Gentle Meanderings

 I'm still not doing a lot of walking; I am now doing rehabbing exercises for my ankle - including a lurid orange foam roller with medieval torture instrument vibes - and wearing an ice pack when I remember.

I therefore apologise for the lack of riveting content, it is very frustrating for me to be not outside and also the weather is too atrocious for bike riding. The rain seems unrelenting, but I'm guessing our reservoirs need it so I'm not complaining about that. 

I can at least do my best to get outside, and just enjoy the sights and sounds. The harsh honking of the geese at the marina is rendered almost melodic by distance, and there is usually a robin to be heard singing somewhere.

There's a new noise too, one I've only recently discovered. The little sculpture outside Rumbles cafe, which I thought was actually a pretty little piece of polished metal, is actually a sort of steel drum as I found when I heard kids tapping it in their mittened hands, a soft "bonging" rather less tinny than a steel drum in actual fact.

It's a sound oddly out of place under skies of battleship grey. 

Si

Ooom-Pa-Pa

 Sunday afternoon in the sun took me to the castle grounds, where glittering gleaming instruments and parping sounds indicated that a brass band concert was taking place, surrounded by a generally if not exclusively mature audience stuffing themselves with ice cream.

Enjoying the retro vibe, I got a can of old fashioned bitter shandy and parked my backside on scorched grass more akin to the Serengeti than the East Midlands. 

The band hailed from Shirebrook Miners Welfare, Bassetlaw country rather than the world of Brassed Off, but the stories are pretty much the same. These bands are one of the few things that remain of our mining industry, an industry that lasted a little longer in Nottinghamshire because of the infamous split from Arthur Scargill and the NUM that didn't do them any good in the long run. 

They still bring in the big crowds, so it is something that obviously still means a lot to a lot of people, and I have to say there is something rather soothing about the warm burbling of tubas and euphoniums, although things became a little sharper when the theme from "The Great Escape" was played. 

I really wanted an ice cream afterwards, sadly my way to the rum and raisin was blocked a long queue of musicians in pale blue shirts wishing to cool their lips down after all that heavy blowing. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 11.08.22

Two Very Different Runs

I don't usually manage two runs in two consecutive days, but yesterday and today I managed 7km runs, but oh boy, they were completed in very different circumstances.

Today, I was a bit stiff and sore, but managed 7km up and down the river fairly easily. The pace was slow, but there was a strong headwind for a big chunk of the route, and that took the pace down a lot.

Yesterday, oh boy that was a very different story. We never had the arrival of rain and thunderstorms to breakdown the heat, although a couple of black clouds did rumble over. By the time I set off on my run at 7pm it was still warm, but I thought I bearable.

I was wrong. After a km the sun came out, and the heat and humidity was blistering. Despite this, I ran 4km in good time, across the Middlebrook fields, but as soon as I hit a rough incline up where the poppies have stopped blooming, I suddenly felt totally drained and my legs nearly went out from under me and I could only stumble up the rest of the hill, before half walking half jogging home.

I was ok in the end, but it taught me a lesson not to be so daft.

Town town today has been the liveliest I've seen it in weeks - there was even a band playing with couples dancing.

I don't think things are as normal as that, not by a long way.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 27.06.20

Rock and Roll in Bristol!

So, as well as taking in a trip to the zoo, my main reason for visiting Bristol was to see Bexatron, my sister's very loud rock band that have gigged extensively in London and up and down the country.

For many reasons, mainly relating to me being a rubbish brother, I was yet to see them until Saturday, and unlike my sister, was absolutely quaking with nerves about seeing the band and also meeting a lot of new people - hello Tourettes and Aspie anxiety issues - but I was fine and as usual had done a lot of worrying for nothing.

The band were great, my sister a fantastic front woman who had the audience eating  out of her hand, and all the people were really nice and bright and I had a great time.

