Back to business. (Natural Surroundings, Glandford)

Natural Surroundings,

Glandford,

Opening times Tues-Sun 10:00-16:00,

Recommended 

It had been a long time since I had been able to get back to business and review a new venue on a cafe cycle ride. I had been thwarted by a lack of cycling guests, poor weather and the limitations of cafe Christmas opening times. Fortunately, all these things were in alignment today so I just needed to decide where to go.

A friend Jeremy (Eco Warrior) had suggested I go to Natural Surroundings in Glandford near Holt which had a cafe at the entrance to the wildlife gardens based there. I believe this is the sort of place Eco Warriors like to hang out at so was interested to see what it was like. 

To make the ride more doable on a winters day, I had arranged to meet up at Hard to Please House in Aylsham with today's Cycling guest, Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) as it was a lot nearer to Glandford than my house.

As we set off on the route it was clear that Andrew was in one of his most hard to please moods as he claimed he had been to Natural Surroundings 20 years ago and didn't remember the cafe serving good coffee.

It was only a 16 mile ride out to the cafe but it took sometime as we were cycling into a strong wind. This made any conversations hard to hear which had Andrew in an even crosser mood as he had to repeat many of his rants to make sure I had heard them properly.

When we arrived at Natural Surroundings Andrew took one look at the cafe and had to admit the reason he didn't remember the cafe serving good coffee on his last visit was because, in hindsight, he didn't remember there being a cafe there so had never actually had a drink in it.

Outside the Natural Surroundings Cafe which wasn't here
 last time Andrew thought he had a coffee there

The cafe is surrounded by woodland and its wooden construction slots nicely into the natural surroundings (see what I did there). There is a one bench outdoor seating area but we opted to go inside where sadly we didn't spot any Eco Warriors unless they were disguised as members of the public.

Outdoor seating areas with birdfeeders fully stocked

I went to check out the cakes at the counter, there seemed to be a bias towards scones, flapjack and slices but there was still a couple of good looking sponge cakes so I awarded a reasonable effective cake selection (ECS) score.

Cake selection with sausage rolls at the front

Normally the presence of a sausage roll would pass me by but since announcing that this year I would be searching for sausage roll of the year 2017 I was excited to be testing the first contestant.

I have to admit that I have opened up a schism in the cafe cycle ride with the controversial choice of sausage roll as thing of the year. Admittedly sausage roll is clearly not cake and will continue to play no part in cycle cafe rating but be a completely stand alone contest. More details on the rules and scoring system will be published shortly.

Along with my sausage roll I had Victoria sponge cake to go with my Hot Chocolate while Andrew had a cappuccino and millionaire shortbread. 

We opted to sit in the wood burner area and as we looked out the window to watch the local birds nibbling on a series of bird feeders we both agreed it was both cosy and relaxing so deserved a high atmosphere and ambiance score.

Cosy seating area 

Despite this when the drinks and cakes arrived Andrew was still in a full scale notoriously hard to please mood. First he was unhappy that the cappuccino had come in a mug claiming that if the Italians had intended it to be served in a mug it would be called a Muguccino and he didn't like his millionaire shortbread either. I felt the mugs were appropriate especially as I have never seen an Eco Warrior use a cup. I thought my hot chocolate and Victoria sponge were both good although today it was really the sausage roll I was most interested in.

Drinks and cakes

As the first sausage roll in the competition I thought it set a good standard with the sausage filling being a particularly good one so I updated my newly prepared sausage roll spreadsheet with the ratings and the search for Sausage roll of the year 2017 was underway

First entry in Sausage Roll of the year 2017 

Natural Surroundings cafe has a fabulous setting and worth a visit especially if you like wildlife gardens, sausage rolls or are in Eco Warrior.

The way back was a lot quicker as the wind had now become our friend but sadly I could now hear Andrews ranting more clearly so got a sore neck with all the feigned nodding in agreement I had to do.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.5	5.0	6.0	7.0	9.0	6.70

Route

Click here to download 37 mile Alysham Wiveton loop gpx file for your GPS

Looking for more Art (Deepdale cafe at Burnham Deepdale, Art Cafe at Glandford)

Deepdale Café,

Burnham Deepdale,

Open Everyday,

Art Cafe,

Glandford,

Open Everyday 10-4, 

Highly Recommended

After last years success of combing cycling and art (see Looking for art) then last Sunday I tried to repeat the experience by looking for more art as part of this years Norfolk and Norwich open (OPENN) studios programme. This time the studios would be in North Norfolk area.

