Van Gogh, Pollock, and Dodo Birds

What a week! Before I describe my newest adventures, I will describe the....lack of adventure that was last week. It was still a lovely week, spending lots of down time reading and emailing and such. The weather was rainy and cold, and Farran had several organization projects she wanted to do, and needed my help for. So, we organized the girls' closet, we organized the bathroom closet, we organized little Farran's bookshelf, etc etc. I didn't get out much except for the occasional run to the grocery store or to accompany Farran on some errands she needed to run. That was when the homesickness started to move in. Just being at the house, doing chores and dealing with the girls made me feel like I had really moved here, instead of just coming for a visit. I don't know that I could make a permanent move this far from my family, so I started to miss home quite a lot. This week remedied that! Monday I went out with Farran to run some errands in Kensington. Or maybe it was Notting Hill...I don't really know when one turns into the other. We live in Holland Park. That's our area's name. We ran some errands and went out to lunch. Tuesday, after the girls were at school, I went to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. It was incredible; the square was beautiful, the museum amazing. I stood three feet away from the work of people like Caravaggio, Titian, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Monet, and the list goes on. It was a startling experience, to see those paintings up close and personal. A simple 2 X 2 picture in a book simply does not do them any justice. In fact, its almost an injustice to fail so miserably in recreating how spectacular they are! My favorites were the impressionists and post impressionists. Those paintings were positively entrancing. I wish I could have taken pictures of them. I bought postcards of them instead. The next day, little Farran was "sick." It's so hard to tell with these girls because they will say anything if they think it will get them what they want. Regardless, little Farran stayed home. Around one o'clock she was feeling better, so I took her to Holland Park and we got some ice cream and played at the playground. After that, we caught a bus to the top of Exhibition Road where we walked down to the Natural History Museum. Farran wanted to go to the Science Museum, but I convinced her to just see if she liked the Natural History Museum first. We were there for a good three hours, which, for an eight-year-old, is a long time! I didn't really have to drag her away, but I did have to do some convincing. It was fun to see her get excited about the things in that amazing place. Yesterday, after the girls were at school, I took the tube to the Tate Modern museum. I'm not a huge modernist lover, but I definately appreciate most of it. That was another incredible museum. Once again, I stood three feet, or less, from the amazing work of Picasso, Pollock, Braque, Duchamp, and other spectacular artists. Today is Friday, which means it is an early day, but I am still holding out hope that I can go for another explore. Perhaps this time I will try for the Globe Theater.