We went out yesterday because, I confess we have become rather stay-at-homes, and it can make you a bit dull. We’ve walked round the village so many times that it has in a way become too familiar. If we have visitors we show them round, pointing out everything of interest, but we’re now too familiar. So we set off to visit Portishead, not the band of the same name, but the interesting town just up the coast. As with many places round here, there’s evidence of settlement there going back to prehistoric times, which the Romans settled over. Hundreds of years later the Normans established themselves, and then various lords and barons, and now it has a fabulous marina with exclusive properties, loads of yachts, grafted on to the main town.
We were a little late in leaving home and arrived and parked and were footloose in the town by lunchtime. We visited a great cafe called Coffi Lab which is completely dog friendly (Lab = Labrador) If you’re ever in Portishead check it out – https://coffilab.co.uk/locations/portishead-coffee-store/ and other Coffi Labs can be found in south Wales. Having recently read ‘Sourdough’ by Robin Sloan (not a recipe book!) we lunched on delcious sourdough sandwiches, bulging with filling. Refreshed, we wandered some more and obviously, when we spotted a bookshop, we had to go in! Having entered it would have been rude not to buy anything, so I bought a volume of Rilke’s poems, and husband bought a book about boats. https://maxminervas.co.uk/pages/max-minervas-portishead
We went along to the marina, and spent some pleasant time in the sunshine, wandering about, taking photos, gazing at the hundreds and hundreds of moored yachts, dinghies, cruisers etc. and looking out across the Severn estuary towards Bristol and also across to Wales. There were a couple of massive container ships passing and we watched them gliding southwest. Pleasant though it was, and much as we enjoy visiting Port Marine as this area is called, we decided we wouldn’t want to live here, preferring sleepy little Uphill with its small wharf, beautiful little marina, and walks out over the sea meadows.
Lois Elsden 