always wanted a cane rod for dry fly fishing when I was a kid so why not try a second hand one. There are probably lots of reasons not to buy a second hand one but it was an old itch and I was keen to scratch, even if only to consign it to the dustbin of the past. Ebay beckoned and I could not believe just how many used cane rods were out there. So a week or so later our grinning postie knocked on our door with a Hardy Palakona Perfection. It was a lovely old clunker too. Luckily I'd missed the advent of the more modern carbon in my 20 year absence from angling so I had no real idea of what I was missing in the modern high tech stakes. Probably just as well.

Anyhows what really struck me was that the rod came in the original bag and with the original oiled label. A 50 year old rod, older than me and with the label still attached. It cost me about £55, probably about the same as it cost when new but goodness has the world changed since then. That rod and it's dried out oil label became to me a touching link with the past.
The seed for all of my films start like that, some little curiosity, a tick that grows into a idea and through this a film develops.

I got back from my run and related my thoughts to Heike my producer. She happened to be in the back garden ruminating over the chalky spots that were appearing on the courgette leaves. Surprisingly there was no snort of derision, she's very encouraging like that. Instead she hummed it over and we said no more for a while. We both just thought hmm, there is a film in there but how can we get it made?