Showing posts with label Leicestershire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leicestershire. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Photo an Hour l 19th April


09.40 Late start to Photo an Hour, mostly because I'd forgotten what day it was. One of the annoying things about living on your own is that there's no-one to try and bug to make you a cup of tea. It annoys me endlessly, especially on weekend mornings.

10.30 Ironing a shirt. Because just wearing something ready to wear from my wardrobe is simply too difficult

11.25 In the car and ready to have an adventure, I was off to meet up with Janet for another stomp around Bradgate Park

12.20 Whilst stomping around we discovered the most amazing tree which was completely hollow. Standing inside and looking I spied a Janet!


13.30 Stomping over it was time for tea drinking and toastie eating. And a lot of gossiping.

14.45 Back home to this gorgeous little face. Just look at him.

15.30 Time to dig out the yarn and get going on a project I've been working on for the past few weeks. These colours make me happy to my very core.

16.35 Deep in amigurumi-ing


17.30 Still crocheting and the shape is beginning to take form. Can you tell what it is yet?

18.47 In the middle of Skypeing with American Girl. I. Love. Technology.

19.30 Still Skypeing and enjoying how sunny and light it was outside at 7,30pm

20.40 Skype session over and food time. No I did not really make this dinner myself, this was a leftover lamb shank my sister had saved for me the week before. All this girl needed to do was microwave a bag of new potatoes and mixed vegetables. Cooking for the lazy.


21.40 My favourites Sunday night activity. Watching Keeping up with the Kardashians. I don't even care. I love it.

22.30 Retired to bed but there is still crocheting to do. And catching up of The Archers to do.

23.30 Finished for the day! And a finished article. One fat bird who is part of a bird army I have been crocheting (blog post to follow when I eventually get around to blogging again.)

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Thank you to Jane and Louise for hosting. Check in with them to find out the date for May's Photo an Hour post and don't forget to join in on Twitter and/or Instagram using #PhotoAnHour

2015 Photo an Hour posts
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February 
March

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Bradgate Park - The Winter Edition

I set myself a whole load of Not Really Resolutions this year and have then been steadily not living up to them ever since. We're in February and I still haven't been to any Park Runs (although I have cast iron excuses for not going, I swear) and the end of January was looming and I still hadn't been somewhere I'd never been before.

Inspiration was close at hand though and not only would I get to tick something off my list, I'd also get to meet up with one of my favourites, Janet. After mentioning on Twitter that I fancied a stomp around Bradgate Park she said she would keep me company on my stomping, and more importantly, lead me to the tea shop on the way.


I haven't had a little adventure in my car in a really long time and this was the first time that I got to use one of my Christmas presents, I lovely shiny sat nav. Although hilarity ensued when I set off and realised that after I had been messing around with some free voice downloads I had forgotten to change it back and had a goulish, monster voice, complete with echo, telling me to take the third exit off the roundabout.

We picked the winteriest of wintery days to make our stomping happen. The previous day had seen Tiny Town completely grind to a halt because of the snow and although it had mostly disappeared amidst the snow and rain there was an accompanying biting wind, whipping around our faces.


We duly stomped all the way to the top of the hill to see Old John Tower and the views out over Leicestershire and then completed a much more ginger form of stomping back down the hill which made me want to categorise the walk as PG - containing scenes of mild peril.

Seriously. Walking down a steep hill when there's no paved path and it's been raining has given me free reign to describe myself as doing my own stunts.

I didn't fall though. Came close. But no falling.


It felt so very very British. The scenery was that odd sort of beautiful because it was so bleak and yet felt homely at the same time. Janet said that it reminded her of really Northern scenery and I have to agree, I don't know what it was about it, possibly the hills, but it felt homely to me.

We walked past the ruins of Bradgate House and even saw some deer which I thought would definitely remain unseen. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to take photos of them armed only with my phone. Not going to happen. You'll just have to take my word for it - deer were there and they were pretty.


After refuelling at the tea shop we not so much stomped as trudged back to the car. The icy wind had been behind us on the way down and was very much in our faces on the way back up. The pain in my face was unreal and it definitely stopped being fun pretty soon into it and just became something to be endured and got through.

Back at our cars and marvelling at our terribly muddy boots and wellies (nothing like a good bit of British muddy countryside to make you feel virtuous) I had one of my most brilliant ideas. We should come back each season and stomp around and fully take in how the scenery changes. When I say "we" there's a strong possibility that it's just going to be me stomping about, I haven't worked out yet if I have persuaded Janet to come a-stomping through the seasons with me. But I can hope.

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And yes. We are rubbish bloggers. We missed the opportunity to take photos of our scones in the tea shop, photos of our muddy boots and an excellent backdrop for some outfit photos. Damn.

Friday, 18 July 2014

Foremark Reservoir a.k.a. A Very Traditional British Bank Holiday

I'm currently racked with indecision about the best way to forge ahead with my blogging. For a change I feel like I am bursting at the seams with things I want to blog about but I'm still struggling with finding the time and brain space to sit down and compose words, and find nice pictures and all those other things that you need to make a good blog post.

This indecision means that I am about a billion years behind on my blogging. I have been back from America almost four months (how is that possible?!) and still haven't finished blogging about that and things have actually been quite exciting for me lately meaning that the stuff is just piling up and ready to topple over.

I either post about things as soon as I do them and try and play catch up with others when I have the chance, or I start back at the beginning and resolutely work my way forwards.

I've already cocked that plan up by writing my post about The Color Run just after I'd done it....

Oh whatever...


Yeah that's right. Continuing on the theme of my last post, I'm going to ask you to stay in May. Go on, try and remember that far back and think about what you were up to on your Bank Holiday weekend.

