A weekend in Weston

Years ago, I lived in Yatton which is a large village more or less midway between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare (or just 'Weston' if you're local, or Weston-super-Mud if you visit when the tide's out).

Birnbeck Pier, Weston-super-Mare

Donna's brother moved there not so long ago and they've just bought a ground floor flat in the town. They invited us to visit for a weekend and last weekend was it. I hadn't been to Weston for perhaps fifteen years and it was fascinating to see what has gone, what is new, and what remains but looks different.

Some thirty years ago my Mum came down to visit us and we took a trip on the old paddle steamer, Waverly from Birnbeck Pier to Penarth in South Wales. But look at Birnbeck Pier now! Nobody is travelling that way today; it's a bit dilapidated to say the least.

Weston has two piers. Birnbeck was the business pier, supporting transport by sea to and from the town and run as a thriving business. The other pier, the 'Grand Pier', is an amusement arcade on stilts.

Walking in Weston

While we were in the town last weekend we visited the town quarry, walked the streets, and explored the local area.
The quarry stopped working in the 1950s and is now a nature reserve, a cafe/restaurant, and a museum. Because Weston is built partly on hilly ground there are some great views across the Severn Estuary to distant Wales (you can see the Welsh coast in the Birnbeck photo).

I found visiting Weston great fun and it stimulated many memories for me too. I found the same thing when I visited nearby Clevedon a couple of years ago.

Don't forget to click the photos for larger versions, and follow the links in the text if you want to learn more.

A plant to remember by

Prunella grandiflora

I bought this plant at Cragside, a large house in Northumberland once the home of a famous engineer, Lord Armstrong.

We spent a while at Cragside on 17th August as we drove back south after a week in Fife with my daughters and their families.

Prunella grandiflora (Large Self-heal) likes moist conditions in partial shade and I've planted it next to our summerhouse where it will only receive late evening sunshine.

This one is a white-flowered cultivar and should be popular with bumblebees. I'm looking forward to seeing how well it grows.

It's good to collect plants from places I've been. The Self-heal will remind me of two visits to Cragside, one just recently and the first back in the mid 1980s.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)

Beaulieu village

We visited a community vegetable garden in Beaulieu today. And there, in amongst the cabbages and beetroots was a scarecrow all kitted out for Wimbledon!

Scarecrow at Wimbledon?

Wimbledon is proving to be a bit of an upset this year with several of the top seeds knocked out in the earliest stages. It opens the field for lower ranking players - but surely not for scarecrows?

Although he may be good at chasing away the birds, he doesn't seem to have a great action. In fact I'd say his performance is a bit wooden.

Beaulieu itself is a pretty little place, there's a small garden centre (Fairweather's) with a great restaurant attached called 'Steff's Kitchen'. They serve tea, coffee and good food, and they use fresh ingredients. from the community garden with the raquet-wielding scarecrow.

There's a teddy-bear shop and other small businesses focussing on the tourist trade. But the main claim to fame by this little village is the well-known motor museum, the Palace House, the old abbey and the nearby coast and the New Forest.

We haven't visited most of these sites yet, but I was very impressed with the work Fairweather's are doing in Steff's Kitchen and (particularly) Patrick's Patch. Not only is it good for the tourists like Donna and me, it's good for the local community involving schools, volunteers and more. Every small town and village needs projects like these. Well done Fairweather's and the good folk of Beaulieu.

(If you liked this you might also like Journeys of heart and mind and Quote me on this.)