We're all going to the beach

After weeks of planning and worrying it was the day of our trip to Filey yesterday. I had nightmares of leaving someone behind, someone drowning or worse it raining, so much that we all would just turn around and go back to school.  I wish I could say I needn't have worried....  

But it was fantastic.

The weather was overcast and gloomy, or so the forecaster said it would be, so I wore a warmish outfit (particularly after last week's pre-visit).   The kiddies arrived at 8am all wrapped up in jumpers and coats. Most had headed my warnings, that even if the sun isn't shining, at the beach we still need to slop on some sunscreen lotion. One or two didn't listen (myself included) and we have the hot, red faces to prove it.

The journey there was two hours, most of the journey was uneventful, except for a little girl who turned from white to green in front of my eyes before emptying the contents of her stomach (luckily we had pulled over just in time).

- Kind Regards, C xx

YSP - fat girl walking

One of the trips in my half term hotlist was to visit the Yorkshire Sculptue Park.  I have started to use Instagram as a sort of tourist information.  I check into a place and then see who else has checked in and look at other places they have been.

One person had checked themselves into Haworth and an exhibition with what looked like a ginormous miserable Mickey Mouse.  It turned out to be by an artist who goes by the name KAWS, a Newyork native who is currently touring the world.

I was intrigued, and have to admit that my first thought, on discovering that the exhibition was being held at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, was oh my gosh that would look so cool on my Facebook page. Sad I know, but, well...  I was right. 

As well as KAWS the YSP has pieces by Andy Gormley, Henry Moore, and Ai Wei Wei (we saw an exhibition of his at Blenheim a couple of years ago).

It was a great day, less than an hour away and completely free.  Alright you have to pay to park, but for what you get to see I think that it a small price to pay.  I loved it and will definitely be going again, soon.  Particularly as we hadn't even looked around the indoor exhibits.

Sculpture Trail - Fat Girl Walking

I'm really getting into the hill walking round here.  I was saying to GO just the other day, I remember complaining about how steep Ladder Hill in Wheatley was, but compared to some of the "mountains" round here it was a "molehill".  I find that I can walk for miles and miles on the flat but the minute the gradient goes up I start to struggle.    This is why I have tried to incorporate lots of hill walking into my repertoire.  They are difficult, they are killers but they are always worth it.  None more so then the Pendle Sculpture trail we went on this past weekend.  It was a warmish, sunny day.  I had picked up a few walking books and leaflets from the Tourist information Centre in the middle of Tod and had seen the Sculpture trail leaflet, I had seen it a few weeks before and I decided to check it out.

http://letswalkinpendle.btck.co.uk/thependlesculpturetrail

"The Pendle Sculpture Trail has ten ceramic plaques. Each has its own unique symbols which represent each of the Pendle people who were hanged 400 years ago in the biggest witchcraft trial in this country."  

We downloaded the guide, parked at the suggested car park in the village of Barley and set off, the get to the trail its about a mile through the village, past the green and two very full pubs.  I did feel sorry for the villagers having all of these ignorant tourists descending on the weekend of the bank holiday.  I have to admit that I did feel slightly smug, as I have just left Oxford where the bank holidays mean that you, a local/resident, can not do anything with out having to queue or barge through groups of tourists.  We carried towards the trail passing by the two reservoirs, over looked the entire time by the Pendle Hill.  "One day..."  I muttered to myself.  I have decided that one day I will ascend that hill, not by car, by foot.  I know it won't be a quick journey but I am determined that it will be under my own steam.  Just got to do a bit of research on the walk first.  For warned it fore armed and all that.

As we walked through the village and then off towards the trail, I thought I'd better phone home, just in case I didn't get back in time to Skype.  "The guide book says it takes three hours to complete the trail, we'll probably take four hours, if you don't hear from us by then we're lost".  We all laughed, (it turned out it only took us just over two hours and we stopped for a snack break)  only the day before I had heard in the news about a lady who had gone of the path on the Appalachian trail to pee and got so lost, that she wasn't seen alive again.  It made me think, its never a bad thing to let people know where you are.

We made it the start of the sculpture trail, we both knew it was in the woods on the hill, but neither of us had thought about what that would mean to two slightly unfit walkers.  I strode off at speed, I am obviously the more experienced walker, I made it  about 100 yards when I had to stop and catch my breath.  In my defense.....  It was a hot day, in fact the hottest I have ever experienced north of the M25.  I gathered myself and set off at more of a leisurely pace, and soon we have made it to the summit and so began the treasure trail.  The sculptures were clearly plotted on the guide, but what they looked like in 2D and what they looked like in real life made quite difficult to determine whether we were looking at a sculpture or a dead tree, some were obvious, others were so well hidden we couldn't find them.


Quaker Tree

Witch Finder

Ceramic Column

Reconnected 1

Reconnected 2

The Gate Way

Life Circle

Living wall

Two bats (look up)

Tree Roots

Spirits of the Wood

Spider on the Web (couldn't find)

Sleeping bat (look up)

Three Bats in Flight  (look up)

Owl

Then the