Bristol, books, birds and balloons

I had to deliver a great pile of books and cards to Bristol's City Museum and the new M Shed, last week. Fortunately, I'd just bought a new trailer for the bicycle. Each of the two loads was pushing up towards the 35 kilo weight limit for the trailer, and it was quite fun hurtling down Whiteladies Road (and even more so, Park Street ) and hoping to heck the brakes would handle it (they did, just).

Among the books in the trailer was The Bristol Downs - a natural history year, which is now £5, and available at a good museum near you if you happen to be in Brizzle; or from my Etsy shop! Lots of pictures by me, and descriptions by Geraldine, of the birds, beasts, trees, fungus and plants of the area; and I wrote an introduction to the geology and history of the Downs, which you can read here. 

I also delivered a big box of Bristol and Ballooning, also £5, and just in time for this weekend's Balloon Fiesta.  Full of pictures of, er, Bristol and Ballooning. Info here. If you'd like a copy of it but can't get to Bristol, let me know and I'll stick some up on Etsy. Easy peasy.

I like it when the wind blows the balloons this way during the mass ascents. Sometimes they all descend on the Downs at the end of the road, like this

...and sometimes they go ghosting past, and I scramble up onto the roof and watch them go by