A Change of Gear

It's been a good start to the summer hols for me. After the madness of the last weeks of term, work has finished and we have time to relax. I always find it tricky changing gear so suddenly and adapting to a new pace, but now that we're coming to the end of the first week I'm feeling that I've got into the swing of more relaxed days. As always I have a good-sized list of jobs that I plan to accomplish over the summer. As always about a half of these will actually get done!
It is nice to get out and about on the lovely warm days we've been having lately, so on Sunday all five of us went to the Bristol Harbour Festival for the afternoon. It was hot and sunny and there were crowds of people milling around. We went last July too. The sky and water looked so wonderfully blue on a cloudless day.

I liked the fact that this boat had a garden on board. I assume they move the pots when they set sail ...

Here's the beautiful Matthew looking as glorious as ever. It's a replica which is smaller than the original, but it's pretty impressive nevertheless.

We also watched a flyboarding demonstration. I didn't even know this was a thing, but I must say it was amazing! I could've watched for hours as people in wetsuits whizzed high into the air above the river on nothing but jets of water, only to dive head-first in perfect arcs in and then out again.

Back on dry land many stalls selling food from around the world beckoned. The continental sweets on this stall were very attractive indeed, but I remained strong and didn't buy any.

And this sold different kinds of olive oil. It was all quite crowded and hot, and we were flagging by now.

In the main square there was a stage and many refreshments stalls with a music-festival atmosphere going on - lots of people sitting on the grass drinking cider and beer. With the festival taking up a large part of the centre of Bristol there was too much to fit into one afternoon, so we sat on a bench in the shade for a little while.

On the way back we stopped by the BBC Weather tents to watch volunteers having a go at presenting a weather forecast in front of the camera. It looked quite difficult. The coloured umbrellas were a nice touch.

Yesterday my friend J and I spent a lovely day in Wells together wandering around the market and having lunch, and today D and I went shopping to Bath for the afternoon. I didn't take my camera to Wells and today's shopping trip was quite hectic, but we did find time to visit D's favourite cafe where I had a coffee and she had a beetroot cleanser and this delicious cake, artfully photographed by the girl herself. Delicious.

Whilst shopping I spotted these two books which were both drastically reduced - how could I pass them by? A lovely crochet book full of step-by-step crochet stitches and little projects, and a beautiful anthology of bird-themed poetry. They were such a bargain that they came home with me instantly. I know I'm going to enjoy them both.

Bristol Harbour Festival

At last it's the summer holidays here! My youngest has just broken up and, as I work in a school, I have too. We stayed in yesterday as it was a day of downpours and thunderstorms, but today we decided to go out as it was warm and sunny. We headed over to Bristol for this weekend's Harbour Festival. It was at times quite overcast, but very hot and packed with people. 

It's spread along the banks of the river Avon and into the old harbour area. Bristol is a very vibrant and busy city, and there's always lots going on. There were rides available on lots of boats, like this old tug boat.

This boat's named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the famous Victorian mechanical and civil engineer. His connections with Bristol are great: he designed both the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the the SS Great Britain in Bristol, and was the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway.

Today there were rides along the harbourside in an old steam train.

I think this wooden ship is called the Kaskelot.

The river was very busy indeed, and it was not always easy to get an unobstructed view.

There were lots of lovely harbourside bars and restaurants to choose from.

And even Latin-American dancing on the deck of this boat.

At this point my attention was caught by the arrival of the Matthew, a fabulous replica of John Cabot's ship in which he sailed to Newfoundland in 1497.

Such a beautiful ship, I could look at her all day.

We then headed away from the river towards a square where there were music stages and lots of stalls. My favourite was this one selling Provencal soaps. The stall holder even spoke to me in French, so I got to try out some of my rusty A level French.

I chose two - lilac (of course) and cucumber, which smelt very refreshing.

Back by the riverside again, we wandered along under the trees beside some relaxed-looking bars.

A speedboat sped past as we were walking. 

Here's a pretty floating bar, and lots of bicycles. Bristol's a very cycle-friendly city, with lots of cycle paths to explore.

Almost back to where we started, we took one last look at the river before heading for home. 

We really enjoyed our taste of the Harbour Festival in the sunshine - a good start to the holidays.