Another Place

I've read about Sir Antony Gormley's Another Place on various blogs. You can read what Snowbird wrote on her Men of Iron - Another Place and Summer Sizzlers posts on her Gardens & Wildlife blog, what Angel Jem wrote on her Another Time... Another Place... post on her Angel Jem's City Cottage blog and more recently, what Travel Knitter wrote on her After The Show post on her Travel Knitter blog.

As Mick had taken the last week in August off work, we decided that one of the places we'd like to visit would be Crosby Beach where one hundred life size iron men stand looking out to sea. Sir Antony Gormley used casts of his own body to create these figures and each one weighs 650 kilos. He says: "In this work, human life is tested against planetary time. This sculpture exposes to light and time the nakedness of a particular and peculiar body, no hero, no ideal, just the industrially reproduced body of a middle-aged man trying to remain standing and trying to breathe, facing a horizon busy with ships, moving materials and manufactured things around the planet."

You wouldn't say that Crosby Beach was a beautiful place, it's very industrial with cargo ships sailing by and a wind farm off in the distance, but it's a fascinating place with all these figures in different stages rising out of the sand.

Some of the figures have been clothed by visitors to the beach, it was quite eerie watching the sea lap around this one as the clothing made this iron man seem more human.

Archie was very inquisitive. I've known him bark at statues before now, but he didn't in this case.

It was a blustery day and ripples were being made on the sand by the wind.

There were so many razor clam shells that you really couldn't avoid stepping on them.

This figure had been dressed in ladies clothing which Archie found most strange.

Unfortunately, the skirt got wet before the sea had come in. Naughty Archie.

I'm not sure that this iron man could swim. At least he's got something to keep him afloat when the tide comes in.

I really enjoyed my visit. I find this sculpture very thought provoking and it's one of those which will definitely have different meanings to different people.

Whilst we were in the area, we took advantage and headed off to a place we've wanted to visit for a long time. I'll tell you all about it in my next post.

Fourth Blog Anniversary Giveaway Winner

Thank you for the many entries I received for my Fourth Blog Anniversary Giveaway and also for the wonderful comments you left me, they were all very much appreciated. I've never had so many comments on one post before, I truly appreciated every one of them.

There were so many entries that I got Eleanor to write all the names out for me, fold up the pieces of paper and pop them in the hat. The name which was drawn at random was Sally A from Crafty Northerner blog. I don't think that Sally lives too far away from me so the parcel won't be travelling very far at all. Can you please let me have your name and address details so that I can get your prize sent out to you.

I'd love to be able to send something to everyone who left a comment, but that's impossible, so instead I hope you'll all accept my grateful thanks for popping by and reading my blog, I'm truly thankful that you do.

The White Horse Of Kilburn

On Bank Holiday Monday, after visiting Helmsley, which I wrote about in my last post, we headed off to Yorkshire Lavender which you can read about on my Garden Visiting In August post over on my other blog, The Good Life. We still wasn't ready to head home after there so we decided to go and see the White Horse of Kilburn.

Kilburn is a lovely village just on the edge of the North York Moors. Robert Thompson, the furniture maker who was known as The Mouseman because he carved a mouse in to the pieces of furniture he made, lived here and there's a visitor centre in the village.

The village is so pretty with lots of beautiful cottages.

I loved these cottages, where you have to cross a little bridge over a stream before you walk up the garden path.

There's a bit of an olde worlde feeling to the village, you don't often see red telephone boxes any more, or these type of post boxes.

Abour a mile outside the village is the White Horse which we'd come to see. Cut in to the hillside, the figure is 318 feet long by 220 feet high and covers about 1.6 acres.

It was created in 1857 by school master, John Hodgson and his pupils, with local volunteers after being designed and financed by a native of Kilburn, Thomas Taylor who was a Victorian businessman.

The horse is cut in to limestone which needs artificial whitening. Chalk chippings from the Yorkshire Wolds are now used for this purpose.

There's a car park right below the horse where you can park up and take a walk through woodland right the way up to the horse itself, but you need to be a little distance away to be able to get a good view of it. As the weather we'd left at home had caught up with us by this time, we didn't venture in to the woods, though I'm sure Archie would have loved it, so we'll definitely return another day to take that walk.

If you haven't already entered my giveaway, don't forget to do so. You have until twelve noon on Thursday the 11th of September 2014 to leave a comment on my Fourth Blog Anniversary Giveaway post

Helmsley

I'm quite behind at the moment telling you about the days out we've had just lately so I shall be trying to catch up.

Two weeks ago, it was Bank Holiday Monday. The weather forecast for West Yorkshire wasn't very good, but North Yorkshire looked better so we decided on a trip to Helmsley.

Helmsley is a market town and it's a lovely place to have a wander round. There's lots of little independent shops which are great for browsing.

I'd have liked to have had a look in these craft barns but they were all closed, what a shame.

There's a walled garden in Helmsley which I've been wanting to visit for a while, but Eleanor wasn't very keen so we decided to leave that for another day. We did go in to the nursery though.

Outside the walled garden are some gardens which have been planted up by children from local schools.

Don't the sweet peas look beautiful?

You can see Helmsley Castle from the town but I've never been in, that's somewhere else for my list of places to visit, it gets longer by the day.

