An autumnal wander at Belton

After a pretty dismal and completely non-inspiring stop at a motorway services on our trip to West Sussex I was pleased when MOH suggested a detour to the Belton Estate on our return trip. While we stopped earlier on the journey back, we just took a quick break and avoided repeating the previous McAwful experience (something that tasted bland, yet was overly peppery at the same time!), and let’s face it a National Trust cheese scone, pot of tea and a slice of cake would always be a much more preferable option.

Plus we got the chance to properly stretch our legs, the sun was out and it was too good an opportunity to waste. And if I was lucky I’d be able to have a nose around the orangery and see how that had changed since my last visit, and see how it was faring in a different season.

Unfortunately my luck was out, as the orangery was closed for the day - ah well, as Belton is just thirty minutes from home it gives me the perfect excuse to head back another day, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Of course, that didn’t stop me peering into through the glass though as you can see taking photos was pretty futile - though I kind of like the effect, but only for a photo or two!

All was not lost though as Belton still has plenty of beautiful gardens (and a large estate) to explore, but we were only here for a short journey-breaker this time, so treated ourselves to a wander around the area at the back of the orangery where the roses grow up the walls, and there’s medlar trees in the quadrants.

It’s also an area of the gardens which have some intricate topiary designs, which you know I’m also keen on.

It’s probably a part of the garden I overlook in my keenness to check out the orangery, so that being closed for the day was really no bad thing. Next time I’ll be sure to head for this bench so I can admire the exterior of the orangery as much as the inside!

With the orangery and the small walled garden behind it checked out, we headed to a golden tree which had caught our eye as soon as we entered the garden with its leaves appearing to burn against the bluest of skies.

The leaves seemed to ‘burn brighter’ the closer we got to the tree.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Google tells me this is a tulip tree and with the, what I presume are, flower heads it’s easy to believe this suggestion. Looking again, it tells me that the tulip tree is part of the magnolia family and again I can see the likeness with the bud/flower head. Either way, it’s a beautiful tree and such a beautiful colour - there wasn’t a tree around it that had the same vibrancy.

There really isn’t anywhere better to wander on a bright autumnal day - let’s hope there’s more days like this to come.

Treasures at Orchards Brocante

I do like a bit of brocante, and so a brocante sale is always a plus - even more so when it’s relatively close by and takes place in a lovely garden on a sunny Saturday. It’s been in my diary for a while now, and I was hoping we’d get to go along, and we did.

The sale was held at The Orchards in Somerby which is where I went for the Christmas wreath workshop last December - and this time it was much easier to find. Obviously that was helped by having been there before, and it being daylight! As ever with these kind of things, you’re never sure quite what to expect but I was hopeful that I’d find the something I was looking for.

And I did, but more on that later - let me show you a snippet of what was on offer.

@Maisieandludd

@Maisieandludd

The large and intricate ironwork panel drew me into this stall - and isn’t it gorgeous? - but it was the blue dragonfly above that I nearly left with, but didn’t. I think I’ll be back for something similar at some point, but I was being strong as this didn’t meet my brief for the ‘something’ I was after.

That was something for the lower shelf on our new console table in the lounge; I wanted something relatively solid looking to detract from the double plug socket. I knew it could be fairly tall and fairly chunky, it had to be solid and not transparent - but other than that I didn’t know what it would be until I saw it, which of course was no good to MOH to help locate the said item.

However I got an inkling of what I was after on the next stall.

@Maritimebluedecor

@Maritimebluedecor

Yes, I don’t know why I hadn’t considered a vintage enamel jug before! If you remember I’ve got the vintage enamel bread bin (for my pasta) in the pantry and the modern enamel first aid box in the utility room, so it wouldn’t be out of place anywhere in our home.

An idea was definitely forming, but first I needed to check out the rest of the stalls, but not before MOH pointed out this lobster plate, which has a certain appeal, doesn’t it?

@Maritimebluedecor

Moving on I was struck by the prettiness of this display and quite taken by the fish on the pink background, however that wasn’t in the brief either so it was only just admiration today.

