Spring in Bristol

Now that the sun is shining, it is a bit warmer, and lots of flowers are budding we were itching to get outside. So, we took a hint from a couple of workmates and went to Long Wood Nature Reserve and Stourhead on Saturday and a loooooong bike ride on Sunday. Anyway, before that.... The week went well (extra long it seemed with Monday off), we had dinner with my workmates and some of their partners on Wednesday and looked after a friends little boy on Friday (we had a 2 hour thunder and lightening storm which was spectacular - thankfully he wasn't one to scare easily). Saturday, the rain had stopped and we wandered through Longwood Nature Reserve (17 hectares of woodland that goes back to the 13th century) at the top of Cheddar Gorge. First of all there was Velvet Bottom a long valley covered in moss and grassed over slag from the lead mining that happened a few 100 years before. Rabbits were darting around the rocks obviously enjoying the warmth of a spring day. Under the beech trees were wild garlic (smells very much like onion flowers - proper name is Ramson and it is a member of the lily family - aren't you impressed - we bought ourselves a Wildflower book for £2.99 - anyway, regardless of what it is called it stinks!), bluebells and a few purple wild orchids. What a lovely sight - although only for a couple of weeks we are told - then everything turns green once again. There are fossils in the cliffs, but we didn't see them and we were a bit early to pick the wild raspberries and blackberries - but can't have everything and bluebells were great.

After a much deserved cup of tea we took off for Stourhead - an unusual name which doesn't really give justice to the lovely garden setting of this huge home (it's called a Palladian Mansion) of Henry Hoare, a banker in the 18th century (the bank is I think the only private bank left in England - and had customers like Jane Austen's family - didn't tell the guide that that particular family fell on hard times - and some other famous people we can't remember the name of). They obviously had some money (or others money shall we say) as they built lots of little 'follies' around the huge garden, a rather large ice house for refrigerating food (the ice was cut from the lake during winter and stored in the underground stone house, and it could remain ice for about 2 years), and the house was full of Chippendale furniture and lovely oil paintings. It was our lucky day, because it was 'Festival of the Voice' day. We usually miss events by a week or so, but as we wandered around the gardens (more bluebells, rhododendrons, beech trees etc) we could hear choirs, barber shop quartets and other singers adding to the tunes of the birds and the chatter and laughter of people. One of the follies built by Henry was King Alfred's Tower. King Alfred, was a saxon king, who fought the Danes with a small army and won hence keeping England out of Danish rule. The tower was built where they thought Alfred was victorious in 878AD. How could we resist climbing the 205 steps of the spiral staircase to the top - 306 metres above sea level - to look over three counties ie Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset.

Sunday dawned another warm and sunny day so we hopped on our bikes, with a picnic lunch and plenty of water, and took off to ride the Bristol to Bath cycle path. It passes my work and I cycle on the beginning every morning so have been looking forward to doing the whole thing. I realised as we left home that it was 38 miles return (not counting the ride from our place to the start of the track) - that's further than Wellington to Paekakariki and back again and I did seriously consider turning back to lie in the sun but consoled myself that it would be unlikely to have too many hills like Ngauranga Gorge. We rode for a few hours, in all, stopping for cuppas and ice-cream and enjoyed the nearly flat ride in what was once the old railway line, but since 1979 is a dedicated path for cyclists, walkers, push chairs and mobility scooter riders (not for long if the council have their way - they want buses to share it - no way say Sustran the voluntary organisation that built the bike track). There were a few bike jams along the way, but great to see so many families out on all sizes of bikes enjoying themselves. We did consider getting a little trolley on the back of our bike for Caramello - as so many little children seem to be transported that way. There were historical plaques along the way (one mentioned that Arthur Ridley who was injured in the war sat at the station hearing a train coming - it never came - so his famous play The Ghost Train was based on this - he is better known by some of us as Private Godfrey in Dad's Army). We cycled passed the old platforms where people once stood, and now metallic statues of people stand waiting for trains. We must have been a bit tired towards the end as unlike Amsterdam where we opened our mouths and snow fell in, in Bristol it was insects and we felt them 'wriggle and jiggle and tickle inside us' on the way down. After the first time you thought we would have learnt!!

We spent the afternoon lazing around in the sun, reading papers and books. Not often we are home on a Sunday afternoon. There was an article on how lots of Mums are writing blogs and turning them into books - some blog sites have over 1500 visitors a week.