I was browsing online the other day and I found a link to a page about my local town, I read its review, how nice it was and how it recommended it for those tourists looking to bumble through bookshops, coffee shops and galleries to spend a lovely day out in.

This set me thinking about the change over the past few years, as there are no bookshops, or galleries there now. We do have more than a spattering of coffee shops remaining and some nice interior design type shops, but  all those little individual gallery gems have gone. I’m guessing Amazon was the nail in the coffin for the small independent bookshops, but what about the galleries?

I don’t know whether it is down to the credit crunch ot the slide to online sales or another thing entirely like changing priorities or demographics, maybe it is all these things, but one thing I do know is I miss those galleries and the bookshops too. It makes me think of that song, Big yellow taxi – “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”, how very true.