Martin's Mag.

When I lived in Bath, many years ago, some of the older residents lauded the name of one Frank Greenhalgh (apparently pronounced Greenhouse) who, as City Civil Engineer, had devised a system of weir and sluices on the River Avon which saved them from frequent flooding. It has been very wet recently and the river is high. However, by opening this massive sluice gate near Pulteney Bridge, citizens downstream have not had to take to their rowing boats as they did previously.

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.