A weekend away

We are just back from a weekend in the south west, staying with my brother near Cheltenham. I spent a few years of my childhood here, near Cirencester, so it is familiar territory. As I moved around quite a bit as a child, I always find it reassuring to return to places where I grew up and to re-aquaint myself with them.

My brother has a stream in his garden so of course the boys spent hours digging and re-channelling the water. I wonder if we had our stream, would they spend as much time in it or is it the novelty factor here that is the draw?

Paddling fun

On Sunday we spent the day in Bristol, a city we all decided we’d like to return to as there seemed so much to see and do here. It’s got quite an edgy feel to it with lots of shack-style cafes teaming with hip-looking twenty and thirty somethings.

Bristol’s waterway

The waterfront is where it is happening with lots more cafes and bars right spilling onto the water’s edge. We took the regular commuter riverboat from Temple Quay down to the MShed further down the river. Traffic does clog up the roads here so this is seems like a good way to travel and you get a good look at the city at the same time.

Me and Ted on the riverboat

The boys admiring the view

Could this be Amsterdam’s Herengracht canal?

Check out that cafe on the waterfront

The MShed is Bristol’s new museum, housed in a dockside transit shed, on Princes Wharf beside the floating harbour. It’s free admission and is a good place to learn about the story of Bristol from its great engineering projects and its creative input in the world of art, music and industry as well as its role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

A talking crane

There’s a light and spacious family-friendly cafe here too with big glass windows so you can look out onto all the river action. Coffee and brownies were the order of the day.

We walked back through town past the Bristol Old Vic Theatre which I explained to the boys had been the training epicentre for many of our well known actors and actresses. The theatre is in a charming cobbled street lined with a host of olde worlde pubs – plenty of choice for a post-show bevvie. I bet they’ve got some stories to tell……

We definitely want to return here as there was so much we didn’t get to see in just one day. It’s the sort of place you could come for a few days, spending time in the city as well as getting out into the countryside around it.

The Lumber Room: unimagined treasures

I had never heard of a Lumber Room until I visited the newly refurbished York Art Gallery last week.

The Lumber Room

The Lumber Room here is an exhibition curated by artist in residence Mark Hearld using a fantastic array of miscellaneous pictures and objects selected from the stores of York Art Gallery, the Yorkshire Museum and York Castle Museum.

It’s a wonderful concept and a clever use of hidden treasures that may never get to be seen otherwise. Anyone familiar with Hearld’s work will know he is the perfect choice to curate such a room. Much of his own art is made up of fragments and collage on a painted background. His own home in York, which he opens to the public as part of York Open Studios, is an Aladdin’s Cave with wooden dressers adorned with unusual Victorian memorabilia and artwork covering every wall.

Hearld took the idea for The Lumber Room from a short story by Saki (a 19th century British writer whose real name was Hector Hugo Munro). As a boy, he remembered a teacher reading The Lumber Room to him. It was a short story about a young boy who tries to unlock the mysteries held in a room ‘secure from unauthorised intrusion.’

‘It came up to his expectation. In the first place it was large and dimly lit…..in the second place it was a storehouse of unimagined treasures’.

This image is exactly what Hearld has created. The art gallery’s Lumber Room is a cornucopia of finds; dappled horses from a disbanded carousel set out in a line, a collection of English Delft plates propped up on a dresser and Victorian capes and military jackets adorning the walls. There are also glass cabinets of taxidermy and a shoal of river fish juxtaposed amongst Hearld’s own paintings.

Collection of plates

Words of wisdom on a little teapot

The rest of the gallery is impressive with light flooding the entrance to the building. The gallery’s collections have been pulled together mixing art spanning the centuries. For example, one of the rooms has paintings and prints of York, some dating back to the 17th century and others painted in the present day, so many different images yet all of the same city.

A painting of York’s bridges

The Lycett Green collection has a dedicated room. This impressive collection comprising 136 old masters was bequeathed to York Art Gallery in 1955 by the philanthropist F.D Lycett Green. Its acquisition marked a turning point for the gallery, which now had a collection representing all the major schools of European art history from the renaissance to the 19th century.

Portrait from the Lycett Green Collection

The gallery also houses the Centre Of Ceramic Art or CoCA on the first floor. I loved the 17-metre long wall of pots, a collection of more than 1,000 pots dating from Roman times to the present day and grouped by colour co-ordination.

Artist Clare Twomey’s installation of 10,000 bowls is at the centre of this gallery and their purity of colour really shows off the new gallery space’s ceiling. A community of helpers in and around York helped Twomey make the bowls, each one taking an hour to make and representing one of the 10,000 hours it takes to become a master craftsman.

colourful pots on display

The gallery used to be free to enter and now it’s not. It’s either £7.50 for a single visit or there is an option to buy an annual pass. I ended up buying the annual pass for £22 allowing unlimited entry to York Art Gallery, the Yorkshire Museum and the Castle Museum for a year. Kids go free at all times. As someone living locally, I didn’t think this was a bad deal – and on the positive side it will ensure we make time to visit these wonderful galleries and museums on our doorstep.

Bunting and tea and cake with Lauren Child in the party tent

It’s been a fairly whirlwind weekend. The family and I started off by decorating a huge tent with yards of floral bunting and fairy lights for a Ryedale Book Festival event I was hosting with Lauren Child.

