Travel Junkie Girl’s Ultimate Guide to Summer 2021 Sculpture Trails

Summer 2021 promises to be a mammoth year for sculpture trails. With so many being postponed from 2020, in addition to 2021’s planned trails, this year there is a bumper crop already ripe for the picking! People regularly ask me – how do you find out about them? I always send them off in the direction of Wild in Art…

Dino Kingdom: A Roarsome Prehistoric Adventure at Wythenshawe Park, Manchester

It probably won’t come as much of a surprise that as a sculpture trail nut, who delights in nothing more than encountering art in the great outdoors, I would also be intrigued by a trail of 3D animatronic dinosaurs through a park in Manchester. Local venue (tick), the great outdoors (tick), cool moving sculptures with sound effects (tick)… Yep…

Derby Ram Sculpture Trail is Baaa-rilliant!

One of the first big sculpture trails to go live this summer was the Derby Ram sculpture trail, where 30 uniquely painted ram sculptures stampeded onto the streets of Derby back in May and will remain in residence till the 22nd August 2021. Anyone who knows me or has kept up with my blog for any length of time will…

#massisolationFORMAT Exhibition at Derby Museum & Art Gallery

Anger, despair, lethargy, isolation, love, community, gratitude, indifference, helplessness, hopelessness, resilience, heartbreak, loneliness, creativity, turmoil, fear, anxiety, kindness, hope… If you recognise this tumultuous range of emotions as a summary of the last 18 months, then you are not alone. The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown us all onto an emotional rollercoaster with the ups and downs of wading through…

Following the ‘Explore-a-Book’ Book Bench Trail in King’s Lynn & Hunstanton: Norfolk

Sculpture trail season has started in earnest in the TJG household as I headed to north west Norfolk to follow the Explore-a-Book book bench trail in King’s Lynn and Hunstanton. I am so excited for this year as there are some amazing sculpture trails planned in, as well as all the postponed trails from last year too…

Dunham Massey in Spring

Despite having lived within half an hour’s drive of Dunham Massey my whole life, I’d never visited in the spring. That is until now… it was literally the first place I went beyond the constraints of my local town as we emerged from the UK Covid lockdown 2.0. I soon discovered that Dunham Massey…

A Snowy Walk up Rivington Pike and Winter Hill, Lancashire

Walking up Rivington Pike and Winter Hill in the snow is an experience I’ll never forget. Winter Hill will be familiar to anyone living in north west England. If you are driving north up the M6 past Warrington, Wigan and Preston, Winter Hill is the massive rounded lump of a hill to your right crowned by an enormous telecommunications…

Burton Swans Sculpture Trail: Fun in the Sun

In my recent 2020 review post, I asked you guys what you most wanted to read about next based on my favourite travel related experiences of last year. I was so surprised at the result… Several of you got in touch saying you wanted to see more of the Burton Swans sculpture trail after not knowing anything about them…

Top 20 Travel Related Experiences of 2020

I think it’s safe to say we’re all glad to see the back of 2020. However I’m not going to concentrate on the sheer number of crappy things that happened during the year and rehash what we all know, because we’ve all lived it… many of us have lost loved ones and we’ve…

Blackpool Illuminations: The Greatest Free Light Show on Earth

2020 was the first time the Blackpool Illuminations were extended beyond their usual two month duration, which meant this free awesome spectacle carried on lighting up the Lancashire coast into early January, bringing a bit of extra Christmas cheer to the festive period. The decision was made this year (2022) to extend the illuminations for the third consecutive year to…

Exploring Risley Moss Nature Reserve in Cheshire

One thing I think we all did in 2020 is to get outside more and explore the area near to where we live. For me, this area is Warrington in Cheshire, situated half way between the big northern cities of Manchester and Liverpool. Surrounding Warrington are some lovely landscapes and excellent opportunities to explore the great outdoors. One of those…