From The Sublime....

Standing by the porch of Gamlingay church, pulling on my cycle helmet and wondering which way to go next, my eyes fell upon an old house just beyond the churchyard, rather plain but undoubtedly old. I wheeled the bike over to take a closer look. I must have still been in inquisitive mode because something possessed me to peer into the back garden.....

....wow, this side of the house was clearly very old indeed and also far more beautiful than I could have hoped. It was a private house so I couldn't investigate further. But just now, before I started to write this, I checked it out on the register of listed buildings, a record of all the buildings in England which are subject to special planning laws which aim to protect them because of their historical significance. I was surprised to see that this old house was a Grade II* listed building; very few private houses are graded so highly. Further research told me that it was built around 1483 by one Thomas Byrd and that its special importance lies in the fact that two of its rooms still have walls painted around 1600 with Biblical texts, grotesques and fanciful motifs.

I proceeded along Church Street past The Cock Inn, a fine old pub also dating from around 1600. Gamlingay and some other larger villages in Cambridgeshire have the feel of small towns with houses lined up right beside the street. I also came across a much more modern building which couldn't fail to attract ones attention...

....after all the fuss of The Olympics I'd almost forgotten that it's still the Queen's Jubilee year, though the owners of this property clearly hadn't!

I trundled along on my bike and eventually found a quiet spot to sit and eat my lunch in a field on the Cambridgeshire/Bedfordshire border.

Somewhere I passed this pretty cottage but I was making my way to Sandy Warren - it's a place not a person! - which has some fine walking trails. The area is managed by the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds which has its headquarters at the Lodge, a fine old house which stands within the Warren. Here's a couple of photos to whet your appetite...

....I'll be back with more photos of the area in the next few days. Now, we started off with the sublime use of timber in the frame of the old house so we ought to end up with, if not the ridiculous, at least the unusual and unexpected - and here it is....

....a flock of wooden sheep! Take care.