When I tried looking for art last time I had made the mistake of going to the studios blind (not literally) without any criteria as to judge the art by. This meant I was unable to know what the good pieces were. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice and had come up with a 3 point definition of what makes good art which I could apply when viewing

They were:
1. Could I have done it? If yes it is not good art.
2. Would I want it in my house? If yes it is good art.
3. Does the name of the painting or description bare any relevance to the art on show? if yes it is not good art (see point 1).

I would be using these criteria to determine which was the good art we saw today.

I was joined by Chris (Mrs Crusader) as today's cycling art guest and to make sure we squeezed in plenty of art we set off early to Norwich station to board the train to Sheringham.

Get on train to Sheringham at start of our search for more art

I had planned the studios we would visit based on combining the small descriptions of art available in the OPENN studios brochure with a suitable route and cafes stops. However despite my organised approach art was not as easy to find as you would think.

On arrival we set off to our first studio on the seafront in Sheringham and thanks to my meticulous planning the Garmin Edge cycle sat nav took us straight to the studio door. The next part didn't go so well as the door was locked with a sign that said the studio didn't open until 10 o'clock, which was 20 minutes away. This was not good as we had a lot of art to find today so there wasn't time to hang around for the opening. Instead we got back on our bikes and headed off to our next studio destination at Wells next the sea.

It was nearly a 20 mile ride along the coast and up some hills to our next planned art studio so after nearly 90 minutes of enjoyable riding we were hungry for some good paintings. Once again we went straight to the studio only to find it was closed today due to ill health. This was not only unfortunate for the poorly artist but we were already a third of the way through our ride and hadn't seen any art yet either.

Our second planned visit which was closed due to ill health

Wells next the sea was also the destination for our next studio but as luck would have it on the way there we stumbled across another open studio which was not on my target list. I would not normally so readily divert from my original plan but as we had already missed out on 2 studios, we decided to pop in. Although the art here, which were etchings, passed 2 of my 3 tests it was not really to our tastes so we quickly moved on and reverted to plan A which was to see John Ritche's paintings in what seemed to be an old fishing shed at the end of wells harbour.

Outside studio amongst fishing sheds in Wells next the sea

His works were much more to our tastes as they were sort of abstract landscapes and although the paintings were simply named I felt we had definitely found some good art. We thanked John and set off again.

It was another hours ride to the Deepdale cafe at Burnham Deepdale and just as we arrived it started to rain so I hurriedly locked our bikes and we went inside.

Outside the Deepdale cafe in Burnham Deepdale

It was very busy and we were lucky to find one of the few remaining tables in the corner. On the way there we went past the cake display so I quickly checked it out so I could award the effective cake selection (ECS) rating. It wasn't a big selection but had some good offerings so I awarded an appropriate score.

Cake selection

There was a small outdoor seating area in the courtyard but it was a bit wet for anyone to sit there today, inside there were plenty of tables with an American diner sort of feel. Despite the busyness the waitress service was very efficient so I ordered a hot chocolate, cheese scone (as part of my cheese scone serving temperature research) and franzipan tart. Chris went for a mocha and fried breakfast. As a fried breakfast is clearly not cake (or even lunch) she took no further part in cake related reviewing at this stop.

Drinks and food for reviewing (but not the fried breakfast)

The cheese scone had not been warmed but it was very tasting if a touch dry. It had an usual herb in it and although I couldn't decide which one it still added to the flavour. My franzipan tart was very nice so a good cake taste quality (CTQ) score.  

We both thought our drinks were of a good standard but not strong enough for top marks.

The Deepdale cafe is one of the busier cafes I have visited so was well organised and of a good standard which attracts lots of holidaymakers and daytrippers. It is a useful addition to my reviewed cafe's list.

Before we left we went to check out the art advertised in the OPENN brochure at one of the pop up shops in the retail area. After walking around for a few minutes we couldn't find it so I checked the OPENN studios brochure again only to find I had made another error as this art would only be here the following week. It was clear finding good art, even when you have 100's of open studios to choose from and 'good art' criteria, isn't as easy as it looks. So far I had only a 25% success rate.

Fortunately it had stopped raining so we set off for our next planned stop. On the way we passed an open art sign to a glass gallery so, despite the lack of success when we last went off piste, we decided to take a quick detour to Salt glass studios.

Detour sign to Salt Glass studios

On this occasion it turned out to be a good call as this was my favourite studio to date. I liked the glass objects on display (and they passed all 3 of my good art tests), the furnace meant it was warm on a cold drizzly day and the artist had the cricket on the radio. I like a bit of cricket so I enquired as to the score. Mr Glass said he had no idea as he was only listening to it as the radio could only get radio 4 long wave. How different the life of a carefree artist to an obsessive cafe cycle reviewer I thought.

