I did say I might

I have had such a nice week that I felt like blogging it - so here I am.

Monday - regular day, but the DSM's art class and chess in the evening - two things that he loves doing, and I enjoy the alone-time!

Tuesday - I had lunch with two of the Coven. For all sorts of reasons, we haven't been getting together recently, and it was lovely to see them and to catch up. Coffee in one cafe, lunch in another (HB is full of excellent ones!) and then a little bit of browsing round HB shops, something I could do at any old time, of course, but much nicer in pleasant company.

Wednesday - big, exciting day.



So, HB this ain't. The DSM has decided that we need a little bit more action? adventure? cultural activity? in our lives. So, first up, a day trip to London for an Exhibition. All went extremely comfortably and smoothly, and having come up from the Underground at Picadilly Circus, we set off to walk the short distance to the gallery with our eyes open for somewhere for lunch. And found, to our great delight, that we were walking past Fortnum & Mason. So, in we went, found their bar restaurant and had a very nice lunch. (At, I should add, a very "nice" price!) But it is sometimes worth paying for quality.



This is how our peppermint tea was served. Now, is that stylish, or what?

After this leisurely break, we moved on to the Royal Academy - we had tickets for 2pm.



And this is what we had come to see. It was an extremely interesting exhibition with not only works by Degas, but also some other things following the same theme of "movement" - photographs, sculptures, movies. Our only real problem with it was that for reasons of conservation (and it seems to be true of most exhibitions these days) the light level was very, very low. Plus, I think most curators/designers must be very young with excellent eyesight, as labels are never in a large enough type face, and all too often grey printed on grey. Still, we managed.

I really liked the early work, was less keen on the middle period, and then again loved the late pieces, with the explsions of brigt colour and the influence of the newly popular Russian dance which seemed to have given Degas a new lease of life.

A centre piece was "The Little Dancer", of course, borrowed from The Tate. It was the first time I had seen it, and I loved the detail - those wrinkles tights from the days before elastication were so endearing!

We spent longer there than we might have done, and so didn't feel like going on anywhere else. Instead, we returned to Fortnum's, and knocked off a bit of Christmas shopping, having already done some in the Academy Gift Shop. Then stopped for a cup of tea and a sandwich before returning to King's Cross. Although we did take a few steps up Regent Street to look at the Christmas lights.



Thursday - a day of recovery, but enlivened by the arrival of a huge box of fleece from Beth Smith of The Spinning Loft for the Rare Breeds Spinalong, now expanded to share with the AH class. I also ordered som moorit Cormo for my own delectation. Ahem.

Friday - we had a most interesting morning with a young art student from Leeds, who is doing a project on creative people. We spent quite a long time talking to her, and then she took loads of photographs of us (yes! even me!!) I had intended to include one or two of them here, but I think they must be in a format not accepted by either Photoshop or Flickr, as I have them in a file on the pc, but can't get them loaded in to either. Later, maybe.

To finish, I just want to say thank you to everyone who contacted me one way or another with thoughtful messages - it really helped. And - to reassure everyone that although mostly silent, I am spinning and knitting up a storm. Eventually, some of it will find its way on to the blog.

OK, ducking out of sight again, now.......