The Saturday Download

Saturday was all about the CHILL. No work, school runs, homework or housework. Yes to that. Just a big chunk of sunshine smiling down at us from deep blue skies and fluffy marshmallow clouds (we were lucky). Hello wide open countryside as far as the eye could see punctuated with sculptures that feel like friends, Saturday was the perfect day to head to this family’s happy place: The Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

See this face. This is happy mama face.

When your biggest problem is where to find the biggest stick to play Poo Sticks with and you’ve lost count on the number of puddles you’ve jumped in, you know you’ve had a good day.

These will do right?

Yay!

The YSP always feels like coming home to us, the constant that would always make us smile, whatever the week held before our time there downloading on the weekend.  When the time comes to leave ‘this home’ for another down South, I know it will be a place I’ll yearn for, however close we are to the countryside with our move.

We’ve had many happy times in its grounds, from bringing my in-laws for strolls in the spring here when they visited from South Africa, to pushing a then baby Xander up steep hills in his pram, hands clapping as Oliver ran towards waddling geese, these times are imprinted in my heart.

The ‘magic forest’ is another favourite, the trees that ‘sing’ to you as you pass.

Those boys have grown along with the park really, as seasons changed, so did they, as new sculptures were curated and planted within the park, my boys surged in height and confidence, opening gates they previously couldn’t, patting dogs they would once fear and walking further than they had before.

They also love a good game of Hide & Seek in the grounds.

Ha!

We can see you!

Yep, still!

Bahaha!

We found you that sweet son of mine!

…We even spent New Year’s Day there with my folks a few years back, lapping up all that fresh air and strong hot coffee, making a resolution to visit as much as possible over the years, promising not to break it.

We’ve enjoyed Easter egg hunts and picnics by the ‘girl bunnies’ as Xander fondly calls Sophie Ryder’s famous Lady-Hare, Sitting and Crawling pieces we all adore.

The pictures here, taken by my husband Peter, perfectly capture the YSP’s postcard perfect beauty, how it grips and envelops you with it’s eclectic mix of art meets waterfalls, forest, river and parkland, endlessly uplifting, whatever the weather.

There’s nowhere else quite like it.

We’ll be visiting as much as we can before we leave these parts in the summer, and of course, we’ll return whenever we make trips back up North.

In the meanwhile our memories will live here on the blog, and in my beating Yorkshire heart.

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