We set off again to Houghton St Giles where we found art in a studio in the back garden of Tracey Ross. Here there were some very good landscapes and they passed all my art tests. However the painting Chris really liked, and would have wanted to buy, had just been sold so once again the gods of art were not looking favourably on us.

Next stop was Binham for some photographed art. They were very good pictures and better than I could take on my phone but somehow I never think of photos as proper art. I'm old school on this front and want my art painted or sculpted so we quickly moved on.

Photographed 'art' in Binham

Just round the corner we made another unscheduled stop at a gallery were Rosemary and Lionel were showing. This meant my target studio count was now back on plan so I was happy. We particularly liked one of Lionel's landscapes of Wells beach but with time pressing we only had time for a quick look round as we had to get to our next stop, The Art cafe, before it shut at 4.00 pm.

With some speedy pedalling we just made it to the Art cafe at 3.55. Fortunately it was not the sort of cafe that says it is open until 4.00 and then won't serve anyone past 3:30 so we went inside to order. On my previous visit the Art cafe became my number one rated cafe.

Just got to Art cafe 5 mins before it shut

The disadvantage of getting to a cafe late is that the cake selection is not as large as at the start of the day. However despite the cakes not being fully stocked and everything being a bit rushed we still rated the ECS and Atmosphere and Ambiance in line with it's previous number one billing.

Cake selection at late in day at Art cafe

The cakes (Chocolate cake and Lemon cake) were excellent and also got a good CTQ score. Sadly on the drinks front the previous high standard had not been maintained as both my hot chocolate and Chris's mocha were not as good and strong drinks as last time I visited with Andrew, and he is notoriously hard to please. Still good drinks but with the scores averaged out the Art cafe dropped down to no.2 on my list with Earsham street cafe returning to the No 1 spot (see tough at the top)

Cakes and drinks at the art cafe

While we were there I realised I had lost the key to my rubic's padlock when I discovered there was a large hole in my cycling top. There was much emptying of pockets, throwing things and huffing and puffing before I eventually admitted defeat and conceded the key was 'proper lost'. Fortunately this happened while the bikes were unlocked or we would still be there now searching for the key. On my return home I punished my cycle top by putting it into the clothes bank so it couldn't lose anything else of mine.

With the joint bombshells of the Art cafe losing its top spot and me losing my key we forgot to look at the art in their gallery, which was the main reason we had come in the first place. 

That was the end of the scheduled art and we set off for our final hour's cycling back to Sheringham to catch the train home. Although we had been to some nice Studios Chris had not seen anything she would like to purchase where as on last years hunt she had brought some pieces. This was therefore a much more cost effective art trip and has clearly allowed more money to be diverted to my cycling fund which is handy as I'm in need of a new cycling top. I was also satisfied all my art targets for the day had been met, although apparently that's not the point.

Scores for Deepdale cafe

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.5	6.0	5.5	7.5	5.5	6.00

Score for Art cafe based on two visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.0	8.25	7.50	8.75	8.755	8.25

Route

Click here to down load 65 mile Sheringham Burnham Deepdale GPX file for your GPS

100 not out (Art Cafe, Glandford)

Art Cafe

Glandford, North Norfolk

Open Mon-Sun 10-4

Highly Recommended

Today was a red letter day for the Cake Crusader as I planned to review my 100th cafe. For such an occasion I had chosen Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) to be my 100th cafe reviewed celebration cycling guest as he was also my first. Last year he had proved to be a very poor guest on my special 1st anniversary cafe cycle ride as he had not bought a card, balloons or candles (see Special anniversary ride). Unfortunately today he again turned out to be an equally useless and grumpy 100th cafe reviewed celebration cycling guest.

When I checked the weather forecast this morning it did not look good as it showed heavy rain. I was therefore not surprised to receive a text from Andrew saying that he would rather stay dry than go on today's ride. I decided the best approach was to ignore the text and just turn up on his door step at the allotted meeting time, which I did. On arrival I pointed out what a momentous ride this was and that if he had read the forecast in detail, and not just looked at the pictures, he would have known that it actually said there would be some showers between dry spells which didn't sound too bad. Added to this today's venue was the Art cafe at Glandford which, like Andrew, is vegetarian based. He therefore reluctantly agreed to come along and as a compromise I said we could go the direct route rather than the pretty way.

