The Mosaic Shop Fronts of Newark

I did manage to go running today, but I was actually concentrating on having a proper run and not stopping all the time to take photographs. By the feeling of my buttocks this evening, I should have perhaps taken it easier. Still, I'll take 54.57 for 10km with a cold.

No, the main mission of the day was to actually collate some artifacts I've photographed as one offs over the last couple of years, but finally wanted to bring together to show you.

Newark has a number of old fashioned pseudo mosaic shop entrances, often so old they have long since had nothing to do with the business within. Some are a bit tacky, but some have a rather pleasing Roman feel about them. Of course, they aren't real mosaics, but rather what seem to be pre-prepared sheets where plastic tiles have already been stuck down.

I've always been rather struck by them as remnants of an earlier time.

First up, the unlovely "Cheapest Cigs in Town", which hasn't been a Pork Farms shop for as long as I've lived round here.

A little further down Carter Gate, is the Oxfam shop, which sports a pseudo Roman border around a bit of a dog's dinner in the middle.

The Arcade has a number of such doorways, all of which have lasted much longer than the endlessly turning over businesses within.

Out in the town centre, and we come to The Clinton Arms, a pub whose mosaiced entranceway acts as a ghost sign - it closed around 30 years ago. It dates back to 1341, but in its present guise since the late 18th century, after which William Gladstone used it as his election headquarters.

The new Carphone Warehouse used to be Hamblings, the sort of posh olde worlde tailors that used to sell Viyella shirts for £85 a throw. It is probably the most attractive frontage in town, at low level at any rate.

Meanwhile, the art deco Burtons and Marks and Sparks buildings have something far nastier underfoot.

Mama Whites on Stodman Street screams "70s" at me for some reason.

Finally, it's round to Kirkgate, where the dentists tries to distract potential customers from suffering with this bold geometric pattern.

So a walk round town yielded these mosaic entrance ways. I think there are houses with better ones, but gosh, it might seem a bit obsessive to seek them out, no?

Si

A Walk in the Spring

My encounter with the first working bees of the year really did deserve its own post, I felt, but it was far from the only thing I saw today. It was but a small part of a four mile walk, a search for signs of spring, a search for bees, bumbles and butterflies, for flowers, and for life, light and warmth in general.

I certainly found them, but amidst all the beauty there was the ugly side of modern life. You can't take nature for granted for a second.

Si

Warming Rays

Crocus row

A beautiful bed of cemetery crocuses

Crocus close up

Still plenty of snowdrops too

Sundial says 2pm. It was half an hour out

Mossy grave

The new sports hub under construction

The news making dump of bags of unknown waste, under council investigation and decried by locals as an eyesore

Moss, er, side?

Sconce orchard, and the first blossom of the year

Daffs now out in the oak wood

River Devon

Objective in sight

Mr Bee Says "Spring has Sprung"!

I've been on both walking and running duty today, on what has been a glorious day, highly pleasant in the sun if you can escape from the wind.

Certainly two bees agreed, for they were out harvesting the cemetery crocuses, and getting well sprinkled in rich yellow pollen. They were slightly slower moving than usual this early in the season, or else I suspect I'd never have been able to catch them on the wing. Terrible Motorola phone camera notwithstanding and for which I apologise endlessly until the death of the Universe, I'm quite pleased by how these pictures have turned out.

On the decision of some telepathic bee council of Britain, it has been declared the Spring has Sprung, because I've seen so many reports and photographs of bees and bumbles on the wing today.

I hope spring has arrived where you are too!

Si

Think I'll give this one a miss

Not so keen on this one either

OK, where too next?

This one looks good

PAAAAARRRRTTTYYYY!!!!!

In Sickness and in Kingfisher

I have felt ghastly most of the day. I awoke at 8am shivering despite a duvet of a volcanic tog rating,  my legs were aching like I'd just run a marathon, and my head ached. I lay there awake until two, sun streaming in from outside, listening to Radio 4 Extra, and unable to muster the energy to turn off the horrors of Ken Dodd and his Diddymen from 1965.

A run was out of the question, but after finally dragging myself out of bed, I did manage to get down to the library and then go for a walk. Subtract the wind, and it was a pleasant spring day, and certainly there was a lot of spring like activity out and about. Blue tits were collecting spider's webs from the walls, and the coots were involved in some pretty brutal courtship. The males are sailing around with their heads held just above the water, before fanning their wings and tails out and sinking their heads even lower.

Further out, a couple were splashing about in low level flight, culminating in what was either fighting, or mating, as the dominant bird drove the other below the surface. Love or hate, it was pretty vicious stuff.

I was entranced by a small mixed flock of goldfinch  and chaffinch in the forgotten nature reserve, but was utterly delighted to see the cycle track kingfisher perched by the Barnby Road bridge. I'd had a premonition I would see it despite not having done so for several weeks, and lo and behold there it was. I can't get a good enough look to see if it is a male or female, but for one, it was facing me, and its deep red breast stood out against the green background plain as day.

I wonder if it will find a mate, in sickness and in health, amidst the algal waters filled with empty bottles, and fly tipped washing machines?

Si

First daisy of the year, by my front door!

Library crocus

Library squill

Waffle tree

Had to lean over someone's wall to get the first flowering daff of 2015

Down  onto the cycle path

Ducks in the drain

Lesser celandine by London Road Pond, slightly past its best already

Coot courtship display, pity it's so far away

Friary Road garden, where the aconite is nearly over

But the squill is out

No idea about these micro flowers

Moon over the library

A wave from your writer

Hallo to thee, Spider Spider

It doesn't seem so long ago that the pleasure of sitting in one's living room would be tempered somewhat by the knowledge that it was September, and at any moment your feet might be run over by a cat sized specimen of tengenaria gigantea, the giant house spider.

Obviously you could keep your legs off the floor, but then you might get too comfortable...and then you might be woken up by one of them crawling across your face. This happened to me one, and I jerked my head so violently I functionally decapitated myself and the spider was launched halfway to Mars.

*Shudders at the memory*

Still, I'm much better with spiders when they aren't spelunking in my nasal cavities, and so it was with an odd sort of pleasure I came across this chap - note the palps - outside the front door. He would be the son of one of the mate hunting giants from the autumn, and in six months time it will be his turn to maraud around my carpet looking out for love.

I wish him luck.

Si