Child of Magic, Lincoln-based singer songwriter Karl Svarc in concert with Sean South on guitar/vocals and Bob Reid on blues harp/vocals.
No idea where this is.
I picked up Strong Foundation a few days ago, but not yet got around to listening to it.
I have advised Karl Svarc that he puts all his albums on bandcamp. Hopefully he will, as he will reach a far wider audience.
Karl Svarc is performing in concert at the Pimento Tea Rooms, evening Friday 22 January 2013.
En route to Portas Pilot Market Rasen in Lincs which has reduced empty shops by 60 per cent and created new foody hub. Who says the high street’s dead. — Mary Portas
Market Rasen, a small Lincolnshire market town, has turned around its fortunes, from a failing town, to reducing shop vacancy rate by 60%, by focussing on what matters, small retailers, community and a sustainable local economy. Such as been the success, that folk now want to come into Market Rasen.
Market Rasen now has a thriving market, an art festival.
Market Rasen has achieved this success and turnaround within just a few months.
Today Mary Portas visited Market Rasen and she was very impressed by what had been achieved in only a few months.
Contrast with Aldershot and Farnborough, where the policy is destroy small businesses, drain money out of the local economy. Town centres destroyed by greed and planners in the pocket of developers.
The current plans for Farnborough are more of the same failed policy. Hand the town to developers to trash. A c 1720s coaching inn, The Tumbledown Dick, that existed long before the town, is earmarked for demolition for a Drive-Thru McDonald’s.
In Aldershot, a Victorian Arcade was demolished and replaced by a plastic replica, it in turn to be trashed, destroying small shops to make way for an unwanted Wetherspoons and Poundland. Outside The Arcade, small shops are threatened with demolition. Westgate, an ugly development of a large supermarket and tacky chain fast food outlets, is laying waste to what little is left of the local economy.
The sick joke is that Rushmoor (local council for Aldershot and Farnborough) applied for Portas Pilot status. It would have been a complete waste of money. You do not need Portas Pilot money, you simply listen to local communities, not get into bed with developers and big business.
When you look at what other councils are doing, including working with local communities not against, you realise just how Neanderthal and backwards the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor.
Cambridge has built into its planning policies a sustainable local economy. Islington has built into its planning policies protection of local shops, recognises the need to stop the spread of junk food outlets due to the obesity epidemic.
Brighton has North Laines. A very popular area.
Lincoln has Sincil Street. The Strait, Steep Hill and Bailgate. And yet the City Council is determined to lay waste to Sincil Street.
There is a myth, peddled by Big Business, developers and councils in their pockets, that people prefer High Street clone shops, every town Clone Town, all looking the same. They do not.
Mercury Shoes
Mercury Shoes
I had intended to have tea at Pimento Tea Rooms, at least I had had I arrived earlier. But too late, absolutely no way am I stopping to have tea, not time.
I stop and have tea.
I drop of the BookCrossing code for The Shadow of the Wind which I had dropped off last week, and say I will register Pimento Tea Rooms as a BookCrossing zone.
I find a lady stood watching both shops. I ask is she a security guard? She says no, no one in the shoe shop, she is the book keeper who has climbed down from her garret. She needs to serve a customer in the shoe shop, ask the girl in the tea rooms, to go off and find a pair of shoes, I am promoted to guardian of the tea rooms and left in charge.
Pimento Tea Rooms appears to be a meeting place of the local literati, or what in Lincoln passes as the local literati, people chat about books.
I talk to two ladies about The Shadow of the Wind, BookCrossing, writer Paulo Coelho and read The Alchemist. All unknown to them.
On leaving I have a brief chat with a very attractive young woman in the shoe shop. She is the owner of the shoe shoe the tea rooms. Very upmarket shoes.
Pimento Tea Rooms has very interesting access. Either through a fashion shop or a tea shop. The owner of the fashion shop was the owner of the tea shop, now the ownership has changed hands to the owner of the shoe shop.
Excellent Assam tea.
I picked up a slice of their carrot cake to eat later, or to be correct vegan carrot cake.
