What a difference a day makes

Hello! I can't tell you how good it is to be back, looking forward to catching up with all of your news over the next day or so. Before I do, here's the highlights of the past few days. Our weekend was one of two very distinct halves:



SATURDAY - RIVER VIEWS
We took the girls up to London for the day. A day of visiting galleries, walking along the river and eating. It was a good day. Grey but good, as if all the colour had been bleached from the city. The sort of grey that affects all your senses, mutes the noise and softens the sights.



We started off at the Tate where the girls fell in love with all the wonderful Pre Raphaelite paintings, (particularly the very lovely and romantic "April in Love" ) and mooched around the galleries in awe of all the colour and beauty that they contained.



We walked along the embankment and London and the Thames reminded me so much of one of the Whistler paintings I had seen. Grey, soft and quiet. There is nothing like walking around a city to fully appreciate it. No matter how many times you drive around it, it's only when walking that you can appreciate the scale and beauty of its buildings and stumble across hidden treasures that you never knew were there.



This monument commemorating the abolition of slavery in the grounds of Parliament, I had never noticed before.



Big Sister was very excited to find the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst and Little Sister listened (perhaps pretending to be interested) as she told her all about the suffragetes.



Even in busier parts of London and the hot tourist spots, there was time to stop and marvel.



I love the mix of old and new London in this photo.



We carried on walking down the embankment opposite the London Eye towards Somerset House and went to the Courtauld Gallery. This has to be one of my favourite art galleries. When I was at school I remember my art teacher always going on about this place but I think it took me about ten years to finally visit it. If you ever get the chance and haven't been it really is worth the visit. Quiet and out of the way, it houses a wonderful collection of Impressionist , Post-Impressionist and Bloomsbury paintings which for me was the highlight of the trip.
The girls loved it and want to go back for more, I think it was one of our best days in London.

SUNDAY BEST (the one where Miss Blossom finally gets a dress)



A day of colour and unexpected sunshine. An early trip to the car boot where I find a lovely little vintage dress for Miss Blossom (only £1). I've got my eye on it for myself but she is rather more endowed than me and I would feel mean taking it from her now. So out into the garden she came, all dressed up and she held court over my car booty.



This could be mistaken for a spot the difference photo from the last post. I was lucky enough to find candy stripe pillow cases for last week's sheets. Another enamel tub and an old flour pot which is destined to become a flower pot of a different kind.



A couple of apothecary bottles from an old local chemist shop which now sit on the groaning bathroom shelf.



This tea cup and saucer were just too pretty to ignore and they came running home with me. They reminded me of all my floral postcards which came outside to be sorted.



Sssssh I'll let you into a secret, I'm not the only squirrel around.



Meet Sir Squigs the fattest squirrel in town. He spent the afternoon admiring my treasures and, unfortunately, digging up the bulbs but we love him (not as much as the cats do as he provides their only form of exercise).



MONDAY - THE DAY I NEARLY LOST IT ALL

The girls went back to school I sat down to catch up at the computer and within five minutes the smell of burning and the computer had died. I spent the day beside myself. Am I the only one who never backs anything? All my photos. contacts, work details - everything had potentially disappeared. I didn't sleep well. It was a black sort of day.



But hooray M took it to work and the hard drive was retrieved (does that sound right?). The memory board had burnt out (I know the feeling) and we have had to borrow a computer. So a happy ending of sorts.
Right I'm off to catch up with all your lovely news while I can. It may be a grey drizzly kind of day but I'm so so happy to be back. Sorry again for the length of this post - 48 hours without internet access is a long time!