Martin's Mag.

An exceptionally mild December has now turned to an averagely-cold January and all the leaves are at last off the trees. A chance to take a new photo for the header to this blog. This is our road. The same photo processed with different cropping and digital colour filters.

We followed a walk around Bristol from Chris Bloor’s book of the same name (nice web site!).

Wall of a bike hire shop near the Create Centre.

Oil spillage outside The Orchard Inn.

Figurehead on The Matthew.

Stokes Croft from Kingsdown.

We’re in that no-man’s land between Christmas and New Year. A walk at the seaside seems to be de rigueur.

And, being Weston, there was some Banksy-type grafitti:

A great weather forecast, which proved to be correct, so walked the nine or ten miles right around Portland Bill in Dorset.

A return visit primarily to see an exhibition of the celebrated war photographer, Don McCullin. A BBC report HERE. These pictures of the gardens.

Due to some dodgy shenanigans at the local council, this could be one of the last weeks that the volunteers do their stirling work at Portbury Wharf nature reserve.

Looking toward recently-cleared island on north pools.

Family of swans with eight signets at Portbury Wharf.

We’ve Farrow & Balled the kitchen to within an inch of its life. And installed a new sink and tap. Good use of a couple of weeks bad weather.

Gloucester was buzzing with seasonal cheer yesterday – including fairground attractions and many exotic food stalls at the so-called “German” market.

Mist and drizzle in England; 24c temperatures and blues skies in West Wales! We walked from Mumbles, on the edge of the Gower Peninsular, over the hill to Caswell Bay, and then back along the coast to Mumbles Pier and lifeboat stations (the old and new ones).