Nothing like carrot cake. Interesting icing or cream on top, slightly spicy. The cake though is nothing like carrot cake. On display it looks like carrot cake, but when you eat it, you see it looks nothing like carrot cake. More like Christmas pudding in constituency. The taste nothing like carrot cake. If expecting carrot cake, then disappointing, but nothing wrong, just different. Needs to be called something other than carrot cake, or at least vegan carrot cake.
Pimento Tea Rooms has occasional evening music. Friday 22 January 2013, guitarist Karl Svarc.
Earlier in the day I was at a whole food stall in the Central market. I commented on flyers for Pimento Tea Rooms and the evening with Karl Svarc, for the lady to tell me it was her husband and she had his CDs on sale. I was talking to a man running her stall a few weeks back, but did not recognise him. She dug a handful of CDs out of a drawer. I asked did she know what automatically played on his website as it was very good, but no, she did not. I took a chance and bought one of his CDs, Strong Foundation. I suggested he uploaded his music to bandcamp. I did wonder, why hide the CDs in a drawer, not going to lead to many sales.
Synchronicity: This evening I added release notes for the book I had dropped off. As I do so my eye is caught by a quote on the page, it is from The Shadow of the Wind!
Carlos Ruiz Zafon:
Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it’s an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.
Last night it was snowing. I awoke to the ground covered in snow. I set off for the bus. Luckily an earlier bus was a running a few minutes late, not long to wait for a bus.
On the bus journey, into Lincoln, the countryside white with snow, the roads though clear.
Very quiet, not a lot of people about.
I had a chat with the lady running the whole food stall in the Central Market. I commented on flyers for Pimento Tea Rooms and the evening with Karl Svarc, for the lady to tell me it was her husband and she had his CDs on sale. I was talking to a man running her stall a few weeks back, but did not recognise him. She dug a handful of CDs out of a drawer. I asked did she know what automatically played on his website as it was very good, but no, she did not. I took a chance and bought one of his CDs, Strong Foundation. I suggested he uploaded his music to bandcamp. I did wonder, why hide the CDs in a drawer, not going to lead to many sales.
I went down the stone steps in the narrow alley at the side of Stokes on High Bridge. Very cold walking along side the River Witham to Brayford.
The Brayford is unbelievably ugly. One side is lined with ugly office blocks and high rise apartments. Another side is lined with ugly tacky fast food joints. Across the water, ugly university buildings.
Up until the 1960s, the Brayford was lined with old warehouses and mills. A council with vision would have these restored and made a very attractive area, somewhere to be proud off just off the High Street. Instead, the council allowed their demolition.
There used to be a lovely view across the water of the hills of South Common. Now obscured by ugly university buildings.
Jamie Crofts is composing 5 Diurnes, subtitled the Brayford Pool by day. This is a counterpoint to 5 Nocturnes, a refection on Foss Dyke at Night. It will have to be very very brash, loud and discordant if it is to reflect the ugliness of the Brayford.
Finished the 3rd of my new Diurnes for piano today. Subtitled the Brayford Pool by day. #Lincoln #Piano—
Jamie Crofts (@soundkiosk) February 10, 2013
Excellent pea and mint soup at County Restaurant I should have stayed and had the beef, but decided to have main course at Olibers Coffee Shop.
I go on a detour. I decide to check out The Joiners Arms, which I had spotted last week a little way up a narrow street of Victorian terraced houses. It is closed! I look through the windows. Old oak panelling (or what I think is oak), old wooden seats, not dissimilar to the dining floors at Stokes on High Bridge. I wonder has it closed down? I note it a a Free House, free of greedy pubcos that are putting so many pubs out of businesses. I ask a passer by. I am told no, they keep strange hours. He points to writing on the wall, 1.30 to 12am.
I decide to carry on up the street a steep climb as it is literally straight up the hill. I get to the top, a dead end, then I notice an alley to the right. It intercepts a path that literally goes straight up the hill. It curves around and turns into a lane that slowly widens. I find myself at the foot of Lincoln Castle in a part of town I am unfamiliar with.
I follow the lane around and find I will either come out at the top of Steep Hill in Castle Hill, or part way down opposite a Norman building now housing Imperial Teas.
Now I have to walk all the way back down to Olibers for lunch.
