Lockdown in Bristol
31st January 2021
I haven’t written in a while; in my defence, there’s not been much to write about. A couple of days into the new year, the UK was plunged into lockdown again, and seemingly all the plans we had for our time in Bristol have gone straight down the toilet.
As well as Bristol’s culture, restaurants and bars, we came here to visit friends. So all the things we are currently not allowed to do. On top of this, we decided to better ourselves by giving up sugar and alcohol (only Alex managed to do both, I just promised myself to be teetotal for the month!).
While the house we’re staying in is nice and spacious, we’re a bit remote. On the outskirts of northern Bristol, we can see Wales from the large living room window. A view we very much appreciated on New Year’s Eve.
We have kept ourselves busy with side projects and Netflix, and the odd walk and run when the weather has allowed. We’ve also had a lot of yum home cooked meals.
Although we have been locked down, we’ve managed to do a bit of exploring. Blaise Castle and Estate is literally over the road, so we’ve been able to do many walks and runs around there. I’ve been reminded of how hilly Bristol is and I’m not a huge fan. Running up hill is the worst; and running downhill when it’s muddy is not so fun either. Having said that, Blaise Estate is both beautiful and huge, and we’re lucky to have it so close.
We found a little National Trust site a 20 minute walk from the house; it’s a collection of cottages called Blaise Hamlet, which was where the retirees of Blaise Estate lived. We’re also not far from the stunning Kings Weston house so we’ve stumbled upon that a couple of times while on a run.
We also managed to get to Leigh Woods, where we sort of followed the purple trail and eventually veered off course and found ourselves in the valley following the train line. At the bottom of the trail, you look up and spot Clifton Observatory and the bridge is on the right.
I managed to meet up with a friend a couple of times for a walk, and see Clifton observatory, which was a nice bit of normality. That teamed up with getting the occasional pizza has kept us going!