@Decorativecountryliving

There were many more stalls to visit, but my photos appear to have stopped, or are at least a bit more sporadic I suspect because my mind was processing the enamel jug information, however I also admired items by @Thespottywren and left with some eucalyptus stems from @sage_and_satin_floral who led the Christmas wreath workshop before.

And I needed eucalyptus stems for the vintage enamel jug we bought, which as it turns out was neither of the two I photographed and included above. Instead we opted for a grey mottled version from the same stall, which will fit in better in our all white new build.

It was absolutely the right choice for our house, and already the sun’s warmth is bringing out the fragrance from the eucalyptus.

Oh, and the lobster plate also came home with us too and is already right at home on the dresser.

But that wasn’t all, by the refreshments area there was another stall selling the most amazing feathers from their black peacock (which moult over winter) - and they are amazing. It reminded us of when we stayed at the place outside Melton Mowbray with the peacock a few years ago now, but these were completely different.

The pinky bronze colour is completely natural, and you can imagine how much these glisten in the sun and it’s easy to see where the phrase ‘as proud as a peacock’ comes from! While these weren’t technically on the brief, as well as being too pretty to leave without, in my defence I’d been after some long stems for the tall glass vase for a while now. I’d assumed the stems I was after would be plant based though, but I’m more than happy for my assumptions to be challenged in this case!

Enjoying the lights at Belton

Belton House isn’t that far from us, about 30 minutes or so drive towards Grantham, and it’s one of the places we’d visit whenever we were close by, it’s a lovely place - and I love the Orangery there - but somehow we hadn’t managed to get over there now that we actually lived closer - isn’t that always the way?!

In fact our last visit to Belton was a pretty special one, after viewing our house again and agreeing with the developers to proceed, we stopped at Belton on our way home. We wanted some time to reflect on the decision we’d just made, and wanted to do that in a beautiful space in the open air rather than in traffic on the A1.

Crazy I know.

But reflect we did and less than two months later we moved in to our new house, and we hadn’t been back to Belton since. So having seen their Christmas lights advertised we booked tickets for one of the off peak entries (the prices are crazy, even with free parking for National Trust members), but anyway, it was worth it - and a good way to mark our first Christmas out of London.

Once we’d found the way in - ahem, there were plenty of signs to get you close and to all the fairground rides, but the way in was less obvious to us, though I’m not sure why as it’s quite often the way we’d go into the garden anyway - clearly we were dazzled by the lights!

As you’d expect there was a planned route around the garden, which meandered along paths and took us further through the gardens/ parkland than we’d before. Next time we’re there we’ll be checking those areas out in the daylight! There were plenty of people there, but it didn’t feel overly crowded. There was a mulled wine and refreshments stop part of the way round, it was understandably busier there, but we didn’t stop and found it easy to get past those that had.

The lights were pretty spectacular, I think they had been refreshed and revamped for this year - and those on the lake were probably the most striking. But there was plenty to see, with something for everyone.

The bright colours of the flower-shaped lights really popped against the dark sky and I’m sure provided many Instagram-worthy locations. The next part of the garden focused more on lighting up the trees bringing a magical feel to them, and the walk through them.

The display at the lake was probably the most spectacular, and the one which benefitted most from the music which accompanied it. I have many iterations of this photo in various colour schemes, but this is the most striking and one of my favourite photos from our visit.

My favourite area when we visited was this quite simple triangular shaped tree section - the lights changed colour and was quite calming. They have a look of daleks about them, but what I didn’t realise until I edited my photos was that there’s an very subtle inverted tree amongst them - I think that makes me like them even more!

The other that I was particularly taken with were the robins - they were large - but it was their coloured shimmering metal discs that were impressive, like a large sequinned robin hovering above you!

The last archway that you walked through as you headed out of the garden was also pretty spectacular, and proves that simple isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but can be equally as magical.

So it was good to get back to Belton, and it’ll be even better to get back again in daylight - as the car park changes they’ve made in the past six months look to have improved that no end. No more parking in a muddy field, and that has to be a good thing!