Tagged: grow
Clifton Down Dash
02 Mar 2021
A quick wander up to Clifton Village to wander down a path or two either around Observatory Road that I'd missed out previously. On the way around I took a moment to take in the incongruous 11 Windsor Terrace, smiled at a couple of mounted police, stopped to smell the crocuses, grabbed a coffee in Foliage and came home through the Polygon accompanied by the delightful Spring sound of a woodchipper running at full blast. Nice.
"The Crocus was chosen as the purple colour matched the dye painted on the fingers of children who have been immunised."
I'm still not entirely clear on how the crocuses are helping to eliminate polio, but the website's here...
Tags: Bristol Places UK onemilematt united kingdom Clifton Village Clifton crocuses
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Text Recognition Tags: Let's grow together to End Polio Now Let's grow together to End Polio Now
Green Squares and Secret Gardens
31 Jul 2021
At the end of July I went to have a look around some of the private gardens opened up by the annual Green Squares and Secret Gardens event. Sadly it was compressed into a single day this year, for various Covid-related reasons, it seems, so I didn't get to poke around too many places. I went to:
- A talk by the oldest resident of Victoria Square
- The St Vincent's Rocks Hotel garden
- The Paragon garden
- Cornwallis Crescent gardens, both east and west
- The Polygon garden
And snapped a few things in between, too. It was a lovely day—a bit too hot, if anything—and it was interesting to get into a few places I'd only ever seen from the outside, especially The Paragon and Cornwallis gardens, which are the least visible to passing strangers of all of them.
Tags: Bristol Places UK onemilematt united kingdom Clifton Village Clifton Garden Clifton Open Garden Squares Green Squares and Secret Gardens open day The Polygon garden the polygon
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Text Recognition Tags: The Polygon communal garden- an update Welcome! Regular visitors and passers-by wili notice three big changes in the Polvgon communai garden this year. 1. The cherry tree at the west side has been felied (to give neighbours more light) and replaced with a slow growing Frosted Thorn. This should bear berries and provide good autumn colour. We have been busy planting perennials around the tree, although soil depth is stil limited by roots. To that end, we are mulching with compost and putting in smaller plants that we hope wil establish and grow well. 2. We are trying out a 'no mow policy in parts of the garden so we can see what plants arrive. You wil see that we have cut paths round the beds, and up to the sitting and compost areas for ease of access. So far, the most notable arrivals have been yamow, ragwort (which supports the cinnabar moth caterpiliar), red campion, yelow rattie, cranesbill and corn cockle. 3. We also took the plunge and established a pond where the oid firepit was situated up by the sitting area The pond has a population of frogs and water snails and we have spotted one dragon By so far but are hoping for more We have put in a solar powered aerator to keep the water ovygenated. Wildflower seeds around the pend took well and we have had a great crop of poppies. We weicome wildife: tawny owis, poistrelle bats, many butterflies, honey and bumble bees and a wide variety of birds goldfinch, dunnock, great spatted woodpecker. Plus foxes and the occasional badger. We hope you enjoy our garden. Apologies for the leck of refreshments, but many people are away so we are not up to speed. Next year, we hope to be back in full swing with refreshments, including Polvgon elderfiower cordial and home baked cakes. The Polygon communal garden- an update Welcome! Regular visitors and passers-by wili notice three big changes in the Polvgon communai garden this year. 1. The cherry tree at the west side has been felied (to give neighbours more light) and replaced with a slow growing Frosted Thorn. This should bear berries and provide good autumn colour. We have been busy planting perennials around the tree, although soil depth is stil limited by roots. To that end, we are mulching with compost and putting in smaller plants that we hope wil establish and grow well. 2. We are trying out a 'no mow policy in parts of the garden so we can see what plants arrive. You wil see that we have cut paths round the beds, and up to the sitting and compost areas for ease of access. So far, the most notable arrivals have been yamow, ragwort (which supports the cinnabar moth caterpiliar), red campion, yelow rattie, cranesbill and corn cockle. 3. We also took the plunge and established a pond where the oid firepit was situated up by the sitting area The pond has a population of frogs and water snails and we have spotted one dragon By so far but are hoping for more We have put in a solar powered aerator to keep the water ovygenated. Wildflower seeds around the pend took well and we have had a great crop of poppies. We weicome wildife: tawny owis, poistrelle bats, many butterflies, honey and bumble bees and a wide variety of birds goldfinch, dunnock, great spatted woodpecker. Plus foxes and the occasional badger. We hope you enjoy our garden. Apologies for the leck of refreshments, but many people are away so we are not up to speed. Next year, we hope to be back in full swing with refreshments, including Polvgon elderfiower cordial and home baked cakes.
