Blogtober 2022 : Day 19

I went to see my friend Lucy yesterday.  It’s just over an hour’s drive for me from Winwick up to Skipton where she lives but yesterday, for the first time in all the years I’ve been driving up to see her, it took hours.  Two hours and a half hours, in fact, and a fair amount of that time was spent sitting in a queue on the motorway when it got shut after an accident and everyone had to wait behind a traffic officer patrol car whilst an HGV tow truck manoeuvred a lorry across the carriageway and then towed it away.

I don’t know what was going on with the traffic yesterday – prior to that there had been another accident and a car was left stranded in the middle of the motorway, all smashed up with the driver still inside.  It must have been very scary for them and I hope that someone got to them quickly to help.  I phoned the emergency services to report it (hands-free, of course) – I think it’s always easy to assume that someone else has done that but seeing the driver still in the car as I drove past really upset me and whether I was the first or the thirty-first person to phone, I just wanted someone to help them.

October seems to have been the month for heavy traffic and accidents when I’ve been out and about and I am grateful that I am still in one piece to tell you about them!  It’s funny, I would never normally mention them but writing Blogtober posts seems to mean that you get all the smaller details of my days as well as the bigger stuff!

When I finally got up to Skipton and met up with Lucy, we left the town and headed a few miles further up the road to Bolton Abbey.  We’ve been here a few times before and Lucy also talks about it a lot on her blog as she walks here quite often with her family; it’s a lovely place to visit.  (There are lots of photos in this post including The Strid, a natural water feature which gives me the creeps every time I see it! 🙂 )

Oh, what a joy it was to be safely out of the car and looking across the river at that beautiful sky!

The River Wharfe is running high, the brown water breaking over the rocks. The sky is a brilliant blue and the trees are beautiful autumn shades

This was supposed to be an arty photo of my cup of hot chocolate with the Bolton Abbey cafe in the background, but a combination of not having my specs on to see where I was focussing and being a bit twitchy because I was in need of some sugar sustenance has resulted in this photo instead.

A view across the river to the Bolton Abbey cafe and a bridge with an out of focus paper cup of hot chocolate in the foreground

Ah well, you’ve got a good view of the cafe and the bridge!

We had planned to come to Bolton Abbey because there’s an exhibition on at the moment in the Priory Church featuring the moon, and after finishing our drinks, we set off along the path on a circular route that took us along the side of the river and would loop back past the church.

Oh, that sky!  Autumn days like this are just perfect, you want to bottle them up and keep them for the drab days of Winter that are part and parcel of that season.

Aeroplane vapour trails in a blue sky. There are white clouds and the sun is shining through the branches of a tree.

I’ll write more about our walk tomorrow, but let me just show you these hills …

A hill in the distance with shadows created by cloudsA closer view of a hill with shadows created by clouds

We watched the shadows move across them as the clouds broke up the sunshine and they looked amazing.

But now, are you ready to see the moon?

The exhibition is Museum of the Moon by artist Luke Jerram – you may have seen Gaia, a giant representation of the earth, which was one of his earlier installations – and it is currently touring with a stay at Bolton Abbey until 31 October 2022.

The moon is seven metres across, suspended from the wooden ceiling, and features detailed NASA imagery; each centimetre of the moon represents 5km of the moon’s surface.  I did wonder before we saw it whether I’d just be thinking we’d walked into a real life version of the film Despicable Me where the main character tries to shrink the moon to steal it, but actually, once we were there, I didn’t think about that at all.

It’s beautiful, and the soundtrack that was playing was lovely.

A partial view of the Luke Jerram moon against the wooden ceiling and stone walls of Priory Church, Bolton AbbeyThe Luke Jerram Museum of the Moon installation at Bolton Abbey Priory ChurchA partial view of the Luke Jerram moon against the wooden ceiling and stone walls of Priory Church, Bolton AbbeyA partial view of the Luke Jerram moon at Bolton Abbey. In the background are the stone walls and stained glass windows of the churchThe Luke Jerram moon showing the colours of the stained glass window of Priory Church at Bolton AbbeyAn darkened picture of the Luke Jerram moon to show the colours of the stained glass window of Priory Church at Bolton Abbey

I’ve darkened this last photo a little so that you can see the stained glass reflections which were just stunning.

Surprisingly to me, the moon was smooth with the surface printed on like a picture on a large balloon, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that from the photographs, and at night the moon is lit from within and I can imagine that makes it look far more “lifelike” if you could call the moon that.

I was glad we went.

And then it was time for this pair to go and seek out some lunch.  Come for a walk around the Bolton Abbey estate with us tomorrow!

Christine (Winwick Mum) and Lucy (Atti24) are smiling at the camera.

 

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18 Responses

  1. Simon says:

    I’m glad you had such a lovely day for your walk ’round the Abbey, it looks spectacular!

  2. Charlotte says:

    It’s so nice to have a special friend. Enjoy !

  3. ChrisG says:

    Love your trips together! That moon is stunning and so is the blue sky of your bright autumn day ☀️

  4. Barbara says:

    Ooh I can imagine how awful that car journey was. At least you had a good day with Lucy. Oh that moon installation looks incredible. How effective in the church with the beautiful window. Thanks for the Tincats recommendation it looks great. B x

    • winwickmum says:

      I was very glad that I had my Emergency Sock in the car, and it was certainly worth it to get out into the fresh air afterwards. The light on the moon from the windows was really beautiful, I was so glad we had gone 🙂 xx

  5. Julie says:

    Some lovely photos, especially of the two of you at the end!
    There must have been something in the air regarding driving badly yesterday, we were out and about on country roads (not particularly narrow ones, it must be said) and had a few scares where on coming drivers were more than half way over to our side – as you say, a relief to reach your destination safe and sound (with the possibility of a restorative cuppa, of course!).

    • winwickmum says:

      I think you’re right – even going home the traffic was ridiculous and I was very glad to reach the end of that drive in one piece too – and I’m glad that you did as well! xx

  6. Susan Rayner says:

    We love Bolton Abbey – we stayed at the Devonshire Arms once – way back when – and loved the area and the walks – the only time we have beento Harrogate and Skipton too!
    I do hope that poor driver was rescued – such a ghastly thing to happen!
    Nice to see a photo of you and Lucy! Wish I could crochet whenever I see her designs!

  7. Jennifer says:

    Beautiful moon display 😍 I’ve never seen it displayed that way. You are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. Can’t wait to see tomorrow’s post. Say hello to Lucy for all of us 🌺

    • winwickmum says:

      I will do! She’s looking very well and rested after her French retreat 🙂 The moon is lovely – it travels all over the world so it’s worth having a look at the Museum of the Moon website to see if it’s coming anywhere near where you are xx

  8. Helen says:

    Oh what a beautiful moon! You can really see how many times it’s been hit by debris too.

    The journey sounds horrific, hope going home was better.

    Lovely pics and hooray for emergency Sock

    • winwickmum says:

      It’s quite amazing how detailed the surface is – I thought it was fascinating! Oh yes, everyone should have an Emergency Sock … I really must replace my Emergency Snack as well! 🙂

  9. Teresa says:

    O i have so enjoyed this post the photos of the moon are amazing i so glad you had a wonderful time meeting up with Lucy from attic 24. Hope 5hat your journey home was a safe one

    • winwickmum says:

      I’m really glad you’ve enjoyed the post! We had such a lovely day walking and chatting and yes, although the journey home was still through busy traffic, I made it back in one piece thank you! xx

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