The Piper in the Rain

Never mind "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" today, no-one could possibly have seen it. It has been battleship grey at best today, with the rain falling constantly in varying degrees of heaviness.

The bagpiper was giving his rather squelchy sounding all in the entrance of the Art Deco home of what was Mark and Spencers, soon to be shat on by being turned into a Poundland type establishment.

Nearby are other art deco buildings in the town centre - the old cinema and the old Burtons - and very fine they are too, although they are now a building society and health food store.

None of them looked at their best today though.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 14.08.19

No Pressure, No Pressure

When you are like me, you do feel pressure to be always wanting to do stuff, or be seen to be wanting to do stuff. To be active. To be interesting. To be fit.

I was great at it last week when the weather was warm and dry, but this last  three days, motivation has been hard to find during these last days of my time off, and I feel guilty about it...I feel I should be it Attenborough reserve like I'd thought about, or walking around Southwell.

In the end I sorted out a lot of rubbish in my flat, and sat writing on my very very old internet incapable 14 year old laptop. And felt fine.

Today, I just wandered around, photographing strange Italian TR7 knock offs, or off road vehicles outside posh flats that will never go off road in their lives. I wondered what the little white flowers were that were like little white harebells, and thought about the crumbling back of the Corn Exchange, another building that has been allowed to go rot in this town.

On the exercise bike in a bit as I feel fat.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.04.18

Antique Land

Newark is supposedly well known for its antique trade; indeed there are almost as many shops as there are nailbars and hairdressers, perhaps even more. Added in there are now the vintage clothes emporiums, of which there are at least three I can think of, and regular trade fairs out at the showground where a lot of the dealers are as rough as guts and not at all like the nice folk you see on "Bargain Hunt".

Today, while out mooching about this morning before going to by this weeks supply of noodles for work - hello duck hoisin! - I decided to investigate the two buildings that have been converted into antique type outlets.

Well, not quite. Kingsman Interiors is just furniture and not really antiques, but it does have a coffee shop inside what was once the Christ Church on Lombard Street.

I didn't go in, but I did find a nice old ghost sign at the back.

However, I did venture into the Newark Antique Centre next door, located in an old congregational church, which consists of some tiny little shoplets crammed in with another, rather less antiseptic looking cafe - the one in Kingsman put me off with its very obvious neon blue fly killer.

Most of it wasn't of much appeal apart from the Beswick birds, a shop about the size of a phone box crammed with bits of military uniforms and all manner of oddities, and a bookstall with handy tomes telling you to build animal traps. Lovely.

I wanted to have a cup of tea, but didn't, determined as I am to spend less money at which I am failing miserably. But I will do soon, amid the hunting books and police helmets.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.12.16

Cricket Committee!

So I've been lazy today, the cold weather and occasional rain really putting me off doing anything, other than just loafing around a couple of cafes listening to radio 4. Which I enjoy doing, but isn't making me into a superfit man that everyone fancies.

The second cafe visit was to the new one in the Palace Theatre, nice big pot of tea for £1.60, while the tempting retail opportunity to buy Civil War replica helmets and Royalist beers in the museum shop behind you, a museum I haven't actually been in proper yet as it costs £8 to get in. No way!

I have Scottish blood!

Also on offer were lots of things that weren't actually theatre, apart from the same old "Vampires Rock" promo stuff featuring the bald spot with the teeth doing the same pose he's been doing for about 50 years on these shows.

So, after taking a few shots on a street where the windows were turning gold in a low sun, I got on my bike and headed down to the cricket club, strange looking in the near darkness, and rather unkempt as it is unmown for the off season. Inside, the cricketers and cricket lovers were gathered for the AGM, where I sat being very very quiet and shy while captains and chairmen were elected.

However, I did raise a very shy hand when the 8th and last committee spot was up for election. I had been asked to consider being a comms person for the committee, and I guess that is what I'll be. I doubt I'm going to be much help with coaching, or building a new cricket ground, so getting some good coverage for the club will be my game.

Hopefully I'll be better at that than batting.

Si

Down Came the Rain

And did it stop me going out? Of course not.

I love being out in bad weather, as long as I've got warm and waterproof stuff on. Today I didn't need the warm, but the neon kag had to make a sexy appearance as the rain was absolutely ferocious this morning, raindrops seemingly bouncing back centimetres into the air after they blattered onto my drive way.

Where else to go but to the park, listening to the radio all the while, happy as anything insulated like a pupa.

The buildings take on a darker appearance in grey wet skies, making them seem older and more venerable, and also more vulnerable, as so many of our town's buildings, like the Corn Exchange you see next to the river, are being allowed to moulder away because of the cost of restoration.

Ha. Burtons will probably be next.

At least their wild gardens look nice while they decay, overgrown havens away from terrible new builds.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 17.09.16

It's Gone for a Burton

Having been a staple of Newark life for 80 odd years, our Burton's store here has finally closed.

Apparently this is related to the BHS collapse in some way due to the ownership chain - Burton's is also struggling these days - but I really have no idea. I think it tends to suffer for being neither seen as high quality nor budget in this day and age, and it never seemed to get any high profile campaigns going like M and S did.

I always remember that at school to be seen wearing Burton's gear was something to be ashamed of; a geek thing, a nerd thing, something you wouldn't want to be seen in on a non-uniform day. If my folks ever got me any casual clothes from there I was always nervous about wearing it out for fear of being taunted by the hip kids.

As I got older, I just cared less and less.

It's a landmark building in this town, surely Grade 1 listed as a wonderful example of Art Deco design in a town that has a fair bit of it kicking around. I can only hope it finds a worthy new occupier.

Chances are, we will end up with an Art Deco nailbar.

Si

Get Carter!

I walking along Cartergate today, the street that marks the East side of the old Civil War town. You might therefore think it has a historic feel, and that the heritage people on the town council would look after it properly.

Well, not really...

For a start it doesn't have the same quality of building on it, no really impressive Tudor or Georgian builds, just stuff on a much smaller scale. Also, one end of the street has got some nasty modern slabs on it, well, this is inevitable, every town has these.

Like many towns, the issue is one of the sort of shops we have, and the sort of frontage design they have. It was never the poshest street in town, but you had a variety of shops, and the design wasn't too shocking.

Now we have two nail bars (and another directly round the corner), two e-cig shops, a bookies, a card shop, two charity shops, and various empty ones with forlorn looking "to let" signs bolted on. One of the nail bars in particular has a frontage so horrific it would be deemed "unclassy" by the ape creatures on TOWIE.

I suppose this is happening everywhere as the internet reduces the need for specialist shops, and faddy quick start businesses move in. But really, can you please make them conform to some kind of vaguely classy frontage design. A neon sign saying "Nails" really really isn't.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.04.16

Looking North

First e-cig shop. Used to be a tiny book shop. Note empty shop on right.

We only have about 64 card shops in town

Gamblers.

The aforementioned atrocity

Bookies. We have loads of these as well now. They tend to go alongside deprivation.

They've gone a bit posh, there was a £3,000 watch in the window the other day

Another nail bar

Beacon of sanity

More e-cigs

Looking back down 100 metres of street.