Serendipitous

My first visit to Featherstone was aborted when I arrived at the Millennium Stadium (no, not that one) to find that the FA Vase fixture between Wakefield AFC and North Shields had been called off at the last minute. A Storm Ashley related downpour led the referee to conclude that the pitch wasn’t fit to play on, although by this time the sun was shining.

I’d already pottered around the town for an hour, and that was enough for me to find a characterful wall box (main image) but I failed to discover the War Horse sculpture on the western edge. Rather than wait 90 minutes for the next train out of town, I hopped on a bus into Wakefield - spying War Horse as we drove past - and to avoid a wasted journey, hopped off at the Hepworth Gallery.

The current visiting exhibitions were all excellent. I enjoyed the Ronald Moody retrospective, in part because many of his earlier pieces were in wood, the medium that my Dad worked in. Igshaan Adams’ ‘Weerhoud’ show had a real wow factor, particularly with the late afternoon light flooding into the gallery (extra). Both shows finish on November 3. The vegan cake was pretty good too. 

Thankfully the Ashley related disruption did not extend to my trains on the way home. It was a shame about the football, but serendipitous that I ended seeing a couple of exhibitions I would otherwise have missed. My therapist would be proud of me :-)