Ted with his nose pressed up against the tent

Lauren is the creator of Charlie and Lola, Clarice Bean and many more wonderful picture books which all have detailed pictures of homely interiors so we also recreated a cosy living room in one corner of the tent with armchairs, a rocking chair and crochet throws.

The living room set

The event took place on Sunday afternoon in the grounds of The Old Lodge, an old 17th century Tudor Lodge in Malton, where the marquee had been put up. As her books are so visual, the event started off with Lauren showing the young audience how she creates her collages using textiles, wallpaper and colour. It was fascinating to see her process of work and made me realise that she is as much an artist as an author.

Lauren explaining how she creates her illustrations

Lauren explaining how she creates her collages

Lauren’s collection of books

Actress Cal Stockbridge gives a wonderful reading of Clarice Bean

We had a lovely reading of Clarice Bean, That’s Me, by actress Cal Stockbridge, who brought the characters to life with her wonderful way of storytelling.

Then it was over to me to do an interview with her asking her about her books, characters and her work. She is a great interviewee and had lots to say that kept the kids enthralled for over an hour. The kids, of course, had their own questions. It was hard keeping track of all the little hands that kept shooting up in front of us to ask a question.

Getting started with my questions

Lauren gets into full swing

After the questions there was a tea party and quiz activities and Lauren was happy to sign books which was hugely popular with her young fans as they waited patiently with books tucked under their arms for her to sign. She gave each of them a lot of time and a chance for a bit more chatter.

Young fans getting their books signed

Lauren’s personal style is a bit like her books, she has an original look – for this event she wore a pretty patterned dress and pink cardigan teamed with a sturdy pair of black Dr Marten boots.

A hundred Charlie and Lola bags holding the party tea

The event inevitably over-ran. Maybe it’s best not to put a time limit on such events. In the end myself and the team went with the flow and adapted to the ever-changing format of the day.

Happy Birthday Charlie and Lola. 15 years old today!

There was a happy birthday to Charlie and Lola who are 15 this year – and we sang happy birthday again as two of the children in the audience also had a birthday – although not that old!

We were lucky enough to have some quiet time with Lauren afterwards to enjoy tea, cake and fizz. My boys thoroughly enjoyed the event. My eldest son came into his own helping with tasks and even trying to sort out Lauren’s powerpoint which she had planned to use before deciding on the artwork presentation.

All in all, it was a great afternoon and a fantastic experience which we will all remember.

A great day in the party tent

All photos above courtesy of Tom Needham

Joseph and William with Lauren Child

Birthday Tea with Charlie and Lola

This weekend is the Ryedale Book Festival and I am thrilled to be interviewing children’s author Lauren Child as part of one of the events for children.

Lots to do at the Ryedale Book Festival

I love Lauren Child’s books and her illustrations. Her picture books contain such wonderful detail that often convey so much more than words could ever say. Her eclectic style of illustrating and writing was unique when the first Charlie and Lola and Clarice Bean picture books came out, using collage, snippets of fabric and real photos.

William enjoying Clarice Bean, That’s Me

I got involved with the book festival three years ago doing publicity and press work. It’s a great addition to our local town, Malton, which also hosts the Malton Food Lovers Festival.

Last year I hosted an event at the book festival with author Susie Steiner talking about her book The Homecoming, which is based in the North York Moors.

The event with Lauren Child will be slightly different in format including a tea party for Charlie and Lola in a huge tent, celebrating 15 years since the first Charlie and Lola book.

Another of Lauren’s great books

The audience will be children so I have really had to think carefully at how I pitch my questions, and making sure I ask Lauren questions that the kids would want to know the answers to. Of course, the kids will get a chance to ask their own questions too.

 

Fresh air and the great outdoors

With three boys I am always on the lookout for ways to have fun outside with them. They have boundless energy and a curiosity to explore. I feel our best times together are when we are outdoors whether walking, camping or frantically digging dams at the beach.

My boys digging away at the beach

Last weekend the weather was beautiful – bright, dry and crisp – so we were determined to make the most of it. We went on a walk using a great little guide that my parents gave us. Making Tracks is a fun activity walking pack created especially for children. It contains 12 interesting and easy to follow short walks in the North York Moors. Other packs area available covering the Lake District, the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales.

Making Tracks activity pack

The design is beautifully hand-illustrated with child-friendly maps and images.

Lovely artwork

We have done of few of the walks from the packs now and all have been hugely enjoyable. This weekend we did the walk from Thornton-le-Dale to Ellerburn, a beautiful hidden dale with an old church dating back to the 11th century.

The church at Ellerburn

Looking back at Ellerburn

The boys had a great time paddling in the stream that the walk follows. But no matter how many times I tell them not to wade too deep, they always seem to get water over the top of their wellies and end up with soggy feet – or worse.

Ted getting drenched

We have done a few of these walks including Falling Foss, Roseberry Topping and Hutton le Hole and all have been walks that have taken us off the beaten track to enjoy some stunning scenery.

Roseberry Topping aka Yorkshire’s Matterhorn

Worth the climb – the view from the top of Roseberry Topping

The Hermitage at Falling Ross

I wonder who lives here? A door in the tree at Falling Foss