There's no nature in this pic, I hope my sister makes up for it.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.04.19

OK, the Exhaustion Hit me Today

Yep, today was my sleep all day day, I guess every weekend has to have to have one!

I have still gone to the park to look at the sun and think about things to do this year, and wonder how far off a gentle, short run I am. I'm thinking that my foot might end up being a pain management rather than clear up thing - it is a lot better now, but it doesn't want to clear up totally.

We will see.

I'm hoping to do more sketching, and I've also started attempting to make a little electronic music onmy computer. Rather difficult, it's taken me a lot of fiddling to get two bars of anything that sounds reasonable!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.01.19

Newark Festival by Night

My sister and I are 35 and 43, and should know better.

Instead we have been drinking cheap cider al fresco while listening to the bands playing at Newark Festival for free from outside the barriers at Riverside Park, a move I believe is known as watching from "A Scotsman's Hill". We've had a great time.

First night it rained like mad as we listened to a Bon Jovi tribute act on our own next to the river. THe vocalist sounded more like Axl Rose crossed with Brian Johnson of AC DC. "ARE YA HAAAA-ING A GRAAAAYYY NIGGHHHHH" he kept shouting. "AWE YOOOO AWWWWIGGGHT"?. It was hilarious.

Second night we listened to Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet sing all his hits while folks from the assembled posh boats ate and drank at tables. As the night wore on, the middle class ladies got rather tiddly and started dancing up and down the bank waving lights around at folk across the river doing the same thing. The chances of an accidental drowning were pretty high.

But as you know, I love outdoor events, and outdoor space being used. And the river looked beautiful by night.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 19.06.16

Blues on the Bike

Yesterday seemed like an averagely nice sort of early autumn day, but now, as I look out upon the window upon nauseous grey skies and glistening rooftops, it seems like paradise.

I took myself out on the bike in the afternoon, after a morning chasing insects around the marigolds at Sconce Park, and headed out to North Muskham lake to see what might be there. Sheep was the answer, the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust bring in sheep and cattle to graze the site, which is certainly very lush with grass at the moment.

Tufted duck are out on the water too, the drakes now coming out of eclipse and their tidy model painted looks soon to be restored. Damsel and crane flies flew in their different ways around the undergrowth as I flushed them out. But there were no big migrant hawkers on patrol. The flag of summer was being flown by house martins feeding out over the water, and the swallows beginning to gather on telegraph poles and power lines.

September is an odd sort of time for a town like Newark to hold outdoor events, but the town's 5th Blues Festival was ongoing in the castle grounds so I dropped in to have a look. The music isn't massively to my taste, and the female vocalists were a bit too American sounding and strident, but then, can anyone sing the blues in an English accent?

What was good about it was the large number of people all sat out in the grounds watching, listening, and enjoying themselves. More use of free public space.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 14.09.15

I love how these marigolds remind me of the surface of stars

Hoverfly solar sailing

Common carder bee, the dominant autumn bumble

I miss cricket already

At North Muskham lake, no idea

Curious fluffy plant

The waters

Looking the other way

Blues

Castle crowds

Next act up

I didn't have a chair

Festival Stargazing

I'm watching the BBC coverage of the GLastonbury Festival 2013 on various outlets, and heavens, is it making me envious.

It's not making me wish I was at Glastonbury per se, it's a very Channel T4 line up that has featured on the early BBC3 coverage, but it is sure as hell making me wish I was at a festival of some kind, buried in a tent with my e-reader, before venturing out to take in music, literature, and...astronomy!

I wonder if anyone knows if any UK festivals have organised (or disorganised) little stargazing sessions in quiet corners? I had a little dream the other day - ok so it was a daydream - about my own self taking a little, very basic, stargazing session with various trippy kids and interesting folk, as I drink a beer and cider and talking about Clash of the Titans as Perseus, Andromeda and Pegasus rise in the Eastern sky.

And then back to my tent to listen to 6 music all night...