Poet and poetry facilitator. Co-founder of the Leaping Word Poetry Consultancy, which provides advice for poets on writing, editing and publishing, as well as qualified counselling support for those exploring personal issues in their work - https://theleapingword.com. My sixth poetry collection, Love the Albatross, is now available from Indigo Dreams or directly from me.
It was built for the Goldney family, who profited from the manufacture of brass manillas and other items traded for slaves in Africa.
We were there for the poetry reading section of the Clifton and Hotwells Labour Party fundraiser. And to commemorate the late Bristol-based novelist and poet Helen Dunmore, who was herself a member. First, though, an exploration of the gardens ...
... including the shell grotto which is still as creepy as I first found it decades ago.
I was reading poems in the Orangery with Bob Walton and Elizabeth Parker - a few of our own to start with, and then a few of Helen's.
It's a rather grand space. You might remember it from the second episode of series 3 of Sherlock. Sadly no actor associated with that show was there today.
When everyone had been sufficiently delighted, we walked back to the car ...
... along Birdcage Walk, which, funnily enough, is the title of Helen Dunmore's final novel, and which I shall now elevate to the top of the book mountain next to my bed.
Just time to fling a passing greeting to my second favourite mulberry tree. Must remember to make some more mulberry and almond vodka this summer.
With Bowie and Leonard dead, it's a relief there's still someone worth going to see. And unlike Dylan*, Jeremy does run through the riffs you want to hear.
Today there was a moving reminder that all of the firemen who went into Grenfell Tower with breathing apparatus and police riot shields over their heads to protect themselves from falling debris in order
to save lives were trade unionists. Looking after and caring for other people. (Not getting a pay rise either.) *The Times, They Are A-Changin'. Play that one, Bob.
Apart from a doomed attempt to escape in the 1980s, I've lived in Bristol all my life, but there are many parts I don't know that well. A native's complacency, perhaps.
One of the areas I should know a lot better is the borderland of St Werburghs, St Andrews and Montpelier, not least because I was born there, in a Salvation Army Hospital for Unmarried Mothers on Ashley Hill - though my mother (she would hasten to add) was, in fact, with husband. So with an afternoon to spare last Sunday, nearby Narroways Hill, a pocket of wild in this sizeable city, felt like a good place to start exploring.
This is one of the footbridges at Narroways Hill junction. It was here that 21-year-old Ada James was fatally attacked by her fiancé, Ted Palmer, on 27th January 1913.
Ada managed to stagger all the way back to Mina Road in St Werburghs, despite the throat wound she'd sustained. She later died in the Infirmary.
The route she took that night is known locally as Cut Throat Lane.
Even off the hill, down in St Werbs, it's bosky.
A continuation of the footpath took us up to Ashley Hill, and another view of St Werburghs Church tower, now a climbing centre. (The church, that is - not the tower.)
More footpath took us along to this much-loved footbridge, again over the railway, on the edge of Montpelier and St Andrews.
Back on Ashley Hill, we took in the views over the allotments to Purdown and the secondary school where I work.
Immediately before us, Boiling Wells Valley. (Not because they did anything interesting with vats down there, which is what I always thought - no, it's on account of the effervescent natural springs, apparently.)
In the middle distance, behind the trees, the Vale of IKEA. (No industrial or retail associations here either. It's probably to do with dog poo before it became the norm to clear it up.)
Yet another footpath (there are loads of them around here) took us through some of the allotments, about which I have mixed feelings.
I mean clearly they are A Good Thing. Patches of green in the city, part of its pleuritic lung. And, rather sweetly, they remind me of strip lynchets ...
... you know, when the soon-to- be-landed gentry pushed to the front of the queue, stole the ground beneath our feet, and let us have tiny parcels of it back.
Since we're on a political note, down in Boiling Wells Valley there were reminders of the General Election just passed ...
... and its really quite hopeful outcome.
I didn't have a magic marker on me so had to content myself with adulterating the photo of this board later, rather than the board itself.
I was beginning to feel a bit disgruntled about the lack of fauna to photograph when I caught sight of one of our rarer species, a feral velociraptor in its natural habitat.
That was enough to send us scurrying up the lane ...
There was a Jeremy for Labour rally in Bristol tonight.
The Northerner was interviewed by someone from the BBC who seemed to want him to slag the PLP off rather than talk about Jeremy Corbyn's policy for the arts.
Speakers included Leila Ward, a 14 year old activist, a couple of Bristol councillors and one, a former refugee, from Islington, Geoff Shears from Union Solidarity International, Steve Preddy from Unite, and Diane Abbott.
It's hard to judge how many people there are in a crowd when you are in the middle of it. Local BBC news put the number at 1,000. On Twitter I've seen estimates ranging from 3,000 to 5,000. I suspect it was somewhere near 3,000.
The seagulls were there to hear the main man ...
... as were the unicorns ...
... and the weather vane ...
... Jeremy Corbyn.
And a fine speech it was too. The times, they are a-changing.
I was reading poems in the Orangery with Bob Walton and Elizabeth Parker - a few of our own to start with, and then a few of Helen's.
One of the areas I should know a lot better is the borderland of St Werburghs, St Andrews and Montpelier, not least because I was born there, in a Salvation Army Hospital for Unmarried Mothers on Ashley Hill - though my mother (she would hasten to add) was, in fact, with husband. 
Speakers included Leila Ward, a 14 year old activist, a couple of Bristol councillors and one, a former refugee, from Islington, Geoff Shears from Union Solidarity International, Steve Preddy from Unite, and Diane Abbott. 
... and the weather vane ... 