Can't remember?

That's probably because it was a miserable piss wet through weekend.

Take a look at the below photo - I call it Bank Holiday Grey...


The Person doesn't automatically get Bank Holidays off so a lot of the time we're not together for Bank Holiday shenanigans but he'd booked this one off and we weren't going to let some absolutely dreadful weather get in the way of our fun. No thank you.

For we are British and that means that on Bank Holidays we go out in the nature whether the sun is out or not.

I borrowed my sister's car and we drove out to make the best of it. You would have to because seriously, look at how miserable it was. When we pulled up it was just so British I could I have cried. Over in the distance there was a couple determined to have a picnic and had their rug spread out, sheltering under a tree. By the kiosk there was a miserable looking teenager who had clearly been dragged out against her will with the rest of the family. And through the drizzle we could spy Super Active Family, with Dad striding out ahead and Mum and child valiantly struggling on behind him, all wearing matching kagoules.


I always act as if I don't like nature and that's not strictly true. If anything I can get very over-excited about nature because I'm still a city girl at heart and generally shy away from woods and trees.

The trouble is that nature for me is synonymous with aimless wandering. I don't really get the point of just "going on a walk". I get it more if you have a dog and you are exercising said canine. But two people, just out...walking...I can't really get my head around it.

"So where do we walk to?" I asked The Person.

"I don't know, you just walk." came the reply.


I was unconvinced.

The one downside of Foremark Reservoir is that you can't walk all the way around its perimeter. That is the kind of walking I can begin to get my head around, although only just. You walk for the sake of walking around the outside of something? It just jars a little in my head sometimes.

But I was there to explore and I was happy to get my nature on, even if there are some pretty steep hills and what feels like perilous steps around the reservoir.

I like trees though. I'm a fan of green. I'm a fan of leaves. All good things in my book.


The main problem with Foremark is that a lot of the time when you're walking around it you can't really see the water. There's a small part with a man-made beach but you can only go so far on that and then you're in very dense woodland for the rest of the time.

It's ok, but, you know, something to look at other than leaves would be nice.

We battled valiantly on for quite a while I think, but in the end the rain was just not stopping. Aimless walking, couple with persistent rain just does not make for a fun day out for me I'm afraid, it was literally dampening my spirits.


The only thing that could make me feel better?

A return to the kiosk to buy a cup of tea and a sit on the bench in the rain, getting a wet bum, because, let's face it, we were already wet anyway.

We watched the picnic couple pack up and silently saluted them. They'd done their best and had fought the good fight, but in the end the British Wet Bank Holiday will always win my friends.

Thursday, 22 May 2014

BEDM Day 22: A lovely cup of tea

Aaah BEDM you were going so well for a minute there. You know what the problem is? I stopped being organised. I stopped having a big block of posts all banked up and ready to go at a moment's notice and then time overtook.

Well I'm pretty sure no-one's really crying about it, so let us move swiftly on without another mention of it again.

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I feel as if I'm pretty rough on Tiny Town, the place where I live. I'm always going on about how small it is and how I can't get out of it because there's no public transport and how there's only one street and there's no decent shopping.

But it does have one trick up its sleeve. A little gem which is so hidden away that there are people who don't even know that it's there.

And that is the Best Tearoom on the Planet. Ever.

I'm serious.

My tearoom > Your tearoom


The first time I visited was after a particular stressful and unsuccessful trip to the Post Office trying to post a present over to American Girl. I lugged it all the way into town only for the Post Office to try and charge me £67 to send it to the US. No thanks Royal Mail. Despondent and irritated I decided I would go in search of a lovely cup of tea - the only thing that can fix you in a situation like this.

I had seen a sign for this tearoom the week previously and was intrigued by it - you seemed to enter through a tiny alleyway and I could see nothing at all of what was inside. Wandering down the tunnel, I came out into a lovely little courtyard and I could immediately feel my bad feelings starting to dissipate. Over to my right was a doorway and upon opening it there was an inviting set of stairs leading up before me.


Upon arriving at the top of the stairs I felt transported to another world. This is a tearoom in every traditional sense of the word. We're talking lacy tablecloths and dark wooden furniture, mis-matched teacups and a plethora of teapots (some of which are for sale), 1920s music playing in the background and cakes and scones under glass domes on a sideboard in front of you.

There is no fancy website, or Facebook page, or Twitter account but what there is is a clientele which seems to exist almost solely of returned customers. People who have been there before and have been unable to resist the lure of returning again. The reason for this isn't just the calming atmosphere and the food on the menu (which is lovely by the way) but is the service. The person who owns and runs this coffee shop has to be the single most happiest and welcoming person on the planet. She is so outrageously nice that you just want to stay in her company for as long as possible. I know it's sad to say this, but in a world where people can sometimes be increasingly rude and standoffish, especially in the service industry, Lizzie is a breath of fresh air.

I've been a total of three times and she already remembers who I am and makes sure to say hello when she sees me. When my Mum came up for my birthday and asked me what I wanted to do I knew exactly where I wanted to take her. A conversation between us uncovered that Lizzie had been to Hull University (if there's a link back to my mothership I'll find it you know) and if I didn't like her before, the warmth with which she spoke of my home town cemented her as one of my favourite people in the world.


She even left the above note on our bill when we came to leave. *Heart swells with pride.*

I will continue to return to Lizzie's Tearooms whenever I get the opportunity. Not only because I can't wait to see what teacup I get next, but because it is a place where I can go and just sit back and escape from everything. A place where I can come to terms with the fact that there's only one street and there's no decent shops and there's no public transport. 

A place where I can just drink tea.

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Apologies for leaving you hanging in the lurch after my last post. I promise it was fun though. Pinky promise.