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CITYIST
THE CITYist
My BRISTOL
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Meet local hot air balloonist Nigel Appleton
There’s family fun at Ashton Court and across the city next month
Let’s Walk, Bristol
A new walking festival is taking place in Bristol next month, encouraging city dwellers to shake off the Covid blues, get outdoors, enjoy nature, explore and party.
Let’s Walk Bristol takes place from 1 –3 October, with lots of free walks, evening entertainment and something for everyone –whatever their fitness level.
It kicks off on the Friday afternoon with a stroll around Bristol’s lively harbourside, finishing at a local pub for drinks. On Saturday there’s a wide range of events and walks, from easy to challenging, including popular city ambles and beautiful countryside trails, all led by experienced, insured guides. Free in-town walks include the Kings Weston Trail, the South Bristol Skyline Walk and the Snuff Mills Wellbeing Walk. Plus there’s a ferry and Underfall Yard harbour experience on offer, a Steve England Stoke Park nature trail, a Dudes and Dogs walk and a Banksy and street art tour.
Further afield, you can experience the picturesque Cotswolds from Castle Combe or Dyrham Park, discover a glorious circular walk around Clevedon, hike the famous Bath Skyline or challenge yourself by trekking through the Mendips up above magnificent Cheddar Gorge.
Walkers can round the day off and share experiences at a choice of two Bristol venues with food and music.
On the Sunday the hub will be Ashton Court, where families can enjoy an adventure trail through the estate, take on the Bristol Bridges Challenge, or head across Clifton Suspension Bridge on one of three different distance routes. Visitors can also sign up for a free Nordic walking workshop and discover how to make walking into a whole body workout, improve posture, support joints and release neck and back tension.
You might spot Nigel in the Thatchers or Tribute balloons
Sailing is actually my first love! That’s how I
got into ballooning, as it was deemed by my employer at the time that I would be the best person to go and learn to fly the new company balloon with my experience of ropes, wind and weather. I’m always racing dinghies or yachts but lately spending more time on the water, cruising in the sunshine. Another sign I’m not getting any younger! Maybe it’s time to revisit my early years’ passion for fishing.
I spent my childhood just south of the Mendips
in Cheddar, my early work years living in Clifton and the last 25 years living in Langford. I’m a country lad at heart.
A typical day in summer is very different to
winter. It’s full on in summer, despite the usual passenger question, ‘what do you do when you aren’t flying?’ There’s a lot more to it than the flying bit. The phone starts ringing first thing and is pretty constant, mixed in with the usual office stuff, until the answerphone’s on and we’re in the car, ready to go flying. Weekends are busy if the weather is good, with early morning flights to add to the mix. Summer means a 4am start and 11.30pm finish! Winters are much more chilled –excuse the pun.
We are planning a winter Alpine balloon meet.
Alpine flying is great but very challenging –not for the faint hearted. It’s a little more relaxed at Château-d’Oex in Switzerland –a large open valley with plenty of scope to drift along in lots of space –and much more exciting when we visit Filzmoos in Austria. As soon as we’re off, we are up over the peaks into the unknown: big mountains, long flights, steep descents and fast upper winds, sometimes 50-60mph! Then valleys full of fog and –even in the clear ones –all the obstacles, are thrown in. Railways, rivers, roads and powerlines are always just where you don’t want them. Saying that, they are the prettiest of Alpine villages, with skiing, horse-drawn sleighs and fabulous scenery.
The Fiesta was a very different event this year –in many respects, certainly from a
ballooning perspective, much better as we had far more room on the launch sites. The decision to fly from various sites across the city worked well, giving more people the chance to see the balloons close up. So it had a different feel but hopefully the skies above Bristol being full of balloons again was a welcome sight and perhaps a sign of some normality returning. (On that pandemic-related note I’d like to give a big shout out to all the hospital staff that have held it together over the last year or so.)
The Clifton Sausage is a favourite watering
hole; always very sociable. It seems to have taken over from the old Royal Oak haunt but I’m harking back to the old days of my twenties... The food is always excellent at the Spiny Lobster. As a change, I like the vibrant options at the Cargo containers. For a traditional Bristol pub you can’t beat the Nova Scotia at the Cumberland Basin and, close by, the best breakfasts in town can be found at The Lockside. Always our first port of call after an early morning flight.
My ambitions for the rest of this year include trying to slow down a bit (it’s unlikely!), lose a bit of weight and perhaps get out on the bike.