The more I research it, the more I find that Hotwells had far better transport links back in Victorian and Edwardian times than it has today. Along with buses that went to more useful places than the City Centre, there were trams, the funicular up to Clifton, the landing stage for paddle steamer services and two railway stations all within easy walking distance of me.
Today I took a day off work as preparation for doing the bookkeeping for my tax return1, and took a wander along to the site of what would have been my nearest station, Hotwells (or Clifton, as it started out in life), nestled in the shadow of the suspension bridge, the Bristol terminus of the Bristol Port Railway and Pier.
From there I wandered down the Portway, following the original line, until I got to the area around Sneyd Park Junction, where the tunnel from the slightly later Clifton Extension Railway joined up with this originally-isolated BPR line. Then I headed up to Clifton through the "goat gully" at Walcombe Slade, seeing the few above-ground bits of evidence of the tunnel (which is still in regular use) along the way.
It was a lovely day, and a good walk, and it was interesting to daydream of the times when I could have walked a few minutes from my flat down to Dowry Parade, caught a short tram ride to Hotwells Stations, and then headed from there to Avonmouth, perhaps even to board a transatlantic passenger service. The completion of the Clifton Extension Railway that linked the Avonmouth station with Temple Meads made relatively direct transatlantic travel from London via Bristol possible, with passengers travelling up from Paddington to Temple Meads, on to Avonmouth on the Clifton Extension Railway and Port Railway and Pier line, then perhaps catching a Cambpell's paddle steamer—which sometimes acted as tenders for large steamers—to a larger ship that was headed out for Canada, say.
1 I've learned that the best approach is to take two days off and deliberately do something that's not my bookkeeping on the first day, as otherwise I just inevitably end up procrastinating and feeling guilty on the first day no matter what. I have an odd brain, but at least I'm learning strategies for dealing with its strange ways as I get older...
2 Information mostly gleaned from Colin Maggs' The Bristol Port Railway & Pier and the Clifton Extension Railway, The Oakwood Press, 1975.
I did not see hide nor hair of a single goat the entire time I was in the goat gully. I clearly need to spend a bit more time there.
Tags: Bristol Places UK onemilematt united kingdom Goat Gully Gully Walcombe Slade
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Text Recognition Tags: Goat news ... New Kashmir goats!!! Some new, young Kashmir goats have recently arrived in the Gully. They join our existing herd of two old Kashmir goats (the big white ones) and the four Bagot goats (the small brown and white ones). Please help us to help them settle into their new home by: Keeping your dog on a lead Not approaching them - Not feeding them. They have plenty of natural food - If you feed them they may become sick. Their job is to carry out vital conservation work by nibbling invasive scrub and bramble. By doing this they're helping to make space for rare plants like the Bristol onion and Bristol rock-cress to thrive. Both of these wild flowers grow nowhere else in the UK! www.avongorge.org.uk Goat news ... New Kashmir goats!!! Some new, young Kashmir goats have recently arrived in the Gully. They join our existing herd of two old Kashmir goats (the big white ones) and the four Bagot goats (the small brown and white ones). Please help us to help them settle into their new home by: Keeping your dog on a lead Not approaching them - Not feeding them. They have plenty of natural food - If you feed them they may become sick. Their job is to carry out vital conservation work by nibbling invasive scrub and bramble. By doing this they're helping to make space for rare plants like the Bristol onion and Bristol rock-cress to thrive. Both of these wild flowers grow nowhere else in the UK! www.avongorge.org.uk