Noeline, Mother Shipton's Cave, Castle Howard and Yorkshire sculpture park

MOTHER SHIPTON'S CAVE After our return from the Lakes and Dales adventure we all took a couple of days rest, well, Noeline and I managed one day at home. On the Tuesday, leaving Gail behind to do some computer work, we took the car and drove the few miles to Knaresborough http://www.knaresborough.co.uk/ , a very pretty and historic town which is, if you like, Wetherby's neighbour to the north. It has a lot of claims to fame including providing homes for Guy Fawkes and Oliver Cromwell. It is blessed with one of the greatest English river views from up near its ruined castle and parklands but is also is home to England's oldest tourist attraction... Mother Shipton's cave and petrifying waterfall. http://www.mothershiptonscave.com/main.htm There is a long story of legend associated but the key things are,,,, it is a beautiful riverside walk through a forest, there is a waterfall under which you can leave things suspended and over 3-4 months they become "petrified" (limestoned or turned to rock by the minerals in the water), there is a cave where Mother Shipton lived and made astounding prophesy, and a wishing well where wishes are granted if you place your hand in the water, wish, and let the water dry on your hand.... Noeline and I both made very secret wishes. I have included the two web sites as I didn't take the camera that day. It was a lovely relaxed day out and we returned to take Gail out to Wetherby's Ask, a riverside pizza and pasta restaurant which is always a reliable nosh.
CASTLE HOWARD
If the photo here looks familiar you have probably seen the film Brideshead Revisited. Castle Howard is the setting of the story and the film. I am not going to go into a history session on the Castle, that can be found on http://www.castlehoward.co.uk/metadot/index.pl . What I do want to do is in just a few pictures give you a sense of what we saw . We travelled about an hour north from Wetherby on August 17 to walk in the huge grounds, gardens and to tour inside what is a magnificent, regal building. The construction of these large country English homes were either funded by sucessful traders, manufacturers using child labour, importers of sugar, spices, tea, or slavery while others like Howards Castle were built from the wealth generated from being the family of a victor on the field of war and receiving a royal grant of lands from the king in appreciation of valour and service . This first piccy is of the rear of the Castle. This next shot is the Boar lawn (Boar statue) overlooking the lake and with a view and a sky of romantic proportions. The rest of the shots here are just to let you see some of what we saw and to explain why we got so engrossed that we missed lunch, yeah I know, sounds impossible but there it is..

YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK

For those of you who remember our Cornwall adventures last June you may recall our visit to Barbara Hepworth's sculpture garden in St.Ives. She was a Yorkshire lass, as was Henry Moore (he of the big bronze statues outside NSW Art Gallery in Sydney as shown here from our last Sydney visit).

One of the biggest collections of large Moore statues are displayed at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park just south of Leeds, as well as a few fantastic Gormley works (angel of the north sculptor) about 40 minutes south from Wetherby. http://www.ysp.co.uk/view.aspx?id=3

A few of the photos we took on the day are included below but the real treat was walking miles and miles through fields and woods, stumbling across major sculptures in a natural environment, it was astoundingly good fun. We went there on August 18th. Gail and I had driven past the place (lost again) shortly after we arrived in the UK and while we were out looking for somewhere to live near Leeds, ,, that all seems like a lifetime ago...... Anyway, Gail has been wanting to return ever since and I am so glad she convinced us to go. We can all thoroughly recommend it as an adventure for one, perhaps two, maybe even three days out. There are sculptures you can puzzle over, learn from, climb in, sit, lie and sleep on, all while either watching the wonderful scenery or while being watched by the sheep and cows. The wonder is being among the scale and variety of sculptures. The whole concept and the expanse is inspiring and on a sunny day it is even more amazing. There is a wonderful cafe for a snack, a wine, or as we did, a rather too large a lunch. Before you go on to read what else we did in August, do click onto the YSP website above and have a browse.