Martin's Mag.

It’s party time in the garden pond. Masses of frog spawn seems to have survived the recent cold weather and now the parents are making the most of the last of their batchelor days.

Only Portishead, but on a nice lockdown day Lucy and I diverted from a standard walk to throw stones on her favourite beach. They’re ALL her favourite beach. Then, further on, we found a film company (with crane, green screen, stars’ trailers and many security guards) filming COBRA, a Sky drama with Robert Carlyle, in Portishead Lido. The Lido hasn’t been able to open for a year, so they could use the money.

Lynchings in Portishead? No, just some arborealists thinning out the small wood behind our garden.

There has been some bad flooding in other parts of the country and the ground here has been sodden for what seems like weeks. Storm Christoph added to the problems last night. Although no serious difficulties in our area, this lane on the local nature reserve, one of our regular walks, was flooded. Fortunately, we were wearing wellingtons, and Lucy doesn’t mind getting her feet wet.

A cold, cloudy, windy day in January. How about a swim? In the sea? Sally snapped this hardy group by the pier in Clevedon. From the same club that were pictured in the BBC1 television ident, by photographer, Martin Parr.

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.