Saturday morning.  What shall we do?  We’ve had a few days at home this week and both of us feel ready for some fresh air and fun.  We don’t need to go shopping and though the weather looks iffy, we mull over some of those places we’ve intended to visit for a while.

Just after 8am, we jump in the car and we’re off down the M5, before the holiday traffic gets too much.  Shortly after 9 we’re parked and ready to go exploring.

 

 

We’re at the seaside.  Well…sort of.  Far over there in the distance is Cardiff and the water here isn’t so much sea but more estuary.

 

 

There’s a fine Victorian pier here, currently undergoing some restoration.  We’ve seen pictures and I’ve read about it on a dear friend’s blog too (though said dear friend happens to be sunning herself in Greece right now!) but this is the first time we’ve been here ourselves.

 

 

The tide is in and there’s not much of a beach to walk along, so we stay on the promenade and spot a pair of shoes.  Where is the owner?

 

 

There he is – the dot in the water, swimming back to shore.  Brave chap, I say – it’s not that warm!

 

 

If you haven’t worked out where we are yet, here’s a clue.

 

 

The sandbanks and the tides here are treacherous and there are warnings galore.  If you’re wondering whether or not to do anything, the answer is probably “don’t”.

 

 

We spent the morning in Clevedon, a pretty Victorian town on the Bristol Channel and what a fun time we had there.

 

 

The sea air gave us an appetite, so we headed to Tiffin for some breakfast.  Very good it was, too.  Whilst sitting there, we spotted a signpost to “bookshop” – I guess we didn’t need much more of a nudge to work out what to do next.

 

 

The women in the bookshop were happy to direct us further, to a comfortable collection of local shops with interesting browsing potential.  We loved the shape of the old Market House, now a health centre – doesn’t it echo the design of the pier well?

 

 

Just when we were thinking we’d done, we peered in the window of Spinning Weal – like the morning couldn’t get much better?  Inside was the holy grail as far as I was concerned – regular readers of this blog might recall the search for coloured darning wool in Tokyo?  Well, who knew I need look no further than Clevedon?!

 

 

Not only that, but the quilting department up the stairs towards the back of the shop had something else of interest.

 

 

A basket of the fabrics for the WI Makower Quilt Challenge 2012, together with the competition schedule.  A remarkably well-stocked shop and somewhere to bear in mind, I think.

 

 

By the time we returned to the car, the sun was out and the tide had gone out a little as well.  Were we really ready for home?  Perhaps not quite.

 

 

A little further south, there was a bit of activity around the Marine Lake.  A group of kayakers were practising and it was interesting to walk along the sea wall and see what was going on.  As we did, we looked over towards Wales and decided we were on the drier side of the estuary.

 

 

As the skies darkened and the light became “interesting”, we jumped back in the car and headed home.  Thankfully, we were not  driving in the same direction as the fifteen miles or so of barely moving traffic heading for the South West on this summer Saturday.

What a great idea it was to go to Clevedon, though!