An Autumn Visit to Arnos Vale: Bristol's Victorian Garden Cemetery

I joined a local hiking group this year, which has been a huge amount of fun. I've organised a few walks in my new seaside hometown, and have gone on several others in and around Bristol (though not nearly as many as I'd have liked!).

It's really nice having a group of people to get out and walk with, and I've found that organising walks (which you're then committed to because other people are coming) is a great way to get myself out of the house and exploring. I've decided to use this as a way of kicking myself into finally visiting places which have been on my "Ooh, I want to go there!" list for ages... and this autumn the first place I've ticked off the list is Arnos Vale Cemetery.

 

It sounds a bit weird to say that I took my hiking group for a walk round a cemetery, but Arnos Vale is somewhere pretty special. Established in 1837, the 45 acre site is really beautiful: a veritable maze of little woodland paths with interesting gravestones and memorials around every corner.

I arrived early to get my bearings before the others arrived and it didn't take me long to get slightly spooked out walking around the site. Okay so the ghost stories I'd been reading that week probably didn't help, but this is an incredibly atmospheric place to explore (particularly on your own, first thing after it opens on a slightly misty autumn morning!).

Later, after the other ladies from the group had headed home (and after we'd had some truly delicious cake from the on-site cafe), I went for another solo wander to take photos and explore some of the smaller paths we'd missed out when following the main discovery trail.

The trail map is available via the website or as a free leaflet from the gift shop - where you can also buy self-guided trail leaflets that tell you more about the history of the cemetary, some of the people buried here, and the symbolism used in gravestones and memorials.

"What did you do on Saturday, Laura?"
"Oh, I walked around a cemetery and thought about death! It was great!"

I'm already trying to work out when I can fit in a return visit.

August & September in Pictures: Colourful Threads, a Happy Cat and a Tricky Selfie

Time to look back at some of the stuff I got up to in August and September!

My August involved colourful threads (shout out to Instagram genius Sara Tasker of Me & Orla and her put-your-phone-in-your-teeth-and-take-a-photo-with-the-timer photo technique - a bit awkward, but you can't argue with the results!)...

 

... and more muted ones, as I started to dream about Autumn.

I bought lots of books (it's awesome living in a town with a bookshop again, but not so great for my bank balance)...

... ooohed over some rather fabulous scaffolding...

and went on a photo walk organised by Instagramers Bristol (super fun!).

I blogged about the books I've been reading and finally had an excuse to share this deliciously yellow pic from the spring (the Boston Tea Party breakfast was just as delicious as that yellow looks!)...

... revealed August's slightly over-the-top wreath design for A Year of Wreaths (ice cream! and sparkles! and hearts! and emojis! oh my!)...

... and hung out with this fella, who was very happy to finally be exploring his new garden after weeks of stress, travel, and being kept indoors because of my parents cross-country move (just look at his little face!).

September started with a messy desk, as I worked on some projects for the Village Haberdashery.

I totally fell in love with the colours of these cards & envelopes from their shop, while working on some paper crafting projects. Aren't they just dreamy?

I shared some of the very many photos I took of the gorgeous branch of VV Rouleaux that opened recently in Bath (so much colour, oh my goodness)...

 

... blogged about a very fancy, very exciting trip to Bristol...

... and bought a whole bunch of nostalgic stamps for my letters.

I laughed myself silly trying to take photos of myself modelling the owl mask from my latest tutorial - it turns out it's very difficult taking selfies when you can't see your phone cos you're not wearing your glasses!

Oh, and - as if one themed Instagram account wasn't enough - I decided to start a new Instagram account for sharing the photos I take on my day trips to (wonderful) Bristol: Bristol My Beating Heart (and yes, I am very proud of that pun, thank you).

 

For more colourful, crafty updates you can find me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.     

Adventures in Travel Blogging: A Trip to Bristol, part two

As promised, it's time for part two of my super fancy "let's pretend I'm a serious travel blogger!!" trip to Bristol (you can read part one here).

On this wonderful treat of a trip I was a guest of Mercure Hotels UK and stayed at their lovely central Bristol hotel, the Mercure Bristol Grand.  

Day two got off to an excellent start with a buffet breakfast. I can never resist a cooked breakfast but I have had so many incredibly sad cooked breakfasts in hotels over the years (cold beans, rubbery eggs, unripe tomatoes, ugh, so depressing). This was, however, the total opposite of a sad breakfast... a happy breakfast, I guess? Whatever. I would pretty much recommend this hotel based on this breakfast alone, it was well lush.

I also had tea and orange juice and fresh fruit and a really scrummy little pastry... and felt a little bit like I might burst from too much breakfast, but in a good way.

After breakfast, I checked out of my room and met up with the other bloggers on the trip ready for our tour of the city. The tour was led by Dan and Nina from Bristol-based blog Lifestyle District who had the difficult task of picking just a few Bristol highlights to share with us.

Regular readers will know that I used to live in Bristol (about 15 years ago) and now live just down the coast, popping to the city as often as possible on my days off... but there are huge chunks of the city I've not been to in what feels like forever, so I was really looking forward to seeing where Dan and Nina would take us.   

We started at St Nicholas Market, just round the corner from the hotel. Even though we were all still full from breakfast, the gorgeous smells of the food stalls had our mouths watering!

 

 

 

Next we headed to Bristol's harbour...

 

 

... popping into M Shed (the museum of Bristol's history) to visit the viewing gallery on the top floor, where you get some fantastic views of the harbour, the city skyline and the harbourside cranes.

 

We passed Colston Hall where a special mural was being painted to celebrate the venue's 150th birthday. We all took photos of the graffiti artist, he took some photos of us in return, then we walked on up the road...

... down the famous Christmas Steps and on to the wonderfully decorated Nelson Street, where you'll find creative hub The Island based in a former police station. 

Street art is an essential part of any visit to Bristol, so for the final part of our tour we headed up into Stokes Croft...

... to see the obligatory Banksy (you can't come to Bristol and not see a Banksy, it's practically the law) and to pose for a group photo. 

 

Then it was time to return to the hotel for Afternoon Tea - and lots of Instagram-ing, of course!

 

There was so much delicious cake! Scones and sandwiches too, of course (scones and cucumber sandwiches are an essential part of a fancy Afternoon Tea) but oh my goodness, the cake was so good.

 
I'm sure it will not remotely surprise you to learn that I ate a LOT of cake. As the event began winding down and people started bidding their farewells, I decided I'd better leave asap before I ate even more cake (theoretically I don't really believe in the concept of "too much" cake, but there really is only so much sugar I can eat before I begin vibrating like an oversized hummingbird) and headed homewards.

Huge thanks to the team at the Grand for the invite and hospitality, and to the guys at Lifestyle District for the tour!

Disclosure: as mentioned above, I was a guest of Mercure Hotels UK and received a free night at Mercure Bristol Grand and free meals during my stay, but this is not a sponsored post - I'm sure there are some lucky bloggers who get paid to blog about staying in lovely hotels but I am (sadly) not one of them. (A girl can dream though, right???)