Fun with my son

I've just realised that I've missed out a couple of the fun days out I've had this Easter. All I can say is that I always forget to do my homework on my holidays. Also I wonder what I did with my time before he was born. We get to go to great places and usually only because he's a kid.

On Monday we went to the Hepworth Gallery and got to make sculptures based on Barbara Hepworth's work.




Mine


My son's



We also got to see what Hepworth created







And my son got to get tactile with a sculpture (supervised and with gloves on)







That day we also went to Conisbrough Castle which has a fabulous Norman keep and was the birthplace of Richard of York (readers of this blog will be aware of my obsession with the House of York in the Cousins' War)





A few days later and we are hundreds of miles south and enjoying the beach at Studland . We took part in an Easter egg hunt and got the traditional reward.











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Roman invaders to Italianate Palazzo

Holidays are fabulous, aren't they? The freedom to sleep until you awake and to spend your time as you will. Sometime soon this blog will be a year old and, like last year, I'm in Dorset.

I've been coming here all my life and so I'd think that there aren't that many attractions that I haven't visited already but I'm always surprised by how much this county offers. My family hail from the area around Corfe Castle which was thoroughly wrecked in the Civil War. This week I got to visit the home, Kingston Lacy, that the Bankes family moved to following the destruction of the castle.

It's a very imposing Italianate building and set in stunning grounds.




My favourite room was the little attic room where little Bankes children slept in a room decorated to look like a tent.





The National Trust think about all their visitors and are great about putting out toys for children who might find herbaceous borders less than interesting. My son had a great time playing cricket and tennis against his Grandpa and joking that the mummy sarcophagus playing backstop moved a bit faster than me as fielder.




Kingston Lacy's grounds are famous: particularly the quiet grace of the Japanese garden.







After we finished at Kingston Lacy we went to the Iron Age fort at Badbury Rings The weather had been gloriously sunny all day whilst in the refined gardens of Kingston Lacy but the sky turned grey and brooding for our trip to the fort, very appropriately.








When up on the ramparts looking at Dorset rolling into the distance you get a real sense of how alien Dorset must have been to the Roman centurions sent here all those millennia ago.


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Gorgeous Georgians

It's the Easter holidays and so every minute is important as they are my minutes. Additionally the sun was out and we had a new sat nav to try out. My son researched the two options of Conisborough castle and Beningbrough Hall and chose the latter.

Beningbrough is a beautiful Georgian house with great gardens and an amazing cafè. We sat in the walled gardens in the spring sunshine reading my book whilst my son read 'Black Beauty' on my new Kindle. He also played tennis with some of the games thoughtfully provided.



We also had a walk round the gardens which are great for kids as there are labyrinths to run around and secret dens inside bushes.






Inside the house they have a brilliant interactive portrait room where you get to Photoshop yourself into a Georgian portrait.










Finally, as is traditional, we had tea. I discovered the joy of fruit cake and cheese. Game changed.








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Vacuum bazookas but no custard firebombs

This weekend we went to Cambridge to stay with my wonderful friend Highwaylass and to visit the University of Cambridge Science Festival.

Something I will never understand is that there are people who aren't interested in science. It's a tradition with my son and me that he stays up on Monday nights to watch Bang Goes the Theory and we love science programmes in general. The Cambridge Science fair was a brilliant opportunity to see some hands-on science (and lots of explosions).

In the morning we did the traditional tour of town looking at the colleges through their railings and refusing to pay to be punted down the Cam.










Then in the afternoon we left the dreaming spires (yes, I know that's Arnold on Oxford) and went to the impressively hi-tech laboratories at the Cavendish.

Our first lecture was called Vacuum Bazookas and Custard Powder bombs and was about the properties of air. The vacuum cleaner bazooka / machine gun was great fun. There was also the opportunity to look at how gases behave in liquid nitrogen and a hot air balloon made via a toaster. The finale was not the custard bomb but instead liquid nitrogen lobbed in a paddling pool with water and washing up liquid to impressive effect.






Vacuum bazooka








Afterwards my son got to make a parachute from a bag & Kinder egg and launch it from a water propelled rocket.

















Other events involved learning to laser scan and looking at a raspberry Pi.







The highlight for my son was being picked in a lecture on the properties of light to be a demonstrator




On the Sunday we continued a family tradition and completed our fourth Sport Relief mile together. I'm so touched by the generosity of family and friends.











On the way home we visited the lopsided but beautiful Ely cathedral




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Whilst the mouse is away

This weekend my son is at a Cub Viking boat burning festival and visiting his Dad. This gave me the time to spend some time being a grown up. Or as close to being a grown up as I am able to approximate. I've been in London seeing a band you've probably never heard of unless you have spent a fair amount of time with me. If you have spent a fair amount of time with me since 1994 you will unquestionably have heard of the mighty My Life Story.

On arriving in London we went to the Embankment and, true to my English teacher soul, headed straight to the Globe theatre to hit the gift shop for Shakespeare oriented gifts to fail to entertain children with.




After that we went to Tate Modern and both scoffed at and enjoyed the works in equal measure. I was amused by one work which gave a very accurate astrological reading for me as a Virgo.












Then it was off to the gig to see My Life Story. In a lot of ways I over identify with My Life Story. For starters, I named myself after them on Twitter. In general, the lyrics of every song seem to have something to say to me about my life (yes, I know that's a Smiths quote) and finally I've been travelling Britain to watch them since 1994. I've seen them so many times I can't remember where and when. I've driven from
York to London through snow that Good King Wenceslas would baulk at to spend New Year's Eve with them. There is only one photo of me with a bloke in my living room and it's of me with the lead singer, Jake Shillingford. Suffice to say my love of this band would be dangerous were I not a well balanced human being.







Now I have a terrible confession. Today was the first time I ever went into the British Museum. This is a failing that I can barely comprehend. For somebody who loves history the way I do the fact I could have lived in the same country as the Rosetta stone for upwards of 40 years and never seen it is utterly incomprehensible. The museum is so utterly breathtaking that I honestly was overcome and borderline tearful on a number of occasions. I cannot wait to return to London with my son and show him its treasures.























The Rosetta stone







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