Deciduously arty

Attempts to be arty in Barton's Baysgarth Park.

A pier through the mist

Bartistic license

Off to the shuggy shores of Barton for the inaugural location recce for 'Get Barton', mine and Nick's 15-minute short film being made by the wonderful Singlespan, Dave and Kate's production company. Sadly, a freezing fug had descended over north Lincolnshire, making any location further than five metres away completely pointless. No matter - we managed to get a look at the abandoned tileworks where Ted L envisaged that Jack Carter met his demise - before the gloom, and the urge to take cliched shots of Scunthorpe, took hold. The main shot shows our director delightedly clutching a tile. It was that kind of morning.

It's a mans, mans, Mansfield world

It was always gonna be the case. He breaks a three week blog holiday with random posts taken at Mansfield bus station. Rosemary Lane is nothing like the name might suggest. Proudly built in, and untouched since, 1977, the year of punk. Key signposting of amenities like shops (Iceland, Dominos) and toilets (several, including one in an ominous looking subway). Waiting for a lift, I ducked into the fabulous Triple Eight bus station cafe, where you can get chocolate, coffee, chow-mein and something alien sounding called a cob. I took a photo of the menu and was asked by the waitress, 'are you a tourist?'. I replied that I'd just got off the Scunthorpe, via Doncaster, bus. 'Ah, Doncaster...' she replied, as if it was a place of impossible wonder. Where the people take pictures of menus.

Newcastle tale

This is the picture which has kick-started a whole project into life. You'll recognise the backdrop, perhaps even be able to name the film it was in. But do you know the person pictured here, and his story? That's something me and a co-writer will be trying to address through film, a doco and a book proper.

Presidential sweet