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we've lived in this town for 9 years now - it's a "New Town" on the side we live - built from the mid 1950's onward to a design by Sir Frederick Gibberd. The area where we live was one of the first areas to be completed, and the town as a whole was designed to incorporate lots of open space - even now around one third of the town is green space, with the Town Park being one of the largest of its type anywhere in the UK. As a result of this, there are lots of places to walk to - just perfect for a lovely crisp sunny winters day like today! Having been stuck indoors while the plumber worked his magic fitting our new shower this morning (New definition of luxury: A piping hot shower, in your OWN bathroom! Hurrah!) I was itching to get out and stretch my legs so after lunch I grabbed my camera and set off. My intention had been to walk through to the Old bit of the town and explore there a but, but prior to that I got a touch distracted.....mostly by the gate above..... Obviously I knew that we HAD a museum. In fact, I think I even went there once, years ago, when it went under the name of the "Mark Hall Cycle Museum" - now it is the Town Museum, and I'm sure is jolly interesting, but I'm not going to be telling you about that I'm afraid as I never even made it in through the doors! I crossed the road right by the gates to the Museum gardens...and the gate was open - I couldn't resist going in for a look...

Have you ever read the book "The Secret Garden"? Well, that was exactly what this felt like! At first, walking through the gate, it seemed like a fairly small, but interesting nonetheless, walled garden, but the more I walked through, the more bits of it I kept finding - there is a rose garden, lots of sculptures dotted around, and even a whole area dedicated to unusual fruits! (Including a Medlar Tree! And Quinces!) Actually, scrub the Secret garden reference - the more I walked about, the more it felt Alice In Wonderland-ish! We sort of knew it was there - this is the daft thing, but in a sort of "Oh yes, that's the Museum gardens" kind of way, rather than actually feeling any great urge to go visit - so if there's somewhere in your area that you feel like that about - go visit it! You never KNOW what you might be missing! You know I mentioned Sculptures? (We have a lot of those - in fact, apparently we are designated as a "Sculpture Town", which is a slightly pretentious way of saying that, when wandering about the town, you might at any second come across a stray Henry Moore, or indeed Rodin's "Eve") I think I also mentioned cycles? Well in the middle of the garden there is a rather sweet little statue of a chap riding a penny farthing....and apparently terrifying a duck at the same time - see....

I'm dragging Ben back there tomorrow - so I can show him what I've found (Yes, me - nobody else has ever been there, obviously, just me. I'm up there with Columbus now...) and we can both rave over the Medlars, plot how to pick the figs, and maybe, just maybe even take a look at the museum! Robyn