The importance of being flexible.

 

Plan A

On Tuesday we were going to go to Walford Mill to see the current exhibition and have lunch, and then on to Kingston Lacy for a walk in the gardens/round the house [dependent on weather] and tea.

The car had other ideas [flat battery]. The RAC man restarted it, but by then it was too late to go mad in Dorset.

So we went to Mottisfont. We had had a quick look round the current exhibition with Babybel a while ago, but it wasn’t really her sort of thing – she preferred the ribbon tree 

 

 

 

 

 

and the ‘fiss’. 

So it was good to go back for another look. I’m afraid we galloped through the Cicely Mary Barker flower fairies – this makes the third exhibition of her work I’ve been to – but the rest of the exhibition slowed us down - some really big names including Paula Rego, Peter Blake, and Cornelia Parker [wonderfully spooky, this one].

A million times better than the similarly titled exhibition at Southampton Art Gallery a couple of years ago.

Plan B

Was to swap Thursday for Tuesday and go to Dorset today.

Car starts? Check.

No traffic hold ups? Check - cleverly avoided by turning off just as one was starting.

Cafe open? Ah. 

We were hungry so…

Plan C

We went straight on to Kingston Lacy, and had a good lunch [Brie and gooseberry chutney sandwiches strongly recommended]. Then, because the weather was beautiful, we walked round the sculpture trail – work by Paula Joule Blake

My favourites were the long tailed tits, but I failed to get a good photo of them – and the sheep.

I loved the way Blake uses her materials to capture the essence of the creatures.

 

 

 

Materials? Chicken wire, what I suspect were metal lathe turnings, and plastic bags – this is the sheep’s back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then on the way out, we spotted this – tiny with the naked eye, but thanks to the brilliant zoom on our new camera, instantly recognizable [I hope] if you know what it is.

I’m sure someone out there can tell me...

I say on the way out – but when we bought lunch we were given a voucher for 10% off a cream tea – so how could we resist?

That’s my carb allowance for this week gone…