What is this thing "Book"?

Took myself off to the cricket ground this afternoon, not for the purposes of running, or even walking - although I did a bit of that - but to actually lie in the sun and read.

I have hardly looked at a book in weeks, normally most of my reading is done quietly at the pub with a pint by my hand; no pub-going has thus resulted in no reading as I've been entertaining myself with online story telling in the form of various sci fi adaptions of Dungeons and Dragons.

Or watching a couple read "Dune" over several weeks.

Lockdown has turned me into a mega-nerd basically.

So today, I read the first 50 odd pages of a Stephen Baxter sci fi novel. I wish I'd chosen something a bit easier to get into!

The trick is now is to keep up with this habit over the upcoming weeks. I've missed books.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 26.05.20

That 70s Show

Done my usual pootling around today without a whole lot to be found apart from a 70s exhibition in the local library.

"Do you recongnise any of this stuff?" asked the librarian and indeed I did, I had the very same "Lou Reed Greatest Hits" cassette and Scrabble with Turnbtable I could see prominently on display. I also loved Scalextric, but never actually owned one myself - I had a much smaller Matchbox system that sat in my bedroom, used properly for a while by 6 year old me, before inevitably becoming a series of attempts to make the cars jump over things.

I did have a train set, but only the basic track and engines, I didn't have anywhere to put it up properly.

Really, there should have been Warlord Annuals, Spangles, slimfones and spacehoppers present to make it the 70s I remember.

And Starsky and Hutch. Where the hell were they.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.11.17

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

Market Day

I have been out today, but it was so grey and dark I could barely see anything! I did my 20km on the bike on my Cotham-Thrope type route, and was pleased to see my first redwing and fieldfare of the year out on the Sustrans 64 pathway, but you could barely see them against the sky and so photography was pointless.

Likewise the peregrine - or perhaps more likely a sparrowhak - I came across sat on a telegraph pole on a farm.

I'm keeping my eyes open for whooper and bewick swans in the fields now, as they are being reported in the area, hiding in feeding flocks of mute swans. But I didn't see any today.

What I did see were a fair few of my fellow cyclists, enjoying the chill weather as I was.

So, in the event with no worthwhile shots taken today, I shall show you what a full market day in Newark looks like. The market is reputedly struggling, but it still has stalls 5 days out of 7. SAturday is the big one, and as you can see it is the premier spot to buy mutilated animal remains for your dogs, eggs, endless bloody vaping shit, bird feeders, hippyish clothes, and er, ladders.

I've never seen a ladder stall on any market before, and I had no conception that this was a thing. Some of the ladders were very tall, and confusingly you could buy strange rocking bird feeder platforms at the same stall.

I wasn't tempted.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.11.16

Another Year Older

Well I hit 44 today, and rewarded myself by having a luxury breakfast of exotic mushrooms on toast before spending a lot of the day on the park reading Amy Liptrot's "The Outrun".

Initially the sun was bright and scorching on my face, my black jeans making my legs feel like they were burning. But as the afternoon wore on the clouds rolled in, getting darker and heavier by the minute, until the rain came and drove me off my table at the cafe, where a collie kept bringing me back its tennis ball instead of its owner.

I then went into town, where some strange daemon in my mind persuaded me to buy a sketch pad and pencils. I'd like to try and record a few sketches as well as photographs, terrible at drawing though I am. It gives me something else to do when I'm out, I expect working quickly will be my best approach. Or least worst, rather.

This last year has gone better than most, at long last I'm getting to write as part of my job. Where I take it from here I have no idea.

Here's a random set of photographs from the last three days. I was most perturbed to find a sary mask while out running the other night!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.10.16