Cycling towards the home of the pork pie

Well, what other motivation could a girl need?

We headed into Grantham and parked in the station car park, once the bikes were offloaded and set up and MOH had almost recovered from the cost of four days parking (£44 if you're interested) we were ready for the off. 

25 MILES FROM GRANTHAM TO MELTON MOWBRAY

Our route today used the National Cycle Routes 15 and 64 and it was nice to cycle alongside the busy road as we left Grantham and headed towards the towpath. 

We hadn't been on the towpath for long before we spotted these swans building a nest, they were quite mesmerising to watch as they intently pulled the reeds as they wanted them.

Although the towpath was quite bumpy to cycle along in places it was easy to see it's beauty even on the overcast day.  Where had the sun that was beating down on our backs in the car park gone?  

I'd spotted these markers soon after we joined the towpath but it took me a few to read them fully as we cycled past. Then once I had, and with the backdrop of the pretty hedgerow I knew that it was time for a photo stop. We were heading towards the Trent, but not today, first we were taking a trip to Melton Mowbray and the home of the pork pie.

We knew that at some point we'd need to cross the canal and head left towards our destination, and we knew we weren't far off that. But first there was time to stop and admire the lock. MOH said he'd not seen a lock working before, which I was shocked by - not that I've massive waterways experience but I do remember going on a boat trip on the Thames with my nan many years ago and marvelling as we went through the lock at Teddington. 

But anyway, this one at Woolsthorpe was quite photogenic.

As we crossed and headed away from the canal we got our first glimpse of Belvoir Castle, high above the Vale of Belvoir. 

Beautiful isn't it?

You know what a vale means don't you? Yes, hills. Because what goes down, must also go up... or something like that anyway!

This section of our route was through rolling hills and on more than one occasion I wondered why I'd chosen this route, and then I remembered the pies so carried on.  Hills still aren't my favourite and I managed most of them - albeit slowly - unless I mucked up my gear change and changed up instead of down, not a smart move.

At the top of one hill I looked right and spotted a pub. Result, especially as it was lunchtime. We were in Branston and it didn't take much to convince MOH that we should stop for lunch and a pint. So we did.

While he was inside ordering food and buying some local beer, I had a wander around with the camera. It really was a pretty spot and I was quite taken with the brick outbuilding as you'll see from my photos.  

The food here was good - we shared a hot pork and apple sandwich and chips. I'd say forget the chips and have a sandwich each, it was stunning, oh and the crackling, so so tasty.  And then on a second wander I spotted these barrels and along with the tiled roof I thought they'd make a fab shot.

Back on the bikes we set off along quiet country lanes again, still going up and down hills with picturesque views. At one point our route took us around the edge of a field where the five sheep - two black, three white - ran towards us (do sheep run?) and then escorted us around the boundaries of their enclosure. They were probably after food, but it gave us plenty of giggles and later I wished I'd taken a picture.

It was all downhill into Melton Mowbray and that was welcome. Somehow I'd imagined a small-ish pretty village, so the bustling market town was quite a surprise. It wasn't long before we navigated our way through the daily market and found ourselves outside here, where I did the only thing I could think of and bought a pie for tomorrow's lunch.

Having had a quick look around the town we set off to find our hotel. We knew it was on the outskirts of town as the theme for the day had been up follows down neither of us were surprised to find ourselves cycling up towards Scalford and its Manor Hotel. It had one of those long sweeping gravel drives, which look and feel impressive by car. Let me tell you, it's less impressive on a bike they're hard work to cycle on!

With our bikes secured and our panniers unhooked it was time to relax and prepare for tomorrow's cycle which was set to be our longest cycle of this trip.  We'd had a good day though, we'd cycled twenty five miles through some scenic countryside, eaten a fantastic lunch and tasted some fine local ale, spotted Belvoir castle and bought a pie to eat the next day. 

Next time: Cycling on to Newark-on-Trent and finding our Farm Stay

A sculpture in paper

We're back inside the London Design Centre again today, this time on the ground floor in the South Dome and it's about something special. It's something slightly unusual for my usual "month in paper" post and it's hard to believe this is made entirely from paper, but it is. 

This sculpture in paper was commissioned by the Design Centre to celebrate London Design Week 2016 and this floral couture-inspired gown by Zoe Bradley is the result. 

Isn't it fabulous?

The theme of the London Design Week show was blue so this fits that perfectly and the shape of the skirt also mimics the domes that I showed in yesterday's post.  There's quite a bit of work in this sculpture too - and I think sculpture is the right word, don't you?

There's 400 handmade flowers on display here, and I bet you can't guess how many petals?  

