Author Archives: Martin

It’s a tradition in Portishead that heavy rain or hail and biting winds accompany the Portishead Carnival. But not this year. It was, however, dull and overcast, so people were not too disappointed.

Never really explored Anglesey, which, for overseas readers, is an island off NW Wales. We have very briefly driven around once or twice, but, if you keep to the roads you tend to miss the fabulous beaches and scenery. We stayed near … Continue reading →

A return to one of our favourite camping spots, near the city of St Davids in west Wales. The weather was OK but a few degrees colder than Bristol. You win some, etc…. More finessing of the camper; plenty of … Continue reading →

The wild garlic has been around for a month or so, actually, and already used, by Sal, in a flan and a sort of lentil curry (both fabulous, of course). This is on the northern side of Prior’s Wood, near … Continue reading →

Although we’ve had our new camper (Freda’s replacement, which seems to have attracted the unimaginative name of Fred) since last December, we haven’t actually spent a night in it (him?) yet, mainly due to terrible weather. No longer! A freak hot … Continue reading →

My egg-painting skills peaked at around age thirteen, I think. It’s been a slow decline over the last fifty-seven years. They have now assumed a rather creepy quality, up there with clowns and ventriloquists’ dummies: (Can still bake the bread … Continue reading →

Walking by the Severn Estuary near Pilning with Sally and Lucy,  one of my companions infomed me that this lichen on the sea defence boulders is called Xanthoria:

The same photograph, with different “post-production” (taken after boozy evening at The Colston Arms):  

Walking along the beach near Burnham-on-Sea, we noticed a slightly ominous-looking Hinkley Point nuclear power station several miles away in the mist across the bay on the North Somerset coast.

A combination of weather conditions – the “beast from the east” and Storm Emma – has resulted in us being plunged back into Winter, ironically on the first day of meteorological Spring. We were under a Yellow Snow Warning (a … Continue reading →