Eliza’s Tea Room & Gift Shop

After picking our own plums at Secretts (PYO) we stopped off at this busy little tea room situated at Hurst Farm in Milford.

Eliza’s Room & Gift shop has been refurbished and is now under new management by the owners of Butter and Cream who are responsible for a fabulous range of cakes and cupcakes.

With that in mind we just had to order an Oreo and a Salted Caramel cupcake, which meant blowing my diet of avoiding bad/empty carbs, wheat and sugar.

Nest Café, Ripley

A stylish boutique and lifestyle café set in the picturesque village of Ripley, Surrey.

Nest Home & Cafe offers visitors a classical escape from the hum-drum where you can sit and watch the world go by over cappuccino and a slice of their “life-changing” cake in their beautifully designed and decorated interior or outside on their terrace.

Otherwise you can allow yourself to be mesmerised by the wonderful selection of antique furniture, tableware, home-ware and gifts that the shop has to offer.

Which you can browse to your hearts content.

Everything is delightfully served on handmade bohemian inspired dinner and glassware from Juliska ceramics (which is impossible not to fall in love with). The elegantly rustic Juliska ceramics and glassware are one for my wish list.

We can highly recommend the cakes and the pastries (especially the Almond Croissant or Lemon and Pistachio cake ), but no cake for us this time.

The Aubergine Café, West Kirby

Set in a sleepy side street called Crescent Walk in the coastal town of West Kirby on north-west corner of the Wirral Peninsula, the Aubergine Café is one of those wonderful cafés that you can’t help be keeping going back to again and again.

The Aubergine Cafe (image via Trip Advisor)

It warm, welcoming and friendly café, were the staff know their regular customers and chat to them like old acquaintances.

Charmingly decorated with whimsical wall plaques espousing life mottos and saccharin wisdom and beautiful ornaments and china.

We opted to sit inside, and not brave the wet weather by sitting out side in the covered area… despite the cozy and inviting look of the wicker furniture with its luxurious array of cushions and rugs.

Our lunch time visit was a much welcome break after our wild coastal walk from Moreton/Leasowe. We were spoilt for choice and in the end I opted for Grilled Goats Cheese on ciabatta with onion chutney

while my husband plumed for the Club sandwich.

Great wholesome food in generous portions, filling the hungry amongst us. I was tempted by the Soup Sandwich combo which as Sweet Potato with Ginger and Lime.

Despite my every effort to be good and not over indulge, we couldn’t resist a slice of chocolate cake to share (a small compromise on not having cake or having a piece each). Again the choices exceed my imagination.

Altered poppies

The Guildford Castle gardens are a riot of colour at the moment, with a plethora of poppies in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I.

The image has been altered (accidentally) to give the impression of an illustration rather than a traditional photograph.

The old gate

Lying on it side, abandoned and decaying, this old gate is no longer doing what it was built for.

Has it served its purpose? Is it no longer of any use?

 

 

 

Jane Wright – photgrapher

When in Lincoln, I came across the fabulous work of a local photographer Jane Wright in one of the gallery shops along Steep Street.

Jane is a fine art photographer based in Lincoln and she captures themes around found items, urban desolation, city details and wild landscapes.  In part of her artistic statement  she states what is important to her “beauty, discovery, serendipity, signs that something’s happened”.

The following photograph “Still Together” captures two dilapidated matching chairs which made me think of a old married couple who have stayed together through thick and thin.

It was one of my favourite and so I picked up a greetings card with the image on it and will be framing  it for display.

Still Together by Jane Wright

Belton house

Belton House is a country estate of Brownlow and Cust familes  and is located near Grantham. The house was built between 1685 to 1688 by Sir John Brownlow and has remained in the family until the National Trust took ownership in 1984.

Surprisingly I didn’t recognise the house, despite being an avid fan of the BBC’s adaptation of Helen Creswell’s spooky Moondial from 1988.

The West Entrance to Belton House.

Statues in the West entrance court yard.

We took the “Below Stairs Tours” which provide a fascinating insight into the lives of the servant at Belton House during the 1900s and is must for any Downtown Abbey fans.

Old signs

Walking around Lincoln it is hard to miss the cobbled, nostalgic Steep Street. The street certainly lives up to its name, being a 1 in 7 gradient, which meant a bit of huffing and puffing as we slowly made our way up. At least there were plenty of shop windows to stragetically stop in front of and peer into.

Steep Street is full of independent shops, tea rooms and pubs as well as historic buildings with the top of the hill leading to the entrance of the magnificent Lincoln Cathedral.

Half way up the hill was this lovely little Antiques Centre which caught my attention with all these vintage signs outside the shop.

I couldn’t walk past with out capturing this typical railway sign from Midlands Railway (1899).

An antique Wills’s Gold Flake cigarette advertising enamel sign.

Antique Sunlight Soap enamel advertising sign.

Five Sailed Windmill

We stumbled upon the Five Sailed Windmill http://www.alford-windmill.co.uk/ in Alford when driving back from Huttoft to Conningsby. The Windmill incorporates, not only a working mill, but a shop selling its own milled flour as well as other locally sourced produce as well as the ‘Millstones’ tea rooms serving home baked cakes and scones. This is must for anyone who can’t resist a delicious afternoon tea in beautiful surroundings.

Views from the Boston Stump

Often known as the Boston Stump, St Botolph’s Church tower stretches 272 feet above the city of Boston in Lincolnshire.

The climb, which includes c200 stone steps, is not for the faint hearted or clumsy-footed. The construction of the tower started somewhere between 1425-1439 and wasn’t completed until c1510-1520, nearly hundred years later.

Once you have staggered to the top of the tower, the views of the city below are to die for.

With my camera set to one it pre-programmed settings – toy camera shooting mode – it enabled me to capture a set of pictures as if taken with “toy” or pinhole camera.