A journey of creative thoughts and projects.

Working in conjunction with a wonderful local museum, surrounded by the beauty of Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales, the inspiration I find for creative projects and a meet up with all the lovely people I find there.

Monday 13 June 2011

A very english museum!!


Today I thought I might take you on a quick wander around the museum entrance, not grand but perfectly formed in its own unique way!
You can see how closely the privately run museum is linked to the life of the owners - to reach the museum door you get to take a peek at their veg. plot, catch a glimpse of the visiting garden birds and admire some lovely english garden flowers... and yes the museum relies totally on donations and goodwill, it is not financed by local authorities/government. When it was taken on around 8 years ago the artefacts were basically rescued from heading to a skip, thankfully they are all now held in trust.


here is the unusual but very effective 'doorbell' which lets us know when visitors are here - adorned as it is right now with a perfect red english rose!


The stone walls of this old building (- it used to be a schoolroom and hence the bell at the entrance - playtime is over children!) the walls are a lovely foil for the mixed blues of the delphiniums.....


a pyracantha shrub hides the inevitable oil tank so necessary in the Dales but also provides hiding places for the sparrows....


these fresh-faced pansies give a colourful greeting to those using the museum 'holiday cottage' that sits right beside the museum itself - an unusual container - I shall have to find out what it used to be...
(If you are interested in the holiday cottage just go to the museum web-site for details, the link is just to the right!)


As for my day at the museum, as ever it was humming with the chatter of the volunteers but also lots of visitors. This is the time of year when Swaledale hosts its annual cultural festival, lots of wonderful music happens and this week we were given a wonderful rendition on the museums' harmonium by two 'wandering minstrels' - namely THE HUT PEOPLE who usually play accordion and percussion. Apparently we were also visited by a certain Lloyd Grossman who was visiting for the festival - but I am ashamed to say I never noticed, I had gotten my nose stuck into the blackbird embroidery I had taken to work on and never looked up!! Ooops!!

Then unexpectedly this little beauty turned up with two visitors who were asking if it could be identified.... curator to the rescue and she identified it as an english 'groat' probably from the era of Edward III. You know, I could get interested in history after all!!


Till next time - what else will be unearthed I wonder.

1 comment:

  1. What a pretty museum - it certainly doesn't look like most people's mental image of such a place:)

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