Last week I enjoyed gammon steak at Olibers, Not today. Nothing wrong with it, just too much and when a meal is too big, it is oppressive.
Long chat with the owner. She used to have ten staff working, now down to three. Everyone is struggling, many have gone under, losing their house, some days not worth opening.
I am curious about the stone steps, well worn with age. She tells me it is a listed building, with a 16th century cellar. I resist the temptation to seek a guided tour of the cellar.
On leaving, I bump into the owner of the building who I have known for many years. He has the deeds lodged in a bank and will check the history of the building. He tells me he knows there was a gunsmith sometime in the 1800s.
I wander to The Collection. Last week I inquired about a Tennyson exhibition that no one is aware of. I drop off a cutting from the Lincolnshire Echo that mentions the exhibition. They are not aware either of an art exhibition that was mentioned on BBC Look North last Friday. Unseen Art, Hull and Lincoln but no mention of the location. The Usher Art Gallery is the obvious location, and yet no one at The Collection is aware of it, let alone knows of its location.
A mystery. Two exhibitions mentioned in the media the last couple of weeks, and yet no one knows anything about them.
I walk up The Strait and Steep Hill. My second trip up the hill today.
I look in the Harlequin bookshop. I am interested in antique maps. I wait and wait. Eventually I rudely interrupt, state what I am looking for, and that I will pop back.
On and up Steep Hill. I had no intention of stopping in Pimento Tea Rooms, or at least I had if I had the time, but I have no time, but their tea is so good, I stop anyway for afternoon tea in Pimento Tea Rooms.
I had wanted to go on up to Lincoln cathedral. I wanted some information on wooden sculptures, stations of the cross, but no time.
Around five to five, I have to go all the way down the hill, to the bus station and catch a bus at ten past five.
Harlequin now closed, virtually everywhere closed, but no time.
I make it to the bus station at ten past five. Luckily passengers are still getting on the bus, I catch it in time.
Travelling out of Lincoln in the gathering dusk, I notice all the snow has gone. Alighting from the bus, the first time it has not been pitch black, still not yet dark.
Washingborough tractor and plough
In the morning I had walked from Washingborough to Heighington.
This afternoon, I walked part of the route, but instead of cutting through the village, I continued on up Church Hill past Washingborough Hall, to the main road, over the top, then along Cliff Lane as far as I could go.
On my way up, an enormous tractor with a plough on the back. The tractor had tracks like a tank.
Although a chill in the air, with the sun, it felt like a spring day, except the trees were not in leaf and the ground was carpeted with snowdrops and celandine.
Washingborough is a small Lincolnshire village not far outside of Lincoln.
Washingborough-Heighington path through the woods
Heighington Beck
I decided this morning to take a walk to Heighington. The last time I was there, it was snowing, or had been snowing. This morning sunny.
Up Church Hill in Washingborough, past Washingborough Hall, cut through the village, then through some woods, which appeared to be a former quarry.
I was then not sure. I asked a taxi driver. I thought I had to turn off the main road, but it appears I was wrong, the main road went through Heighington.
The taxi driver though suggested I walk through an estate, then along the Beck. This is what I did, through an estate of executive housing, along a muddy track alongside Heighington Beck, and ended up in the village past the old watermill.
Heighington has a very good butcher with a good reputation. I expected him to be wiped out due to the horse meat scandal. He said he had been very busy, and had restocked his display.
He reiterated what I had already been told by another butcher. This scandal has been known of in the trade and has been going on for years. When supermarkets demand burgers from their suppliers at 4 pence a burger then corners are going to be cut.
If you buy industrial meat, then what do you expect? If you want quality meat, then buy from a good local butcher.
There is full tractability on meat. I bought Lincolnshire sausages, grilled them for lunch and they were excellent. The butcher had made them. Had I asked, he would know the pig and where it had come from.
Cakes and cheese from the deli in the Post Office, fresh eggs from Beckside Tea Room alongside the Beck, then catch a bus back from the bus stop opposite Beckside Tea Room.
Two girls aged maybe six or seven years old were about to get on the bus. He asked did they want a return into Lincoln. He suggested they caught the following bus due in a few minutes as they were a different bus company and ran more buses, which I thought was very kind of him.
