The restful life of the retiree.

Not.

There has been much gadding. (Next door village to Little Gidding?)

Nice trip to London, one of our culture-vulture bursts. We just snuck in to the last day of the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate, which was wonderful! Seven, I think, rooms bursting with fabulous paintings. Such an embarrassment of riches that both back and brain gave up the ghost for the final two rooms, but I was able to find somewhere to sit and let myself gaze around enough to get something out of it. Yes, wussy, I know, but it was a BIG show. I have always loved the PRB, in fact many years ago when I worked for a short spell in Westminster, I often used to go to the Tate in my lunch hour and see them then. Either them or the the Rothkos -always did have eclectic tastes!

What else? Well, we were supposed to be going to Kiss Me Kate, I was really looking forward to it. But when we arrived at the theatre, it was to hear that the show had been cancelled. From the sound of it (and this is pure speculation) they had noro going through the cast, so, total sympathy there then! Ah, well.....

We did get to a magical piano recital at the Wigmore Hall. Beethoven sonatas, Schubert and Schumann. Strangely, we had never been there before, and it was an interesting and enjoyable, in an extremely British way, experience. It had been an absolute age since we had been to a classical music event other than opera - far too long. This was lovely, and we need to do more of it.

On our last day, we really packed things in. Took the long bus ride out to The Handweavers Studio, a treat we had long been promising ourselves. We used to go quite often in the previous incarnations of it and us, and there are changes, but certainly not in a bad way, although I did miss the shelves full of fleece.

I didn't actually buy any fibre as we had been to World of Wool last week (did I mention that......?). But I did get some yarns. My tapestry loom, a Mirrix, has been looking at me reproachfully for ...... a very long time. I hadn't wanted to mail order colours, prefer to use my eyes for real. Got a nice range. Now we just have to wait and see how much longer it actually takes for me to get a round tuit......

They package things well there, and I also fell for a pretty pack of rainbow spectrum threads that are intended for braiding. Same caveat. Plus a Wildcraft spindle and Jacey Boggs' book. She is a brilliant teacher, and writes just as well. A gem.

The bus back went all the way to Trafalgar Square, and it seemed sensible - as it was snowing and cold - to stay on it and go to the National Gallery for lunch and a bit of a browse. We chose the Dutch Scenes from Everyday Life area, a remarkably good choice. Very restful and satisfying.

And our final bit of culture was David Hare's play the Judas Kiss, with Rupert Everett and Freddie Fox. Yes, a Fox! There's a lot of them about. It was excellent, so glad we went.

Home Tuesday, day of rest Wednesday, and then another action-packed day yesterday, with friends here for lunch before going to the Bankfield for an exhibition of by Hillu Liebelt. Wonderful. I did take some photos, but I haven't uploaded them yet, too cold in the room where the pc is! So hopefully, more later! (No photos of the London trip as the weather was so foul.)

And that wasn't all - folk gig at the Trades' in the evening. So what with all that, and the very cold weather, I declared today something of a duvet day. This blog post is the most energetic thing I have done so far, apart from conferring with the DSM about the next round of travels.

Ah, well, keeps me out of mischief.