Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing

Over the last three months a nationwide event organised by the Royal Collection Trust has been  taking place at 12 art galleries in the UK displaying 144 of Leonardo Da Vinci's greatest drawings in the Royal Collection. It marks the 500th anniversary of his death.

We had hoped to visit the Walker Gallery in Liverpool when we were there, but in the end we didn't have enough time to go there. Thankfully one of the exhibitions is in the Millennium Gallery.

Photography is not allowed in the exhibition gallery, but there was a reception room being used as a workshop/learning and education area where I did take photos of the information boards.  There was a collection of books about the artist that a visitor could browse through and an information video. 

A man's face similar to one of Da Vinci's drawings had been created using schoolchildren's sketches.

There were items a visitor could buy at the gallery shop.  Daughter D bought a fridge magnet as a souvenir to take home and I purchased a book which is a thick one full of beautiful illustrations and information about the life and times of this wonderful artist.

The exhibition Leonardo Da Vinci: A Life in Drawing will close on the 6th May.  There are a few talks and workshops that are still taking place until then and then I'm looking forward to another Ruskin exhibition taken from Sheffield Art Galleries' Collection and loans of items from the National Collection, John Ruskin: Art and Wonder (29 May-15 September, 2019).  It will feature Ruskin's fascination with the natural world and celebrate Ruskin's bicentenary.  There will be many events celebrating Ruskin's life taking place in Sheffield during 2019.

Gardening and visit to a garden centre

April was a colourful month in the garden, the highlights being the fruit blossom, magnolias, tulips and wallflowers.  For the first time we saw clusters of creamy yellow flowers on a bay tree and the rosemary bush was full of those bright blue flowers that we love - the bees too.  I've kept the orange lily indoors for now and the variety of schlumbergera known as the Easter cactus is flowering.

We went to Wentworth Woodhouse Garden Centre. As well as the garden centre there's a walled garden coffee shop and restaurant, a delicatessen and a large gift shop.  The historic gardens within the grounds that were originally designed in the 18th century for the estate owners, the Fitzwilliam family have been restored and maintained by the present garden centre owners.

ornamental prunus (Pink Parasol)

camellia (Cupido)

 camellia (Silver anniversary)

a semi evergreen climber (Akebia quinata)

a crab apple (Red Sentinel)

a lithodora (Heavenly Blue)

There were some beautiful plants and terra cotta pots in which to grow them, wonderful garden ornaments and structures if you have a garden big enough to install them.

bacopa (gold), a million bells/calibrachoa (Trixi Petticoat),

helichrysum (gold) lobelia richardii (white), 

There were a few stalls selling produce from local outlets. The cheese stall had an array of specialist cheeses. The stallholder has a shop in Holmfirth (famous for Last of the Summer Wine tv series). We took some cheese home, beautifully packaged, a cheese with walnuts, a strong Cheddar and a pot of goat's cheese curd which we've enjoyed at lunch times. 

Wentworth Village