The trees gave way to reveal a different world, that of Lewis Caroll or L. Frank Baum. Manicured lawn raised into tiers and bridging crystal clear lakes. We were here to celebrate Dylan’s 30th Birthday and you couldn’t chose a more memorable place than this Sculpture park on the outskirts of Edinburgh. A peacock strutted into the cafe as we ate lunch and began screeching with a voice like nails on a blackboard, then went to perch on the loo walls. Steps lead to a amethyst and obsidian chamber. In the forest, girls turned to stone were frozen in despair hair covering blank faces.

It was contemporary art made accessible and exciting for adults and children alike. It was nice to interact with the art as well as look at it, run on the grass mounds, enter doorways and feel unease as preconceived notions of our world are turned on their head or joy at great beauty or wit. Talking to the little Californian on the train and Andrew’s darling two-year old Iris is a reminder that the adult world is slipping away from magic and how knowing so much about the world has deprived us of the mystery we felt as children. Ben Law’s wild adventures in the Himalayas would no longer be the same today, the world is becoming a pasterised, homogenised West. Where’s the fun in the certainty of a McDonald’s bathroom and Starbuck’s wifi on every corner? There was magic here.

There weren’t even signs plastered on the pieces telling you not to climb the crouching human constellation of metal or the giant rifle? It was a great day, all the better for the gorgeous sun and the great company of Andrew’s family. It’s hard to have a birthday away from home, but this was as close to family as we could of had without blood. Happy 30th Birthday Dylan.