Victoria Park

Welcome to Victoria Park, one of Bristol's many green spaces, and the first one I wanted to introduce all readers too, as it's my home turf. 

I was desperate to live near a park, as I'm really a country girl at heart, but when I moved here I had no idea what the park was like, apart from the size I'd seen on Google Maps...

As it turned out VP is a vibrant square of green between Bedminster and Totterdown; full of walking commuters, school kids scooting along, and of course, multitudes of dog walkers.

As the sunshine comes out so do the revellers, frisbee, football, tennis, ciders and music, and of course being Bristol, the occasional whiff of ganja on the breeze. 

It's got a definite attitude and I like to think of myself as part of that now, having circumnavigated it twice daily for the past 6 months. There comes a sense of belonging (hard to come by these days) by seeing familiar faces, chatting and smiling to who would be in normal circumstances, complete strangers. But bonded by the fact you're both picking up something else's faeces. Giving the standard mutual eye roll when you're out walking the dogs in the rain. "We love them too much don't we?". 

I'm a firm believer that experiencing nature in any form is good for the soul, and I'm going to post about that at another time, and stick to the virtues of Victoria Park this time.  

This park is definitely worth a visit, it's got awesome looking play areas for kids (o.k. I might have ignored the '11 and under' signs and had a quick go on the swings, you got me), skate park, table tennis tables, bowling club and the VP tennis club (which you can join for a very reasonable £30 a year and play as much as you like), and a cafe from the Spring onwards selling pretty cheap tea, coffee and cakes. There's enough room to set up a football or rounders match with your friends, followed by a bbq in the summer. Perfecto! 

I first moved the depths of Winter, and I even enjoyed walking around the park then, so I knew when Spring came it would be even better and it hasn't disappointed, huge trees explode with green and daffodils and snowdrops have emerged, odd patches of undergrowth are good for exploring and messing about in, and there are huge grassy areas for lolling about on. 

So- come, enjoy, experience.