If I was in charge of Bristol I’d sort the traffic
mess out. I’ve been around the city for over 40 years and it seems to be getting worse despite all the recent radical ideas. We need more parking. It’s a big problem in the areas I know: Clifton, Hotwells, Bedminster etc. Go up, or better still, go down to find space. I’m always impressed by beautiful European cities with hidden underground parking in the centre.
• firstflight.co.uk
What’s next? Alpine flying, of course
A new community music project has launched in Bristol, aimed at fathers experiencing mental health difficulties linked to the birth of their children. Dad’s Rock, from Evolve Music, in partnership with Bluebell, Dads In Mind and Bristol Youth Music –and in consultation with healthcare professionals and music leaders –is targeted at disadvantaged and isolated families. Research has found that many men become depressed in the first year after becoming a dad, with first-time dads particularly vulnerable. The peak time for postnatal depression in men is three to six months after the birth and, as with postnatal depression in mums, it often goes undiagnosed as the symptoms can look a lot like the everyday stresses of having a newborn. Men are typically much less likely to access psychological therapies than women, according to comparison research on referrals to specialist services for the treatment of depression and anxiety. In addition, most traditional baby and toddler activities are either targeted at mums or tend to have a much higher proportion of mums attending rather than dads. This means there are fewer social groups which offer activities for dads to bond with their child away from their partners, and fewer opportunities for dads to build support networks that could improve their mental health.
The new programme provides social opportunities for dads to actively support their own wellbeing. Its 90-minute sessions incorporate free play with real instruments, and explore music-making through technology, singing, rhythm and games. They provide a safe space for dads to have some time out, connect, talk and support each other if they wish to. The pilot scheme will run weekly until the middle of September and, if successful, the free sessions may be extended or offered to other parts of Bristol and Somerset. • evolvemusic.org.uk/what-we-do/families/dads-rock
The BBC has released the first images from upcoming original Bristol-set drama Showtrial, written by Ben Richards and directed by Zara Haye.
The five-part series’ production team was based at The Bottle Yard Studios earlier this year and shot on location in the city, with assistance from Bristol Film Office.
The story? When Talitha Campbell, the estranged daughter of a wealthy property developer, is charged with conspiring to murder fellow university student Hannah Ellis, the trial that follows places victim and accused –and their families –in the eye of a media storm. Into that storm enters Cleo Roberts, the duty solicitor on the night of Talitha’s arrest. Refusing her father’s help, Talitha wants Cleo to lead her defence against a prosecution that is weaponising Talitha’s gender –as well as her social privilege –against her. From arrest to verdict, Cleo and the defence vie with the prosecution to convince us of the truth about Talitha: damaged scapegoat, or cold-blooded killer?
Showtrial –produced by Simon Heath for World Productions, in association with ITV Studios and Mona Qureshi for the BBC –explores how prejudice, politics and the media distort the legal process, in a timely legal drama full of dark humour, and is coming later this year to BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Talitha Campbell (played by Celine Buckens) and Cleo Roberts (Tracy Ifeachor)
)_ Image: World Productions/Joss Barrett/BBC See Toni Burrows’ latest mosaic later this month
CALLING ALL BRISTOL ARTISTS
Gloucester Road gallery Room 212 is hosting an art exhibition and prize draw to raise funds for Maybe Southwest, a Bristol mental health charity working with offering psychotherapy and art therapy to young people and adults who cannot receive appropriate or timely support from the NHS and do not have the financial means to fund private services.
Artists are invited to submit original artworks –including paintings, lino prints and mixed media pieces measuring up to 20 x 25cm with or without a frame –to be displayed throughout November, leading up to the North Bristol Art Trail which celebrates its 20th year from 26 –28 November. A panel of artists, including Room 212 owner Sarah Thorp, renowned artist Huw Richards Evans and textile artist Debby Bird, will select the work to be displayed in the exhibition. Other larger art pieces will be on display in the Room 212 garden during the trail weekend, including a large bronze sculpture of a ram’s head by Maria Pitt and original paintings by Huw Richards Evans. All the artwork will be offered as prizes in a draw at the end of the trail, with tickets available at Room 212 and online throughout November.
The deadline is 30 September –images must go to maybesouthwest@gmail.com. Chosen artists will then be asked to bring the artwork along for a selection day.
Meanwhile, North Bristol Artist Toni Burrows has completed a beautiful mosaic of a fox in front of Montpelier cafe the Bristolian and agreed to put it in the Room 212 window in late September. Toni never sells her originals but they always amaze passers-by and luckily cards and prints are available through Room 212. Thank us later...
