A Golden Evening

Another late run, another encounter with a drake AND duck shoveller on the London Road Pond, all under a sky seemingly painted to look like a fearsome storm amid the clouds of Jupiter.

It was spectacular.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 11.12.16

Darkness Falls

Judging by people's blogs, it has been a dark grey and very mizzley day for virtually everyone in the country, and mine will do little to add any more colour into people's lives. When I did get going, town felt like it was wrapped in a dirty bedsheet, and the general Saturday frenzy was nothing I wanted to be a part of.

So, lunch then a run, then my favourite SAturday past-time, a very long bath reading a book already so well thumbed the potential of it being dropped in the bath won't matter. Can't do that with a Kindle!

My run was interesting in the sense it seemed to get dark in about 10 minutes, giving me a rather eerie trip around the two lakes. Our new feature of London Road pond, the drake shoveller, was still there doing its head down feeding thing; I intend to try and capture it in better light tomorrow. On film that is, I'm not going to row out there with a cage.

Water everywhere was a place of reflections. I kept on going at a steady 6 minutes per kilometre, snapping anything of interest; light and water is always a beautiful combination. My hair was wet from misty rain.

It was lovely.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 10.12.16

Corpse Reflexes

As someone who has Tourette's, the appearance of a Batak Wall at work for some commemorative ceremony or other had me really really excited...

For those who don't know, a Batak Wall is a sort of square spiders web, on which are placed various illuminated buttons. They light at random, you have to press the button as quick as possible. How many can you get in a minute? There's the question.

I asked the guy who was running the Wall, and he said he could do 50 but then he had a lot of practice. "What would be a good score for me?" I asked.

30 was the answer.

I had a go, lunging about, flailing, trying to be the fast man, the coiled spring, the cobra, the panther.

I got 27. I was devastated. Oliver Sacks has stated that Tourettes people tend to have very sharp reflexes...I felt like a fraud. Indeed I was almost crying. Virtually everyone else who went on got 30 or so. I felt the embalming fluid creeping round my veins.

I had another go. Got 28. Still gutted. I watched my 6 foot 4 former colleague got 41. Was it age? No, a guy 10 years older than me got 35.

I then had another go, taking time to relax, breath deeply and slow down, and not be all convulsively lungey...take it easy.

I got 33. Better. Not so corpse like.

I've been running tonight, an incredibly muggy night, running down and through Balderton, along the main street of the old town and then into this seemingly endless estate with every house the same...two storey flats, illuminated lightwells, not a soul on the streets apart from a cat I urged not to go on the road...people behind the curtains all watching the same television programme. Then there was greenery, and Chuter Ede (odd name) school with its sign commemorating the torch relay for London 2012 that passed here.

Signs of life.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.12.16

Walking for Wellness through RSPB Langford

Here's another of my walks I produce for work, but think other people will like. I keep upping the text size to make it easier to read. Hopefully the unseasonable weather will enable me to get a trip out into the sticks this weekend.

Si

All text copyright CreamCrackeredNature 07.12.16

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

The Beets are In

Well, today was long overdue haircut day, I like having longer hair but unfortunately when one is a bit thin up top it looks bad and frankly Mark Knopflery.

Having a fairly savage grade 2 cut conceals it rather well. Providing I never sit down and talk to people who are 5 ft 7 or less.

This meant that my run today had to be done relatively early, and so it was, with 6 Music in my ears blasting out some classic goth tracks by The Cult and The Sisters of Mercy, and the grey skies occasionally letting through a hint of blue. I ran across the fields, which were soil brown and empty.

The harvest was in, and you could see where it had been piled up around the fields; great banks of sugar beet, all ready to be loaded up for passage to the sugar beet factory to be made into the delightful series of smells that has plagued this town for years.

A prettier sight was a little egret in the field next to the middle beck in Hawton, which was quickly scared off by kids on illegal motorbikes and quads. Grrrr.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 04.12.16

Up in the Skies

I was off today, first Friday thus in ages, but golly gee did I waste it. So tired after my shortened weekend then shift I wasn't out of the house until mid afternoon, and didn't get to go for a run until about two hours ago, when I blasted around 6km at a pretty sharp pace.

Feels good to have a little running form back compared to last year.

The afternoon compirsed me heading to the library to get some more books, but before that having a sit at Rumbles in outside the cafe in the mizzle. The gulls were flying home to roost overhead, as the sun began to set in a brassy looking sky.

An aeroplane, flashing its lights furiously, chased after the gulls and managed to get in the same shot.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.12.16