The weather forecast proved to be 50% correct as it got the rain part right but the bit about dry spells in between appeared inaccurate. This wasn't altogether surprising as I had made that bit up in order to encourage Andrew to come along so we soon found ourselves extremely wet.

Things got no better when Andrew got a puncture, which by the time he had finished fixing meant he could no longer feel his fingers. From here there was no more cheerful banter exchanged for the rest of the way out to the Art cafe.

Andrew fixing puncture whilst losing the feeling in his hands

The roads were now starting to turn into rivers and we even met some bloke called Noah who was out in the rain building what can only be described as a sort of ark. 

Roads turning into rivers

However as we approached Glandford things started to look up as I pointed out that the cows in the adjacent field were now standing up so they obviously knew it was going to shortly stop raining. Andrew didn't seem convinced as we arrived at the Art Cafe.

Out side the Art cafe looking warm and happy

With one of those weird coincidences the Art cafe is next door to an actual Art gallery! It has a nice outdoor seating area but despite the positive sign from the cows Andrew was keen that we went inside. This was a good plan as we were quickly directed to a table by the log burner to warm up and dry off. The Art cafe has a crafty type shop bit at the front and a large seating area at the back. There is also a selection of Art on the walls. The staff were extremely friendly so overall I awarded a very high atmosphere and ambiance (AAA) score.

Inside the Art Cafe

I then went to check out the cake selection. It had a good, if not massive, selection of cakes but they were extremely effective as there were a number of ones I would have chosen to try. I therefore awarded a good effective cake selection (ECS) rating. I choose Brooklyn Blackout (chocolate cake) and Andrew a date slice flapjack. I also had a mandatory cheese scone as part of my scone serving temperature research. For the first time this year I was asked if I wanted it warm or cold rather than just being presented with a temperature outcome of the cafes choice. As I hope you all know by now it has to be warmed so full marks.

Very effective cake selection

It was now on to drinks, I ordered my hot chocolate and was given a choice of sweetness, another first. I like a stronger bitter drink so plumped for the dark hot chocolate. Andrew was given a choice of 4 different coffee beans to choose from plus a choice of ways it could be brewed. This was the Art cafe's only mistake of the day as Andrew is not only notoriously hard to please but does not respond well to being given choices. It sent him into options meltdown and he was unable to function. I had to step in and randomly order Nicaragua beans aero pressed or we would still be there now.

The choice of coffee beans available

While we waited for the cakes and drinks I asked Andrew if he had brought me a card, balloons or candles to mark the 100th cafe review occasion. He had not and even came up with the rather pathetic excuse that he didn't know as I hadn't told him. Typical lack of pre ride research I thought, so I made a note to look for a better guest for my next special occasion ride.

When the drinks and cakes arrived I must say we were blown away. First we thought both our drinks were superb with excellent strength and flavour. My chocolate cake was the best this year and Andrew, who is not only notoriously hard to please but considers himself a bit of a date slice expert, said he couldn't find any fault with his flapjack. The only slight disappointment was the cheese scone which was nice but I thought needed to be a bit more cheesy. However I still awarded a very high cake taste quality (CTQ) score and added both cakes to the 2015 cake of the year short list.

Excellent cakes ready for tasting

With such good scores I excitedly entered the ratings into my cafe rating spreadsheet only to find that my 100th cafe was also one of the best ones. I suspect it will prove very hard to dislodge from near the top of my table and I highly recommend a visit.

Still shaking with excitement I paid the bill and helped myself to an Art Cafe loyalty card to add to my loyalty card picture library section on the blog.

We went outside to discover that the local cows clearly didn't know what they were mooing about as it was still pouring with rain. I popped my helmet back on and got a nasty soaking from the soggy comfort sponges inside. On the return ride to Alysham we continued to get wetter in the persistent rain however there was still time to round the ride off nicely with one last puncture until it eventually stopped raining just as we arrived back at Hard to Please House. 

Fixing one last puncture this time on my bike

Before I left after this tremendous day Andrew gave me his cycling guest cycling top tip.

Cycling guest cycling top tip no. 17. If you want to avoid getting soaking wet and freezing cold on a bike ride then don't ignore the weather forecast when it includes words like heavy, persistent, down pour and rain.

Fortunately we hadn't followed this tip or I wouldn't have a new top rated cafe.

Scores for Art Cafe based on last 3 visits (last visit March 2022)

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.23	8.67	7.5	8.50	8.42	8.06

Route

Click here to download 37 mile Alysham Wiveton loop gpx file for your GPS