A Weekend in Bristol

Canal street art 

Bristol is undoubtedly one of my favourite cities. One of Dave's daughters lives there so we get to visit at least once a year with the added bonus of insider knowledge to show us the best places to go! I love that the city centre doesn't feel overwhelmingly large and we can easily walk around, yet we still seem to discover something new every time. This weekend, our 'new area' was the Millennium Promenade where a number of cosy cafes are tucked away just a stone's throw from the Harbourside. We had a good lunch at the Broken Dock on Saturday. Their food was excellent and we liked that, despite the rain, the large glass windows were folded back to give an outside-yet-inside vibe. The place was bustling and we were lucky to get a table even though we hadn't reserved!

We had a nice wander on Saturday afternoon which included strolling through a vintage street market. There were lots of things I could have bought - if I had anywhere to put them! Our homeward route took us through the Arnos Vale cemetery and park. The cemetery is a wonderful peaceful space with some areas neat and others left almost wild. There was even street art. The park had a beautiful tree in full blossom which, had it not rained so hard earlier in the day, would have been perfect to laze under.

Arnos street art 

The Banco Lounge was a tad noisy, but we had a good dinner there on Saturday evening. Bristol is a perfect place for a foodie and it's really easy to be veggie too. Everywhere we went had vegetarian options and interesting choices at that. Of course, Simon's barbecues were the best! (Pile barbecued veggies into a pitta bread and devour. Delicious!)

It was lovely to catch up with everyone's news and spend time relaxing with friends. Very hygge! Dave and I are just the two of us for a lot of the year which we like, but the contrast of being in a larger group for a while makes a very nice change.

My Week in Review to the 22nd April

I'm linking this post up with The Sunday Post at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

First up, please all join me in congratulating Laura who won my K E Lanning Signed Books Giveaway! This pic shows Laura's prize which is winging its way to her as we speak. If you haven't yet discovered K E Lanning's climate change science fiction series, check out These Two Literary Flits Posts for more details, excerpts and a YouTube trailer!

If you're disappointed at not being Laura right now(!), I've another giveaway closing at midnight tonight - for a copy of Zimbabwean novel Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga.

It's been a week of ups and downs for me. We had friends visiting Torbay for 24 hours so took them on a Day Trip to Brixham which was fun. We then spent the weekend with Dave's family in Bristol - which is why I am waaay behind with all your lovely comments! I'm planning to put a Bristol post together for tomorrow or Wednesday, but in the meantime you can relive earlier visits through my Previous Bristol Posts.

We diverted on the way to Bristol to look over our stored trailer tent in readiness for a ferry crossing to France in a week's time. Thank goodness we did as its tyres are looking decidedly the worse for wear and, basically, it's currently not towable. Fingers crossed Dave will be able to organise the swift fitting of a new set of tyres otherwise our departure will need to be postponed. Potentially disappointing, but at least we spotted the problem now and not en route to the ferry!

In addition to my regular TreatYourself roundup yesterday, I've a Bakerdays promotional code for you today! They've 20% off all their cakes, cupcakes and balloons until midnight on the 30th April. Click through here and use the code BAKERDAYS20 at checkout. Enjoy!

Around the blogosphere:
I was delighted to discover Fairy Tale Fridays at She's Going Book Crazy. Enjoy fairytale retellings and WorldReads authors a-plenty.

And talking of WorldReads, please welcome VVB32 to the challenge! I love her Japanese book selection.

Finally an important change to Amazon's reviewer policy. From now on we have to spend a minimum of amount on Each Amazon site to which we want to post reviews! Ridiculously, it doesn't matter what the purchases are. I could perhaps understand if they were restricting reviews to only verified purchases, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Barb Taub has more information in this discussion post.


Here's what you might have missed Across My Blogs this week. Click the images to visit the pages ... and don't forget to enter all the Giveaways!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits	Stephanie Jane
M O N D A Y
T U E S D A Y
W E D N E S D A Y
T H U R S D A Y
F R I D A Y
S A T U R D A Y
S U N D A Y

#TreatYourself - special offers and discount codes

10% off books at
English Heritage 

Another month flies by and we're now nearly a third of the way through 2018 already. I can't keep up!
I am on track enough to bring you another quartet of special offers though and am starting this post off with a book sale at English Heritage.

Until the 30th of April, there are two discount codes active for the English Heritage Shop. If you use BOOK4 at the checkout you can get 10% off book purchases over £40 (in a single transaction). And the code POST4 gets you free UK delivery (on spends over £40 again. English Heritage books are, as you'd probably expect, mostly histories. I liked the look of A History Of Britain in 21 Women (£9.99) and Stonehenge: Archaeology For All (£14).

You'll have to be quick to take advantage of the current Ordnance Survey promotions because they end at midnight tomorrow (23rd April). You can get 10% off spends over £25 with the checkout code SAVE10 or there's 15% off spends over £50 with the code SAVE15. Can you guess what the 20% off code is for spends over £75? It's SAVE20 of course! The codes are valid, I believe, across everything in the Ordnance Survey online shop. Now might be a good time to get that new GPS you've been promising yourself?

20% off badges at
Nelly Jane Crafts 

Nelly Jane Crafts is having a sale on handpainted wooden badges with 20% off across the range. The sale in on until the 18th of May or for as long as stocks last. There are over a dozen different designs. I loved this Panda Pin the best! There's no checkout code to remember - the discount should already be applied.

