15th July Ashclyst forest to Staple Hill Copse and on to Bristol

After Ashclyst all our devices were pretty much out of charge…..I had tried to source a compatible portable power bank in Penzance and had managed to find a likely looking doodad at Argos but…… it was out of stock. there were however two at Cribbs causeway in Bristol so I decided to reserve both thinking that as we would be staying in Bristol for a couple of days with our good friends Carol and Steve it would be no problem to pick them up……with that plan in mind we did manage to charge our gps along the way at Hemyock and Drayton so that we could log our ride North…….And the point of all this is that for this stage we have no photo’s…..

I do have some more sketchbook work to share though……

Sometimes the watercolours can be quick and sometimes they may e something I work on for several days, but not constantly……it’s really about allowing the paint to dry properly before continuing with the piece. and as we cycle North after  makin each camp the sketchboos come out and the work continues reflecting on experiences days or even weeks ago. In this way the work maybe informed by the memory of the experience……

Bedminster is a great place and now seems to be something of a street art capital with a festival of street art that happens every year, By the time we got to Bristol we were just lucky enough to view most of last years work before preparations for this years street art begin…..So here are some of my favorite examples……

Well it was great fun wandering around Bedminster again, spending some time with Carol and Steve….as usual great food and terrific conversation. In the end we stayed for three nights….had a good wander around the docks……and shared some fab memories with Aaron.

We lived for 5 years in Bristol and I remember cycling past the Mathew as it was being built on my way to teaching on Foundation at Weston Super Mare……so of course we had to have a wander around the Mathew as well….and there was another tall ship docked too……never found out where that came from or where it was off too next…..

The Mathew

Another Tall ship docked.

On the way to Bristol I could tell I was starting to have some problems with my break pads and of course taking all the minor roads and off road trails and tracks we had found meant no bike shops, by the time we got to Bristol I could hear metal grinding……BIG OOOOOOPS !!!!!!

I was just hoping that there was no damage to the disks…..and having changed the pads to softer organic pads they are working perfect…..But I did take an image of the worn pads…..

And finally for today here are two images of watercolours done along the way….