Monkey's Blog - with a little help from Alice

Catching up a bit, and introducing Ba 

At last, I've persuaded Alice to stop imagining we're ever going to catch up with everything we've missed out since June or so. So here's a few photos to give you the idea. To fit several of them in, and not have to dictate screeds of information to fit in the spaces, I've insisted we keep the images small here, but if you click on them, you can admire them in a larger size!

Ba and I have done quite a bit of travelling around with Alice now - but I never got round to introducing my new friend properly in the right context!

It all started when Alice went to Yorkshire, and met up with a friend to Do Art - again. The  hotel in Wakefield was ever so nice, and I got my very own toothbrush! Alice said it wasn't really for me, but just because she'd forgotten hers... Spoilsport!

We went first to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It's just huge, and took all day to go round. Ba would have loved it, I'm sure, being mostly out of doors, but we hadn't met her yet...

I think this was my favourite piece. Sitting is simply gigantic, one of  Sophie Ryder's versions of her mythic "Lady Hare". Its body is modelled on her own.

We saw loads of Barbara Hepworth stuff at the Hepworth Wakefield. She's the one that makes sculptures with holes in, like this. You want to stroke them - they're so sensual, aren't they? - but they don't let you.

I was taken with the heron outside. It's one of the Faceless Arts performance pieces. There's a real heron that can often be seen in the river nearby, and we did!

After the friend went home, we visited the cathedral, where I was overwhelmed by the maze and admired one of the misericords in the 15th-century choir stalls. Was it a misery to stand for the long services?

Then we took a side-trip to Bradford, to visit theNational Media Museum. Alice had to wear her trendy NeverEnding Film Title T-shirt, being the show-off she is. She got it via Letterboxd, where a friend writes jolly good reviews. [Those in the know will understand why I need to be so extremely complimentary. Don't ask, it's complicated . . . ]

Here it was we rescued Ba, from a REDUCED box in the shop. Although she can only say Baaa, she's most expressive with it. Think Hodor - go on, check him out this time! We've already told you this bit in July's post.

Ba was rather anxious about sitting on a Dalek for the photo as Dr Who, in all his guises, has had trouble with them ever since 1963. So I reassured her he'd fully deactivated this one for good.

After that, Ba came with us on Alice's Arvon Foundation Writers' Retreat at Lumb Bank.

We went on lots of absolutely beautiful long country walks.

 Well, Alice did do the actual walking.

We were near the little village of Heptonstall, so we paid a visit to Sylvia Plath's grave. What a talented poet, but what a sad ending to her life. See this New York Times review of two biographies.

Yes, in case you're asking, Alice did write some poems herself when she was on the retreat. She thinks all that walking helped arouse the inspiration from its slumber in her subconscious.
Search me. I wouldn't know.

Then we had to head home again via the sprawling station in Leeds.

Luckily we had time to pause, have lunch and find the right platform.

That's all for now, folks. I hope we don't have to wait so long for Alice to find time to write the next post and bring you a bit more up to date.

And don't forget to click on the photos, will you!