Another Date Night

Get us!! Out again!! Actually I was there by default as I will explain. However hubby and I found ourselves with half an hour to spare before the event, so we had a quick drink at The Crucible Corner. It wasn't without incident though. The patio heater that we sat under actually caught fire and had to be put out by several pitchers of water. Then, a Johnny Depp lookalikie in full Jack Sparrow regalia swaggered through the square and into the bar. I would have taken his photo, but I was terrified that his sword might be real and he might be a nutcase! Any how, on to the event.

Hubby had booked a couple of tickets to hear the World Cup referee Howard Webb speak at the Millenium Galleries. He thought it might be nice for him and the young man to have a manly bonding session, but the young man had decided he would rather spend the evening with his (lovely) new girlfriend, so I ended up going.

I really enjoyed it. Howard Webb is a lovely chap with his feet still firmly on the ground. He can talk for England!! Tanya Arnold has the tiniest waist it is possible to have without snapping in two!!

All's good in the 'hood

Many thanks to Little Blue Mouse for asking. I can report that the big news here at Heartshaped Towers is just as the lovely Monty Don said, my Bay Tree is showing new green shoots - HURRAY!!! I was so excited when I discovered them, that I sent hubby, who was working a night shift a very excitable text. He didn't reply to it. It turns out they were in the middle of a high profile bust on a drug dealer cum other nasty crime committer. He said my text made him smile. When he is immersed in some nightmare world dealing with people who are in cahoots with the devil, I remind him that there is a wonderful normal life waiting for him when he gets home.

The baby birds are now very audible from every part of the garden. Its looking a bit of a mess around the box, but we try to leave it alone. I have placed a tray of lettuce that I am growing on top of the potato growing tub though as a soft landing for when they start to explore. Mum and Dad bird are extremely busy and it's lovely to sit and watch them bringing the most enormous worms etc back to the box.
Many Strawberry plants seem to have sprung between the other plants. Free fruit !!!
I'm thrilled that my Delphiniums have not been affected by the cold winter - in fact they look stronger than ever this year - and almost ready to bloom.
Hubby bought this rose a couple of years ago and we planted it at the front of the house, where it never grew a centimetre! After giving it a couple of years, and it looking fairly dead, we thought we would try it in the back garden and low and behold it has the most gorgeous couple of blooms on it.
Mother nature has thrown in a couple of freebies so far. I think that this is an Aqualigia (spelling?).
It's coming up to my favourite time in my garden and I appreciate every minute I spend in it.

Goosey goosey gander

On Saturday, hubby was at work all day so I decided to show Mum around some of the places I had found recently. We started of at Nona's cafe in Shireoakes. It is her last weekend here next Saturday before she makes her big move to Holligswood Lock and we found her in a very emotional state. She does have a very special little place in Shireoakes, full of the most fabulous characters for customers that she fears she may loose. I shall be visiting her in her new home in June - I'm sure it will be just as special.


After our breakfast, we had a wander around Shireoakes Hall which as you can see is in a very derelict state. I don't know if it is beyond repair - I hope not. This area in North Notts is known as "The Dukeries" so called because it contained 4 ducal seats close to each other. As well as the big houses, there are literaly dozens of other huge houses - some still lived in, others in ruin dotted around the area. When we are in France, we always notice how many Chateaux there are, we tend not to see whats under our nose here on our doorstep. This place would be great to live in. It has a huge walled garden that I could play in every day. It also has 2 wonderful French looking barns that Mum decided we could convert to house her ( I would never have to do any ironing ever again!! Worth thinking about!!). Fingers crossed for a lottery win.

The house has several fishing lakes surrounding it. All the geese were paired up and swimming around with their goslings. We spotted 3 families and I got as close as I dared. The babies were fluffy and gawky and comical to watch.
We then moved on to Welbeck where we had another walk, and more food, and dodged more showers. I think I wore her out - but we had a great day.

** Edited to add that Mum is not moving house - we were just "imagining" *****

Barbara Hepworth

I would have definitely followed her blog, and stalked her for a bloggy date!!! She would have been on the "St Ives" meet up list! I feel that she would have loved the way that her sculptures are displayed in the beautiful countryside so close to her home town of Wakefield. I feel sure that she and I would have got on.


They have a room at YSP with some of her family photos in it at the moment. She looked like a little doll when she was young.
I eagerly await the opening of the new Barbara Hepworth museum in Wakefield this week. Of course, I shall take you with me. x

Northern Meal Times

To clear up any confusion that I and my northern blog commentors have caused to Michela (and any true "southerners" who may never have ventured this far north, let me explain our mealtimes.

