Martin's Mag.

Walton Common, down the coast a little from Portishead, is managed by the Avon Wildlife Trust and a team of volunteers, headed by Dave Horlick, whose excellent blog is HERE. We (I do my best to assist occasionally) erected some new shiny information boards recently.

View over the quarry, golf course and Severn estuary from Walton Common.

New information board.

The Dengie Peninsular lies between the rivers Blackwater and Crouch, in Essex. Not far from where I spent my early years. It’s an attractive area, ideal for cycling and walking, with very friendly, helpful people. Not the widely-held view of Essex. We camped on Mark Farm, a family-run organic farm near Tillingham.

Moonrise over Tillingham.

The 6th century chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall at Bradwell.

Bradwell nuclear power station, a partially decommissioned Magnox power station at the mouth of the River Blackwater.

In Carmarthenshire, on the opposite side of the estuary to the Gower peninsular. We cycled from Gorseinon, past Llanelli to Bury Port and back. Spectacular; weather brilliant.

…probably as it’s been carried out since Brunel’s day – paint is removed from suspension cables by steeplejacks with small hammers and buckets.

[android smartphone]

Bugger! I love being part of the European Union; I believe, with all its faults, it’s a force for good, and for peace. The trouble with referenda is that they are rarely only about the subject on the voting form, and there are many in our society who, with justification, think that the gap between the haves and have-nots has reached obscene proportions, and therefore vote against what is seen as the current status quo. Interestingly, the two land borders that we have with the EU (N Ireland and Gibraltar) both voted decisively to remain. Could be problems there. We’ll have to wait to see what form of “brexit” we end up with. No-one seems to know, least of all the “Brexiteers”. I don’t think any of us knows how expensive, divisive and isolating it’s going to be.

As it was Sally’s birthday we had a few days in Newlyn, near Penzance. A real working, fishing, town with a strong personality. We took our time meandering back, and visited some old haunts in the Devon South Hams.

Mousehole boats

Newlyn harbour

Sketching from Harbour View bedroom

Penzance bike training

Sally’s fishy friend

Penzance harbour

Penzance lido

Newlyn boats

Newlyn harbour

Newlyn plaque

Rocky’s old caff, South Milton, Devon. Now excruciatingly middle-class

Asthall Manor, in Oxfordshire is a magnificent house with even more magnificent gardens. Every couple of years the owners curate an exhibition, currently onForm16: sculptures in stone. More at onformsculpture.co.uk.

We met Wendy and Graham there. Most of the following pictures were taken by Sally.

A huge cache of ice-age animal bones, found in natural caves in the west of the Mendip Hills. These were discovered in the 19th century by a bishop who decided it was proof  of biblical texts, specifically The Flood.

We cycled from Newport to Goytre Wharf, and back, on the Monmouth and Brecon canal in South Wales. Actually, for a canal, quite steep in parts.

Under the M4.

Information board.

Unusual hinged lock gate.