And a relaxing tea freebie to finish up with. Whittard Of Chelsea are usually good at giving away gifts with purchase and this month is no exception! You can get 2 x 20g black teas and an elegant Pimlico glass teapot with all purchases over £70. Admittedly £70 is quite a lot of tea - so maybe venture into the hot chocolate range while you're there! The checkout code to remember for your tea-and-teapot is TEAPOTLUCK

Devon sunshine in Brixham!

The Dittisham Princess 

Our friends Steve and Frances made a flying 24 hour visit to Torbay this week so we thought we would take advantage of the gorgeous weather and sail across to Brixham for the afternoon. The Western Lady Ferry from Torquay to Brixham is excellent value at just £3 return per person for the 30-40 minute crossing. Yesterday the bay was millpond smooth. It was a little hazy so there weren't the most amazing views out to sea, but we could look all across the bay. The view of Brixham as we approach from the water is one of my favourites anywhere.

Once in Brixham we treated ourselves to a good seafood lunch at the Buller's Arms. The window table gave us a good view of the William of Orange statue apparently waiting at the bus stop for his journey to London!
We shared the delicious Scallops starter between us all and then I had Jacket Potato with Crab. A proper Jacket Potato! The Plaice And Chips and Seafood Tagliatelle were also enjoyed and portions are big so we didn't need dessert.

Brixham 

We had planned to walk up to Berry Head, but lingering too long over lunch meant we only left ourselves time to walk out to the Lido and back. I loved the little Pride In Brixham gardens along the harbour side. The one with the mountain sheep was my favourite. These spaces are a great idea to liven up the walk and showcase the town spirit. The Lido however looked a bit the worse for wear and we wondered if it would be ready in time for its May reopening.

Back in Brixham harbour, we just had time for a local Yarde Farm ice cream before our return ferry. I liked my Cherry Custard one, but Dave was underwhelmed with the non-chunkiness of his Chocolate Chunk flavour!
I got to see that beautiful Brixham view again as we sat facing off the back of the Dittisham Princess as we sailed away.

Brixham 

Thank you to Steve Royston for the photographs in this post. You probably all noticed the higher-than-usual quality!

My Week in Review to the 15th April

Thank you Adrienne! 

I am linking this post up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

A day later than usual because yesterday, being the 15th, was time to refresh my Giveaway Linkup. This monthly post showcases all the giveaways I am running alongside ones I've spotted elsewhere. Feel welcome to add your own links too! If you haven't already entered, good prizes at the moment are Two SciFi PBs from K E Lanning which closes on the 19th and my copy of Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga which closes on the 23rd. Don't miss out!

A new blog series started on Tuesday: I'm #ReadingWomen!
And Friday had my Top Ten Etsy Finds which, this month, were all Storage Solutions. You Need this BespOak Interiors bookcase!

I got a lovely book post parcel again this week - two weeks running! - this time courtesy of my sister who sent the three pictured at the top of this post. I realise I am behind the times with not having already embraced The Little Book of Hygge, but now I've read it I love that there's actually a named fashion which suits how I already like to live. My hyggeligt endeavours included reading lots of books while lounging on my vintage chaise longue. I also baked a Banana Cake, made Lentil And Mushroom Veggie Burgers, and made a batch of Chickpea Tofu. And all without emigrating to Copenhagen!

Other super-good news is that our car, whose gearbox has been grumbly and getting worse for months (years!) appears - touch wood - to be fixed at last. Yay and Phew! It was becoming worrying to drive, especially towing the caravan, and we had planned for a worse case of having to buy either a new gearbox or a whole new car. However Nigel at Torquay Transmissions changed all the oil and did his Mechanic Magic and we can now drive up hills without fearing that we might not make it to the top. Important in a town built almost entirely on hills!

Around the blogosphere

Lindsey at Treading My Own Path discusses a plastic-free supermarket aisle where almost everything appears to be packaged in plastic.

Angela at Musings Of A Literary Wanderer asks If It's Hard To Fairly Review A Favourite Author?


Here's what you might have missed across my blogs this week. Click the images to visit the pages ... and don't forget to enter all the Giveaways!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits	Stephanie Jane
M O N D A Y
T U E S D A Y
W E D N E S D A Y
T H U R S D A Y
F R I D A Y
S A T U R D A Y
S U N D A Y

Stephanie Jane's #Giveaway #Linkup

It's time for the third Stephanie Jane's Giveaway Linkup!

A monthly blog feature with a new post and InLinkz widget on the 15th. Add your own blog giveaways and enter everyone else's! The Linkup is 'never-ending' so adding once keeps your Giveaway visible until its closing date and I'll clear out extinct ones each month.

Please start each link with the End Date in British Format (DD/MM).
GC = Gift Card / HB = Hardback Book / INT = International /
PB = Paperback Book / WW = Worldwide

And here's all the Giveaways ... Good luck!

An InLinkz Link-up

I'd love for you to grab the Linkup Button. Paste the code into your Giveaway page somewhere for everyone to see. The more people we can each bring to these pages, the more will see all our giveaways!

Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"> <span style="margin:5px;padding:5px;border-radius: 5px;border:1px solid lightgrey;display:inline-block;"><a rel=_nofollow href="http://stephjb.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Giveaway%20Linkup?"> <img style="border: 1px solid gray;width:px;height:px;" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r01iDO5pf0Q/WoQZvXhBV5I/AAAAAAAASAo/Otuckn5iz4YlkMiZOhq4qUzCCgCXAjSlQCLcBGAs/s1600/title978595305.png"> <p style="allign: center;"> Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!</p> </a></span></div>
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML