Sculpture in the Garden.

We live not far from Leicester in the Midlands, and a few years ago I discovered that they have a sculpture exhibition in the Botanical Gardens each summer - we've been every year since. The sculpture above is called 'Souls'.

I love the Botanical Gardens - beautiful trees and plants, a real escape from the hustle-and-bustle of the city centre, and totally free to get in. I sometimes catch a bus there and sit with a book and read, it's like an oasis of calm in a busy life.

It's also about the only time I ever read apart from when I'm on holiday!

I also love sculpture, and particularly in the setting that a large garden offers, where you can see the light changing all the time and wander along coming across new pieces round each corner.
This year there were lots of sculptures, this one was my favourite - obviously as we're all so different we all are drawn to particular styles and make a connection with perhaps just a few pieces.

It's called 'Hold me Close', there was something about the intense expression, desperately needing to be held, that I found very powerful.


Here are a couple of others I liked.

This one is called 'Tree of Hope'.

These were beautiful transluscent coloured glass, but I couldn't get the sun to shine through them while we were there!

There's also a beautiful tranquil pool:

There's my OH sitting at the far end. There were some clever but not pretty large white flowers all made out of plastic bags, and a very bright bronze man you can just see, but I preferered the reflections.

There are always some flowers around and places to sit,


if your sons don't want to go home as soon as possible after you've dragged them round.