Walking back, it was a lovely warm sunny spring day.
Washingborough and Heighington are two small Lincolnshire villages not far outside of Lincoln.
Pimento Tea Rooms
Thai green curry
Pimento Tea Rooms is a lovely tea shop near the top of Steep Hill.
I had intended to have lunch at Pimento Tea Rooms but I had soup first at Stokes on High Bridge having been tempted by their tomato and red pepper soup when I popped in for morning coffee.
Earlier in the week, I had afternoon tea at Pimento Tea Rooms and had been tempted by their lunch menu.
The menu did not seem to have changed since Monday, not a good sign.
I had Thai Green Curry. A big mistake. It was not very good. I am used to eating in a very good Thai restaurant, and this was very poor in comparison.
If this is the best Lincoln can offer for vegetarian meals, and Pimento Tea Rooms promote themselves as Lincoln’s only vegetarian restaurant, then they have a very long way to go. No comparison with Food for Thought in Covent Garden, Guildford Institute in Guildford or Café Mila in Godalming.
Chatting to an interesting couple sitting at the next table, who, like a lady I was chatting to a few days ago, were regulars, they said the best thing about Pimento Tea Rooms was you met interesting people to chat to.
I asked did they know Karl Svarc who was playing there evening Friday 22 February. They said yes. I asked was he on bandcamp? A lady who was listening said yes, he knows everything there is to know about music.
I checked later. No he is not on bandcamp. His website is one of those irritating badly designed websites which plays music without asking. What it did play was very good, but no idea what it was. If the rest of his music was as good, well worth seeing live. What a pity he is not on bandcamp.
I had intended to have a walk around Bailgate then pop back for afternoon tea, but there so long, ordered a date slice which came with cream and a pot of tea.
Whilst having tea, I noticed what looked like Karl Svarc having tea in the parlour. I resisted the temptation of having a chat with him. But having listened to a small sample of music now wish I had, maybe he had a few CDs with him.
Pimento Tea Rooms is unusual in that you enter through a fashion shop. Good for tea and cake, relaxing and chatting, but not for lunch
—- more soon —-
morning coffee at Stokes on High Bridge
tomato and red pepper soup
Rather late in the morning, but as I was walking up The Strait and Steep Hill to Pimento Tea Rooms for lunch, I decided to pop in.
I usually have a cookie, but as late, limited myself to coffee.
I was tempted by tomato and red pepper soup, and popped back.
A mistake, it was not very good. What was needed with the soup was a hunk of rough wholemeal bread, not a soft bap.
man and dog
A lovely example of kindness when I alighted at Lincoln bus station this morning.
A man was wrapped in a blanket, alongside a dog also with a blanket. A lady stopped and gave the dog something to eat, and I think the man too.
A rich country and people are forced to live on the street.
I looked in Revival. I dropped off a copy of 5 Nocturnes. The workshop was making Japanese dolls, last week it was Chinese lanterns. They said they would listen to 5 Nocturnes as they worked
Sincil Street busy. There is 100% opposition to destruction of Sincil Street. It needs the shops to get their act together and get petitions up and running.
Cambridge recognises the importance of a sustainable local economy and it is written into their planning policies. Islington sees the importance of local shops, the part they play in the character of an area, the local economy, and it is written into their planning policies. What is wrong with Lincoln?
Morning coffee at Stokes on High Bridge.
A pasty shop has opened next to Stokes on the ground floor. Their sign is offensive on an old historic building. It is a pity Stokes did not expand their ground floor coffee shop. The last thing needed is yet another tacky fast food pasty shop. Shame on those who eat there.
To eat lunch at Pimento Tea Rooms, that was the question. But, I was tempted by tomato and pepper soup at Stokes on High Bridge. I wish I had not been tempted as it was not very good. I was not though tempted by beef lasagne.
It was walk up The Strait and Steep Hill to Pimento Tea Rooms for lunch. I wish I had not bothered. It was not good. If this is the best Lincoln can offer in vegetation food, then they have a long way to go. Pimento Tea Rooms excellent for afternoon tea, but not for lunch.