The wild roses are made up of 2,500 petals, chrysanthemums with 1,188 petals and there's 3,500 leaves.  And there's 17,500 folds in the whole piece too.  If I could make one flower that looked as good as this I think I'd be happy!

It really was something to see and something like I've not seen before, but something I'm glad I did.

Adding the finishing touches to our porch

Usually when people talk about decorating their smallest room, we all know which room they have in mind. But for us our smallest room isn't that room at all, but our porch. It's so small that I doubt many people take more than two steps in it at a time, you can reach both the walls without having to stretch your arms hardly at all, but it does provide a bit of a buffer between our main living room and the busy road outside. 

It's also a functional space holding our fuse board and electricity meter along with our recycling, a few pairs of shoes, my wellies for the allotment and an umbrella or two. What it hasn't been for quite a while is pretty. But on Sunday afternoon that all changed. 

Hanging the pigeon shelves

In an unexpected spate of activity we hung the pigeon shelves which we'd bought a while back from Dormy House. We'd bought them unfinished in the sale, unfinished because we weren't certain what colour to choose and because they were significantly cheaper that way. My reasoning was if we bought them painted and then changed our minds it wouldn't be so cost effective, and as there was a strong likelihood that we would change our minds we (the Royal we, that is) might as well paint them to start with. Completely sensical, yes?

Well MOH needed some convincing, but he dutifully set about painting the units - we bought two sets, and my original plan was to hang them both in this small space. That's the bit that changed in the end, but more on that later. With one set of shelves painted MOH was keen to get it hung on the wall and out of the way in the Conservatory, which had turned into his painting studio for the duration.

In the end we chose Farrow & Ball Old White for the shelves, which is the same colour (and paint type - so not another tin of paint to store) we'd used on the bookcase and radiator cover in our main living area.  The walls are Farrow & Ball Skimming Stone, so all very neutral and purposefully so.  The only problem was that it was, well a bit beige. Or grey, depending on your viewpoint.

I didn't mind that so much as it's not a room we spend much time in, and having these neutral colours means it's relatively easy to keep clean. And with it being so small, let's face it it doesn't take long to give it a coat of paint. It is probably the most painted room in our house!

Adding some colour

A while back I'd been gifted a selection of Prestigious Textiles' new Java range, well looking at it again I realised that it matched quite nicely with our updated colour scheme now we planned to add Ocean (blue) and Mustard (yellow) chairs to our downstairs space. So I set about making a faux Roman blind with one of the fabrics.

I've mentioned it before but the sewing in this blind was minimal. Instead of being challenged by the sewing, as expected it was two of my other loves that came into play - ironing and maths!  And if you're wondering why it's a faux Roman blind, we never pull the blind here so it didn't need to cover the window, it just needed to be deep enough to dress the window.

It looks quite good, I think. And does inject some much needed colour into the space. I still need to get a cleat and find something suitable to act as a toggle for the blind cord, but all in good time...

So with my Roman blind hung and my pigeon shelves on the wall, it was time to collect some of the items I've been saving to store in them.  My aim is to add colour to the porch with the items we store here, but to keep it functional and as cohesive as I can too.  The black treacle tin has used stamps, while the golden syrup tin is holding the batteries we need to recycle. I love these classic tins and giving them a new use, but I think I'll have to keep my eye on them in case they just happen to fall into the recycling basket below with help from MOH when I'm not looking!

The Indian Tiffin set was a birthday present and I knew it'd look good here. I haven't worked out if I'll use it to store anything yet, but it does make me smile each time I walk past.  

The other purpose for the pigeon shelves was to store some of our cycling gear - we knew they wouldn't be large enough for helmets, but I've an idea for those (not yet implemented, of course).  

I've added the mini cool bag I use when we take lunch out cycling, and inside there's a flask with the same pattern. Some pretty tins, and some notebooks, you know the sort of stuff.

MOH has added a saddle bag and a pump - can you tell which of us is the less frou-frou?  

Ah well, they're supposed to be functional too - but perhaps I could make a little curtain for the less pretty sections...

So it's been quite a while coming together, but finally I think we're there. Our porch - our smallest room - is starting to add prettiness to its purpose.

And that second set of pigeon shelves? 

Well they'd be perfect in what I call my craft room and what MOH still calls the study. There's only one wall they can go on in there, so I need to work out how to make it work - and choose a colour, because I'm not sure this colour would work so much, and I might need to repaint some of the walls too, to get it just right.

But I'm starting to plan, and starting to be quite excited about filling it with craft supplies. MOH will no doubt roll his eyes and not understand why I need all that stuff, but I'll remind him he can call the spare room with his records and dart board his own, I think...