ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 12TH OF 2022

 Good morning lovely people 

tis Friday time for 

So what silver linings, positive moments and general all round good fun have I got up to in the last seven days. 

Well last thursday night, we went out ot the local theatre, it is something we really enjoy doing and we have a meal out at the college restaurant followed by our trip to see a show. 

The meal was lovely as always and it is a great way to slow down and stop for a bit if I'm honest after a busy working week.  As it was the same menu as the week before I decided on a different option this week, ham hock terrine with homemade piccalilii, chicken kiev with fondant potato and braised cabbage peas and bacon followed by a sticky toffee pudding.  It was all lovely, except the sticky toffee pudding came with a caramel syrup which was quite honestly too sweet.  But it was a lovely meal nonetheless. 

Then we headed off to the theatre to see Our House, now anyone that knows us will now that musicals aren't really our thing, this one based around the music of Madness would hopefully be familiar and fun to watch.  We had no idea how much we were going to enjoy it, honestly the energy the acting and the fact that the majority of the cast were children and young people was quite simply off the chart.  We came out with the biggest grins on our faces and we will most definitely be booking to see this theatre group again. 

Friday tripped along at a merry old pace and Saturday we headed out early to Yorkshire Sculpture Park as I had something planned for the Sunday.

The sun was shining, I love this tree and its shadows that we can see from the visitors centre

After a spot of breakfast we headed down towards the chapel, Rachel Kneebones 399 days is still in place at the moment but is due to finish soon so we went to soak up this amazing porcelain sculpture. 

At the bottom of the park within what we think was an original sheep fold pen is a piece of work often ignored by those in the vicinity, however it is in fact a piece done by Andy Goldsworthy, so we went to have a nosey. 

Along the bottom path the bright sunshine burnt out the selfie with the silver ball

We had a lovely walk and clocked up just over 10,000 steps which was definitely a win. 

The rest of Saturday was spent watching Six Nations Rugby, well I half watched as I made the most of the time to enjoy some scrapbooking time.  I have just got to the end of October last year and am hoping to sort out the rest of 2021 so I can get it put away into albums soon.  Weirdly a memory from a year ago cropped up the other day saying I'd officially caught up on scrapbooking, I'm hoping to get back to that place if I'm honest. 

The flowers hubby bought me have made a lovely show. 

Sunday we were out early as I had booked a card class for my Mum's birthday present and Sunday was the day.  We were there for just gone half nine and had a fabulous day making male themed cards, not something I'm particularly good at.  Karen who took the class is a fantastic teacher and a brilliant card maker, so we had a lovely day and I got to spend it with my Mum which was brilliant. 

And that my lovely people has been the highlights of my week, there have been a few others, hearing the dawn chorus this week has really raised a smile, blue sky days and spring flowers have also lifted my spirits.  But a lot of it was spent dealing with year end documents for work so several long working days as well.  But overall a lovely week. 

I hope yours has been grand.

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 11TH OF 2022

 Morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

Well last Thursday night me and hubby had a date night which consisted of a meal out at a restaurant attached to the local college, we had a lovely meal and a lovely evening in there, so relaxed, great food and good company, nothing finer. 

Then we headed over the road to the local theatre to watch a local theatre company perform Curtains (a musical who dunnit), it was really well done and we thoroughly enjoyed it despite the slightly uncomfortable seats. 

Friday we popped to Ikea and had a lovely wander around, as the weather wasn't that brilliant 

In the evening we went to Wentworth Woodhouse for WE Wonder Noir, an evening consisting of art installations in the house, this was the first outside

One that had used ash die back trees to create an immersive experience of light and sound in the chapel 

before heading to the star of the show, Museum of the Moon by Luke Jerram (I've now seen all three of these amazing installations, his Earth (Gaia), Mars and now the Moon)

We even laid down on the floor in the marble room and took in the sight above us - utterly stunning

Other artworks included a few performance art pieces to video, but some were light installations, this one in the room renowned for the original artwork depicting a similar stance for a horse owned by the family. 

This room had an installation where the fans ran and then slowed so the copper tubes rang, it was lovely

and then this was a piece of digital art in the library again we ended up laid on the floor taking it in, but it was really amazing, apart from the moon this was our second favourite piece. 

I also loved the shot from outside the room of the moon hanging inside (I took a similar shot of Gaia a few years ago). 

On Saturday we had a bit of a slow day, but we did pop to see my Mum for a few hours and also managed to catch up with my sister which was lovely. 

On Sunday we headed to YSP a new exhibition by Robert Indiana had opened in the underground gallery and so we were immersed in lots of new art (nothing finer)

Inside there were lit pieces

and those made from recycled materials, definitely of the 'pop art' era, I loved all of the work 

back outside we found a few more pieces

which hubby made me pose in front of so you could see the size of the pieces

then we had a good walk around the park before heading back up the hillside to find this piece of art from the same exhibition. 

A weekend full of art, people and a little bit of downtime - my kind of weekend. 

The rest of the week has tripped along, Monday I worked from home which allowed me to catch up in a way that I haven't been able to catch up for some time which was excellent and then I was in work Tuesday through to Thursday so apart from making tea, the days tripped along at a merry old pace. 

I hope you've had a lovely week too. 

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 10TH OF 2022

Good morning 'tis Friday time for 

Well last Friday the weather was decidedly unpleasant so to make a change we booked to go to the cinema to see Unchartered, hubby had wanted to see it for a while and given the inclement weather it seemed like a perfect day to do it.  So we headed off bright and early and thoroughly enjoyed it.  A bit of a cross between Indiana Jones and Goonies and I would describe it as a good Sunday afternoon film in all honesty. 

After the film as we were in the local shopping centre we popped and had a tapas lunch they do a 'mixed table' dish which is a selection of breads, cheeses and meats and is just enough for lunch.  It felt very naughty but wasn't overly filling which is a positive. 

On Saturday we had a wood load dropped for the wood burner, me and hubby spent an hour moving it into the store, it is always lovely to see it replenished the we decided to blow the cobwebs off and head to Wentworth Woodhouse gardens for a wander around to see the snowdrops before they disappear.

  It was lovely to wander for a few hours and wasn't overly busy which is a bonus and the snowdrops were still at the height of flowering and we discovered some new artwork.

We chilled for the rest of the day as we had decided to postpone our visit to York until Sunday as the weather appeared better.  We travelled up to the park and ride (as York has a fantastic park and ride system), and were in York within the hour (I forget sometimes how close it actually is).  Then we set off to find the 40+ ice sculptures around the city (before they melted). 

It was supposed to take place in February, but when the Covid cases were rising they took the decision to postpone it another month, which was brave given that March is normally warmer temperatures. 

We had a fabulous time and in about two and a half hours we had managed to find all of the sculptures around the city.  Some of them were in full sun and so were not looking at their best when we got to them, but overall they did an amazing job and the city was full of people finding the sculptures and ticking them off the map.  We managed to find all of them (even the one that had been moved due to the floods a few weeks ago). 

Here is s selection of what we saw, needless to say the Alice sculptures were my favourites, the mad hatter one in particular as the sculpture's teapot was dripping into the tea cup which was genius. 

The rest of the week has tripped along at a merry old pace as usual, work has been incredibly busy and I declared a 'drowning not waving' status to my boss who was brilliant and spent a day clearing down my 'to do' list into a much more manageable state which I am incredibly grateful for. 

I hope you are all well and keeping busy, will catch up with posts over the weekend. 

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 9TH OF 2022

 Good Morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

Well thankfully last week the weather calmed and the sun came out with some blue skies thrown in for good measure, as we seem to have been stuck in the house for such a large period of February we decided to make the most of it. 

On Friday we headed to the town of Barnsley for their small (7) elephant trail around the town, it was brilliant and we explored areas we probably wouldn't have otherwise. 

We found this one in front of the town hall

Inside the town hall we enjoyed the museum and the current exhibition, based on a stone head being found next to a church building, the inspiration led to the creation of these wonderful wooden heads, using local wood. 

Onwards on our trial, we headed to the Cooper gallery to find the next elephant. 

and here it is, based on the children's book Elmer 

Down to the bus station 

I had to get the other side of this one as I loved the bridge. 

Into the main town centre this is the first Covid 19 commemorative piece that I've seen, very poignant and beautiful. 

We found the one that looks like Elmer in the library (of course)

And this one in the market. 

This one was in the new Glass Works shopping centre

This one in the original Alhambra shopping centre

Outside the Glassworks is this sculpture of Kes, the story based on a local lad and his pet kestrel

Then we found another museum/art gallery area, providing artistic responses to the pandemic, I loved this piece

The love Barnsley neon sign was beautiful

And is engraved in the stone plinth of the Covid 19 statues.  

On Saturday we were hoping to head to Wentworth Woodhouse to enjoy their snowdrops, but it was closed due to filming of the Crown.  So we booked and headed instead to Brodsworth and saw new sculptures designed in response to telling the story of the link between Brodsworth and the slave trade. 

There were two ships linked with the house that were slave ships, Liberty and Lottery. 

We wandered the garden, grabbed this blustery selfie

and discovered more sculptures. 

Brodsworth looked particularly pretty in the sunshine

We found some snowdrops in the sunken garden. 

Some of them were really pretty

Another sculpture with sugar cones, rum barrels and a tea pot, which confused me a little because it mentioned coffee,  I'm assuming a teapot is seen as a British 'thing' potentially. 

This one shows a large house at the back and a small rudimentary slave home in the front. 

We found a carpet of snowdrops

And hubby got a close up

There were also lots of aconites. 

The carpets of snowdrops were spectacular. 

Sunday arrived and two new art exhibits at YSP and a fine blue skies day forecast we set off bright and early. 

First stop the restaurant for a naughty breakfast 

with my breakfast date

David Nash has artworks on display in three areas, the upper space in the main centre, the Weston gallery and the Bothy, we enjoyed exploring all three which predominantly showed his artwork which he isn't as widely known for as his sculptures.  The information really was fascinating to read, I liked his 'red' work namely this piece

and this piece

Another exhibit had opened, linked with the shop (because you could buy them).  They had opened yesterday, artist Yukihiro Akame, I really did love all of these

the tallest one is actually the largest piece he has done

I also loved how the light caught them

I think there were 16 on sale and 14 of them were already sold

Genuinely loved these, originally he was an architect and now works with clay, stone, wood and other natural resources to create these works of art. 

The rest of the week has fair tripped along at a merry old pace as always and I find myself at Friday once more, I hope you've had a grand week. 

Biggest hugs