Author Archives: Martin

A colony of greater horseshoe bats lives here near Claverton Down, south of Bath.

It will be one hundred years since the end of the First World War in a few days time. Local school children have made this river of poppies, out of bottle tops, on the space in front of our house.

A crab sandwich on the beach at Beer in Devon on what could be the last day of our sporadic Indian Summer. It’s traditional.

14 Sept 2018. Apart from a chorus of insects (cicadas?) and owls, our night in the pine forest was free of disasters – both natural and unnatural. We drove a mile or so south to Lariño and parked by the … Continue reading →

4 Sept 2018. We got an earlier-than-booked ferry from Dover.  On our way south we detoured for a couple of nights at an old favourite, Bagnoles de l’Orne, in Lower Normandy. 7 Sept 2018. Then a site by a lake north … Continue reading →

We stayed in Folkestone so as to be ready for a morning sailing from Dover to France.  Folkestone is quite a nice, quaint in parts, town, but looking rather tired these days, unlike in my childhood when it was popular … Continue reading →

The river Lea used to mark, more or less, the boundary between London and Essex. It was an area to be avoided when I was a boy. The river itself was virtually a sewer, taking waste of all sorts down … Continue reading →

Steve’s 2018 cycle ride, this year north of Bristol through Avonmouth, under the Severn (M4) bridge, Pilning, Easter Compton, Henbury and back to The Nova Scotia pub in Hotwells. Here I am leading the over-65 peloton! Photo by © Steve.

We’ve been to Milford in Hampshire, on the southern edge of the New Forest. The weather was good for a couple of days while we had a stroll around Lymington, sat on the beach in Milford and walked the mile-and-a-half … Continue reading →

Food, drink, history of the port of Bristol and an excuse for a good time.