The buildings of Newark-on-Trent

As we cycled into Newark from our base at Ivy Farm I knew I was going to like the town.  The first things we saw were this traditional cycle shop and the Palace Theatre, surely they were good omens?

EAGLES!

And while I knew I wanted to come here, I hadn't really planned much of what we should see, or where we should go.  Clare had said the best place to leave our bikes was in the Market Square, so we were pleased to spot this sign.

MARKET PLACE

NEWARK TOWN HALL

The Market Place was a traditional market square with the town hall at one end of the square.  I can't tell you how many times we walked through here sometimes checking on our bikes and other times because we just found ourselves back here.

And inevitably we often got a view of the Parish Church, a beautiful building inside and out.  I've some photos from inside the church which I'll share another day.  But it's an elegant church isn't it?

On one of our walks around the church I spied these brightly coloured front doors over the wall, and I was off to get a closer look.  And the second photo below was taken standing in the middle of the road with MOH on watch for oncoming cars.

There were plenty of great looking buildings in the town - and as I had my camera in my hand, I snapped quite a few of them.  The details of the stonework and the fancy bits on the roof stood out on this one.

The vintage signs and the plant which was climbing up this building caught my eye at the time, and now when I look at this photo I think it has a timeless quality to it.  And that's how I felt about Newark - a place that still has traditional values at its heart.

There's not many letterboxes you'll see at this height, and it's a traditional green colour too isn't it?

I was curious about, what turned out to be a boot scraper to the left of the red door below.  And I loved how it was built in to the building's fabric, I think because I'm after a classic freestanding boot scraper myself.  I'm quite fussy and have an idea of what I want, but haven't seen the one I want yet.

Heading back towards town we headed into The Arcade and the roof caught my eye.

At the end of the Arcade we spent some time looking in the window of a vintage shop, and two things from my childhood caught my eye.  The first was this dress, which I'm sure my mum had something similar, it was either peach or blue but had the same fine pleats.

The other thing that caught my eye was the mustard coloured cups and saucers - the very same set that we had at home in the 1970s.  I was very tempted to buy these two trios (plate, saucer and cup) but they don't really match my usual, more prettier style of tea sets.  I think that dinner set is long gone, but maybe they have an odd piece or two hanging about.  I'll have to find out.

I've still more to share from Newark-on-Trent - some from inside the Parish Church and of course some from the Castle - so look out for those.

Lots of inspiring garden projects

Today I've something a little different for you as I've joined with some other bloggers to share lots of inspiring garden projects. I'm sharing three of my what I think are inspiring posts. There's painting, sewing, some pottering and some scrubbing - so quite a mix and I hope you find something that appeals to you from my mosts and from the other blogger's posts which you'll find below the photos. 

1. Revamping some chairs from eBay

I bought the chairs on eBay with grand intentions, but then left them in the garden for quite a while before attacking them with some fantastic yellow paint.  With them painted I then decided to make some cushions for them, without a pattern and without too much sewing experience and with piping.  Well, let's just say there's nothing like learning on the job and if I can do this, so can you.

Read more about how I made some dull white garden chairs into these jazzy yellow ones here.

2. Potting on houseplants

This is a much more recent post but hopefully no less inspiring. Here I've taken my scraggy aloe veras and re-potted them into new compost and giving each of the babies their own pot. The result is I have a lot of pots of aloe veras now as my plant really does seem quite promiscuous.

And the best bit, the pottering in the greenhouse - it's the perfect way to escape and have some time to yourself.

3. Some elbow grease for wooden garden furniture

This post just goes to show how productive an afternoon with a scrubbing brush and a bottle of kitchen spray can be.  Ideally it's best done in the sun and after an afternoon scrubbing dirt and grime, not only are the results amazing but you've really deserved a G&T.

You can see in more detail just how I achieved these results here.

But that's not all, here's some more inspiring posts for you:

Catherine from Growing Family has three great family gardening projects, she has been sowing a mini wildflower meadow, growing vegetables in containers and making new plants for free. 

Becky has 3 lovely garden projects to share, a secret garden, making a herb planter and flower pressing.  

Over at Fresh Design Blog, Rachel has ideas for making your garden bird-friendly, planting sunflower seeds and essential spring weeding and pruning jobs to do now. 