Breakfast - eaten when you get up. Dress code - either still in your pyjamas, or whatever you have put on to wear for that day.

Can consist of Cereals, toast, eggs, porridge etc if you are in a rush. If you are lucky, a bacon buttie or full English breakfast starts the day off very nicely.

Nice cup of tea (or coffee in this case) and a biscuit - and a sit down. Eaten around 11am Dress code - whatever you are wearing in your everyday life.

"Elevenses" is a bit of a fancy title not usually used around these parts
Dinner - eaten between 12 noon and around 2.30pm . Dress code - still your work clothing.

Ideally this would be your main meal of the day, but for most of us, this usually consists of a sandwich, salad, cuppa soup or similar eaten at a desk. Whatever you eat after your savoury, would be called "a pudding" not "dessert". We don't use the word "lunch" (remember, Lunch is for wimps!!). In Yorkshire, this type of light dinner is sometimes referred to as "snap" and taken to work in your "snap tin".
Tea - eaten when you get home from work. Dress code - You will have taken your work clothes off and slipped into something more comfy.

If you only had a snack at dinner time, then you would have "a big tea".

If you were going out to a restaurant for the evening, you would be going out either "for a meal" or "for an evening meal".
Supper - served around 9pm but only if you had a little tea, or if you are a teenage boy. Dress code - ALWAYS in you pyjamas.

Teenage boys pile an arrangement of food on a plate at this time - toast, yogurts, apples, sometimes a couple of bowls of cereals - whatever they can make easily themselves. Hubby and I sometimes have cheese and biscuits (and pickled onions!!)
When I was little, we used to have a couple of Ritz crackers and a glass of chocolate Nesquick in summer, Ovaltine or Cocoa in winter . In Stuart Maconies book "Pies & Prejudice" he tells an hilarious story about when he moved from Wigan to London and a producer friend invited him round "for supper". He couldn't understand why they wanted him to go round to their house in his dressing gown for warm milk and digestive biscuits in front of their telly.

I know this may sound strange, and I laughed at myself for a good 10 minutes when I typed "big tea"!! But this is how we roll in the north.

Date Night

I noticed that the Yorkshire Sculpture Park was having a late night opening on Friday evening, and so I thought that hubby and I might pop along and have our tea out (in Yorkshire, we have breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. This topic will get a post of its own one day!).

We had a wonderful evening. When we visited last time, it was a bank holiday and there were loads of folk around. On Friday evening, it felt as if we were the only people there. After our meal, we braved the short, sharp showers and had a good look around.

Some of the exhibits were lit up and looked amazing against the moody sky.

The big fella....
was closely inspected by the other big fella (who was trying to a find a word amongst all the letters)

Even in the rain, it was lovely to look around with not many other people being there.
The gorgeous walled garden hides a secret space hidden behind.
Rebecca Chesney had certainly done a dilligent observation of Bees on the estate. Through the doorway in the wall, into............
an amazing gallery made from stone and wonderful Oak.

I actually quite liked this collection of dead bees - yes, I know I'm weird, but they looked amazing and very interesting! Rebecca is doing some walks and talks about bees at the park in the next few weeks.

We spent ages in the underground gallery. last time, it had been too packed with visitors and we hadn't been able to visit each room. The room of Gongs, which you were encouraged to hit gently to make an ambient sound was awesome - to look at and to hear.

The Gongs are huge and there is a full circle of them - all engraved too.

We actually think that the huge lit up men on the walls in this gallery look like hubby. He often has moments when his head is in his hands too! Usually on Saturday evening listening to the footy results involving his Sheffield Wednesday I might add.

We hadn't seen these big heads before either.

We managed to have a good conversation with one of the curators as it wasn't too busy. She explained how the artist had carved these giant faces on Alabaster(with lasers). The faces are all of real people. They are for sale starting at £80,000 each and a fair few have sold. She also showed us where someone had left a huge footprint on one !!!

One of the rooms shows the concept of the designs in miniature. I would love to see these hearts made up large.

They also have a model of hubby on a large stick in the grounds that they illuminate at night. These were the concept models for this.

And this was the finished article. Not quite dark enough to show how great it looks illuminated.

We shall have another date night here when they do their next late night opening.

I'm having problems with Blogger . The dancing Queen upgraded the Internet Explorer and now every time I try and post, I get a "javascript void" error!! We've switched to a new Browser(?!) so lets see how it goes! I love technology, but at times - I HATE TECHNOLOGY!

Photos from Wentworth Garden Centre - who I have fallen out with as they are now charging to get into the ornamental gardens.