Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Michael's fly; more connections...

As promised, the "Goshawk & Claret", on its cover letter from Michael Simon back in 2000 [I had put 1990, meant to type 1999, and it was actually 2000!]

The reason for the Khyber Pass falconer- with- Gos in "Teaser", below, is that Michael spent a good bit of his youth in Afghanistan before war tore its ancient and (if perilously) balanced society apart, as did several of my friends from the west and one long distance falconry mentor, Sirdar M Osman.

John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's father and the model for the old curator of the "Treasure House" in Kim, wrote about Punjabi and"Border" Goshawk falconry in Man and Beast in India, here, with Pakistani bell and Afghan snuffbox of Lapis:

Cover:

So once again shared interests and the mysteries of the Intarwebz connect old friends; unbelievably, an incoming message from him crossed mine to him in the same ten- minute period. Michael at 65 in VA, in the style of Picasso; his "Art" side? He also has a self- portrait in his other persona, as Edwardian fly fishing giant and "father of nymph fishing" G E M Skues; if he sends it I'll post...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there a recipe of Gos and Claret? I'd love to tie some.

Steve Bodio said...

Michael?

If he doesn't remember I could get a real photographer to photo it and probably anyone competent could reconstruct; it is a simple soft- hackled wet fly.