Penny has three easy but great fun projects children will enjoy helping with, she has been making miniature gardens, creating a scarecrow and planting wild flowers. 

Cathy from Wishful Wonderings has been looking for inspiration and creating a herb box for her small garden. 

Three of the six show gardens at the Ideal Home Show

On Saturday we headed into town and over to Olympia for a last minute visit to the Ideal Home Show on its last weekend. It was the first time I've visited the show at the weekend and it was just as busy as we expected, but still enjoyable -  thanks to British Gas for the tickets.

Last year I was surprised to see the show gardens, but this year they were one of the first things on my list to see. And I wasn't disappointed.  Today I'm sharing three of the six gardens we saw.

Once again the show gardens were created for the Ideal Young Gardeners of the Year competition in association with The Prince's Foundation for Building Community. A competition organised by TV Gardener David Domoney.

This year, as well as demonstrating what can be achieved in a small space the students were also challenged to incorporate elements of an educational garden into their designs and aim to inspire young people to reconnect with nature. Not much then!

So onto the gardens.

1. Basement Garden, Writtle College

This first garden is a small urban basement garden hidden in the middle of the city providing an urban retreat. The roof is covered with meadow grass and magnolias, although we didn't see these from ground (or basement) level.

There was a green wall which represents a new investigation into producing electricity from plants which is an interesting idea, which could one day provide electricity for LED lights or charging points - now that would be clever.

There's sedum matting used as a lawn which would soak up rainwater but also tolerate drier conditions, and as well as the tree log lights there was a rhododendron to provide colour.

I liked this garden and using sedums instead of grass was appealing, but while there was little I would replicate in my own garden I would quite happily own a garden that looked like this.

2. Path to Discovery, Pershore College

This garden was inspired by geometry found in plants, particularly "the curve of life" and mathematical patterns. Many of the plants used were selected to help demonstrate the intricacies of plant structures, varying with leaf arrangements, patterns and textured foliage.

The rusty steel planters were a winner for me and it was useful to speak to one of the students who told me they'd made all the elements of their garden, which was quite a bit of work. The most interesting thing I learnt was that they'd used vinegar to age and rust the steel, and an idea was beginning to form.

I thought that the steel would be easier to bend and mould into a curved shape and would be easier to create than a brick wall. MOH was less convinced but my enthusiasm persuaded him and when we were home later he was the one looking at steel prices and seeing if it was viable. It's still a possibility but on reflection I think sleepers are still my first choice, although I do have to work out where I can add a rusty steel homemade creation.  Watch this space.

I liked these steps too with their mini sempervivums in the crevices. 

The pergola too was impressive with its fern-like design.

And wouldn't it be great to sit in an area like this. And that circular sempervivum installation on the back wall, I want one of those too. That's a mathematical depiction of the "curve of life."

I would have been quite happy to let myself into this garden, plonked myself down and spent a good couple of hours here - and that's nothing to do with the bottle of cider on the table, well maybe not. 

The green-ness and freshness of this garden appealed to me - maybe because the planting is most like my garden at home - and the greens just popped against the rusty steel walls.

I loved this garden and it was the garden I voted for, so I hope it did well - I've yet to look!

3. New London, Askham Bryan College

This garden definitely had potential and had been awarded the Young Gardener's of the Year award but for me the planting was looking more tired than my favourite garden above. As I said at the top of this post, it was the last few days of the show so I'm prepared to admit we might not have seen this garden at its best.

There were elements I did like though - who can fail to like the Yorkshire dry stone wall and using tree trunks as the fencing was inspired. The timber had the names of the tree species carved into it, which brings the educational element to life.

Alongside the large Tibetan cherry trees the planting was mostly hellebores. I love hellebores but these were looking a bit tired, as I would be after a few weeks indoors and under stark lighting.

Again we spoke to one of the students who was involved in creating this garden, and her dad who was rightly very proud. I think it makes all the difference when the students are there to speak to. 

So there you have three of the six gardens we saw, I'll share photos from the other gardens shortly, but I'm interested to know which of these appeals to you most, and if there's anything you've seen here that you'd incorporate into your garden at home - let me know in the comments below.