Martin's Mag.

We’re not supposed to drive, at least not out of our local area, for anything other than a limited number of reasons, which doesn’t really include exercise. Our nearest walks, the Lake Grounds, Portishead Marina and Portbury Nature Reserve, are good regulars but have become very popular with bored Bristolians looking for adventure, particularly at weekends. A longer walk, which we can do from our front door, takes us over Clapton Moor to Clapton in Gordano, then back down to Big Wood Nature Reserve and a disused quarry. We’ve walked this many times before but it’s long enough to make it seem like an excursion rather than a chore. We passed this friendly horse at Sperrings farm in Clapton.

We’ve put a few new bird feeders in the garden. Word quickly gets around…

Fortunately, there were some more conventional punters, including a greater-spotted woodpecker and many blue tits…

Another new tradition started? Lots of people (socially-distanced, mostly) gathered on the beach (some fires lit) and above the pier next to the marina entrance. Fiona and Paul brought cans of G&T and Scotch and ginger.

Sally said this picture of the Walton Common volunteer party looked like a record album cover from the ‘seventies. We have had several, without exception unflattering, suggestions for possible titles.

^{Picture Mike T.}

Between Weston-Super-Mare and Kewstoke.

Birnbeck pier (technically a bridge to an island) at the north end of Weston-Super-Mare has declined over the years and is now dangerous. It has been in various private ownerships for decades and the council has recently decided to compulsorily purchase it. There will be some appeals by the current owner, but, if the council gets its way, the plan is to licence it to the RNLI.

You can see the extent of the necessary repairs. Just behind the viewpoint of the above picture is some wall painting which seems to recall better days:

The Pump House (a Bristol pub, previously the Cumberland Basin Hydraulic Engine, or Pump, House) now has automatic milk sales. Where will this madness end?

This Iron Age fort is only a few miles from us, but it seems a while since we were last there. We walked from the legendary Black Horse pub in Clapton in Gordano (currently closed, of course) under the M5, up a muddy track and then along the wooded ridge which is now Cadbury Camp Lane, known around here as Paranoia Parade due to the number of very expensive, gated, properties with notices describing the unattractively fierce nature of their guard dogs, which are “running free”. Well, only as free as their terrified owners, it would seem, confined within their high walls and panic rooms. Further on (nearer the fort) some sheep were being moved to lower pastures.