SHOPPING: Meadowhall (sheffield)

 

We rounded out our June week off with a trip to Meadowhall; thankfully it was pleasantly cool compared to the hellish 30+ degrees we endured on Friday! We were surprised to see a new Tudor boutique, a new Omega boutique and a new Breitling boutique coming soon... just shows how many watches they all must be selling these days, even if they are all owned by Goldsmiths/Watches of Switzerland.

DAY OUT: Kedleston Hall (Derbyshire)

 

Conveniently situated just over an hour away, Kedleston Hall presented a golden opportunity to visit a substantial stately home without spending four hours in the car on what promised to be quite a warm day. Temperature was forecast to be 23degrees, but the dashboard in the car hit 28deg on the way home. More than hot enough....

Being smart about things we decided to utilise the cooler earlier part of the day to walk the grounds. It was still pretty hot (20degrees) but fortunately quite a bit of the walk was though woods, although the ground was quite steep which I wasn't expecting. Still, it was nice to have at least some shade from the evil daystar.

On arrival we had been told that we were very lucky because today they were doing a 'soft' opening of the museum (which had been closed for two years). The words 'soft' opening should have given us some warning, but regardless we gleefully accepted our free tickets which granted us entry at 1:30pm.

The house itself was nice, with just enough plush rooms to hold the interest without descending into repetition and tediousness. There were some very grim paintings of dead animals which we could have done without and they seemed curiously misplaced in the dining room. Perhaps people liked to remind themselves of what exactly it was they were eating back then?

At the appointed hour we arrived at the very small museum, to be greeted by a woman with what can only be described as 'lesbian' hair. A tuft of blue to one side and a leopard skin effect on the back of her head. She was also wearing a sort of furry top with what looked like a monkey plaque attached to the front of it.

This lady was extremely officious and she nearly had a meltdown when she thought I had walked into her precious museum without a ticket (which let's not forget was FREE). Lots of amateurish standing about ensued, with one chap telling us to stand one way before her with the the hair (let's call her LESley) told us to stand another way so that she could address us with the VERY IMPORTANT things she had to say.

Frankly it felt like she would have been a lot happier not to re-open the museum, because it would be better for the exhibits if people didn't come and look at them. For some reason we needed torches to view the exhibits properly (well, we saw them perfectly well to be honest) but they only provided 4 torches for 24 people, they said they needed to create a plan to organize some more, or maybe start a committee to organize a plan to propose a project to acquire some more torches. Because that's how they talk.

The exhibits weren't all that exciting in all honesty, but we did our best to look interested. There was a lot of hand wringing about 'things were different in the old days' which reached unbearable levels when we discovered a poem written from the perspective of an elephant attached to a display cabinet full of ivory tat. I actually thought Rose was being facetious, but no, I discovered it was true. 

This was too much so we adjourned to the tea rooms where we served a can of Coke and a piece of Coffee Cake by a chap wearing a Rolex Air King, clearly there's money in cakes.

Overall it was a good visit, and it would have been even nicer if it had been a bit cooler and we hadn't had to deal with the museum's insufferable gatekeeper.

DAY OUT: Wells-Next-the-Sea (Beach)

 

Another visit to the sea, perhaps a little too soon after our (fairly recent) visit to East Runton to be fair, but Wells does offer a nice, flat, huge beach... although as usual you have to walk an awful long way (and navigate beach rivers) to get to the actual sea. There are also sand dunes and a forest at the back of the beach, which would all have been perfectly lovely had it been cooler. Yes, again it was too hot to be really enjoyable, but it would certainly be worth going again on a more clement day.

DAY OUT: Cotswold Sculpture Park + Cirencester

 

If ever there is a case of a website selling an attraction short, then Cotswold Sculpture Park surely fits the bill. We wrongly assumed that our stop off there on the way to Cirencester would be brief, an hour tops perhaps, but we completely underestimated the scale of the place and sheer number of sculptures on display. We ended up staying nearly three hours and we could have stayed longer, we will certainly go back as the sculptures are for sale and change fairly regularly. And even if they were larger the same, it's a really nice environment with lots of lovely trees to shade you from the hot sun.