We passed a happy couple of hours ambling around Helmsley, it's such a pretty little town.

I'll tell you more about our day next time.

If you haven't already entered my giveaway, don't forget to do so. You have until twelve noon on Thursday the 11th of September 2014 to leave a comment on my Fourth Blog Anniversary Giveaway post.

College Girl

It was Eleanor's first day in the Sixth Form on Thursday. She was up bright and early to get ready, she doesn't have to wear a uniform any longer, which she's very pleased about.

The A level subjects she's taking are English Language, Biology, Sociology and Psychology and she's enjoying them all so far. Homework has been heaped up on her already so she's been working very hard.

A whole new chapter of her life has just begun but I'm sure she'll rise to the challenge it brings.

If you haven't already entered my giveaway, don't forget to do so. You have until twelve noon on Thursday the 11th of September 2014 to leave a comment on my Fourth Blog Anniversary Giveaway post.

A Birthday In Skeggy

It was my birthday yesterday. I got some lovely gifts, including a new pig from Mick to join Mavis and Joffrey on the lawn, this one (on the right) has been named Hetty.

Daniel bought me a couple of very cute solar owls, their eyes are so bright at night.

Eleanor bought me (amongst other things) a gorgeous new purse, I love it.

I got so many gifts this year from both family and friends, chocolate and wine too and some money as well as lots of lovely cards.

Mick hadn't told me until I was in bed on Tuesday night, but he'd booked the day off work so it meant that we could go out for the day. Both he and Eleanor had put their heads together and Eleanor came up with a day out in Skegness. I often talk about the family holidays I had with my mum and dad in Skegness, they were the best holidays ever, but it's many, many years since I've been so I thought it was a wonderful idea.

We left quite early, without breakfast, so we stopped at a service station for a sausage sarnie from Greggs.

It took us a little over two hours to get there which is much quicker than it used to take us nearly forty years ago. New roads have been built in this time which bypass all the little towns and villages we used to pass through.

The first familiar sight when we arrived was the clock tower, though it looked as though it could do with a bit of a clean up. It was built in 1898-99 to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

We used to stay in a small hotel when I went on holiday with my mum and dad. We used to meet up with some other families who had children around my age and we all had a brilliant time. I went to see if the hotel was still there, and it was.

The Northdale Hotel was run by Peter and Hazel Hall when we used to stay there, and they were brilliant hosts, often putting on a fancy dress party during the week we were staying. We had so much fun.

We spent so much of the day just walking round while I reminisced. Most of the attractions that I remembered were still there.

I used to love this Fairy Dell paddling pool, though it's undergone a major refurbishment in recent years. They did keep the original fountain though.

I remember the outdoor swimming pool but this wasn't it. The original one was closed in the 1980s, to be replaced by another 50 yards away.

I'm pleased to see that Natureland is still there. It was opened in 1965 and works to return abandoned baby seals which are washed up on the beach in need of medical care back to the sea. We didn't go in, but you can see the seals swimming about from the outside.

I used to love the Pleasure Beach when I was young, now I'm the coat and bag holder whenever we go to a funfair, I don't like the rides at all.

Something which wasn't here when we used to visit was the Lincs Wind Farm, you can just make out the wind turbines in this photo, they stand about five miles off the coast. This project was only completed last year.

It was a lovely day when we arrived but the sun went in a little later, there weren't many people on the beach.

We always used to hire a beach chalet but they're no longer there, a car park now stands in their place.

A lasting memory is of us all heading down for a game of crazy golf after tea. This is the exact same crazy golf that we used to play.

Eleanor and I had a little flutter on the 2p shove machines.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day. I loved my holidays as a child and I don't think I was wrong about Skegness, it's still got lots to offer if you like traditional English seaside holidays.

I'm not going to leave it so long to return again.

If you haven't already entered my giveaway, don't forget to do so. You have until twelve noon on Thursday the 11th of September 2014 to leave a comment on my Fourth Blog Anniversary Giveaway post.

Fourth Blog Anniversary Giveaway

Today is my fourth blog anniversary. After all this time, I'm still enjoying writing my blog as much as I did when I first started it. Connecting with so many people from all around the world is a joy, so as a little thank you to you all, and as is now customary on my blog anniversaries, I'm having a little giveaway.

I couldn't resist picking up these fat quarters when I saw them, aren't they cute?

Creative Cotton Print yarn. I love variegated yarn, it means I can knit something in more than one colour without having to keep changing between different colours. Five little buttons, I saw these and thought they were so pretty.

A matryoshka notebook.

Heart pins, ideal for crafts as they're quite long. A little book of nail files to keep in your handbag. I'm always wishing I'd got a nail file in my bag when a nail breaks and I'm out and about.

I may also add something a little choclatey before the package is sent out.

So there you go, if you fancy being in with a chance of winning these goodies, just leave me a comment on this post before twelve noon on Thursday the 11th of September 2014. A name will be drawn at random soon after. If you mention my giveaway on your blog, I'll enter your name twice, just let me know that you've done it.

All that's left for me to do now is to thank each and every one of you who takes the time to read my posts, and especially those who comment, it really wouldn't be as much fun without you so thank you very much.