I was there so long for lunch chatting to an interesting couple, that I decided to stay for afternoon tea. I had intended to pop in on my way back down after visiting Bailgate.
I popped in The Shed in Bailgate for some fruit.
On my way down I decided to look in Lincoln Cathedral. I usually do on climbing Steep Hill, but so far had not. To my pleasant surprise, no one manning the checkpoint, and so free to wander around. Maybe because evensong at 5-30pm. I would have liked to have stayed, but not sure on catching a bus.
Many churches, though not all, usually catholic, though not exclusively so, have Stations of the Cross. I have not noticed before in Lincoln Cathedral. My eye was caught by an art exhibition. I wandered over and found they were Stations of The Cross, wooden sculptures by …., part carved wood, part inlaid wood. They were wonderful. There was an associated book.
I wandered around the cathedral, looked in the shop for postcards and the book, but the shop was closed.
I was quite surprised to find a jet engine in the cathedral. No explanation where it had come from and no one around to ask.
It was close to ten to five, maybe later. Would I make it to the bus station to catch a bus at ten past five?
Walking down the hill, lights coming on, nearly everything now closed, I just made it to the bus with two minutes to spare. I noticed man and dog were still where I had found them this morning.
On the bus a stunning blonde invited me to sit by her. Not sure where to light off the bus I asked was she looking for the same place, No Heighington. I said I had visited a couple of weeks ago in the snow, never having been there before, a lovely village of old stone cottages. We had an interesting chat about violation of privacy on facebook, facebook apps (she said she no longer used facebook because of privacy violation), music. I said try bandcamp and Steve Lawson, and said try an album he had recently recorded in a church with a guy on saxophone, Nothing Can Prepare.
The bus journey passed very quickly.
Pimento Tea Rooms
Assam tea served in unusual glass spherical tea pot
Pimento Tea Rooms is located near the top of Steep Hill in Lincoln. Entry is unusual, you enter through a fashion shop. Well actually a choice of two fashion shops. You enter through the street door, then have a choice between two different fashion shops, each of which leads into the tea rooms.
I commented on this unusual arrangement to the pleasant girl serving. She said she was aware of something similar in Devon. I asked Totnes, but she was not sure.
A large choice of teas, which ironically come from Imperial Teas of Lincoln, which until they relocated across to the other side of the street, used to be located beneath the tea rooms.
I commented on the contrast with the rude old crone across the street. I was told she was actually quite pleasant, but they do not like photos being taken as they are paranoid, they think people are going to steal their business ideas!
The tea rooms consist of a parlour, and two room which are more or less one room, with a very tiny open kitchen at the end.
Pimento Tea Rooms was one of the places I had thought of having lunch but I did not want to climb all the way up the hill, only to find it was not to my taste.
The kitchen is vegetarian and vegan, with a few choices gluten free, home made, locally sourced, they can tell you what is in the food, as they make it. A baker comes in and makes their cakes. From what I saw, it looks worth visiting one day for lunch.
Newspapers to read, local newsletters.
On a nearby table, I got chatting to an attractive female who I thought was a waitress writing out menus. No, she was a regular who came in to relax and read a book. She was writing out 40 invites for a kids party. I suggested BookCrossing. Both her and the girl who was serving thought an excellent idea.
I ordered tea. Assam tea, a blend of three different teas. It was served in a very unusual tea pot, glass, almost spherical. I was given precise instructions, to operate a lever to withdrew the tea. I lost track of time and forget how long, but I think it was four minutes.
My new found friend on the adjacent table said she operates the lever after a minute, unless I like my tea strong. I do not, I prefer it weak, and so I operated the lever.
It was excellent tea.
I had intended to have a cake, but had a large lunch, and I noticed it was already 3-30am and I was not going to make the market down in town as everything in Sincil Street seemed to shut at four o’clock.
My new found friend suggested I tried The Shed in Bailgate. I not heard of or seen. She told me to walk through a shop and it was out the back. The Shed was my next port of call. I popped in the butcher first and he confirmed The Shed.
Pimento Tea Rooms is well worth the climb up The Strait and Steep Hill.
Synchronicity: My new found friend was from where I live!