HOPE by Jenny Pickford - £1800

ORION by Damon Price - £3200

ORDILE by Damon Price - £1350

HUNTING BARN OWL by Clare Bigger - £3500

LIBRA by Julie Tanner - £5000

SINGULARITY by Jonty Hurwitz - £36,960

HIGH JUMP by Clare Bigger - £10,000

BOLT by Matt Duke - £6950

MOONSHADOW by Stacey Beaumont - £1750

WEIGHT OF THE WORLD by Teresa Wells - £18,425

JUMP by Mike Long - £3270

PEREGRINE by Paul Harvey - £1450

TAWNY OWL by Adam Binder - £7500

HYDRANGEA by David Murphy - £9600

SWAN by Adam Binder - £23,500

LOST IN A MOMENT by Julie Tanner - £3990

THE BIRDMAN by Alan MacKenzie - £635

EAGLE ON HARE by David Hartland - Not for Sale

THE WISH by Teresa Wells - £8835

REJUVANATION by Jonty Hurwitz - £26,400

SERENITY by Kaziah Burt - £4000

SPIRIT OF THE WIND by Julie Tanner - £3800

???

WILLOW by Stewart Stockwell - £3900

TEARDROP by Richard Cresswell - £2750

SNACKTIME WITH A VIEW by Pete Rogers - £2600

CROUCHING WOMAN by Nicola Godden - £7950

BOXING HARES by Suzie Marsh - £2775

AGAPANTHUS by Jenny Pickford - £30,000

LISTEN TO THE FOREST by Brendan Murless - £3500

THE CALLING by Ian Edwards - £POA

CAT ON BALL by Paul Harvey - £950

FLOATING CUBE by Michael Haggiag - £9500

RED CLOUD SPHERE by David Murphy - £4000

SERENITY by Brendan Murless - £4500

NURTURE by Gary Boulton - £15,000

HOMAGE by Gary Boulton - £6500

MULBERRY by Stewart Stockwell - £1800

BORIS by Adam Binder - £250,000

RED KITE by Paul Harvey - £3000

THE EUCALYPTUS HAT by Jilly Sutton - £3000

BARN OWL LANDED by Paul Harvey - £1500

WINDS OF CHANGE by Brendon Murless - £6900

RED DEER STAG by Tanya Russell - £9870

OTTER by Ian Marlow - £2200

DRAGONFLY by Ed Hill - £3000

BIRD ON A BULLRUSH by Ed Hill - £350

MEADOW LEAF by Ruth Moilliet - £12500

RACER WOMAN by Beatrice Hoffman - £4500

ALLIUM by Jenny Pickford - £2800

BLUE OAK LEAF by David Murphy - £5700

HERON by Paul Harvey - £7950

RELEASE by David Watkinson - £10,800

???

SWANS by Pippa Unwin - £6000

MYRTLE by No Time to Waste - £17,500

???

AVIATOR by Richard Cresswell - £12,500

THE STORYTELLER by Pete Rogers - £1900

GOOSE GIRL by Marion Smith Girl - £7500  (Geese - £950)

THE ADVENTURERS CHECK OUT A NEW PLANET

by Pete Rogers - £3500

UNFURL by Jenny Pickford - £4200

KESTREL LANDING by Paul Hardy - £775

MIGRATE by Allan MacKenzie - £685

BUZZARD by Hayley Jones - £1385

CHEETAH by Marie Ackers - £7300

PEREGRINE by Clare Bigger - £3300

STOOP by Clare Bigger - £3500

RED BULL by Marie Ackers - £2800

STANLEY'S SHOES by Paul Pibworth - £19,200

SPRING APPLE by Hilary Cartmel - £4000

WATCH THE BIRDIE by Allan MacKenzie - £???

WHERE DRAGONS FLY by David Hartland - £Not for Sale

THE QUEEN by William Johnston - £760

After this, we headed of to Cirencester which was okay but nothing really special. We looked in a couple of shops and a couple of art galleries. The first one was a bit shit to be honest, but the second one was really good. We saw some artwork by Lisa Pang which we really liked and which was very colourful and eye catching, unfortunately it's not cheap.

There were quite a few other nice pictures in there too (Cotswold Contemporary Gallery) in the main square. We wandered aimlessly for a bit and then headed into The Kings Head, which was nice but perhaps not quite as plush as the website suggested.

We were quite thirsty and a little impatient, and after a while I went up to the bar and the lady behind it seemed genuinely surprised when I asked 'Do we order at the bar'... but it was hard to know whether we were supposed to wait for table servive or not. In the end we had a couple of Cokes and then headed home.