Martin's Mag.

Now we are allowed to use cars to get to beauty spots, we didn’t really want to contribute to the chaos on the roads, but, as it’s Sunday, felt we should do something special. In the end, we did an eight-mile route from home to Portbury, then across the Gordano Valley to Clapton, down over the A369 to Big Wood and up to the coast and back past the Windmill pub (closed of course) and to Portishead Lake (very busy). Apart from the start and end it was quite quiet. Here are Sally and Lucy where we stopped for lunch at the quarry in Big Wood.

Without the allotment we’ve had to use every area of the garden. Summer wouldn’t seem the same without home-grown courgettes, peas, beans, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, chard, currents, figs, strawberries, plums, raspberries, cherries, pears, rhubarb. I’ve forgotten some. All down to Sally’s green fingers and my willingness to eat it all.

Apart from a few trips to local supermarkets, we haven’t driven anywhere for two months. It’s been quite nice in many ways.  But today we braved the outside world and went to Uphill, south of Weston-super-Mare, an old favourite of ours, and of Lucy as it was the first place we ever took her, three long years ago.

Too late for any residents this year, but I’ve amused myself by making a sparrow bird terrace out of some left-over decking.

A daily challenge is to find slightly different variations on our standard walks from home. We are very lucky in that we are close to the coast, three nature reserves, woodlands and a popular lake as well as the, mostly closed, High Street.

This is the old railway line which was scheduled to be re-opened soon. For now, though, we have it to ourselves. You can just see the sleepers, the metal rails are covered by the undergrowth.

And this is some farmland below the Black Horse pub in Clapton-in-Gordano:

The greenhouse is fantastic in many ways, but occasionally you wonder if its worth it. This beautiful little goldfinch flew in and, presumably, knocked himself out trying to find the way out.

The Panama-registered vessel, Positive Leader, carrying more cars for the UK market (good luck with that!) arrives in Portbury Dock to add to the thousands already there.

Prior’s Wood, between Portbury and Wraxall, is normally thick with bluebell tourists at this time of year. This is no normal year, though. We passed no-one going through the wood so social distancing was not required.

I make the vegetable planter (that’s the easy bit), Sally sows the courgette seeds in the greenhouse, nurses them along, pots them up, fills the planter with last-year’s compost, plants the seedlings, waters them in, and then, blow me down, paints their picture!

Another fabulous day in lockdown! The weather continues to taunt us. The campervan waits, eagerly, for its chance to whisk us off to distant holiday destinations.