Favourite St.

The sun hasn't quite come out in Bristol yet, but it is strangely warm and muggy-with-a-breeze. I think I like it like that – it's languid, lazy weather, and as Ben said earlier, it makes you want to be in a meadow somewhere. I think meadows might be a bit of an English/American thing – in Scotland we are more utilitarian I guess – they're not meadows, they're fields, and they are not for picnicking in.

Anyway, in the absence of any good English meadows, I thought I'd take some pictures of one of my favourite streets in Bristol. I love the cobbles and the pretty houses, and it is usually pretty quiet and peaceful with the odd cat pottering around. It's sad though when you imagine that all of Bristol was probably once this pretty before it was flattened in the 1940s. I think I might go on a hunt for some good pre-war Bristol photographs.

Isn't this walled garden the nicest thing? I've always wanted a red brick walled garden, ever since I read The Secret Garden when I was younger, and then fell in love with the slightly ropey 1993 BBC film version I had on video. I'll see if I can find it on youtube for your walled garden pleasure.

Slightly off topic, I've been desperate to read some Joseph Conrad lately, as I never have, and now that I'm not constantly in a publishing office, I have no excuses for not being able to read. I bought Heart of Darkness yesterday in an Oxfam bookshop, where I paid more than the original cover price for a second-hand copy... I queried the price and then realised I was arguing a pound from an Oxfam bookshop, and felt a bit ashamed of myself. Still though, £1.99 is a lot when you are trying not to spend anything, especially when it's on a book that you shouldn't really have been buying in the first place. Well, it better be good, and I'd better make the whole shameful experience worthwhile by actually reading it.