a day out in London

On 11.11.11 we caught the 11.11am train to Waterloo and had a day out in London town.

We went to the Whitechapel Art Gallery (excellent) where we saw a Wilhelm Sasnal exhibition (ok), a small Rothko room (coloured squares) and the Government Art Collection (good).

Then we went to the cafe in the crypt at St Martin-in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square, for lunch. It's one of my favourite cafes. We had spinach potato and nutmeg soup followed by a hearty bowl of apple crumble. Highly recommended!

We caught a bus to Bond Street and rode along Regent St looking at all the lights and festivity. Selfridges was stunning.

Near Bond Street is a grand old house which is home to the Wallace Collection. Lots of old paintings, furniture, etc, but what I liked most was the house itself. Very exquisite and out-of-this-era. There is also a wonderful restaurant in the centre of the house, in an indoor courtyard. I will go for afternoon tea there one day.


This week has been a busy, tiring one with lots of ups and downs. Head down, think of Christmas!

owl eyed

Here is a monoprint of an owl's eye which I did in my evening class. It's called monoprinting because you can only make one print: you paint your image onto a metal plate, then cover it with dampened cartridge paper and roll it through a press. Real fun, but time consuming!

 

 I hope you are all having lovely Wednesdays.

I love Sundays #3

that age old cliche of kicking through the autumn leaves

a big fat slice of sticky date and walnut cake

and a Sunday afternoon cappucino

then walking home as the sun set


I've had a lazy Sunday (and Saturday) in preparation for what will be a long and busy week: lots of shifts at work, including the grand arrival of Father Christmas to his garden centre grotto next Saturday - it's going to be chaos. Head down, think of the Christmas break - that's my motto.

This weekend I did manage to get my Mum to cut my ridiculously long hair (it was down to my waist and any layers had turned to wisps) to all one length, very sixties-looking. She also dyed my roots. Eagle eyed readers of this blog will know my hair is shiny blonde, but alas it's all an act as I'm a natural dishwater (especially during the sunless winter months). Garnier Nutrisse is my best friend! Anyway I quite like being able to get a cut and colour for free, all from the comfort of my own home! It's handy having an amazing Mum.

Other than that I have just been working in my sketchbooks, drinking vast mugs of green tea and eating tender-cooked beef puff pastry pie, as well as our traditional roast dinner, the most amazing Greek almond cookies (to be blogged about soon) and the biggest apples you ever saw. Sundays were made for slobbing.

Also, wasn't today's sunshine beautiful?