Beautiful scenery, friendly people, pretty market towns, antique/vintage shops, windmills, coastal walks - we greatly enjoyed our tour! An 11 night trip by virtue of attaching a Thursday night and Friday to a week ending in a bank holiday week end. Someone asked why on earth we were having a holiday in Lincolnshire which they didn't consider to be a tourist destination - the point entirely!!
We decided upon Lincolnshire to continue our exploration of the east coast, having visited both Norfolk and Suffolk in recent years. We kept a sketch map and a list of possible destinations compiled from snippets of TV-based information (the likes of Countryfile and Escape to the Country can give a tempting insight) added to some on-line research. Our motorhome would provide our accommodation and most of our transport (with additional bus journeys where more practical).
Many of the towns we wanted to visit still have active markets so we planned a route with market days in mind. We feared we might see the same traders several times but we didn't!
We set of in the evening of Thursday, 18th May and travelled to a campsite we have used before, near Sudbury. A pleasant farm, site with a beautiful border collie who appears, hopefully, with his ball, as soon as he spots a new arrival. We re-heated a stew and settled to try and sleep. It poured with rain - I've never slept in a drum but I think I know how it would sound!
The following day we set off to Belton House a property in the care of the National Trust. These two trees were such beautiful shapes I added them to my library of images for reference purposes.
A few of the park residents caught my eye:
We left Nottinghamshire and drove to Baumber, Lincolnshire. Bricks have very commonly been used for building in Lincolnshire. We knew we had booked a fishery campsite but I hadn't given a thought to its origins. There were originally two brick kilns end to end. One is now very much in ruins but the second is listed and has been renovated.
The fishing ponds were originally the clay pits and we saw other similar fisheries whilst on our travels. There were many wild birds, we carry a portable support for bird feeders and enjoyed watching our visitors - mainly blue tits, great tits and coal tits - which were particularly entertaining. I always feel a bit sorry for the bemused birds the day after we have left. The ponds were beautiful and home to several families of ducks.
I couldn't compose a shot which showed the scale of this fish. They were several duck lengths long and the ducks were certainly very wary of them!
Horncastle, Lincoln and a Lincolnshire hare in my next post.
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The first four of the brooches from my last post have now been listed in my Folksy shop:
