Beacon Hill

A couple of Sundays back we took a hike, up to the top of the highest point of Leicestershire... it actually felt a bit like climbing a mountain! (Well, okay, my sense of scale in these matters has been sorely shrunken by the influence of the liliputian-sized creatures i mostly hang out with...)

The woodlands were weird and whimsical....


and it was very windy at the top!




Chockers with fantastical flora...


and a bit of strange treetop fauna, too.

Yorkshire Puddings

Yesterday we drove an hour north to Yorkshire to check out the Yorkshire Sculpture Park - 500 acres of park, woodland, farm ... littered with Andy Goldsworthy, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore plus many more less known but equally notables - and an incredible contemporary gallery to boot. Worth the drive to Yorkshire! (esp in a British October heatwave of 30 degrees!)

Dzukie catching a ride (and that's the Winter/Horbelt way in the distance, up on the hill... see below):



Hiding out in Sir Anthony Carrol's "Promenade":



Vecais getting some height in order to check out Andy Goldsworthy's "Outclosure..."


Fun in the Winter/Horbelt "Basket":
The James Turrell "Deer Shelter Skyscape" was incredible, particularly the outside/inside paradox... although Dzukie was obviously loathe to leave.


We could've spent a lot longer at the Jaume Plensa show in the underground galleries...


(Mamuks pondereed this one: Stress; Anxiety; Insomonia... See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil?)

A bevvie in the cafe...

(Papuks looking a little serious. He had fun, really.)

And experience written into our flesh... ? Or just a prophecy?

Capital Connect

In September we headed down to London to check out the goods.

Largely, it was an adventure in varying modes of transportation:

The train from Notts:

Double-decker, top and front (naturally). (That's Westminster Abbey in the background)

And horizontal travel does not take precedence over vertical (circular?) travel - on the London Eye:






And other less velocitous pleasures included the Serpentine Pavillion and the Princess of Wales kids' park, both in Hyde Park:


The day ended with a great dinner and under-6's wrestling at Ilga and Mark's in Peckham (Mamuks' home away from home), although no photographic evidence... and then a mad dash to catch a train home before we all turned into pumpkins.