Newark

I met up with Alice, an old school friend today.  Our friendship goes back fifty years and is still great.

We had a lovely chatty lunch and then a walk around Newark.  It's a delightful old town on the banks of the River Trent.  King John died there in 1216 but the castle where he died still stands overlooking the river.  The town now has the National Civil War Centre and I keep promising myself a trip there but today was too lovely to stay indoors.  The Civil War was fought 1642 to 1646 so a few more months before I get to visit can't make much difference.

Good to know that the dogs aren't ignored

There were still things to look at.  Alice and I had our giggles when we saw these notices.  

and even better to know that all those years ago the soldiers had their Brownies!

A start to Christmas socialising

Sometimes Christmas feels like hard work - and sometimes it is pure joy!  I'm not waiting for 25th December for the joy - today I went to Newark and met up with my old school-friend Alice (Bobo's human, if you remember Bobo).

We've been friends since we were sixteen (which is quite a long time ago), and we can resume our conversation just as we left off.  Today we had decided that we would just meet for a very leisurely lunch at a village pub near Newark.  Three hours non stop chatter - the waitress was VERY patient!

But before I met up with Alice I nipped into Newark market.  It is truly delightful and I bought some lovely fruit and veg. It's almost the sort of market I remember from my childhood but only almost, not quite.  There are still the cheerful stripy awnings, the stall holders still shout their wares, and the stuff still looks scrummy and wonderful.

But there is one very sad difference.  Years ago this market square would have been full of stalls, just as it had been since mediaeval times.  Today, even on the busiest market day of the week, the square was half empty.

Whilst I was in Newark I rode my trundle truck over a rather bumpy pavement and the basket fell off the front, scattering my possessions, including my camera, across the pavement.  A women was sitting on a bench six feet away.  I unfolded my walking stick and got off and started to collect the detritus from the pavement.  A gentleman came dashing from the other side of a very busy road and helped me whilst the woman looked on.  Thank you, Sir.  And as for you, Madame, shame on you.

News of Bobo

Yesterday I met up with Alice, my old school friend who is also Bobo's human.  (I told the tale of Bobo on this blog in the early part of this year - click on the Bobo tag for his story.)

Alice lives a couple of hours drive from Caistor and Alice doesn't drive so we need to choose somewhere to meet that she can get to fairly easily and we decided to meet in Newark which has good rail connections.  I drove there and collected Alice from the station and then we had a lovely day looking at Newark.

Newark is one of those places I often pass through or around on the by-pass but it really is a lovely town.  It has a colourful history of well over a thousand years and recently the National Civil War Centre opened there.  Alice and I didn't visit that but we did go to the castle which was a Royalist stronghold during the civil war.

An inviting passage

Glorious hanging baskets

 The history we were interested in was much more recent - what each of us had been up to since we last met!  We both found Newark to be a beautiful town generously decorated with hanging baskets.

Nottingham Building Society

  We were both very impressed with these building society premises which were originally a pub.  

(New) White Hart 

In fact we liked it so much that we went through that very inviting arch and found a slightly newer pub behind and were able to look back at the ornate building from the rear and enjoy a very leisurely lunch. 

Rear of the old White Hart (now Nottingham building Society

And you will be pleased to know that Bobo is well but chose not to come down to ground level when Alice's eighteen month old grandson visited from Australia.  Sensible bear.