Visit to London - part 1

I was in London for a few days, just over a week ago. First I spent a couple of days in Surbiton (just outside London) with my cousin and her partner. Back in 1981, my cousin was visiting Toronto (where I originate) and I gave her a couple of monoprints before she returned home to Ireland.

My cousin moved to England in the late 1980s and took the prints with her. I am happy to say that she got them framed and they have been hanging in her home ever since. I remember that these monoprints were part of a series of abstracted flower prints, but I am pretty sure they are the only ones left in existence now, thanks to my cousin who really liked them.

While in Surbiton, we took a cab to Kingston-on-Thames to enjoy a bbq dinner and evening of live music at the Ram Jam blues club. It was an excellent night, and I was especially impressed by the young double bass player - she was amazing!

Last Monday we took the train into the city. It was a very roundabout route as there had been a train derailment the night before that was still causing schedule disruptions. Despite this, we got to our hotel near Earlscourt in good time and walked over to the Natural History Museum. When we had been there a few years ago, a lot of the museum was closed for renovation, so it was delightful to walk around in the late afternoon, and revisit the beautiful halls.

The architecture in the great hall is stunning!

Actually, the architectural details in the whole museum is quite breathtaking. Both the old sections and the contemporary sections have amazing details. Though I have no pictures of the contemporary areas, I do recommend the environmental display areas, and my favourite -- the big earth ball installation near the side entrance that an escalator will facilitate a journey through.

It was dark when we left the museum, and all the trees were decorated with fairy lights - showing off nature's architecture!

Visit to the Dead Zoo

My sister Yvonne, who is also an artist and owner of Yumart Gallery in Toronto (link on the sidebar) is visiting from Toronto. The other night, after a fondue meal at my place, we got into a discussion about museums. There was some dismay expressed over the reliance on computers and inter-activity to make museums more appealing to contemporary audiences. The perfect antidote to this was to visit some museums in Dublin the following day, starting with the Dead Zoo -- i.e. the Museum of Natural History.  The visitor is immediately charmed by gamboling shrubbery at the entrance to this museum in the heart of the city.

And then the visitor can be impressed by the skeletons of the prehistoric Giant Irish Elk (Megaloceros giganteus).

The jumbly display of stuffed animals and skeletons in the main hall is gorgeous in its variety. The museum is small and the architecture old. There is most definitely a musty odour but it is totally agreeable to the experience of this perfect example of a Victorian "cabinet" museum.

The display of primate skeletons is a clear Darwinian reminder of human development.